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Dallas Honors Fallen Police Officers in Vigil; Trump Warns It's 'Just the Beginning' of More Violence. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 12, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES JOHNSON, FATHER OF MICAH JOHNSON: I loved my son with all my heart. I hate what he did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

[05:58:27] CHIEF DAVID BROWN, DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're asking cops to do too much in this country. The government needs to step up and help us.

(CHANTING)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's nothing inconsistent with supporting the police and acknowledging the problem.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is deeply troubling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you serve? Who do you protect?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you serve? Who do you protect?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you serve? Who do you protect?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I am the law and order candidate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell us what you stand for. People are literally dying in the streets.

DR. BRIAN WILLIAMS, TRAUMA SURGEON, PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: I don't know why this has to be us against them. This has to stop.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, July 12, 6 a.m. in the East. Alisyn is off. Poppy Harlow here with me again. Good to have you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Good to be with you. CUOMO: Big headline for you this morning: in just a few hours, President Obama is going to head to Dallas to speak at a memorial service for the five Dallas police officers killed in that ambush attack.

The president rejects the idea that the country is divided on race, and he's going to make the case in an effort to heal a heartbroken city and nation.

HARLOW: And he will do that after, once again, hundreds gathered last night to honor for a beautiful candlelight vigil to honor the fallen officers there in Dallas. The city's police chief delivering yet again such a powerful message to his community and to protestors, trying to help ease those tensions.

We have it covered the only way CNN can. Let's begin this morning with Victor Blackwell in Dallas.

Good morning, Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, good morning to you.

The White House says President Obama is intensely frustrated over the conversation, or inability to have a rational conversation about gun control as he comes here.

But of course, this visit is, in large part, about healing this city. He, of course, will be joined by former president George W. Bush, who will speak at this interfaith event today with the president. And of course, this comes after a very emotional night that we saw here in Dallas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Hundreds gathering Monday night for a candlelight vigil to honor the fallen officers killed in the Dallas ambush.

JAMIE CASTRO, SENIOR CORPORAL, DALLAS POLICE: Lorne, I know you're up there listening, brother. And I want you to know I was there outside the window by your side to see you take your final breath.

BLACKWELL: The doctors who fought valiantly to save lives struggling to cope with their deaths.

WILLIAMS: And I think about it every day, that I was unable to save those cops when they came here that night.

BLACKWELL: Dr. Brian Williams telling CNN something must be done about the senseless violence.

WILLIAMS: I don't understand why people think it's OK to kill police officers. I don't understand why black men die in custody, and they're forgotten the next day. It has to stop.

BLACKWELL: Dallas Police Chief David Brown says the country is putting too much of a burden on police to solve societal issues.

BROWN: We're asking cops to do too much in this country. Not enough mental health funding. Let the cop handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding. Let's give it to the cops. That's too much to ask.

BLACKWELL: Brown's message to protestors: become part of the solution.

BROWN: We're hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. And we'll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about.

BLACKWELL: This as the parents of the killer are breaking their silence in an interview with "TheBlaze."

J. JOHNSON: I didn't see it coming. I love my son with all my heart. I hate what he did.

BLACKWELL: His mother says it was his time in the military that changed him.

DELPHINE JOHNSON, MOTHER OF MICAH JOHNSON: He was very disappointed. Very disappointed. But it may be that he -- the ideal that he thought of our government, of what he thought the military represented, it just didn't live up to his expectations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Since that attack on Thursday night, much of downtown Dallas has been shut off and closed down, cordoned off as a crime scene. Well, we've learned that some of those roads will reopen today as the city looks for some semblance of normalcy.

That interfaith ceremony starts today at 1:30 Eastern -- Poppy.

HARLOW: It will be a beautiful sight, Victor, with all those people gathering from across -- across political lines to be together for that city. Thank you so much, Victor.

Overnight protests against the police shooting deaths of two black men in the last week. Police arresting at least 16 people in Atlanta. In a fifth night of demonstrations there, hundreds took to the streets. Some staging a sit-in there at the governor's mansion.

In a third day of protests in downtown Chicago last night, up to 1,000 people taking part there. Those demonstrations did remain peaceful.

We're also now learning about the funeral arrangements for those two men killed by police. Philando Castile in Minnesota will be laid to rest on Thursday. Alton Sterling's funeral is set for Friday in Louisiana. CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss some of the big issues that have

been coming up here. We have CNN political commentator and author of the new book "Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable," which is spot on with the topic that we have today. You know him, Marc Lamont Hill.

