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Experts Predict Record Campaign Spending; Passenger in Walter Scott's Car Speaks Out; Volunteer Deputy Charged with Manslaughter. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 14, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[10:29:46] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton is busy, too. Her fund-raising goal: $2.5 billion. And she has no serious contender in the Democratic primary, at least not yet.

So, let's talk about the money.

Tara Setmayer, who is a Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, is here and so is David Gergen who was former adviser to four presidents and a CNN senior political analyst. Welcome to both of you.

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: So $2.5 billion. Remember back in the day when they only had to raise $1 billion.

SETMAYER: Yes, you know, what happened to the good old days? That's actually more money than Mitt Romney and Obama's campaigns in 2012 combined. So that's an exorbitant amount of money which I think is an interesting juxtaposition considering that Hillary's mantra this go around again is that she wants to be a champion of the middle class.

Yet we're talking about billions and billions of dollars and for her to put that money out there, that's a lot of money. But on the flip side of it, we talk about the money in politics and billionaires with a b -- there's no strangers in the Democratic Party, the billionaires. Nine of the Forbes top billionaires donated to Obama's Priority U.S.A., which is his main PAC, you know.

I'm sure if you went down Hillary Clinton's call list, you would see there's quite a few number of billionaires and their spouses on there where she's getting money from. So I mean the idea -- I hope that we have a balanced discussion at least about where the money is coming from on both sides because believe me, the champion of the middle class has no problem getting money from billionaires too.

COSTELLO: I do have a comment from her chief fund-raiser and I'm going to find it while you answer this question David Gergen. Does Hillary Clinton really need $2.5 billion? I mean so far there's no serious contender in the Democratic primary. There may be -- right? But why $2.5 billion? GERGEN: On the face of things, no. The last time around Barack

Obama in running for re-election when he did not have an opponent basically for the nomination, he spent about $1.1 billion. So this is a big escalation.

On the other hand, we're in an arms race, like a military arms race. One side escalates; the other side feels it has to escalate. The Koch Brothers made it clear way back when they're going to put a billion dollars into the Republican side. So she's got at least to match that. Eventually she's going to think about other things. And she has her own array as Tara said -- she's got other people like the Walton family or the George Soros -- you can go down the list of people she has with her supporters.

COSTELLO: Is this the time candidates sort of lobby billionaires for money? Is that an added part of their job?

GERGEN: Yes, exactly.

SETMAYER: They're always lobbying billionaires for money.

GERGEN: Don't you think that when Hillary was in that car going across this strange, weird trip across Pennsylvania when she wasn't talking to voters, she was probably calling donors, don't you think?

SETMAYER: Of course.

GERGEN: Don't think as though she spends her time --

SETMAYER: Listen, we've all worked on campaigns. That's exactly what happens. Particularly I'm sure that was one of the selling points with whoever came up with the cockamamie idea to drive her across the country. At least I can spend plenty of time fund-raising. I mean this is just the reality of --

COSTELLO: Well, it's not such a bad idea.

SETMAYER: Well, yes, depends on how you look at it. I still haven't seen any -- you know, the optics of it I think are horrible and almost laughable. I mean people are already making fun of it. We're even laughing at this like Come on. Hillary Clinton, the one who gets $250,000 per speech who has riders on her contracts and she has to be in a private jet paid for by corporate donors or, you know, big-time billionaires. She's champion of the middle class driving across country in a Scooby-Doo van stopping at Chipotle. Come on -- I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. Ridiculous.

GERGEN: Yes. Typically we do think that one party is having a big advantage over the other. They're probably going to be pretty close together on this, just as they were in 2012. There's only about $100 million difference -- Romney's got 1.2 billion; Obama's got 1.1 billion -- wasn't much difference, they're pretty much the same.

Who wins in this situation are the special interests. The candidates become beholden to considerable (inaudible) -- there's this much money flowing, you have to pay attention to who these people are and what their interests are on both sides.

