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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Shooting Scare at Navy Yard; Jobless Rate Lowest Since April 2008; Partners Come, Partners Go, Trump Digs In. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 02, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The airlines or private civil suits may also ensue and consumers can take it into their own hands with their counsel.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Mary, thank you so much. Great to see you.

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BOLDUAN: And thank you all for joining us on this very busy day "AT THIS HOUR."

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: LEGAL VIEW with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield, and welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

A sensitive military installation, a nationwide security alert and an all too recent history of deadly violence. All those factors guaranteed that a 911 call from the Washington navy yard reporting sounds similar to gunshots would bring a response like you see on your screen. As you may have seen live a little earlier on CNN, Washington police flooded America's oldest Navy base, locking down the offices, closing down the streets, and searching room by room for a possible shooter who turned out not to exist.

I want to bring in CNN's Joe Johns, who's live at the scene right now. And joining us today from Charleston, South Carolina, CNN law enforcement analyst and former NYPD detective Harry Houck.

Joe Johns, first to you. This all looked very terrifying at first glance, but then in the end it looked very satisfying to see such a massive response. Is this the new normal?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It's the new normal at least around July 4th when there are concerns across the country about international terrorism, Ashleigh. This started around 7:29 Eastern Time when a woman here at the naval yard installation made a call to authorities to report that she thought she heard shots fired. Police, ERT teams from across the matrix of law enforcement in the Washington, D.C., area responded according to plan and began a search.

People inside the installation followed the plans that they've been given. They're all told now if there is an active shooter, as they thought there might have been here, they are to either run or hide or fight depending on the situation. Of course in this situation there were no shots fired. There were no victims. And the only necessity at that time was to run.

Authorities did one search, then they did a secondary search. Nothing found. It did become clear, though, for law enforcement authorities that the call that came in around 7:29 this morning may have been a mistake on the part of the woman who called, but it was not a hoax. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CATHY LANIER, DC METROPOLITAN POLICE: We tell people over and over again, you see something, say something. You don't know what's going on. Don't take things for granted. You know, make that call. So regardless of what it is, an employee thought they heard something of concern, they made a call, that's what we tell people to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Adding to the concern, there were some reports of someone who may have gone over the fence here at the Washington navy yard. Authorities say they have heard those reports. They're not worried about them. The upshot of all of this is that we had an extraordinary fire drill here at the Washington navy yard with no one injured. Authorities think they put all their plans together since the shooting in 2013 and this turned out very well.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, keep that thought for a moment, but don't go away, Joe.

I want to bring in Harry Houck on that - that whole notion of a very important fire drill. And I'll go one further. General Mark Hertling said on CNN a little earlier today that they will be doing something called an after action review, many of the agencies that were involved in today. Effectively polishing the diamond, making sure that this drill was a great drill because it was so unexpected.

But I want you, Harry, if you can, to just extrapolate that out to the coordination of all of the different agencies. We have FBI, federal marshals, ATF, Navy, NCIS, D.C. Metro Police, that is a lot of people at a moment's notice to coordinate.

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, it's great. I think it definitely shows that they were ready for something like this to occur. But what we've got to take a look at here is when officers first respond to an active shooter or a shooting scene, when they first arrive, if there's not shooting going on, we can pretty much know that it's not a terrorist attack unless it's an ambush situation. And if it was an ambush situation, as soon as you arrive, the terrorists would be shooting at you.

Second of all, when they entered the building now, you've probably got to be thinking, like I would, if that was an occurring, that it might be a personal type thinking, somebody shooting somebody because of some personal problems with someone. As soon as you enter a building and the floor where the alleged shooting had occurred, you would smell gunpowder permeating through the air. So that was something I was - always looked for right away. And as soon as you know you didn't smell it, then therefore no shots were probably fired in that section where you were at. But then you've got to stay vigilant and you have got to keep on checking other locations because the caller might not have given you the correct address.

[12:05:11] BANFIELD: So in the response that we are seeing, and it just truly looks like hundreds of responders were out within minutes of that 911 call that came in, assuming the call came in to metro police, how did they coordinate so quickly to get so many different agencies so that they wouldn't be stepping on one another?

HOUCK: Right. What I think what probably had happened is, you know, after the last attack down there, they had coordinated everything with each other at the time so that when something like this had occurred, and especially this week because everybody's on alert for a possible attack Fourth of July weekend. So they were probably extra specially ready for this weekend for something to occur and there was a multiple response. And we've - as we've learned from active shooter incidents in the past, that the police have to respond quickly and they've got to go in directly. They can't sit around and wait, coordinate while people are being killed on the inside. And they've got to go in correctly. I think that this response today (applause), all right. I think they did a great job and let's keep it up.

BANFIELD: And great practice.

