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McCain: Trump Owes Military Families an Apology; U.S. and Cuba Reopen Embassies; Gunman's Writings were Anti-U.S., Suicidal; Four Women Killed by Alleged Drunk Driver. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 20, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:15] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Is Trump toast? He's not apologizing but that's Trump. That's his brand, no apologies, no surrender. In fact, he wrote on op-ed in "U.S.A. Today" titled quote, "I don't need to be lectured."

Let's review. This is what Trump said of Senator John McCain, who was shot down, captured, tortured and refused an early release during the Vietnam War.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's not a war hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero. He's a war hero. Five and a half years as a POW --

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you hear that.

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. OK? You can have -- and I believe perhaps he's a war hero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Earlier today Senator John McCain weighed in on the controversy and said this on MSNBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: When Mr. Trump said that he prefers to be with people who were not captured, well, the great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes. I'm not a hero, but those who were my senior ranking officers, people like Colonel Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, and those that inspired us to do things that we otherwise wouldn't have been capable of doing -- those are the people that I think he owes an apology to.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: So let's talk about this. With me now CNN political

commentators Marc Lamont Hill and Margaret Hoover. Welcome to both of you. I appreciate you being here.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

COSTELLO: OK. So Donald Trump disrespected a veteran. Usually that's the death knell. Will it be for Trump, Marc? Is it a turning point.

HILL: That question presumes that the death knell hadn't already sounded weeks ago. I mean his candidacy is not a legitimate one to the extent that --

COSTELLO: He's leading in the polls.

HILLS: -- to the extent that I don't think he can win. I respect him as a candidate. I disagree with people who like put him on the entertainment page instead of the politics page. I'm saying he's a real candidate but I don't think he's viable long term simply because I don't think the voters will support that.

But this absolutely ends it because now you have prominent Republican honchos saying "Hey wait a minute, this is too far." He didn't just disrespect one veteran -- he disrespected all veterans.

COSTELLO: Margaret, what do you think?

HOOVER: You know what -- here is the problem -- Carol. And this is what is so upsetting. There are still too many on the right -- both conservative elites and Republican presidential candidates -- who are not willing to distance themselves from Trump's comments. And what the right needs right now is its sister souljah moment with Donald Trump.

If you remember the sister souljah moment with Bill Clinton famously in 1992 distanced himself from extremist comments on the far left. This is what the Republican Party needs, every single candidate. And it's unfortunate that you have Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee still unwilling to disassociate themselves from Donald Trump's comments because he still has gravity in the polls. And they know that he's going to flame out, but they hope that they will solidify his base of support once he does fully flame out. And it's shocking that, frankly, this hasn't caused the flame out yet.

COSTELLO: Well --

HILL: The week is still young. I think it's going to happen this week. I do.

COSTELLO: Jeb Bush is in Tallahassee at a campaign event and did he sort of, kind of bring up Trump. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Pentagon's acquisition system is so swamped with regulations only a handful of giant defense contractors can actually compete for the larger contracts. That's why I support initiatives by the respective chairman of the Senate and House Armed Services committees -- John McCain, a real hero, by the way --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So he said it, but he didn't really say it. He didn't come out and say Donald Trump, you're wrong. John McCain is a war hero. He sort of talked around it, right?

HOOVER: Yes.

COSTELLO: And it was so complicated at the beginning of his statement the voters were probably saying what?

HILL: Yes. I don't think Jeb Bush feels like he needs to respond. I'm not saying he shouldn't but I think he feels like he might not need to. He wants to be above the fray. He wants to look presidential like he doesn't have time for the side show.

He acknowledges it so that he can't say he didn't weigh in but at the same time he doesn't want to dig into it. I think it's those second tier candidates who really are speaking out hard because they want to gain some traction. I think that they're the ones are like --

HOOVER: I think you're right.

COSTELLO: That's what Donald Trump would say.

HILL: -- hey we want Trump to leave.

HOOVER: Well, and I think you're right. I think -- I mean Jeb is in it to win it. He's going to be in for the duration whether he gets the nomination or not. So I think he feels like he doesn't need to dignify the comments with a response.

But I still maintain it is time for the Republican Party to draw the line in the sand. If there's ever a time for red lines, it is now. This is -- I mean, it's just crazy we're even talking about it. That Trump has gotten this much air time on television.

I mean this man -- nobody has ever as a civilian been elected to the presidency without having been elected to other office with the one exception of Herbert Hoover who served in the presidential cabinets of both Democrats and Republicans for a decade beforehand. This is absurd.

COSTELLO: But Trump is so rich and he has so much money.

Here is the reason though that I think -- I'm just kidding -- here is the reason I think that Donald Trump appeals to his supporters. [10:35:04] There was a rally over the weekend, right, and it was

a liberal gathering and Martin O'Malley who is a Democrat and running for president, he was talking about mistreatment of African-Americans at the hands of police, and he said -- he was booed after saying all lives matter, and I just want to play you that moment so you can hear it for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Every life matters and that is why this issue is so important. Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter. Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We're going to comment on now what happened to Martin O'Malley in just a second. But there's a historical moment happening right now in Cuba so let's go there because the American embassy there, the flag is being raised once again.