We have former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino; and former federal prosecutor and former trial attorney for civil rights division of the Department of Justice, Laura Coates.

Counselor Coates, let me start with you. Let's take up the point that the chief made last night about we are asking the police to do too much. Let's replay that sound. It matters enough to do so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We're asking cops to do too much in this country. We are. We're just asking us to do too much. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve.

Policing I just ask for other parts of our democracy, along with the free press, to help us, to help us and not put that burden all on law enforcement to resolve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Is this true, and if so, what does it means in terms of the state of policing?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think, Chris, certainly the officers are expected to do a great number of things and wear many hats.

But the expectation of society is that the officers, when they are wearing the hat that they're supposed to, which is as a patrolman and as a police officer, they do so with honor and integrity and they become law-abiding.

And the problem, when you give too many responsibilities to police officers, is you confer a great deal of power. And that leaves opportunities to exploit that level of power. It's what you see in excessive force cases, which is kind of the basis of all these protests, that an officer, the rogue officers, are abusing these -- this gift and granted all of this power. And it only can -- it's a consequence of the greater society.

CUOMO: Well, let's look in the context of the murder in this Dallas situation, OK, in terms of what the police confront on a regular basis.

Dan, the parents are speaking out now. They say they saw a change when he came home from the military. They didn't know how to help him. They didn't think it would be this bad. But when you look at that in terms of what they're saying -- and let's take the parents at their word.

What does that mean to you in terms of, you know, what we're dealing with in society or not dealing with in terms of threats?

DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, I don't know if the military had anything to do with this. An individual like this who's clearly disturbed, he looks like he's looking for a reason to engage in some sort of violence or to act out somehow. If you're looking for that reason, you know, you're going to find it.

CUOMO: No, I don't mean, Dan -- I don't mean that the military ruined this man. I'm saying that, through his experience, he developed some type of illness that wasn't diagnosed, not followed up on. The family didn't know what to do. There doesn't seem to be any tools. And we see this time and time again, where someone just winds up decaying in their own skin and becomes a madman.

BONGINO: Sure. Right. No, I understand what you were saying initially. And I'm not blaming the military, or I know you're not either.

What I'm saying here is the tools are available, though. We can't just say that the tools aren't out there. That's not true. I mean, how do you know that? Was there no psychologist or psychiatrist within 50 square miles of this individual? You know, we say that, and we throw these terms out there a lot, and it's just simply not true. The United States is the wealthiest country on earth.

If they thought something was wrong, the family, where's the personal responsibility there? I mean, they could have found someone. The fact is, they didn't. And saying after the fact that "We didn't have the tools," I don't know, I think it's kind of a copout. I don't think that's true.

CUOMO: Well, I'll tell you. You have to put it in context, though. Representative Tim Murphy out of Pennsylvania, a Republican, just got a bill that is now making it through to empower families more. When you're dealing with an adult, Dan, if people don't want to get mental health for themselves, there's almost nothing a family can do, unless you can have them involuntarily committed.

BONGINO: Then that's...

CUOMO: It gets very difficult.

BONGINO: That's his issue, then.

CUOMO: Absolutely.

BONGINO: That's the family saying, "No, he doesn't want help." That's not the fault of the government or the cops or anything else.

CUOMO: True.

BONGINO: If an individual wants to enact violence and doesn't want to get help, then listen, there's got to be some personal responsibility here. There's no way around that.

CUOMO: True. True. Then he says, Marc Lamont Hill -- the chief says, "To all of you protesting, I want you to consider this." And let's play his suggestion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We're hiring. We're hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. And we'll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Never heard that before. You and I have been all over this country covering this problem. I've never heard a chief suggest that before. What does it mean to you?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. It's an interesting solution, and it almost gets at the issue here, because one of the things we talk about is the need for community-based policing. People living in the neighborhood and knowing the neighborhood, having relationships so that you're not just riding by cracking heads, but you're also having conversations with people. That's what old-school policing was.

And honestly, that was the spirit of broken windows policing when it first started. It wasn't just about cleaning up the CD sellers or the loosie sellers. It was about having relationships and policing the neighborhoods in ways that make people comfortable.

The problem, though, is that it almost reflects a belief that, if we had more black officers, or if we had more local residents in the neighborhoods, that that would be enough. It's not just a problem of demographics; it's also a problem of structure. It's a systemic problem.

So even if everybody loved the neighborhood, even if everyone was a great cop, the perfect cop, there's still a model of policing that needs to change. And that can't change by being hired. That has to change by changing the structures.

