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'New York Times' Slams Trump for Mocking Reporter; Video of Teen's Shooting Death Sparks More Protests; Turkish President: Would Shoot Down Jet Again; Hollande to Meet with Putin in Moscow; Black Friday Shoppers at the Ready. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 26, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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


RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: ... time in American history, less than half of the country. A lot of the people supporting Trump feel, demographically, the country is slipping away from them. And that justifies an "any means necessary" kind of approach to politics. So that, I think, explains the intensity of his support.

[07:00:15] But I also think it is limiting. Because I think, still, most Americans believe that the kind of "us against them" language and approach that he is pursuing is not the way to hold together what I call the kaleidoscope society that we are becoming.

So you know, the intensity of this report is real. The big question, as we said before, is whether what he does to intensify his hold on his base also limits his potential reach within the Republican electorate within the country at large.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Ron, Errol, happy Thanksgiving. Thanks so much.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And to you.

CAMEROTA: Good to see you guys.

All right. We're following a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't shoot!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't shoot!

CAMEROTA: For a second night, demonstrators taking to the streets.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: You can't shoot someone because they slashed a tire.

DAN HERBERT, ATTORNEY FOR OFFICER VAN DYKE: He truly was in fear for his life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was originally presented as an act of self-defense. And that was a lie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are moving closer to a major war in the Middle East.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tensions are rising in the wake of Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turkey does have a right to defend its airspace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russia is looking at ways to retaliate.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are resilient in the face of those who would try to do us harm.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Law enforcement on alert across the country this holiday weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three million people expected to attend the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this morning.

OBAMA: Be vigilant. If you see something suspicious, say something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And welcome to a very special Thanksgiving day edition of CNN NEWSROOM.

Breaking overnight, angry protesters hitting the streets in Chicago over disturbing dash cam video of a white police officer shooting six times -- 16 times at a black teenager, killing him. Four more dash cam videos are now out, raising questions about the city's police department's handling of that investigation.

CAMEROTA: So the mood in the city is tense, as the Chicago Police Department warns its officers of a potential ambush against them in response to the death of Laquan McDonald.

Let's get right to CNN's Ryan Young. He is live in Chicago with the very latest.

Tell us what's happened there in the past few hours.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, we've heard people chanting "16 shots" as they not only were marching through the streets but at several points were running through the streets.

In fact, they came from the South Side of Michigan Avenue and went up to the North Side, even blocking off major intersections, and they say more is coming.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) YOUNG (voice-over): A second night of unrest in two major cities

as hundreds of protesters returned to the streets. From Chicago to New York, demonstrators marching in frustration over the shocking death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Police arresting several protesters in New York City, their passion spilling into the Macy's flagship department store in the heart of Manhattan, their voices raging.

In Chicago, demonstrators staged a sit-in, blocking a major intersection, some trying to take police officers' bikes.

This as newly-released dash cam videos obtained by "The Chicago Tribune" captured the moment before and after 37-year-old Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times last October.

This is Officer Van Dyke's own vehicle dash cam. While out of focus, you can see McDonald cutting across the front of his police car and passing a nearby Burger King. Moments later, after six seconds after getting out of his vehicle, Officer Van Dyke begins to shoot the teen as he walked down the street, wielding a knife, continuing to fire even after McDonald fell to the ground.

Just minutes later, this dash cam from another police officer's car shows McDonald lying on the street, the other officers at the scene never opening fire. Van Dyke's attorney says the officer was in fear for his life and said the videos don't show a complete picture, saying McDonald was...

HERBERT: Harassing business owners, waving a knife for about 18 minutes on a busy street. Him stabbing a squad car windshield that was manned with two police officers inside there.

YOUNG: Late Wednesday night, President Obama reacting to the deadly shooting saying he was, quote, "deeply disturbed" by the footage and is grateful to his hometown "for keeping protests peaceful."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Now, there's a Christmas tree at the famous Millennium Park. And some protesters went inside a barricade and started trying to pull the lights off the tree. That was stopped before their efforts finished taking the lights off that tree.

But everyone is wondering what will happen on Black Friday. We know famous Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile, which is just behind me. That's where several protestors say they will come up here and disrupt Black Friday -- Michaela.

[07:05:08] PEREIRA: All right. Stay with CNN and our coverage in Chicago to see how things go today. Hopefully, people will remain calm.

