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Officer Testifies in Zimmerman Case; IRS Targeted Liberal Groups; Obama Speaks on Climate Change

Aired June 25, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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


SGT. ANTHONY RAIMONDO, POLICE OFFICER: No, sir.

MANTEI: Why not?

RAIMONDO: It wasn't my job, sir.

MANTEI: All right.

Your Honor, if I could ask the lights be dimmed one more time. I have a couple more additional paragraphs.

Thank you, Your Honor.

State's exhibit 20. Do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir, I do.

MANTEI: What do you recognize that to be?

RAIMONDO: That's Mr. Martin's body, sir.

MANTEI: Is that in the way it appeared after he was pronounced dead in your efforts and Officer Iola's (ph) efforts at CPR?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: Sergeant, I'm going to circle an object up here on the left hand of the screen with my red laser. Do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: What is that?

RAIMONDO: It's a CPR mask, sir.

MANTEI: Is that the mask you referred to earlier that you were later provided when performing CPR?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir, it is.

MANTEI: State's 21, do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir, I do.

MANTEI: Is that a close upshot of Trayvon Martin? RAIMONDO: Yes, sir, it is.

MANTEI: Particularly his face?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: Again, the top left hand corner, is that the breathing mask that you referred to earlier?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: All right.

State's 28, do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir, I do.

MANTEI: What is that?

RAIMONDO: It's a gunshot wound, sir.

MANTEI: And State's 6, do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: It's definitely a picture of the retreat. It looks like the orientation is toward the south, sir.

MANTEI: Can you see -- despite the rain, can you see the blanket that was covering Trayvon Martin's body in that photograph?

RAIMONDO: Yes, I've got it now, sir. I see it.

MANTEI: Would you circle it with your laser pointer?

You're circling an area that's actually behind the rain drop?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: OK.

State's 7, do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: In that photograph, does the blanket and Trayvon Martin's body underneath appear?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: Again, would you circle that for the members of the jury.

State's number 17, do you recognize that?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: Is that how Trayvon Martin's body appeared after you placed the medical blanket on top of it? RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: State's 3. Excuse me, State's 13. There's an evidence marker 3. Does that appear to be like the type of grocery bag or the grocery bag that you received from the Asian male to seal the wound?

RAIMONDO: Yes, sir.

MANTEI: Your Honor, you may raise the lights. Thank you.

(END LIVE FEED)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to continue to monitor this trial down in Sanford, Florida.

I want to bring back George Howell, also our CNN legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, out there. They're both outside the courthouse down in Florida.

Sunny, what's the prosecution trying to do here with this police officer, this eyewitness to what happened after. There's no dispute that George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, so what's the point of going through all the activity that occurred after he was shot?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You have to show chain of custody. That's part of the story. You can see, this has to be very difficult for Trayvon Martin's family but it's something that must be done. It's an important piece of evidence. I've got to tell you, you can't see it, and we didn't show it on air, but the jury just saw a picture of Trayvon Martin just splayed out. He's dead. His eyes are open. This is a difficult day for the jury. When the prosecution does something like this they have to show the jury what really happened. This is what happened. Trayvon Martin was shot. He was lying on the ground in this way. This officer tried to do everything he could do to save him.

I think what's also very important is they are talking a bit about evidence. We know forensic evidence will be very important because in opening statements what the prosecution argued was there was no blood on Trayvon Martin's hands of George Zimmerman. None of George Zimmerman's DNA. You have to show this officer tried to do what he could to preserve the scene and the evidence by covering the body from the elements. It was raining that evening and that will be crucial for the prosecution. Why didn't Trayvon Martin have George Zimmerman's DNA on his hands if they were going through the struggle and punching him as the defense suggests.

(CROSSTALK)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that adds to the thing -- it adds to what the prosecutors are tried to do here. It really is a matter of having this officer explain exactly what he saw, exactly what he did. What was George Zimmerman's reaction? And when you take those elements you're comparing it to George Zimmerman's account of what he says happened that night. It's very important to hear from this officer and hear what he saw, what he did, what he said because all of this through this trial will be compared to Zimmerman's statements.