Is this in Cuba or Washington?

HOOVER: D.C.

COSTELLO: All right. This is the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., and Cuba's foreign minister was in town to, of course, raise the Cuban flag. You can see there's a lot of cheering and singing and applause. At the very same time in Cuba an American embassy was reopened.

As you know, President Obama normalized relations with Cuba, and this is such a historical moment, and Margaret, let's just pause from our Donald Trump conversation --

HOOVER: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: -- to comment on this.

HOOVER: You know, I think what's interesting here is that, you know, now we have a formal diplomatic representation both in Cuba and the United States, but what is unfortunate to me and I think it should be unfortunate to free people everywhere is three things didn't happen in this negotiation. What should have happened is all Cuba's political prisoners should have been released. Cuba should have free and fair elections and Cuba should have a free and fair press, an open press.

These are the demarcations of an open society and none of those -- and a free society -- and none of those prerequisites were met or even pushed by the Obama administration before this changing of the relationship. And that to me is deeply unfortunate.

HILL: Well one, we haven't fully normalized relationships with Cuba yet. So we have a long way to go and I think --

HOOVER: That's true. Thank God for the congress because if the embargo weren't still in place that the congress owns --

HILL: That's exactly the problem. I think the American logic which has become almost singular globally is that somehow we can withhold goods, resources, and economic possibilities from the Cuban people and so they have the kind of government that we (INAUDIBLE). I mean we don't have that barrier or requirement for Saudi Arabia. We don't have a range of nations who have far more human rights abuses.

HOOVER: But we have very specific history with Cuba and that specific history is tied up in the Cold War and it's -- it's not about -- the embargo wasn't ever about just ending communism. They were a satellite state of the USSR and the fact is there are political prisoners rotting in jail because of Fidel and we did nothing about them when we loosened the relation.

HILL: I agree with you about political prisoners but America has political prisoners too. All nations have political prisoners --

HOOVER: The United States does not have political prisoners that go into jail without any free or fair trial. They are rotting in Cuban prisons right now.

HILL: We are in agreement on the political prisoner question but that's a much more complicated set of relations that we have to develop.

[10:40:01] But what's happened over the last 30 years since the special period began, after the fall of the Soviet bloc has been essentially that Cuban people, the most vulnerable of the people who we're ostensibly trying to protect have been the most punished by not the embargo but the blockade --

HOOVER: They have been the most punished by their dictatorial regime --

HILL: No --

HOOVER: Not by the United States embargo.

HILL: By us isolating Cuba.

COSTELLO: We're going to have to end it there. But thank you so much.

You can see the flag being raised at the Cuban embassy in D.C. and an American embassy re-opened in Cuba, so -- the march is on.

HILL: It's a start.

COSTELLO: All right. Marc Lamont Hill, Margaret Hoover -- thanks to both of you.

Could mental illness have made the Chattanooga gunman the perfect recruit for extremists? I'll talk to a psychologist about how depression could have played a role in turning to violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:44:55] COSTELLO: We have new developments to report in last week's shooting rampage at those military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Just about an hour ago, we learned that investigators have recovered writings of the gunman, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. A source says they date back over a year and reveal the anger and torment that were already taking hold.

U.S. investigators are also looking to Abdulazeez's mental state before he opened fire on those military facilities. His family claims he was bipolar. He was taking drugs and he was confused.

And just this morning CNN learned that writings that have been uncovered are consistent with someone having suicidal thoughts. The writings which date back to over a year ago include dissatisfaction with U.S. policy in the war on terror and other U.S. -- anti-U.S. sentiment.

Dr. Jeff Gardere is a psychologist. He deals with these matters. Welcome Dr. Jeff.

DR. JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Always a pleasure. Thank you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here.

So when people say that the writings revealed suicidal tendencies -- what does that mean?

GARDERE: Well, it basically says that there were certain things that he was verbalizing or thinking about where he didn't want to live. We know allegedly there were some issue with depression and noncompliance with his antidepressants or anti-anxiety. We're now hearing maybe he was bipolar.

Did this particular attack happen when he was in a manic state and not being, of course, given his medication or taking his medication. So we know that this may, this may play a role in these horrific attacks.

COSTELLO: So ABC first uncovered these writings. I just want to read what ABC had to say about them. They say, ABC says "A diary belonging to the gunman and FBI interviews with his parents paint a picture of a disturbed suicidal young man using drugs, preparing for bankruptcy, and facing an appearance in criminal court. And then supposedly four days -- I'm sorry, supposedly, like he's due to appear in court very soon for DUI. That was supposed to happen like in a couple of days.

Supposedly he was having so much trouble with his job and with these suicidal thoughts and with his depression and maybe bipolar that they sent him to Jordan to like try to help him get over this so he could spend time with family members there. Perhaps that was the completely wrong thing to do.