We have breaking news overseas, Turkey's president ratcheting up rhetoric in the heated dispute with Russia over the shoot-down of a Russian warplane. Erdogan vowing that he would do it again if Russia should invade their airspace.

Ian Lee is live in Istanbul with the very latest for us -- Ian.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we're hearing, Michaela, was just about 15 minutes ago, we're hearing from the Turkish president, speaking to parliament saying that, in fact, if they could go back in time and have this incident play out all over again, that they would shoot down that airplane, saying that they warned it up to ten times, over the course of five minutes. They've released that audio to the media, showing that they were warning that plane, although Russia denies that.

But this also is heating up in Syria, as well. In this area where the plane went down, Russia carried out at least 12 airstrikes against rebel fighters. We're also hearing that there's an offensive on the way -- or underway right now where they're shelling the area with mortars and artillery. This could be part of the retribution for downing that plane, going after Turkish interests inside Syria.

But we're also watching what Russia could do to Turkey's economy. Russia is the second largest trading partner with Turkey. Billions of dollars in tourism comes to Turkey every year from Russia.

Also, Turkey imports 60 percent of its gas from Russia. Now we're hearing from Russia that they are putting the squeeze on Turkish imports of food products. About 15 percent, Russia says, of the -- of the produce that comes into Russia is not -- does not meet Russian standards.

So there's a lot of measures going on here, although we also heard from the Turkish president that he hopes that cool heads can prevail and that this will not ultimately destroy the relations between the two countries.

Absolutely, Ian. All right. Thank you for all that background.

Well, that American band that was playing in the Bataclan the night of the attacks is speaking out for the first time. This as French President Francois Hollande meets with Vladimir Putin today, attempting to convince the Russian president to focus his airstrikes on ISIS targets alone.

Let's go live to Paris and bring in CNN senior European correspondent, Jim Bittermann.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

And in fact, this long visit is part of a diplomatic marathon by President Hollande. He's trying to drum up support for a really tight effort amongst the various allies, as well as the Russians against ISIS and in favor of getting rid of Bashar al-Assad.

Now, the Russians won't go along with that. They all along that they want al-Assad to remain in power in Syria. So that's going to be a major area of contention for the two.

And of course, this Hollande effort is because of that -- the shootings that took place here in Paris, the terrorist incident two weeks ago that killed 120 people here in Paris. Most of them at the Bataclan theater, which is where is where the Eagles of Death Metal were playing. And they've been speaking out to "Vice" magazine what about what the experience was like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT MCJUNKINS, BAND MANAGER, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL: There was a woman in front of me, who, it was scary, because she was bleeding -- you know, she got shot like right here, you know, on her upper side. And there was nothing to do except for -- there's this guy. I don't know, you know, he was holding her, and he was keeping pressure on her. And she had a friend who was doing the same thing. And this guy was just trying to, like, keep her comfortable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Just a horrifying scene there, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Terrifying and horrifying. And so powerful to hear that account from those young men. We -- we send them thoughts of comfort, certainly. Jim, thank you so much.

Joining us to discuss so many things, CNN military analyst and former joint chiefs of staff deputy director, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Also here, CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," Michael Weiss.

Good to see you. Sorry it's on this occasion. It always seems to be heavy topics when we have the two of you. Happy Thanksgiving.

Obviously, we need to talk about the ongoing rhetoric and ramping up almost like escalation, Cedric. We just hear that President Erdogan of Turkey address his parliament saying, "Look, if the Russians did this again, we would react the same way again." Russia is saying -- Russian President Putin is saying Turkey has yet to apologize. And I don't know if they should hold their breath for that, it would appear. Is this going to escalate?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I'm afraid so, Michaela. And happy Thanksgiving to you. This is a huge mistake on the president in my point of view because ratcheting up the rhetoric and seeing that this doesn't happen again really doesn't allow for cooler heads to prevail.

PEREIRA: Right.

[07:10:13] LEIGHTON: What they really need to do, I think, is they need to look at what happened here. There are a lot of lessons to be learned just from a pure military perspective. You know, how do you do these things? How can you avoid this kind of an incident? And that's the kind of thing that they should be talking about. This political rhetoric is not helping things at all. PEREIRA: Let me ask you real quickly. We understand that

Russian jets -- the pilots say or the navigator said that they were -- they didn't get a communication or warning. They also said they were only in the airspace for some 17 seconds.

I want to ask you, what would be the military protocol in a situation, and in an incursion, if you will, like that?