COSTELLO: So it's not actually good for the country.

GERGEN: That's what a lot of voters complain about. It's in the hands of special interest.

SETMAYER: And as long as there's full disclosure, I think that that is -- it goes to David's point about we know who is giving this money so that when you see like Tom Steier, for example --

COSTELLO: -- just run right alongside the candidate.

GERGEN: We're not going to know all. We're not going to know who --

SETMAYER: True but you look at Tom Steier who was billionaire who that gave $100 million and he's a strong leftist environmentalist who basically told the Obamas and Democrats, listen, this is the agenda I want which is partially responsible for why Keystone Pipeline was killed and why Obama was so stubborn on this. So there's an example of where you have special interest policy and it directly influences policies.

COSTELLO: Well, the other thing I think that billionaire's money does is it keep candidates in the race longer than they should be in the race right like Rick Santorum is a good example of that.

GERGEN: That was certainly true -- Santorum but especially Newt Gingrich last time around. It would have been very helpful for Romney had Newt dropped aside but he had all that money coming in from one particular donor. And it kept him alive a lot longer and extended this. We're already into -- this is going to be an extraordinarily long campaign. It's going to feel like a long campaign. 573 days until Election Day -- 573. Can you believe it?

SETMAYER: With every medium possible for us to see every aspect of what candidates are doing including their menus. But money isn't the only thing here. We can go back to '96 even where Bill Graham, he was the most well financed candidate. And what happened to him in '96, he didn't even win the nomination. You can always go back to 1980, Ronald Reagan was not the highest financed candidate either yet he won.

[10:35:03] So money isn't the only issue; messaging is very important. No matter how much money Hillary Clinton has or spends on consultants to try to change her image and make her likable, she's got to have messaging and people need authenticity.

COSTELLO: Stays on message.

SETMAYER: That's what campaign people --

COSTELLO: David -- thanks.

GERGEN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, who was in Walter Scott's car? Huge mystery now revealed after that deadly shooting in South Carolina. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: "He didn't deserve to die" -- words from the man who was in the car with Walter Scott moments before a cop shot and killed Scott after a traffic stop in South Carolina. In a statement to the "Post and Courier" newspaper, Pierre Fulton called Scott a dear friend but admits he doesn't know what made him run. CNN's Nick Valencia is in North Charleston with more. Good morning.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol. For the first time publicly as you mentioned, we're hearing from that mystery passenger who was in the car with Walter Scott the day that he was shot and killed. Pierre Fulton in a statement obtained since by CNN talks about his friend Walter saying, "He was a dear friend and I miss him every day. Over the past five years he helped me become a better man and showed me the value of hard work. I'll never know why he ran but I know he didn't deserve to die." So many here commenting in the community. Those I've spoken to here say they are still healing, still grieving and earlier today I spoke with a prominent civil rights professor from the College of Charleston and I asked him how the community is getting by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:40:03] JON HALE, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON: The community would certainly -- the community certainly appreciates that Officer Slager was charged with murder within hours of the release of the video. However, at the same time, you see anger over this because it took a video in order to prompt the murder charge. And without that video, you see this pattern repeating itself of one of blaming the victim, dehumanizing the victim and only seeing the official police version as the story that is reported in the press.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: We've seen demonstrations continue here, people calling it a culture of indifference between the African-American community and the police department here saying there is discrepancies in the racial makeup of the North Charleston Police Department which is what contributed to that incident that you say, that so many have seen across the United States.

Meanwhile this case, the investigation ongoing; the South Carolina law enforcement division continuing its investigation. Also weighing in on this, the state solicitor general who said right now based on the evidence, there's not enough for the death penalty. Officer Slager remains behind bars -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Valencia, reporting live from North Charleston this morning. In another deadly police shooting, this time in Oklahoma. A

reserve deputy is facing manslaughter charges after gunning down a man during an undercover sting. Robert Bates is set to turn himself into authorities today. Bates says it was an accident. He intended to Tase the victim, Eric Harris, but mistakenly drew his gun.