BLITZER: Yeah. Zimmerman makes the point he was acting, he says, in self-defense. The prosecution disagrees with that.

You make another good point, Sunny, that the parents of Trayvon Martin are watching. They are distraught by what they just saw, including some of those pictures we didn't show our audience.

But, George, very quickly, the parents of George Zimmerman are not in the courtroom because they are expected to be witnesses.

HOWELL: That's the thing. Any on the witness list that been asked to leave the courtroom, so they can't hear or see what's happening in this courtroom right now. They want them to be fresh when they take the stand and they are questioned by the defense and prosecution. We know that Zimmerman's parents are out. We know that Benjamin Crump, who represents the Martin family, is not in the courtroom as well.

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: That's pretty common, Wolf. It's called the rule on witnesses. You really don't want witnesses in a trial listening to the testimony that comes this because you don't want them to conform their testimony in any way in terms of what they've heard. This is not something that is specific to George Zimmerman's family. Many people have felt uncomfortable that George Zimmerman's is not allowed in but Trayvon Martin's family is allowed in. In Florida, as in other states, the victim's family, even if they are witnesses, are allowed in. We did see that in the Casey Anthony case. Her parents would be testifying and they were also in the courtroom.

HOWELL: There was debate yesterday about asking the family to leave.

HOSTIN: Yes.

HOWELL: But they're staying in the courtroom.

BLITZER: Defense attorneys are concerned that the six women who are members of the jury could be influenced when they see the parents of Trayvon Martin distraught, upset, crying as a result of this. That's a source of concern to the defense attorneys, those representing George Zimmerman.

Guys, we'll get back to you. Stand by. We'll have continuing coverage of this trial. A very important trial happening in Florida.

Other news we're following, including a United States congressman who says the IRS targeted liberal groups as well as conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. You'll hear the evidence. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The IRS changed its ways after news broke that it targeted Tea Party groups that applied for tax exempt status. Now we're finding out that the IRS also targeted some progressive or liberal groups.

Let's go straight to our chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

Dana, this is rocking Capitol Hill right now. You just spoke with one of the top Democrats on the Hill. What did he say?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Sander Levin, of Michigan. He's the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. He's the reason we are seeing these documents. He found out about it and demanded that the IRS send them to Capitol Hill in a redacted form so he could make them public.

What they do show, pretty clearly in black and white, is that the terms "progressive," "medical marijuana," other group terms that are used by liberal groups were in these internal documents.

This is a screening document for those at the IRS who were trying to figure out if applications were tax exempt status should or should not go through. We only heard so far, at least seen so far conservative groups, specifically Tea Party groups.

When I talked to Congressman Levin, he was very critical of the inspector general at the IRS, saying he put out this very long document, a report talking about conservative groups, Tea Party groups and the like and didn't specify that he also knew progressives were targeted.

Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SANDER LEVIN, (D), MICHIGAN: It was a serious mistake. I think the Republicans took advantage of that by claiming that there was some kind of an enemy's list of the White House or there's some other activity by the White House that directed all this. If he had come forth and made clear that progressives, liberal organizations were among the 298, I don't think the Republicans or anybody could have misstated what was the fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I take it the Republicans don't feel the same way about this.

BASH: You would be right. Republicans are saying that they see now that the terms were used to screen political groups but not used to actually target them.

I spoke with Darrell Issa, who was been one of those Republicans leading the charge on this investigation, saying they still believe that Republican groups, conservative groups were put in a separate category and scrutinized in an inappropriate way, asked questions that dragged things out. And despite the fact that progressives were on a list and term was there, they were still put in a pile and sent forward.

Listen to what Darrell Issa told me about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Liberal groups were also screened like Tea Party groups were. What do you say to that?