LEIGHTON: Normally, you don't shoot the plane down.

PEREIRA: Yes.

LEIGHTON: If you go into airspace for 17 seconds, that's way too little time to actually have somebody attack you. It's also way too little time for you to intercept that aircraft. So the normal military protocol is to warn the aircraft away. And then basically go back channel and tell the other side that they've violated the airspace and that they shouldn't do it again.

Now, I know that the Turks are going to say that they have had this happen, you know, multiple times before. And that, you know, they've warned this aircraft specifically ten times. But this does not allow -- under international rules, it does not allow them to do what they did.

PEREIRA: Peel back the veil a little bit and help us understand contextually what -- what's going on behind the scenes here, between these two nations. Why would Russia be in an area that ISIS wasn't necessarily operating in as part of the coalition effort? They didn't need to be there. Turkey fires after just 17 seconds in their airspace. Something else is going on.

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Russia is not part of the coalition. And Russia, although it claims to be bombing ISIS, has actually dedicated most of their fire power to non-ISIS targets. As even ISIS in its latest propaganda magazine has said. They said Russia has intervened to go after the Salpla (ph) -- the U.S. allies of Salpla (ph) rebels, which is to say awakening anti-ISIS rebels.

In fact, the targets that Russia had been bombing in that sort of Latakia-Idlib mountain pass were Turkmen rebels. Now, the Turkmen rebels are almost certainly backed by Turkish intelligence.

PEREIRA: Right.

WEISS: So Turkey is taking this very, very seriously. But I'll be honest with you. I'm very surprised it's taken this long for these two leaders to come to blows if you look at the history of this Syrian conflict. Two years ago, Turkey forced down a Russian cargo plane in Ankara, transporting military equipment to Bashar al-Assad.

About 2012, a Turkish F-4 reconnaissance plane, which had temporarily, possibly penetrated Syrian airspace, was shot down by the Assad regime. Now, the rumors in Turkey -- and I was there at the time -- were a Russian technician had actually fired the shot, because of course, Russia has many advisors and people who are helping the regime suppress this revolution.

PEREIRA: Yes.

WEISS: Look, there's another component to this, too. Right after this incident took place, a search-and-rescue helicopter the Russians sent crash-landed. And then while it was sat on the ground, it was blown up with the Tow anti-tank missile.

PEREIRA: Right.

WEISS: Now, the group that blew it up is called the First Coastal Division. They're a group of Syrian rebels backed by whom? The CIA and Turkish intelligence. They coordinate out of a military commander center in Turkey. So NATO has got skin in the game, as you say.

PEREIRA: Right.

WEISS: I mean, this is -- this does involve the United States, whether we like it or not. And, you know, Article V, an attack on one is an attack on all.

PEREIRA: Right.

WEISS: Unfortunately, a rhetorical attack on one is not a rhetorical attack on all, because Putin has said that Turkey is an accomplice to terror. He is accusing them of backing ISIS.

PEREIRA: So here's the question, then. Given the fact that you have Putin, that's not part of the U.S. coalition, kind of a coalition of his own, and you have Turkey with President Erdogan, who clearly has his own battles that he is looking to protect and fight.

WEISS: Right.

PEREIRA: How does the end game of defeating ISIS play into all this? This becomes a much trickier proposition.

WEISS: Well, look, I mean, truth be told, these are two countries that have shown the least willingness, the least eagerness to go after ISIS. With respect to Turkey, their main concern is the Kurds. It always has been and always shall be -- foreign policy in Turkey is filtered through the Kurdish question.

Erdogan has spent more of his firepower attacking the PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq. And also on occasion now going after their Syrian affiliate or sister party, the PYD, which has been doing the heavy lifting against ISIS on behalf of the coalition on the ground in northern Syria. I mentioned already that Russia has really little interest in attacking ISIS but rather U.S.- and Turkish-backed rebels. So this is a very -- this is a cocktail of problems.

PEREIRA: It is not even a good cocktail.

WEISS: Not even a good cocktail. PEREIRA: Which I'm -- we all could use one of those right about

now, talking about all these things. We know President Hollande will be flying to Russia to meet with President Putin today. We will wait to see what comes out of that meeting. There is hope that maybe there can be some consensus from there. We'll talk about that at a later time.

Our thanks to Cedric and to Michael. We wish both of you a safe and happy Thanksgiving -- Alisyn.

LEIGHTON: You, too, Michaela.