Joe Johns, back to you real quickly. I know that you're on the scene of where we're watching these images, but at the same time it wasn't too far away where 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue locked down and quickly. Is that just now standard operating procedure or was there something more to the reason they shut down the whole front promenade area to all tourists?

JOHNS: This looked like standard operating procedure. You referred very much at the top to what we might have to talk about as the new normal in Washington. And the new normal in Washington is that when you have something happening at a government installation like the Washington navy yard, the U.S. Capitol is just down the street and around the corner, so they're going to go into alert and start activating their procedures, their communication systems. The White House is going to have to look at what's going on here as well. So all of these installations are interconnected in that they are government, and you can expect the authority to be on high alert if something happens at any one of these installations in Washington, D.C.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Joe Johns and Harry Houck doing the reporting and analysis for us. Thank you very much to the two of you.

As we get ready to mark America's birthday, there is something else to really celebrate. More jobs. Last month's numbers have come in and it is very good news for job seekers. But what about everybody else? Christine Romans making her way here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:11:03] BANFIELD: Good news from today's jobs report. I want you to take a look at the numbers. The jobless rate is now officially down to 5.3 percent. Largely on the strength of a big number. Nearly a quarter million new jobs were created last month. CNN's business correspondent - chief business correspondent Christine Romans joining me now at the magic wall.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE).

BANFIELD: You know how we always say one month does not a story make.

ROMANS: You're right. You're right.

BANFIELD: So I knew that you would start looking at all of the months.

ROMANS: The trend here really important. Look at this. Over the past year, the unemployment rate steadily declining to 5.3 percent. And that's the lowest since before the crisis. That's what's so incredibly important about that number. You're now back at an unemployment rate that is as low as it was in 2008 before the whole world fell apart.

BANFIELD: So this is just 12 months going to June.

ROMANS: Yes. Yes.

BANFIELD: How does it sort of look - how does it all shake down in that six years of hell we've just been through?

ROMANS: This is the whole thing. Look at that. This is - we're back to this level. Look at how bad. It got to 10 percent, the unemployment rate, Ashleigh. And then it's been coming down, down, down and this trend has been pretty consistent. It's been about two and a half years of steady improvement here. And that's - you know, that's something that is - it's important to note that it has been a long time we have felt like the job market wasn't working for us. But when you look at the numbers, it has been sustained. It's been a healthy market now for more than a year, I would say.

BANFIELD: By the way, how much does this take into account those people we always talked about as, they're still out there but they just gave up looking?

ROMANS: There are discouraged workers. There are also a lot of baby boomers who aren't looking on purpose. We have this big bulge of baby boomers who are leaving the labor market. That's part of it too. It's also young people who aren't getting in or getting in later. So you do have this labor force participation rate, you'll hear people talk about that, that you have fewer people actually engaged in the labor market than ever before and that is true but economists are arguing about what the reasons are.

BANFIELD: Well, because that's -

ROMANS: They say the labor market, where people are in and looking for work, is getting better and better.

BANFIELD: Especially right now when the numbers look great. This is a huge, huge issue for President Obama.

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

BANFIELD: He had a great week last week.

ROMANS: Yes.

BANFIELD: He had a great week - he's having a great month.

ROMANS: Yes.

BANFIELD: Perhaps the best month of his presidency. But you will hear the 2016 Republican candidate talk about that number as not the real number.

ROMANS: Yes, that's right.

BANFIELD: How not real is that number?

ROMANS: So, look, when I look at these numbers and I see something called the under employment rate, that's people who are out of work who are working part time but want to be working full time, are not actively working up to their potential, that number is also at a seven year low. When I look at discouraged workers, that number has been moving lower over the past year. When I look at the long-term unemployed, Ashleigh, a million people, a million people over the last year have left the ranks of the long-term unemployed. So that's important, too.

BANFIELD: That's big.

ROMANS: That's big.

BANFIELD: Yes.

ROMANS: The big trends are going in the right direction.

BANFIELD: And so many people complain, yes, sure, so I got a job but I'm making about 10 percent to 20 percent less than I was when I got dumped six years ago.

ROMANS: Yes.

BANFIELD: What about wages? That's a big problem.

ROMANS: That's a really important - that's a really important point. And a lot of people think the Fed won't start raising interest rates until wages start to creep up. Wages grew about 2 percent year over year in this report. Two percent, that doesn't feel like very much more in your paycheck, does it? But a lot of the other indicators and a lot of CEOs and people who sign those paychecks are telling me they are starting to see wages pick up. So, we want to see that healthy, sustainable job market translate into

higher wages for everyone. You know, you know when - and the low-end wages are rising. States have been raising them. Retailers have been raising them. Walmart, Ikea raising their wages. That should start to filter through into some of these numbers.

BANFIELD: I think I see the topic of your new book. How about that?

Christine Romans, the prolific author, writer, chief business correspondent, mother, I don't know how you do it.

ROMANS: Thank you.