GARDERE: Well, perhaps the intent was the right thing, but the actual move, the action in itself I believe when you're dealing with issues of feeling victimized, disenfranchised, he had some of those thoughts, being perhaps depressed or bipolar. All of those things perhaps may have put him at risk for being radicalized.

And we see that with ISIS and other terror groups, that they take people who are having these emotional issues, who are having issues with their families, who are not happy, who are disenfranchised as I said and actually are able to turn them.

COSTELLO: So what should these parents have done? I mean it's hard -- I know that it's a difficult one.

GARDERE: It's very hard to say, and this is what I can tell you. When you're dealing with a child, and perhaps, you know, we're talking --

COSTELLO: He's 24.

GARDERE: Yes, 24, but he's still a child to his parents. But when you're dealing with someone in your family who has mental health issues and they're not compliant on their medications, not compliant with their therapy, when you're that young it's so hard to not want to have that stigma. And, therefore, for parents -- and I work with parents all the time, Carol -- who are literally pulling their hair out because they can't get their kids to stay in treatment and to get help and to stay on the medications. A lot of these medications have some severe side effects, so these kids stay off of it.

So that's really the issue here. So we can point fingers at everyone. We can point fingers at the parents, and allegedly there were some issues with domestic violence in the home. Perhaps that had a role. We don't know at this point.

But if we blame the parents, then we can blame a whole lot of parents for what we see that the kids do. At the end of the day it really does come down to the individual and their being compliant on getting help.

COSTELLO: All right, Dr. Jeff Gardere, thanks so much. I appreciate your insight.

GARDERE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a deadly limousine crash on a day meant for celebration.

[10:49:14] We'll talk about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This is some great news for parents. You paid up big time for junior's college last year -- 16 percent more. It is the first time in five years the cost of college has risen. The total bill was more than $24,000 on average. That's for tuition, room and board, and other college-related costs. One reason parents are willing to now pay more? Parents have more confidence in the economy than in the past few years.

We turn now to a deadly limousine crash that killed four women in New York over the weekend. The women were leaving a winery inside this limousine when it was struck by a pickup truck. The driver of that red truck is believed to have been drinking and driving. Antoinette Biordi (ph) from News 12 Long Island has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTOINETTE BIORDI, NEWS 12 LONG ISLAND: The Suffolk D.A.'s office says they've have arraigned Steven Romeo at his bedside here at eastern Long Island hospital in Green Port. The D.A. says Romeo was the driver of the pickup truck who allegedly drove drunk and plowed into a limo full of girlfriends out celebrating at an area winery in Cutchogue yesterday.

We spoke with Romeo's attorney. He says his client, who has serious injuries from the accident, pled not guilty to DWI charges.

DAN O'BRIEN, STEVEN ROMEO'S ATTORNEY: The judge was there, bail was set at 500 over $1 million and that's it. OK?

BIORDI: As you could see, flowers were placed in the middle of the intersection where the accident happened. Police say the limo driver was attempting to make a U-turn when the pickup truck slammed into them.

[10:55:09] According to published reports, Romeo, who co-owns Romeo Dimon Marina in Mattatuck (ph) ran from the crash scene right after the accident but police arrested him nearby and charged him with DWI.

ELIZABETH MILLER, SUFFOLK COUNTY ASST. D.A.: At this time we are continuing the investigation and looking into upgrading the charges significantly.

BIORDI: The ADA also says that the group of girls were out celebrating. They were not part of a bachelorette party, but there was a bride-to-be inside the limo. She survived.

Now, the girlfriends, they decided to rent this limousine so they didn't have to have a designated driver. Meantime, Romeo is being held on $500,000 cash, $1 million bond. He'll be back in Southold town court on Friday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Our thanks to Antoinette Biordi for that report. We'll have much more news after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some other top stories for you at 58 minutes past.

Los Angeles police are investigating after a 21-year-old man was found dead in a pool at Demi Moore's home. The incident reportedly happened during a party but neither Moore nor her immediate family were home at the time. The man's death has been ruled an accident.

To Afghanistan where police say eight soldiers were killed after a U.S. air strike hit an Afghan military base in the eastern part of the country. An Afghan official says the two helicopters opened fire despite the outpost being clearly marked. The army says it's aware of the incident and is now investigating.

And former President George H.W. Bush is out of the hospital this morning. As you might remember, he was admitted last week after falling and breaking a bone in his neck. While doctors called the injury significant they do expect president bush to make a full recovery. He's 91 years old. He is the oldest living former president.

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

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Donald Trump digs in. The billionaire refusing to apologize to John McCain for his war hero insult. Well, now Trump is blaming the media and his rivals. McCain is answering Trump.

[11:00:02] Bill Cosby used drugs to seduce women. This time that's not an allegation but an admission straight from Bill Cosby's mouth. Do these revelations about his special encounters then impact the legal cases against him now?

And --