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NTSB Team Investigating Chattanooga Crash; 12 Children Still Hospitalized In Chattanooga; Guarding Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate; Reporter Revelation From The Campaign Trail. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 23, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


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[12:32:37] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the school bus driver involved in the crash that killed five elementary school students in Chattanooga, Tennessee was in another school bus accident side-swiping a car in September. 24-year-old Johnthony Walker is charged with vehicular homicide, his blood sample has been sent too the state lab for processing and the NTSB is investigating. Official say the bus was going well over the 30 mile per hour speed limit. Three fourth graders, a first grader and a kindergarten died. 12 students are still in the hospital, six in the ICU. The mother of 6-year-old D'Myunn Brown says she rushed to the crash scene

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DIAMOND BROWN, HER SON D'MYUNN DIED IN CRASH: I know where my baby sits on the bus. I know he sits in front of the bus. I know that because I stay at the bus stop during every morning and every evening when he gets out the bus. And I know he gets in the same spot. So when they told me that the front of the bus kids hadn't been removed it automatically gave me that mother's instinct that my baby was up there because I had been sitting out there while they were pulling out the kids out one by one and I hadn't seen my son yet.

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KEILAR: And after hours of waiting she learned her only child had died. Doctors had trouble identifying students because they were so young.

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DR. DARVEY KOLLER, CHILDRENS HOSPITAL AT ERLANGER: Many of them were unable to spell their names, did not know their birth dates or even their parents' names. Several said "Mama" when they were asked who their name -- what their name was.

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KEILAR: Just absolutely heartbreaking and we have also learned the name of another child killed in this crash. Zyaira Mateen was on the bus with her two sisters. Her mother says the girls told them they couldn't find her because she was smashed between the seats.

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke joins me now to discuss all of this. First of all Mayor, truly our hearts go out to you, our condolences to the families and to your community for this terrible tragedy. Today, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam visited the victim's school. How has this impacted your city especially just days before Thanksgiving?

VOICE OF ANDY BERKE, CHATTANOOGA MAYOR: The people are distraught, but they're also generous. Up here we're giving thanks for what we have even though we know that there are many, many problems that people are having in our city, we certainly understand on this week of Thanksgiving that we all need to be with our families, appreciating them, thinking about our kids because there are a lot of families hurting in our city right now.

[12:35:08] KEILAR: And how has the community pulled together? It's been pretty remarkable to see what everyone has done to sort of pitch in and try to help out in the wake of this tragedy?

BERKE: Well when I was at the school this morning, people were putting together care packages. Some had food and some had toys. We see that going on everywhere. At the hospital, the night of the incident hundreds of pizzas where delivered to the hospital to help staff and even now for the families.

The kitchens are stocked at the hospital where there are still six children and in intensive care. We put up a website where people could donate to the families, because of the amount of traffic it almost crashed yesterday. We had to do some technical work to make sure we could handle the traffic. It's just been a tremendous outpouring of support. Particularly because one of the most unnatural things is to see a child suffer. We have seen a great deal of it as a result of this bus wreck and people are trying to participate in any way possible.

KEILAR: There has been a lot of scrutiny in the wake of this tragedy about the bus driver. We know that he has been involved in a September crash. Some parents say that they had complained about his speeding. Do you know why he was still driving a bus with these children?

BERKE: Yes. So the city doesn't actually operate the schools or the buses and I don't have any detailed information about that. What I can tell you is that we're asking anybody who may have information about the accident or anything that happened in minutes before or even months before to come forward and talk to our police officers. In addition the National Transportation Safety Board is here. They're conducting an investigation. So, anybody who has information of that kind, we would love to have them come forward and give it to us.

KEILAR: All right, Mayor Andy Berke, thank you very much. And again our hearts go out to you.

And up next, on this Wednesday, what goes into protecting the President-elect at his vacation home? We're going to take you to Mar- a-Lago to see the major security changes happening right now as we speak.

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[12:41:41] KEILAR: President-elect Donald Trump will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday at Mar-a-Lago. The sprawling estate in Palm Beach that could become the winter White House, and with 20 acres to guard you can bet there will be no shortage of security restrictions on the ground, in the air and at sea.

CNN's Ed Lavandera take's a look.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Protecting President-elect Donald Trump is a challenge unlike any other, from Trump Tower in New York, to his private club in Florida.