BANFIELD: You're amazing. Thank you, Christine.

ROMANS: Thanks, Ash.

BANFIELD: And, by the way, I want you to stay with CNN because the president is expected to address this. He's going to talk about the jobs report coming up live at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. CNN, of course, will have that live for you.

Other stories we're covering, Donald Trump certainly not one to mince words. He's talking to CNN. People are cutting ties with him left, right and center about his comments regarding Mexican immigrants. Still standing strong in the polls, though, but is this a blip or is it the real thing?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:18:26] BANFIELD: NBC, Univision, Macy's, now the city of New York. The city wants out of the Donald Trump business, it seems. A spokesperson for the mayor says city hall is, quote, "reviewing its contracts" with the real estate mogul/Republican presidential hopeful in light of his outrageously offensive comments about Hispanic immigrants. Trump's company reportedly operates a number of concessions in New York, including a golf course, skating rinks, and they're on city property and there's that whole carousel, too, in Central Park.

At the same time, the cable network Reelz says it's happy to air the Miss USA Pageant, the one that Trump owns half of and which NBC and Univision dumped. Reelz is owned by a family with long ties to conservative causes. Last night, Trump spoke by phone with my CNN colleague, Don Lemon, and I can't even say how much he doubled down. You might even say tripled down, quadrupled down. It might even be quintupled down by now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, ANCHOR, CNN'S "CNN TONIGHT": Let's talk about Mexico. I don't mean to cut you off, but let's talk about Mexico and you did mention NBC not being happy. They cut ties with you yesterday - today because of your comments about Mexican immigrants. Another company -

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Because they're weak. You know what, they cut ties because they're weak. They're weak and it's very sad to see.

LEMON: Who, NBC, you think?

TRUMP: But that's it. Because I'm talking not about Mexico, I'm talking about illegal immigration and it has to be stopped, Don, in this country.

LEMON: OK.

TRUMP: It's killing our country. People are pouring in -

LEMON: Let's talk about Macy's then.

TRUMP: Don, people are pouring over the borders, pouring. We have incredible border patrols. These are incredible people. And they are - they are - they're instructed they can't do anything. People are pouring no the United States. I guess some come from

Mexico, but they come from all over the world. By the way, they come from the Middle East. We don't even know where they come from. And I'm hoping to disappoint (ph) them. And a lot of -

[12:20:18] LEMON: Why did you have to say that they're rapists, though, Donald?

TRUMP: And it's resonating with the voters.

LEMON: Why did you have to say they were rapists, though, Donald?

TRUMP: Who's racist? I didn't say racist.

LEMON: No, rapists. No, no, no, not racist - not racist. No, why did you have to say they were rapists?

TRUMP: Oh, well, if you look at the statistics of people coming - I didn't say about Mexico. I said the illegal immigrants. You look at the statistics on rape, on crime, on everything, coming in illegally into this country, they're mind-boggling. If you go to Fusion, you will see a story about 80 percent of the women coming in - I mean you have to take a look at these stories. And you know who owns Fusion? Univision.

LEMON: Yes.

TRUMP: And it was in "The Huffington Post." I said, let me get some of these articles, because I've heard some horrible things. I - I deal a lot talking with people in the border patrols.

LEMON: Yes.

TRUMP: They're incredible people. They love our country. They're incredible.

LEMON: I want to get some - I want to get some - I want to get some clarification, though.

TRUMP: And they told me (INAUDIBLE) - no, but, Don, all you have to do is go to Fusion and pick up the stories on rape and it's unbelievable when you look at what's going on. So all I'm doing is telling the truth.

LEMON: I've read the - I've read "The Washington Post." I've read the Fusion. I read "The Huffington Post." And that's about women being raped. It's not about criminals coming across the border entering the country.

TRUMP: Well, somebody's doing the raping, Don. I mean, you know, it's - I mean somebody's doing - do you think it's women being raped. Well, who's doing the raping? Who's doing the raping?

LEMON: Yes.

TRUMP: I mean how can you say such a thing? So that's - look, the problem is, you have to stop illegal immigration coming across the border. You have to create a strong border, Don.

LEMON: Yes.

TRUMP: If you don't, we don't have a country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Who's doing the raping? Well, the reporter who actually did the story that he was referring to said it was people in Mexico, not immigrants. So let's be real clear on that. That's just the fact. The story that he based most of his comments on were people in Mexico raping non-Mexican immigrants that had nothing to do with coming across and raping in America. So those are just the facts. Crazy things, those facts.

But he also sat down for an on camera interview with "Entertainment Tonight." And I want to show you a snippet of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They told me they were having pressure. I said, you know what, have your pressure, I'm not doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They did have a petition where hundreds of thousands of people (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: You know what, hundreds of thousands is nothing. I have 5 million people between FaceBook and Twitter. Who knows why they did it? I don't really care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You may recognize that interviewer right here from her CNN days.