[07:15:13] CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela. Well, with the terror threat keeping much of the world on edge, President Obama trying to reassure Americans that the U.S. government is, quote, "taking every possible step to keep the country safe, ahead of the busy holiday weekend."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, we know of no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland. So, as Americans travel this weekend to be with their loved ones, I want them to know that our counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement professionals at every level are working overtime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: President Obama met with his national security team to review their security procedures and efforts to track threats.

PEREIRA: St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey out of surgery this morning after being shot twice in the head. ESPN is reporting the operation took some nine hours but the third-year player expected to survive.

Bailey was apparently sitting in a car with his cousins and two minors in Miami Gardens, Florida, Tuesday night when someone in another vehicle pulled up and opened fire. His cousin was also shot. The minors were unharmed. Earlier this month, the NFL suspended Bailey for four games for violating its substance abuse policy.

CAMEROTA: OK. It may be Thanksgiving, but of course, it's also a huge weekend for bargain hunters. Some of you will be stuffing your carts with those Black Friday deals. Will there be deals or will there be rip-offs? CNN business correspondent Alison Kosik is here.

PEREIRA: That's why you took tomorrow off. You're going to go shopping. At 4 a.m.

CAMEROTA: I really never do it, because I don't know. Are there really great deals?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Those door busters you can really get. But what's interesting is Black Friday really isn't what it used to be. I mean, it doesn't even kind of rank in the top three as the biggest shopping days of the year, believe it or not. It's because what it's really turned into is Black November.

I don't know if you've noticed, maybe, your e-mails.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

KOSIK: You get discount after discount in November. But it still is a huge weekend, a long weekend for retailers, make no bones about it.

The National Retail Federation thinks that 136 million people will be shuffling through stores, starting today through Sunday. And speaking of today, a lot of stores are actually open today on Thanksgiving.

Let me run down through them. At 4 p.m. today Eastern Time, The Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy opening their doors. Best Buy will be welcoming customers at 5 o'clock Eastern, and at 6 o'clock, Sears, Kmart, Macy's, Target, Wal-Mart all opening their doors.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, kind of had a hiccup. They were supposed to start their online Black Friday sales at midnight. During the first hour, couldn't make -- couldn't buy anything.

PEREIRA: The website crashed?

KOSIK: The website crashed. Now it's up and running. Not a really good start for Wal-Mart. They're hoping that people get out there and shop at 6 p.m. today.

PEREIRA: What about Cyber Monday? Is that -- we're feeling a little lazy.

CAMEROTA: If you're in a food coma and you can't get off...

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: For 48 hours.

CAMEROTA: ... then what?

KOSIK: OK, Cyber Monday which really isn't all that either. But believe it or not, Cyber Monday in many respects can trump Black Friday. Because -- because you can sit at home. You can sit at your desk. And you can go ahead and just shop online, exactly. But do it smart. I say if you're going to buy some clothing, buy several sizes. You know, you can try them on at home and then hopefully return them.

CAMEROTA: Good thinking.

PEREIRA: A professional shopper.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Happy Thanksgiving to you.

KOSIK: You, too. PEREIRA: So, racial tensions are simmering in Chicago. Another

night of protests as new videos of the deadly police shooting emerge. We're going to discuss that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:22:27] CAMEROTA: Chicago demonstrators hitting the streets for a second night over that shocking video of a 17-year-old black teenager being gunned down by a police officer.

And now, new vantage points of that deadly encounter have been released by police. So do these new pieces of evidence hope or hurt the officer's case?

Here to discuss is HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson.

Joey, great to see you here.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: This is a hard story to talk about, particularly because the video is so disturbing to watch. But we do have some new dash cam perspectives.

So there were eight responding officers. OK, eight cars had pulled up. Now, five of these videos have been released, because of a Freedom of Information Act. The media wanted to see these. So he have a bit of a sort of compilation that we put together.

The first one we saw, which is of him being shot -- it's graphic -- is in the top left. The others as you see, the one in the top right corner is blurry. But that's what happens right before the police pull over. And you see him running around. They got a call that he was acting erratically.

JACKSON: Right.

CAMEROTA: And then you see the aftermath and police officers milling around in the bottom shot there. Does any of this change the perspective of what happened?

JACKSON: You know, Alisyn, it's always good to have as many perspectives as you can. Because ultimately, a trial is about getting to the facts.