RENNIE RODRIGUEZ, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: So we're approaching Mar-a-Lago right here.

LAVANDERA: It's a 20-acre waterfront estate in Palm Beach, secluded from the public, but he also shares it with as many as 500 members, who are willing to pay $100,000 to join.

RODRIGUEZ: Basically it's a compound. And we have to treat it as such.

LAVANDERA: Former Secret Service and ATF Special Agent Rennie Rodriguez says in many ways it's ready-made for presidential security.

RODRIGUEZ: Behind this natural barrier here, which I assume is a fence.

LAVANDERA: It appears there's a wall back there.

RODRIGUEZ: There's a wall, a tall wall.

LAVANDERA: Yeah. It's more than 13 feet, I believe, which is great for deterring anyone trying to come on the premises.

Behind the wall, Trump keeps a residence that could become the winter White House.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT: And I love Florida. This is my second home.

LAVANDERA: Where presidents spend their vacations is a window into their personalities. George W. Bush liked to spend the hottest month of the year on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

GEORGE BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a wonderful spot to come up in here and just kind of think about the budget, I mean ...

LAVANDERA: George Bush Senior famously enjoined the peaceful serenity of Kennebunkport, Maine. Mar-a-Lago stretches across a barrier island cut down the middle by a two-lane road, nestled between a stunning stream of multimillion dollar homes. The best view comes from across the bay. Rodriguez says Secret Service Teams are assessing threats that could come by land, sea and air, and standing outside the club, it doesn't take long to see the skies above will be a major concern.

RODRIGUEZ: I mean that plane is what, maybe, a couple thousand feet over us?

LAVANDERA: The Palm Beach international airport is just a few miles west of Mar-a-Lago.

RODRIGUEZ: You can see the path for commercial aircraft.

LAVANDERA: For years Trump has waged a legal battle to keep commercial and private planes from flying over this estate. And now that he's President-elect, he might have just gotten his way. When he's on the property, Rodriguez says the air space over Mar-a-Lago will be closed.

RODRIGUEZ: This would be a type of aircraft that individual would use to drive his plane into -- on the property.

LAVANDERA: And in the waters around Mar-a-Lago the U.S. Coast Guard is already setting up security zones. Some parts completely off limits, other areas that require permission before entering. Rodriguez says Secret Service Agents will also conduct renewed background checks on every club member, and inside the club they can also expect to see new levels of visible and invisible layers of security.

RODRIGUEZ: But life is going to change around here for the next four years?

LAVANDERA: Yes it will, most definitely.

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KEILAR: And that was Ed Lavandera. Thanks to him for that report.

[12:45:01] Joining me now to discuss all of this, Jeff Beatty, a Lecturer on National Security at the University of New Haven and a Former FBI Special Agent and CIA counter-terrorism officer. Thank you for coming on, Jeff. We do appreciate it.

I just kind of want to look at the comparison between Mar-a-Lago, where Donald Trump is spending his time for the holidays, and what past presidents have done. Clearly, this is a different situation, because you have President-elect sharing Mar-a-Lago with 500 other people. How much of a security concern is that pose, or challenge, should I say?

JEFF BEATTY, NATIONAL SECURITY CONSULTANT: Well there are a host of new challenges, and unique challenges, every time a new president is sworn in. Now, fortunately there's only 500 people there. That may sound like a lot but it is a group of people that can be easily checked into. Their ability to have guests when the president is in residence there in the future is going to be affected, but this is something that is well within the capabilities of the Secret Service working closely with local law enforcement and state law enforcement officials.

So, it's something they can do quite handily. But I was listening to the piece that Ed had there and speaking with Rennie about some of the threats from the air. You know the last inauguration and since then the drone threat has now evolved into something that is very real. So it's not just commercial aircraft but that's one of the new threats that the Secret Service will have to be addressing at Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere.

KEILAR: Right. I mean D.C., you have the no-drone zone, but else where I think they're still trying to figure out what to do about drones and how to regulate them. So that is an interesting challenge. Another interesting challenge for the Secret Service is the fact that Trump will obviously be traveling to places like Mar-a-Lago, possibly to New York on the weekends. Trump Tower, where we know Melania and Barron will be to finish out his school year. Is the Secret Service equipped to handle all of this?