NISCHELLE TURNER, "ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT": That smile.

BANFIELD: That gorgeous smile. That brilliant person. Nischelle Turner joining us with your take on what the sit down with Donald -

TURNER: Uh-huh.

BANFIELD: Listen, I just want to go over - because the list gets longer as we speak. I couldn't even build a graphic because things are breaking even as we go to air.

TURNER: Yes.

BANFIELD: You've got NBC Universal, Univision, Macy's, Telavisa, Farouk Systems, Aura TV and now Serta mattresses.

TURNER: Yes.

BANFIELD: They're really starting to drop with a bit more momentum now. Does this matter to him?

TURNER: You know, I don't think it does. I asked him that yesterday. I said, people are pulling out of this pageant like in droves. I said your sponsors are dropping out, performers are dropping out, your judges are dropping out, what do you think about that? And his thing is, I don't really care. There's nothing I can do about it. Because he feels like what he's saying is true. He doesn't care what anybody else thinks. And you know what he looks at more than any of this? He says CNN said I am number two in the polls. I have gone up nine percentage points since May. So somebody must be buying into my message. That's what he looks at.

BANFIELD: Right.

TURNER: Yes.

BANFIELD: And it is true. I mean he does have people who agree -

TURNER: Right.

BANFIELD: With what he's saying. I have to reiterate, it is troublesome that he's citing, you know, Fusion journalism and the reporter who did the journalism is flabbergasted.

TURNER: Right.

BANFIELD: It has nothing to do with people coming into America. It has nothing to do with Mexican immigrants coming into America. It's remarkable.

TURNER: Well, Donald Trump plays the spin game, Ashleigh. You know that better than most people.

BANFIELD: Oh, he's a maestro.

TURNER: So, you know, he will take what he sees as a number and then he will say, listen, this, this, and this, and maybe add a little bit onto it from other things that he hears. But that - he really believes this.

BANFIELD: Look, he's not just spinning numbers, he's spinning who fires who. He's says he dropped Macy's. Macy's says they dropped him.

TURNER: He did tell me that.

BANFIELD: I want to ask you a little bit about the Sigmund Freud-ism (ph) of American because you have these big brand people who make, you know, slip-ups or mess-ups and they might be big mess-ups and they go down in flames and fast and they lose everything. I'm thinking Paula Deen, I'm thinking Brian Williams. And some of these infractions seemed a heck of a lot smaller than the bombastic, trickle down comments that were so painful to so many people like Donald Trump and yet is he sort of going down in those kinds of flames or does he get a pass for some other reason?

[12:25:01] TURNER: You know, I think he gets a pass for a lot of things because people have said for a long time, oh, that's just Donald. You know, that's just how he is.

BANFIELD: But do you want just someone for president?

TURNER: Well, and that's a good question. I asked him that yesterday. I said, people think you're a loose cannon. Are you a loose cannon? And who would want that person to be president with their finger on the button? He told me, I'm not a loose cannon in no way shape or form. In fact, I am probably the most stable person that they want here because I know how to make business deals. We need someone in charge who knows how to deal with these leaders and we wouldn't have to worry about having your finger on the button. So he believes, while other people think, you know, he can go off the rails, and we've seen that, he believes that's not going off the rails. He believe that's straight talk.

BANFIELD: I mean, look, going off the rails, we let him loose, we let his announcement on the day he, you know, announced his candidacy live unedited for an hour.

TURNER: It was good TV, though.

BANFIELD: And somehow we, you know, skewed the message of the rapists, et cetera, because his comments right after were, I've been taken out of context. Message to The Donald, when you're live, it's your context. It's no one else but you, fellow.

TURNER: I think he said because right after he said, I assume some are good people, that he's being -

BANFIELD: That was part of the horror, that some are good people.

TURNER: That he felt like that was cut out.

BANFIELD: I think that was part of - a big part of the horror that just some. I'm sure Jeb Bush's wife, who is Mexican, would qualify.

TURNER: We've got 495 - well, 494 days to go, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: We sure do. And just ask Michele Bachmann about being high in the polls with 400 days to go. TURNER: There you go.

BANFIELD: Nischelle Turner, it's always great to see you. Come back more often, please.

TURNER: Please have me back more often. I will.

BANFIELD: We like to have you back. It's nice to see you, friend. Thank you.

And you can watch more from Nischelle's interview with Trump on "Entertainment Tonight." It's going to air this evening.

So let's review, shall we. Macy's has dumped Trump. NBC - oh, well, he says he dumped Macy's, but whatevs (ph). NBC Universal cutting business ties. Univision canceling its Miss USA broadcast plans. The list is going on. But Trump is just - he's not going to fall on the sword on this one. With all the companies drawing out - dropping out, what do you suppose the brand strategy is at this point? Or is there one?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)