What I thought the police officer said that was more accurate, more important was the idea that we have to not put so much burden on law enforcement. Because what we've essentially done is say, "Look, you have a mental health issue, there aren't a ton of resources out there for you." And so one of the few places you end up getting mental health support is in prison. Twenty-seven percent of state prisoners have mental health issues.

CUOMO: Do you remember when we were on the ground, I believe it was in Baltimore...

HILL: Yes.

CUOMO: ... and a mentally-ill guy took a knife and went after the store owner, and the store owner knew him and called the cops, and said, "Oh, he's here again. He's got his knife out." And when the cops showed up on the scene, he charged him with the knife. They wound up shooting and killing him. Everybody went after the cops again, but again, that's a tough thing to put on their plate. HILL: It is a tough thing to put on their plate. And again, and I

agree that individual responsibility matters. People have to make healthy choices for themselves and for their family members.

[06:10:05] But again, there also has to be space here to say we need to expand mental health opportunities in schools and community-based things. Because we can't arrest our way out of poverty. We can't arrest our way out of mental health. We can't arrest our way out of homelessness. But that's often what we do. All that becomes the job of the police officers. And so yes, they end up arresting everybody, even if they have the best of intentions. That's what we mean by systemic.

CUOMO: Counselor, something's starting to bubble up. I want your take on it. The idea of, after negotiating with a man who was dead set on killing police officers, more of them, any way that he could, they wound up sending in a robot with an explosive device and took him out.

People are concerned about that. Are you legally, or is there an ethical question or do you think it's a non-issue?

COATES: Well, I think that it's bubbling, because it is frankly -- it's the quintessential example of whether it's excessive force or not. I mean, it seems just common sense to have a robot blow up one person could be viewed as excessive, except for the fact that you have a context here.

You have somebody who intended on taking more human lives. And there was no other way, perhaps, to neutralize the effect.

The reason it's so important right now and why it's percolating is because, as the chief indicated, they're going to review over 170 hours of body-cam footage et cetera. And the reason for that is to say, look, they still have to justify even things that would be, through common sense, justifiable, to actually take this threat out.

They still have to say, "Look, we know there is -- there is a condemnation of police officers that we use too much force, particularly against black men, particularly in issues where we could have used something different." And they still feel the burden, even in this context, to have to justify this actual killing.

And so it's part of a larger conversation. It's one that kind of goes into CYA mode for the officers. But if I can just touch on one thing that Marc was talking about, Chris. And that is, you know, people have to realize that there's a three-pronged approach. It's protest; it's legislation; and it's legal action against people who are committing unlawful acts, including officers.

And if one method of being able to protest or legislate is to join the force and become on the front line, I mean, as a black woman, I've been a prosecutor who is normally on the side that people would assume would belong to the criminal defense attorneys.

But you've got to be on the front lines and also be able to effectuate change. And sometimes being the gatekeeper is as valuable as being the person to be vocal.

CUOMO: Identify a problem and then become part of the solution. Laura, Dan, Marc, thank you for helping us out this morning. Appreciate it.

Now, coming up in our 8 a.m. hour, we're going to talk live with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. He has been a unique leader in this situation and uniquely effective. We'll talk to him about why.

And also tomorrow night, how about this? A special two-hour town hall on the issues that matter: "Black, White, and Blue: America 2016." On those tensions between police and minorities. Don Lemon will moderate, 10 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN, of course -- Pop.

HARLOW: Donald Trump warning that the violence spreading across this country might just be the beginning of what he is calling a long dangerous summer. Those comments from the presumptive Republican nominee last night as he declares himself the law and order candidate who can restore peace, following that by saying, "I'm also the candidate of compassion."

This coming as new audio surfaces this morning of Donald Trump praising Hillary Clinton.

Our Jason Carroll has more. And Jason, he also praised Barack Obama.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he did at one point, Poppy. Donald Trump speaking out on a number of issues, talking about the shootings in Dallas and the incidents in Louisiana and Minnesota, saying that the nation is divided.

Also in an interview with the Associated Press, Trump predicted more violence this summer. And during that speech yesterday to veterans, he provided a solution, saying not only is he the law enforcement candidate, but the candidate of compassion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: It's time for our hostility against our police and against all members of law enforcement to end and end immediately right now.

CARROLL (voice-over): Donald Trump addressing for the first time out on the campaign trail the Dallas ambush and recent police-involved shooting deaths.

TRUMP: I am the law and order candidate.

CARROLL: And blasting his Democratic rival.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is weak, ineffective, pandering, and as proven by her recent e-mail scandal, she's either a liar or grossly incompetent.