REP. DARRELL ISSA, (R), CALIFORNIA: You can do a Google search on a lot of words. It's what you do after you get to that search. In this case, their report shows that what they did was just a keyword search, but there was no special identification and scrutiny to progressives. They continued as usual through the process, while conservative groups were stopped in their tracks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Wolf, you might ask what the overall message is and lesson is from what we have learned. Democrats say that they believe the case is closed on the idea that this was all done for political purposes, maybe even done inside the Obama campaign or White House. This was clearly something done in a bureaucratic way inside the IRS. Darrell Issa, I press him in several different ways and he said that you simply cannot conclude that yet, that this investigation has a long way to go to find out exactly what the reasoning was behind these specific IRS employees and why they made these lists.

BLITZER: Some significant unanswered questions.

Dana, thanks very much.

The president of the United States is speaking at Georgetown University here at Washington, D.C. on climate change. Just beginning his remarks. Let's listen in a little.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not that sexy.

(LAUGHTER)

It's good to be back on campus. It's a great privilege to speak from the steps of this historic hall that welcome presidents going back to George Washington. I want to thank your president, President Lajoya (ph), who is here today.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: I want to thank him for hosting us.

I want to thank the many members of my cabinet and administration. I want to thank Leader Pelosi and members of Congress, who are here. We are very grateful for their support.

I want to say thank you to the Hoyas in the house for having me back.

(CHEERING)

OBAMA: You know, it was important for me to speak directly to your generation because the decisions that we make now and in the years ahead will have a profound impact on the world that all of you inherit.

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the astronauts of Apollo 8, did a live broadcast from lunar orbit -- Frank Borman (ph), Jim Lavelle (ph), William Anders. The first humans to orbit the moon described what they saw and read scripture from the book of Genesis to the rest of us back here. Later that night, they took a photo that would change the way we see and think about our world. It was an image of earth -- beautiful, breathtaking, a glowing marble of blue oceans and green forests and brown mountains rising over the surface of the moon. While the sight of our planet from space might seem routine today, imagine what it looked like to those of us seeing our home, our planet for the first time. Imagine what it looked like to children like me. Even the astronauts were amazed. It makes you realize just what you have back there on earth.

Around the same time, we began exploring space. Scientists were studying changes taking place in earth's atmosphere. Scientists had known since the 1800s that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap heat and burning fossil fuels release them into the atmosphere. That wasn't news. In the late 1950s, the National Weather Service began measuring the levels in our atmosphere with the worry that rising levels may disrupt the balance that makes our planet so hospitable. What they found year after year is that the levels of carbon pollution in our atmosphere have increased dramatically. That science accumulated and, reviewed over decades, tells us that our planet is changing in ways that will have profound impacts on all of human kind.

The 12 warmest years in recorded history have all come in the last 15 years. Last year, temperatures in some areas of the ocean reached record highs. Ice in the Arctic shrank to its smallest size on record most than models predicted it would. These are facts. We know that no single weather event is caused solely by climate change. Droughts and fires and floods go back to ancient times, but we also know that in a world that's warmer than it used to be all weather events are affected by a warming planet. The fact that sea level in New York, in New York Harbor are now a foot higher than a century ago, that didn't cause Hurricane Sandy but it contributed to the destruction that left large parts of our mightiest city dark and under water.

The potential impacts go beyond rising sea levels here at home. 2012 was the warmest year in our history. Midwest farms were parched by the worst drought since the Dust Bowl and drenched by the wettest spring on record. Western wildfires scorched an area larger than the state of Maryland. And we know that the costs of these events can be measured in lost lives and lost livelihoods, lost homes, lost businesses, hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency dollars and disaster relief. In fact, those who are already feeling the effects of climate change don't have time to deny it. They're busy dealing with it. Firefighters are braving longer wildfire seasons, and state and federal government have to figure out to how to budget for it. I had to sit down in a meeting with the Department of Interior and Agriculture and the rest of my team to figure out how we're going to pay for more and more expensive fire seasons. Farmer seed crops wilted one year, washed away the next, and higher food prices get passed on to you, the American consumer. Mountain communities worry about what smaller snow packs will mean for tourism. And then families at the bottom of the mountains wonder what it will mean for their drinking water. Americans across the country are already paying the price of inaction in insurance premiums, state and local taxes, and the cost of rebuilding and disaster relief.