That's little consolation to Harris' family. His brother and the family's attorney spoke with CNN's "NEW DAY".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRE HARRIS, BROTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: I was very pleased that the D.A. pressed charges against this individual and I'm hoping to see more justice in this case.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: Dan Smolen as the attorney for the family, I know that you have questioned why this reserve deputy was involved in this sting operation to begin with. Dan, you have lots of questions about why he was on scene.

DAN SMOLEN, ATTORNEY FOR ERIC HARRIS' FAMILY: Well, absolutely. I mean I think the country now has seen a system where you've got wealthy individuals with little to no training allowed to participate in a highly dangerous situation. It's dangerous not only to citizens on the streets but it's dangerous to fellow officers.

PEREIRA: His attorney maintains that he was cleet certified and cleet trained and certified essentially security officers and peace officers. This is not the same standard that police officers are trained with.

SMOLEN: Well, you know, cleet certification is completely different than field training, which is what a standard deputy is going to have. Hundreds of hours and then thousands of hours field training. I've not seen any field training records for Mr. Bates. They produced some cleet summary training records; again, completely different than the training records that are being referenced by the Tulsa County Sheriff's office.

PEREIRA: Andre, I want to read the official statement from the reserve deputy. I don't know if you had a chance to see it. It says, quote "My intention was to deploy a less lethal device of Taser to end struggle and resistance by Harris and remove the threat posed by Harris possibly being armed with a deadly weapon. "I never intended at that moment to use deadly force. I believe that I was acting appropriately and in a reasonable manner."

Does it feel appropriate to you or do you or your family feel that he was intentionally shot?

HARRIS: Yes. It was a situation where I didn't necessarily think that a Taser should even be used. As you see the footage, there was three or four maybe even five people on him. We haven't seen the whole tape. Not exactly sure how many people were on him.

But there was enough people on top of my brother, knees in his head, to not even have to use a Taser. For it to be that many people around him and him go to use a Taser, really didn't make any sense and then with the Taser being yellow and on his chest, for him to shoot my brother with a .357 makes no sense to me and I think it was overkill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:48:20] COSTELLO: One year ago today, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped nearly 300 students from a girls school in Nigeria spawning a global outcry in the #bringourgirlsback. But after a year of outrage and promises from Nigeria's president-elect to fight Boko Haram, many of those girls are still missing, their fates unknown.

CNN's Christian Purefoy joins me now from Nigeria with more on this. Good morning.

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, campaigners have gone -- well, they've gone every day for one year since those girls went missing at Unity Fountain here in Abuja, Nigeria to protest: bring back our girls. There is anger but also determination. Also shock really amongst the campaigners that this has been going on so long.

We spoke to a former education minister and one of the head campaigners. Here's what she had to say -- Carol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBIAGELI EZEKWESLLI, FORMER EDUCATION MINISTER: There's no closure. There's no closure. 219 young women that went to be educated cannot simply vanish into the atmospheric and then the whole world just moves on when as a matter of fact terrorists did show that they are with our girls. No, there's no closure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PUREFOY: Now, we've heard rumors that, you know, some of the girls have been married off as sex slaves to the terrorist group Boko Haram fighters. Some of them may have been killed in the recent military offensive against that group.

[10:49:58] But to be totally honest, Carol, nobody has any idea where these girls are and what's happened. The campaigners we also speak to say they are determined to sit this one out and they will come back every day until those girls are brought back alive -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Some of these young girls managed to escape their captors. How are they coping?

PUREFOY: yes. Very shortly after they were captured, about 50 or so girls managed to get off the truck when it broke down and flee. They were then sort of begun to be reintegrated back into society. Some of them are actually at an American school in the area in that northeastern area of Nigeria. Some of them are even in America.