CARROLL: This as the "Wall Street Journal" uncovers contradicting audio from Trump's old syndicated radio segment called "Trumped!"

(MUSIC: "MONEY, MONEY")

CARROLL: The audio clips, owned by the radio network Premiere, revealing yet again inconsistencies in the billionaire's rhetoric. His own words in 2008.

TRUMP: I know her, and she'd make a good president or a vice president. A lot of people think a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton pairing would be a dream ticket in November.

[06:15:00] CARROLL: A far cry from his attacks on the trail now.

TRUMP: Wherever Hillary Clinton goes, corruption and scandal follow.

She'll never be able to do the job. Her judgment is horrible.

She will be such a lousy president, folks.

CARROLL: And in May of 2008, Trump condemned West Virginia lawmakers for proposing gun classes on hunting in schools.

TRUMP: We hear way too many stories about school violence. So the thought of voluntarily putting guns in the classroom seems like a really bad plan. It's a dangerous risk that might not be worth the payoff.

CARROLL: And then Trump eight years later.

TRUMP: You know what a gun-free zone is to a sicko? That's bait.

I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools, and you have to. And on military bases.

(via phone): I don't want to have guns in classrooms, although in some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms, frankly.

CARROLL: Vice President Joe Biden and former primary foe Jeb Bush questioning Trump's ability to deliver on his promises.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look at Donald Trump and what he's saying and ask yourself, "Is it believable?"

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think people are going to really feel betrayed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Well, Trump has repeatedly brushed off some of his former rivals like Bush, calling them sore losers.

And a little bit more from that recent interview with the Associated Press. Trump suggested that a lack of training for officers might be partially to blame for the shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. He also criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, saying the name in itself is a, quote, "very divisive term" -- Chris.

CUOMO: Jason, appreciate the reporting. No question, today is going to be a very challenging one for President

Obama. This will be the 11th time he's been called to a city to console after tragedy of this kind. So he's going to go down here and deal with this unique tragedy of dead police officers. And then he's going to make the case for why this country must come together and is, in fact, united in this cause.

We're going to discuss the implications of this speech today, of this moment on the election. Who's doing better here? Who has the solution? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

President Obama set to speak today at a memorial for those five slain officers in Dallas. This is the 11th time -- 11th time -- that this president has had to travel to a city and address its people following a mass shooting.

Meantime, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton facing their own challenges and dealing with this national tragedy.

Let's talk about all of it. CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis is with us, as well as CNN political analyst, "New York Times" political correspondent Patrick Healy.

Gentlemen, thank you for being with us this morning.

Errol, let's start with you. If you're the president, you're traveling there, you're weary because you've done this 11 times before. You're also walking quite a line, because you're respecting the police officers in this horrifying tragedy and you're also dealing with a divided nation over race and police-involved shooting. What is the first line out of your mouth?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think for the president, it will try -- I think he'll try to sort of make this almost a continuation of what he did in South Carolina after the Dylann Roof mass murders. Because there are different -- unfortunately, you talk about 11 different mass shooters that he's spoken at. There are differences between them. You know, I mean, a madman who goes into a theater with no motive whatsoever that anybody can discern is fundamentally different from somebody with politically tinged motives, which is what we saw in South Carolina and what we've seen in Dallas. So I think there's a difference there.

I think also, though, the president has got to sort of try and do what only the president can do: try to heal the nation, try to appeal to our common humanity.

The reality, however, and it's a tough thing to have to acknowledge, is that he has not been very successful when it comes to getting the implementation of what his task force on policing recommended. Very few departments have taken him up on it. If you look through the recommendations, it's actually pretty soft stuff. They ask local departments to convene listening sessions and that sort of a thing. So not surprisingly, only 15 states and cities have taken him up on it out of something like 17,000, 18,000 police departments nationwide. This has not been a high point for his presidency, and I think today is going to underscore that.

CUOMO: And he is taking a very aggressive stance, Patrick. He's saying we're not divided. What is this talk about being divided?

Does that make him sound tone deaf or is he, you know, obviously turning a blind eye to the situation; or do you think there's a strategy at play?

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's really tough, Chris. Because it's not -- a lot of people are anxious. A lot of people are fearful. They sort of see America, what's going on, you know, cratering a little bit.

But he's right. This isn't the '60s. There aren't riots. There aren't cities that are on fire across America.

So what President Obama does so well but sometimes doesn't go into the bloodstream of people, is that he presents context. He looks at sort of the long arc of history. That often doesn't make people feel better, but if -- when they listen often, they understand.