The question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science, of chemistry and physics and millions of measurements, has put all that to rest. 97 percent of scientists, including, by the way some, who originally disputed the data, have already put that to rest. They've acknowledged the climate is warming and humans are contributing to it. The question now is, will we have the courage to act before it's too late. And how we answer will have a profound impact on the world that we leave behind not just to you but to your children and grandchildren. As a president, as a father, and as an American, I'm here to say we need to act.

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: All right. So the president making a major, major address on climate change.

I want to bring in Jim Acosta.

The president's got some important news he's about to release in this prepared speech as well, Jim. Update our viewers.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. As you know, the Keystone Pipeline has been a lot of controversy for the White House for several months. Repeatedly, the White House has said they're going to leave it up to the State Department's determination as to whether or not it's going to be approved. But apparently, we're going to hear it in a speech -- we're hearing it right now, but he is going to talk about it. He's going to say that pipeline should only be approved -- and this is according to a White House official -- only if there are no net increases in greenhouse gases. And so that determination will have to be made by environmental officials, but that is some news we're going to be hearing in this speech.

And a lot of people were looking at this address the president was giving it at Georgetown beforehand and wondering, is he going to touch on the Keystone Pipeline. That was a briefing administration officials gave, a fact sheet they put out. It now seems he will be touching on that project and saying that it should only be approved if no new net greenhouse gases increases would result from the project.

You know, there's a lot of other news surrounding this speech. The Republicans are going on the attack on the president's speech on climate change right now because of a comment made by one of the president's climate advisers who said in an interview with "The New York Times" that there should be a war on coal. The White House responding, basically, saying they're supporters of the coal industry. But even though a lot of people thought it was going to be a sleepy, un-noticed speech by the president, it is starting to generate some controversy this afternoon -- Wolf?

BLITZER: They've been studying the Keystone Pipeline for years, Jim, and there's still no final decision or recommendation. When do we expect a final decision by the Obama administration whether to go forward and build it from Canada through the United States down to the state of Mexico, creating a lot of jobs, out through the United States, down to the Gulf of Mexico. When do we expect a final decision?

ACOSTA: You know, it's been thought all along, Wolf, that that decision would come down sometime in the fall, but a lot of environmentalists, a lot of conservative groups have not been waiting. They've been pouncing on this controversy to hammer the White House. Environmentalists, I saw them up at the Ed Markey event a couple of weeks ago when President Obama was up there calling on the president to reject the Keystone project. This is going to be a disappointment to the people on the left who would like to see the project completely struck down, and the people on the right who want to see the president approve this project right away.

He seems to be trying to thread the needle here and trying to find middle ground in terms of an approach, but expect this to generate a lot of headlines as we head out through the afternoon -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Obviously, a very important speech of the president, a very sensitive issue, the future of the Keystone pipeline.

Jim Acosta, thanks very much for that report.

By the way, if you want to continue watching the president's speech, go to CNN.com.

We'll be right back.

OBAMA: -- and a plan to lead --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: They're celebrating in Chicago today. Here's why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

ANNOUNCER: Now the Rays.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo! Whoo!

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champions. They scored two goals in the span of 17 seconds at the end of the game to beat Boston, 3-2. It's the second time they've won the Stanley Cup in four year. The Stanley Cup parade will be held Friday in Chicago.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. in "The Situation Room." Then at 6:00 p.m. eastern, we'll have a special one-hour look at Edward Snowden's trail.

NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf Blitzer, thank you so much.

Good to be with you on this Tuesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Where do we begin today? With the world's most-wanted man, Edward Snowden, who's in no-man's land in Russia. Edward Snowden is in what they're calling the transit zone in Moscow. That's where he landed after flying from Hong Kong where he initially escaped to. Passengers reportedly spotted him on the flight. But somehow, Snowden never made it Terminal F as the others did. It is not clear where he went after landing. But Russia --