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Trump Campaign Manager Accused of Grabbing Breitbart Reporter; Nancy Reagan Orchestrated Details of Own Funeral. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 11, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:30:57] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

No consequences this morning for Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. He's accused of throwing a Breitbart reporter to the ground and bruising her arm.

But that's not the only controversy surrounding violence at Trump rallies. Take a look at what happened this week at a rally in North Carolina.

OK. I'm sure you caught it. Here you see it. You're going to see it from other angles. There you have it. This is 78-year-old John McGraw, the one throwing the punch. He's charged with assault and disorderly conduct for sucker punching a man named Rakeem Jones. What's more surprising is how McGraw reacted after his alleged punch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you like the event?

JOHN MCGRAW, CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING TRUMP PROTESTER: You bet I liked it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes? What did you like about it?

MCGRAW: Knocking the hell out of that big mouth. We don't know who he is, but we know he's not acting like an American.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So he deserved it?

MCGRAW: Every bit of it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What was that?

MCGRAW: Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mr. Trump did not totally denounce that attack, but did say it's got to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have some protesters who are bad dudes. They have done bad things. They are swinging. They are really dangerous, and they get in there and they start hitting people, and we had a couple of big, strong, powerful guys doing damage to people not only the loudness. The loudness, I don't mind, but doing serious damage, and if they have to be taken out, to be honest, I mean, we have to run something. And it's not me. It's usually the municipal government, the police because I don't have guards all over these stadiums.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. As I said, this isn't the first time a protester has been roughed up at a Trump rally. There have actually been a series of incidents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Notice, in case you see, the security guys, we have wonderful security guys. They said, Mr. Trump, there may be somebody with tomatoes in the audience. So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. I will pay for the legal fees, I promise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let him get up. Let him get up.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let him get up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Light the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) on fire.

TRUMP: He can't. They send their product -- bye, bye. Do you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out in a stretcher, folks. He's walking out like big high fives, smile, laughing, I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. It's not just the protesters. It's members of the media, too. Trump's campaign manager now accused of grabbing a Breitbart reporter's arm and throwing her to the ground. There was a witness to this alleged attack, and Politico obtained audio of two reporters talking about the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump, you went after the late Scalia for affirmative action. Do you still -- are you still against affirmative action?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he just like threw you down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe he just did that. Was that Corey?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Like, what threat were you?

[10:35:03] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was insane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You should have felt how hard he grabbed me. That's insane. My gosh. I've never had anyone do that to me from a campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski denies the accusation. He did that in a tweet from this morning, quote, "Michelle Fields, you are totally delusional. I never touched," end quote. And it seems like his boss has his back.

Here's what Trump told CNN about the incident in the spin room post- debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're surrounded by Secret Service. We had many Secret Service. You see some of them here. When we left, I spoke to them. Nothing happened. This was, in my opinion, made up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But Fields tweeted a picture of the bruise on her arm saying, quote, "I guess these just magically appeared on my arm. So weird."

So let's talk about all of this. Joining me now to discuss, Katrina Pierson, national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign. I'm also joined by Sabrina Schaffer, the executive director of the Independent Women's Forum.

Sabrina Schaeffer, welcome. And Jamie Weinstein, a senior editor of the Daily Caller. Welcome to

all of you.

KATRINA PIERSON, NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Thank you, Carol.

SABRINA SCHAEFFER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Jamie, I want to start with you because Michelle Fields is your girlfriend. What did she say happened at that rally with Corey Lewandowski?

JAMIE WEINSTEIN, SENIOR EDITOR, DAILY CALLER: Well, let's be very clear here. What the Trump campaign is saying, to believe what they're saying in denying these allegations, you have to believe an elaborate conspiracy theory. You have to believe that there was a coordination between "The Washington Post" and Breitbart which is a generally pro-Trump publication to come up with a conspiracy to impugn Donald Trump and his campaign, and then you have to think that they came up with audio in order to support this.

This is the type of thing that one believes if they believe 9/11 is an inside job. And the Trump campaign should be ashamed for impugning the character and integrity of my girlfriend who was assaulted at that event. And I think Katrina Pearson knows the truth of this. And for her to stand by and allow these attacks to go on is shameful, utterly, totally shameful.