The problem, though, this audience is going to be a tough one for him. I think in Charleston, Errol is right, and in many of these cities, people wanted comfort; they wanted that kind of empathy.

Here, there are going to be a lot of people in that audience, including a lot of cops, who feel -- are going to feel very ambivalent about Obama's record here.

HARLOW: I mean, the vice president, Joe Biden, said yesterday in this meeting they had with police, there were two police divisions. They said, "We don't think you as an administration are doing enough for us."

HEALY: That's right. I mean, it's -- you know, in terms on of threading the needle, it's going to be tough. I mean, a lot of people are looking for him to try to help them kind of understand what's going on, to sort of make them feel, you know, that the country has a grasp on this.

But then -- but if they're looking to his administration for answers, a lot of people feel like, you know, he's been on the wrong track, that the Justice Department has given too many military-style weaponry and equipment to police departments or that the Justice Department hasn't sort of followed through on the accountability reports that they've -- that they've tried to put onto police departments.

CUOMO: How it plays out in the election. It's interesting. Former mayor Ron Kirk from Dallas yesterday yelled at me, called me out for saying media are always trying to conflate what happens with...

[06:25:05] HARLOW: Right. Don't make this about the election.

CUOMO: ... the election itself. But it is about the election. We're looking to see, well, who has a leadership strategy for this situation? How do you console? How do you see the way forward?

So Trump says, "I'm the law and order candidate." And I've got to tell you, maybe it's just I'm getting old, Poppy, but it hearkens you back to...

HARLOW: Nixon.

CUOMO: ... to Nixon.

"I'm the law and order candidate." He had a way to get out of Vietnam. Trump says he's got a way to get out of ISIS. Is that a real parallel? Is he sizing himself up, either intentionally or unintentionally, as Nixon?

LOUIS: Well, it's absolutely a parallel. One thing that we should keep in mind, though, is that both he and Hillary Clinton, when they talk about, in effect, sort of, you know, moving a lot of pieces around on the chess board at the local level, they are far exceeding what any president can realistically do.

So when Hillary Clinton says she wants to create, you know, models of how to deescalate and have better community policing, that's not something you're going to do from the White House or the Justice Department. It's just not. I mean, they have some carrots and some sticks. They can push and prod local departments in a certain direction. They can provide a tone and some leadership.

But what Nixon did, actually, you know, I think in the light of history, helped fuel mass incarceration. I mean, it pushed in one direction. It gave a lot of incentives for departments to -- to really crack down and draw laws. But as your previous segment sort of pointed out, it's a multi-pronged approach. You've got to pass laws. You've got to have a tone set from the White House.

HEALY: She's still -- she's still looking for that tone, right? I mean, she's still sort of finding her voice on this, whereas Donald Trump has sort of very clearly positioned himself...

LOUIS: That's the beauty of it, is that it's very simple.

HEALY: Right.

HARLOW: How can -- how can Bernie Sanders help Hillary Clinton on this front as we look at New Hampshire today and him joining her on the trail and the tough spot she's still in when it comes to the crime bill, when it comes to mass incarceration? How can Bernie Sanders sort of getting on the band wagon -- we don't know if he'll -- he's not necessarily fully endorsing her. But how can he help her on this front?

HEALY: That's a tricky one, because she did very well with African- American voters... HARLOW: Right.

HEALY: ... voters in major cities in America. That wasn't necessarily Bernie's strength. And Bernie had his own problem with Black Lives Matter activists.

I think the sense, though, is that, as sort of Donald Trump tries to sort of say, "I'm the law and order candidate. Come behind me. I'll keep you safe," what she's actually trying to do, I think, is sort of broaden her coalition to get the younger voters into her camp in the key states.

Again, when these incidents happen, we still tend to forget, you know, it's 10 or 12 states where this is really key. Bring those, you know, those young people in, in places like Ohio and Florida and Pennsylvania. You know, have a united Democratic Party.

HARLOW: Some of those young voices we're hearing on the streets of America.

HEALY: Absolutely. And they feel it. They feel -- they want some kind of a statement from their leaders that sort of say, you know, "I understand what's going on. We're going to deal with it." She has that rhetoric already. It's more the emotional connection that sometimes Bernie made better than she did.

CUOMO: Gentlemen, appreciate the perspective, as always.

We have a programming note for you. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is going to talk Trump and the GOP agenda in a live CNN town hall with Jake Tapper tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern.

HARLOW: Also new developments in the deadly police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. Why is the D.A. there removing himself from the case at the same time that that convenience store owner where the assault took place outside of his store, now he's filing a lawsuit against police. What he's alleging. Details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)