But it's the trauma that these girls have to deal with for the rest of their life. As much as it's a personal journey they've been through, it's also a group journey. They may have got away. They may be alive. They don't know what has happened to their friends, sisters, that were still out there kidnapped by Boko Haram -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Christian Purefoy, many things to you. We're going to go back to Oklahoma -- actually we're going to check our top stories. It's 51 minutes past the hour.

The suspect in a deadly shooting at a North Carolina community college is now in custody. Police say Kenneth Stanza was found sleeping on a Florida beach overnight more than 500 miles away from where yesterday's shooting took place. One person was killed in the incident. Police say a motive is unknown.

At least eight people are dead in Somalia after terrorists stormed a government building. Al Shabaab is already claiming responsibility for that attack. Militants reportedly detonated car bombs outside the education ministry and then forced their way inside where they opened fire. A police captain said the attackers were dead.

And U.S. Marine corps captain Katy Higgins always dreamed of flying with the Blue Angels. Now she's done just that. Higgins became the first ever female to sit in the cockpit during a Blue Angels Show. She first earned her wings in 2011 and has flown almost 400 hours in combat.

All right. Are we going to head out to Tulsa, Oklahoma right now? This reserve deputy, Mr. Bates has now turned himself into authorities. I think he's charged with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of a suspect. You saw that terrible video, I don't know just about a half hour ago on our show where there was a sting going down. Police moved in to arrest a suspect. They had wrestled him to the ground. This 73-year-old reserve deputy pulled what he thought was his Taser ready to Taser this suspect and then he inadvertently -- he says he inadvertently reached for his gun instead and shot the suspect and the suspect later died.

Ed Lavandera is on the scene in Tulsa, Oklahoma with more on this. Tell us more -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol.

Well, Robert Bates as you see in this video just arrived here at the sheriff's department in Tulsa to turn himself in. He arrived with his attorneys. We asked him if he wanted to make any comments. His attorneys asked us to wait a little bit. They said that they wanted to go inside and take care of what they needed to take care of. So it remains to be seen whether or not Mr. Bates will make any sort of public comment after he has been booked in here to the sheriff's department. The very department where he has spent the last seven years volunteering as a reserve deputy and volunteering more than 1,000 hours.

As he walked in he seemed -- it's the first time I ever had seen him face to face, he appeared rather subdued as he walked in quietly inside the sheriff's department here. We anticipate not exactly sure how long this process will take for him to complete getting booked in on these charges of second-degree manslaughter, Carol. It appears that there might be some sort of statement by either his attorneys or Mr. Bates himself might make after they wrap up their business inside the sheriff's department here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Ed Lavandera reporting live from Tulsa, Oklahoma this morning.

I'll be right back.

[10:54:52] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Picking up other people's trash may sound like a thankless job but in the newest episode of "SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT" Mike Rowe meets a man who has people flocking to join him in that effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROWE, CNN HOST: Well, 80,000 volunteered since 1998. That's who-- but of course, they wouldn't be here if Chad weren't so inspirational.

Does that make you feel good?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?

ROWE: Just looking at a bunch of people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great. It's the best. Well, honestly like, I think of cops and judges and stuff. I kind of feel like they see some of America's worst and I feel like I see a lot of America's best, you know? All right. We can get this now.

ROWE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice.

ROWE: So far the jolliest garbage men on planet earth have gathered an astonishing amount of assorted detritus humans have dumped into this river.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the fun part.

ROWE: Not sure how I assumed this particular position.

However, we're still being held hostage by an extreme bloody do- gooder on a quixotic mission.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we going to meet our quota today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. ROWE: What's the quota?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That's so awesome, isn't it. You can see more this Thursday on "SOMEBODY'S GOTTA TO DO IT", that's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me today.

"AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND BOLDUAN" starts now.

[11:00:07] JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right so whatever happened to this guy. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie -- once a Republican front liner --