COSTELLO: Katrina?

PIERSON: You know, it's interesting that we have two journalists who have decided to take the word of an alleged attack. There were hundreds of reporters in that room, cameras, microphones, Secret Service. No one saw anyone get thrown to the ground. OK. So that's number one.

Number two, Corey Lewandowski did not do this. Even the audio shows, allegedly, Corey saying thank you, and the incident happened after the fact. So it did not happen, and yes, that is your girlfriend, and there is a record of similar statements for other people, particularly the Daily Caller.

WEINSTEIN: That's disgusting, Katrina.

PIERSON: Particularly even in the past.

SCHAEFFER: Maybe I can --

WEINSTEIN: That is disgusting.

PIERSON: No, it's not disgusting.

WEINSTEIN: You should be ashamed.

PIERSON: This did not happen. WEINSTEIN: You should be ashamed.

SCHAEFFER: Carol --

WEINSTEIN: You know her, Katrina. You know my girlfriend, and you know what you're saying is a lie.

PIERSON: Which is exactly why -- which is exactly -- I do know Michelle and I like Michelle.

SCHAEFFER: I think we need to take a step back.

PIERSON: And I do believe someone grabbed her. Someone did grab her, but it was not Corey Lewandowski. Everyone knows when the media --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: So, Katrina --

SCHAEFFER: Carol, Carol.

WEINSTEIN: Well, Donald Trump just said no one grabbed here. What's the story, Katrina? What's the story from the Trump line right now? Donald Trump said no one ground her and she made it up. Now you're saying that some did grab her.

PIERSON: No. He's saying, Corey Lewandowski.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHAEFFER: Can I -- can I -- I'm going to jump in here for a second and remind -- Carol. OK. I want to remind people.

COSTELLO: Wait, wait. Everybody, stop for just a second.

Katrina, you say someone grabbed Miss Fields. Who was it if it wasn't Corey Lewandowski?

PIERSON: Look, what I'm saying is --

COSTELLO: Who was it?

PIERSON: No, what I'm saying is Michelle Fields said she was grabbed. Then she was probably grabbed. What I'm saying is it was not Corey Lewandowski. It was a campaign manager. That's what I'm saying.

SCHAEFFER: So the bottom line is it doesn't matter. Michelle was mistreated clearly at a Trump rally. What's concerning is that we've never had some golden era of political civility in America, but I think what people like myself and Jamie and others are recognizing is that there are simply no boundaries left anymore, right?

The fact that we saw -- Carol showed us a slew of really disgusting events or incidents at Trump rallies, and I think that's the bigger issue here. Right? I run a women's organization. The idea that we wouldn't swiftly condemn any kind of violence against a woman, especially someone who is simply trying to do her job as a reporter, is disgusting to me.

COSTELLO: And, Jamie, it's not like --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Wait, wait. I want --

PIERSON: If this incident occurred, why not go to the authorities? Why not go to the campaign? This was taken to Twitter, for crying out loud.

COSTELLO: I believe Miss Fields should go to the campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHAEFFER: You sound like a -- what the left always charges the right with, saying, well, I guess it didn't happen because she didn't go to the police? I mean, my gosh, everyone now should be hugging --

PIERSON: It's a fact. It's a fact.

SCHAEFFER: Hugging me and Michelle and Jamie. They should be saying of course she should speak up.

WEINSTEIN: Carol, can I point out --

COSTELLO: Wait. Let Jamie talk. Jamie, go on.

WEINSTEIN: We're seeing several different iterations from the Trump campaign to defend themselves from this. They're trying first to impugn her character. Donald Trump said last night nothing happened. Now Katrina Pierson said well, maybe something happened, oh, but by the way, Michelle's character is very bad.

[10:40:10] This is a sleazy and disgusting campaign by the Trump campaign to impugn the integrity of my girlfriend. Ben Terris who witnessed this is a highly respected reporter for the "Washington Post." And you know, I -- I honestly don't know how someone like Katrina Pierson who I really do believe knows the truth and believes Michelle is honest here, is coming on here and flaking for this type of disgusting character assassination.