Now, having a video certainly gets you there, because people are very visual. And you're allowed to, you know, certainly go over that with the jury.

I think it's going to be about the interpretation of the video. Certainly, with the defense making the argument, as they have, setting up the mind-set of the officer. What he knew, in terms of, you know, him having a screwdriver in his hand and walking around and doing things. The defense is setting that up to play it up so that the office can say, "Look, my mind-set was such that I was in a heightened state of security and alertness, believed myself to be in danger, and therefore had to act accordingly."

CAMEROTA: Well, yes.

JACKSON: However...

CAMEROTA: That is what he'll say.

JACKSON: Of course.

CAMEROTA: And of course, they were in a heightened sense of nervousness. Because somebody -- there were calls that somebody was milling around slashing tires. But still, the original video, the one that gives you the best view...

JACKSON: Compelling.

CAMEROTA: ... it's so troubling because he's not actually coming towards the police officers.

JACKSON: See, that's the problem. I think what the prosecution is going to do, is there's going to be a three-step analysis here.

The first analysis will be to the immediacy of the danger. Was he in immediate danger? Did he fear for his life or the lives of others around him? The videotape seems to suggest that there was no lunging; there was no approaching. There was nothing that would otherwise take him from any point where he needed to actually shoot. That's the first step.

CAMEROTA: We have that, and I just want to -- It's very graphic, and I do just want to warn everybody.

JACKSON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But we do want to show it. Because this is what we're talking about.

[07:25:00] So the original one, to your point, we see the police officer come up. He's walking down the middle of the street. Obviously, that's erratic. That -- their antenna goes up that something is wrong. But he has something in his hand, it looks like in his right hand there. They're very concerned. But here's the police officers. See? He's not going near them.

JACKSON: Not near them at all. He's out of the car for only a period of six seconds. There doesn't seem to be any elongated communication that's going on. Not that we can hear audio.

But should you not be -- there's a use of force continuum. And that use of force continuum would be suggestive of verbal demands. Thereafter, what you can use in terms of things that are nonlethal in order to get compliance? And then thereafter, if there really -- if there's an immediacy of the threat, then you have it (ph).

But the second part of the analysis would be the proportionality of the response. In other words, was the force used proportionate to any threat that was posed? When you have someone firing and emptying -- emptying 16 rounds, of course, and reports are -- and we see it from the video -- he's on the ground after two seconds, and there are repeated shots, there's an issue of a disproportionality.

And so therefore, were the actions of the officer, No. 3 to the analysis, reasonable? And the way you approach this is not reasonable from that officer's perspective. But reasonable from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene.

And here's why, Alisyn, that hurts in terms of the defense case. If you're talking about the reasonable perspective of officers on the scene, if there are eight others and none of them discharge their weapons, what does that say?

CAMEROTA: We know it's true. None of them did.

JACKSON: Right. And so then the issue's going to be the defense will say, "But what about the perspective of my client? My client was the closest to him," as the defense attorney has suggested. But did not the officer put himself in that position? Could the officer act in an alternative way such as to preserve and protect life? It didn't happen.

CAMEROTA: You just said something interesting. You said there's no audio. Well, there should be audio, because these dash cam videos are supposed to have audio. The way they're supposed to work is that, when the emergency lights are engaged, the audio and video automatically turns on. But there isn't any audio. The police say that the batteries were loaded improperly. Does it seem to you, as an attorney, fishy that we don't hear the communication between any of the officers?

JACKSON: I think from a, you know -- attorneys always think that things are fishy. And certainly, audio could lend another perspective. But even in the event that you have audio, the issue is going to be, should an officer after getting out of the car, even with the mind-set that he had that his attorneys are talking about, we know they'll say he was on PCP, Mr. McDonald. You know, the teenager was. That he was running around the neighborhood.

At that point, should there not have been some other opportunity to allow the teen to comply before you escalate to lethal force, which takes a life? And if the jury believes that those actions were unreasonable, they were unwarranted, there was no justification, guess what? He then becomes guilty of murder, and that's a life sentence.

CAMEROTA: Joey Jackson, always nice to see you...

JACKSON: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: ... despite this terribly troubling topic. And have a happy Thanksgiving.

JACKSON: And you. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Michaela. PEREIRA: A war of words right now between Turkey and Russia

after that Russian warplane was shot down. Could the escalation affect the war against ISIS? What will Putin and French President Hollande discuss when they meet this morning? We're going to talk to a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)