BEATTY: Well the Secret Service has to rely upon the assistance of state and local law enforcement. It's not absolutely huge organization. It can't do it alone. You know, every time you've seen the motorcades I'm sure, every time a president comes to town, local police are involved with their motorcycles and blocking off side streets, et cetera. So, it's not anything that can be alone by the Secret Service and then of course we'll get the help of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, and in Florida, and elsewhere, wherever the president might go. The threats have evolved in recent years. And so the Secret Service will have to have more coordination with other some of these other folks who can help them do their job.

KEILAR: You mentioned the threats have evolved. You talked about drones. Do you believe Trump's inauguration will pose additional security challenges than with past presidents?

BEATTY: Yes, it will. And although in the past I've consulted, for example, on the Rose Parade in Pasadena. Where we were quite concerned about the type of an attack that we saw on the 14th of July in Nice, where an individual took a truck and drove it through a crowd and killed 87 people.

You know, when you have an inauguration route that is going be used when the president is sworn in, you have got to do more to protect the side streets approaching. I mean physical barriers. This is going to be something, and we don't have to worry about just one person. We have to worry about perhaps a cell of people, who after all on 9/11 we had multiple aircraft.

But just imagine this, you know, somebody tries to come in through a side street using a large vehicle, it's hard to stop and may be they are able to threaten the motorcade. Well, we might have a Secret Service vehicle that sacrifices itself to block or take that out and then the motorcade would speed up to get out of the kill zone. But what about two side streets down or a third site street down? You know, we've run our assets pretty quickly. So, a barrier plan will have to be put in place the likes of which we've not seen before, because while some security officials anticipated as we did this type of threat it took about 10 or 12 years for it to manifest itself in Nice. And this is just something that people are going to have to contend with going forward. The motorcycles depend upon the willing cooperation of the public to stop short of the motorcycle and not try to get into the motorcade. A terrorist is not going to give you willing cooperation.

KEILAR: All right. Jeff Beatty, thank you very much for that. I do appreciate it.

BEATTY: Thank you.

KEILAR: And coming up on this Wednesday, a story you have not heard from a presidential race like no other. CNN's Jeremy Diamond sheds a new light on President-elect Trump's stormy relationship with the press including the angry phone call he once got from Mr. Trump himself.

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[12:53:31] KEILAR: Well it is no secret that President-elect Donald Trump has a contentious relationship with the media and often called out specific networks or individual reporters at his campaign events. CNN Politics Reporter Jeremy Diamond was one of those individuals on the receiving end of Trump's media criticism. You can see him here on the trail with Trump last year.

Jeremy joins me now live to discuss this. And Jeremy, Trump actually called you one time after a rally. Tell us about that. Bring us into that phone conversation. What did he say?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, it was after a rally in Virginia last October, when that was specially punctuated by a number of protests, there were about a dozen protesters at that rally, and so I wrote something up, a story on cnn.com that posted just before the rally even wrapped about the protest that happened and the vitriolic confrontations between some Trump supporters and the protesters.

And no sooner had Donald Trump left and I got a call on the phone which is from his then campaign manager Corey Lewandowski complaining to me about the coverage of the rally and then said hold on. The next thing I know, it's Donald Trump saying, "Jeremy, you're a very dishonest guy and he continued to chew me out for the number of protesters that I said there were and the crowd count which I had gotten from the fire marshall at that event."

And it was really was just Interesting peak into the mind of Donald Trump, you know, his focused on the crowd sizes that we would see throughout his presidential campaign, and just one of the early signs of his contentious relationship he would have with reporters covering him on the campaign trail. And the way in which he tried to sometimes bully reporters in order to try and gain more favorable coverage. [12:55:09] KEILAR: And after that, did he ever single you out again?

DIAMOND: There were several other instances. One that comes to mind was a press conference back in March when I asked Donald Trump a question about policy, about his trade policy and the effects that that would bring on the American consumer. And Donald Trump didn't really like that question and what he said to me was "Jeremy, nobody listens to you." Nobody listens to you and he urged me to sit down. I was able however to get a follow-up question in.

KEILAR: Well, I listen to you Jeremy. Thanks so much for coming on.

DIAMOND: Thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you for coming on Jeremy, sharing that story. We do appreciate it.

And please be sure to check out the first-ever book from CNN politics, "Unprecedented: the election that changed everything" it's in stores December 6th. And you can Pre-order it today at cnn.com/book.

Well thank you so much for watching "Newsroom". Brianna Keilar is in for Wolf right after a quick break. Happy Thanksgiving.

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