And, as I said, you should be ashamed and so should everybody on the Trump campaign trail who knows what they're doing right now.

PIERSON: Michelle Fields says she did not see -- Michelle Fields herself says she did not see who did that to her.

(CROSSTALK)

PIERSON: If it happened, it was not Corey Lewandowski. And that's the key here. You guys are accusing a man, a husband who has small children, of committing assault that no else saw.

SCHAEFFER: Here's the much bigger point.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHAEFFER: The much bigger point is that we have a lot of serious issues in this country.

PIERSON: Even she says he's not sure.

SCHAEFFER: That require political discourse. They require disagreement. That is a wonderful thing. What we don't want to see is these rallies turning into sort of violent -- you know, violent incidences here. What we want to have is sort of cordial public discourse. That's a wonderful thing, but grabbing reporters, muffling recorders, keeping them sort of intense the way Hillary Clinton has, that's a bad thing. And every journalist out there ought to be speaking out about this.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Donald --

WEINSTEIN: Can I make two points here?

COSTELLO: Yes, please.

WEINSTEIN: One is that this fits into a larger pattern of deception from the Trump campaign. You played the clip of Donald Trump saying that there have been violent protesters at his rallies. Maybe so, but according to people who cover every rally of Donald Trump who go there, they have not seen protesters coming out and swinging at the crowd, and how crazy, by the way, would it be for protesters to come out and starts swing against 9,000 other people who would be opposed to them. That would be insane.

PIERSON: Media attention.

WEINSTEIN: So that seems to be another deception by the Trump campaign.

COSTELLO: All right.

PIERSON: No, this is exactly what happens. We have liberal protesters who do these kinds of things, and no, you're right.

WEINSTEIN: Who go punch people at the rallies?

PIERSON: The people that go to these rallies and start -- yes, absolutely. It has happened. And there is video.

WEINSTEIN: When is he going to lay out --

PIERSON: Go look on YouTube. There are people who show up to these rallies, they throw themselves on the floor. They start thrashing and trying to start fights.

SCHAEFFER: I don't understand. If you -- if you are a Trump supporter, that's a fine thing. But you don't want these to devolve into sort of comical ridiculous rodeos. You want this to be a serious place where you can have real conversation about serious issues from immigration to Social Security to economic growth and job creation. You don't want this to be a distraction.

If you work on the Trump campaign, I would think you would want to swiftly condemn this and move on to substantive conversations.

PIERSON: Which is exactly what Mr. Trump continues to do.

WEINSTEIN: And, Carol -- I would like to ask Katrina --

(CROSSTALK)

WEINSTEIN: I would like to ask Katrina.

PIERSON: Would like to respond to that question. I would like to respond to that --

WEINSTEIN: But one second.

COSTELLO: OK. Wait. Wait.

WEINSTEIN: Can you let us know when --

COSTELLO: Wait, one at a time.

(CROSSTALK)

WEINSTEIN: Protesters knocking people --

PIERSON: He tells them from the beginning --

COSTELLO: OK.

PIERSON: And he tells them from the beginning to handle them nicely. Do not be mean to them. You cannot control what people do. The liberals have paid protesters that have done this in the past. And if you think whoever comes out of the general election that the liberal protesters are going to be nice and they're going to follow the rules, then you're dead wrong. Mr. Trump has condemned these types of attacks. He does not promote them.

COSTELLO: OK. All right.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I got to -- I got to end it there, guys. I got to end it there.

Thank you all for joining me. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:47:51] COSTELLO: A few hours from now the former first lady, Nancy Reagan, will be laid to rest right next to her husband, Ronald Reagan. Mrs. Reagan also -- always a stickler for details planned every aspect of today's ceremony, including the exact spot where her casket will go into the ground. Secret Service agents who protected the Reagans through the years will serve as pallbearers. CNN's live coverage of the ceremony begins just -- in just about three

hours at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Throughout the years we've always heard about how fiercely loyal and protective Nancy Reagan was of her beloved Ronnie . One person who knows this better than most is presidential historian Douglas Brinkley who edited Ronald Reagan's personal diaries. He joins us now live from Simi Valley.

Hi, Doug.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Hello. Good morning.

COSTELLO: First of all, describe the vast number of people coming to pay their respects to Nancy Reagan.

BRINKLEY: Well, for starters, this will be a very traditional funeral. Nancy Reagan was very traditional on things so it will be "Ave Maria" and "God Bless America," "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Her friends, acquaintances will speak. People like James Baker, Tom Brokaw, but I think most importantly, the reflections of her two children that she had with -- with Ronald Reagan, you know, her daughter and her son, will be really the two that people will be most interested in hearing.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. So Nancy Reagan orchestrated all of this down to the final detail. Surprising?

BRINKLEY: No. And, you know, we watched when Ronald Reagan died how Mrs. Reagan choreographed the funeral which became an international event. It kind of seized the imagine of the people how well she did it.

Remember, Nancy Reagan's whole life became of protecting her husband. And I was reflecting, Carol, coming over here about when Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 and people don't realize Ronald Reagan lost 50 percent of his blood, his lung punctured, a bullet almost in his heart, and she had to spend daily helping him recover while carrying on as president of the United States.

[10:50:06] And then when she got to come back to California, it was supposed to be the golden years out here and then Alzheimer's hit her husband, and the patience she had. I mean, you know, nurses and things could come and go, but she had to have the patience to care take of her husband 24/7 through Alzheimer's, and she then became an organizer of her husband's life, and hence, this was the last act of this great marriage, her funeral and making sure that she was laying next to her husband and that they would meet up in heaven.

COSTELLO: So -- I have heard this and I don't know if it's true but maybe you do that Nancy Reagan wanted her casket placed very, very closely to her husband Ronnie's as if they were holding hands almost.

BRINKLEY: Yes. Exactly. Inches from each other. You know, some people were predicting rain here today, but it's beautiful right now in Simi Valley. The valley is aglow and there are moving clouds around, and so it's a kind of a spiritual vibration going on here right now. But when we watched today, remember the military. Both Ronald Reagan and Nancy, both felt that our U.S. armed forces were the real heroes of America, and they always remember the crisp salute that Ronald Reagan would give and the fact that as commander-in-chief, you know, he wouldn't take his suit coat off even in the Oval Office because he wanted to wear his suit uniform in the way that our military wore theirs.

I think that's part of what this planning of hers was today, to do it the traditional, old style American way, yet like Eleanor Roosevelt who was the first one to really open up the viewing of the casket in 1962 because Eleanor Roosevelt thought of herself as a populist of the people, Nancy Reagan was a conservative populist, and this whole last few days people have been coming here to pay last respects. And she wanted it that way. That it wasn't just elites at her funeral and friends but the public could share in the final good-bye.

COSTELLO: All right. Douglas Brinkley, thanks so much.

And another reminder that CNN's special coverage of Nancy Reagan's funeral starts at 1: 30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, two top executives at the Wounded Warrior Project fired.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:25] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 55 minutes past.

The top two executives at the Wounded Warrior Project are out of jobs today. Founded to help veterans wounded in combat, the charity fired the two men for throwing lavish events that promoted the group but did little to help veterans. Org chairman Anthony Odierno, a wounded Iraq war vet and the son of the former Army chief of staff, will temporarily take over the charity.

A $20,000 reward has been offered for the capture of two gunmen who opened fire on a family cookout in the town of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. Six people were killed including a pregnant woman. The county prosecutor says one gunman ambushed the family from the alley while another -- another person shot from near the back of the house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN ZAPPALA, ALIGHENY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We do not have anybody identified as of yet. We do have some physical evidence that we think we're hopeful will lead back to identifying at least one of the persons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: No motive is known. But officials say drugs were a factor.

In Los Angeles, a violent car wreck sends six to the hospital. The car appears to go speeding through a red light and it slammed into an SUV waiting to turn. It happened early Tuesday morning in Van Nuys, California. Five vehicles in all hit. Six people injured.

Flash floods from Texas to Louisiana have claimed at least four lives. The threat is expected to continue through the weekend with more downpours in the forecast. Some schools in New Orleans have now been closed. Residents are warned to seek higher ground immediately because some levies are in danger of being overtopped.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND BOLDUAN" after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)