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Trump on Graham; Chattanooga Attack; Baltimore Unrest. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired July 21, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:03] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf, thank you so much.

Great to be with you on this Tuesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN here.

And in 24 hours, Donald Trump has been called a jackass, affectless blowhard, a side show, a distraction with traction. And, well, as we know by now, Donald Trump isn't exactly the kind of guy to let insults go. No. Especially not against his rivals. So, moments ago, the millionaire, who is leading many polls, got personal, including giving out the cell phone number of a sitting United States senator and rival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So Lindsey Graham says to me, please, please, whatever you can do, you know, (INAUDIBLE) I said what's this guy, a beggar? He's like begging me to help him with "Fox and Friends." So I say, OK, and I'll mention your name. He said, could you mention my name? I said, yes, I'll mention - and he gave me his number. And I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don't know if it's the right number. Let's try it, 202-(DELETED). I don't know. Maybe it's - you know, it's three or four years ago, so maybe it's an old number. (DELETED).

I see your senator, what a stiff. What a stiff. Lindsey Graham. By the way - by the way, he's registered zero in the polls. Zero. He's on television all the time. These politicians, they run and they run and they win and sometimes they lose and they keep running. It's all they do is run. Most of them don't know what they're doing. They just run. They like - you know, like you wind them up and they run for office. They don't do anything when they get there. I know them better than anybody.

So they say they didn't like the way that, you know, the little - I'm a little loud. I'm a little too strong. They don't like it. And then I watch this idiot, Lindsey Graham, on television today and he calls me a jackass. He's a jackass.

You know, I built a company. They all said I'd never run. I announced I was going to run. They all said, oh, that's surprising (ph). Well, he'll never file his form papers. That was two weeks ago. On "The Apprentice," can you imagine, they paid me 213 million. So, you know what that means, when I give up "The Apprentice" to run to help you people straighten out this mess that everybody's created, that the politicians and Obama have created, I mean it's very expensive and it's very everything and I don't care.

And this is why I'm angry at John McCain for two reasons. Number one, John McCain, you've got to remember this, he's totally about open borders and all of this stuff. And when I went to Arizona, he called these 15,000 unbelievable people, unbelievable - I know crazies, OK, I know crazies. These were unbelievable American people. And John McCain, who I supported for president - I think I raised him over $1 million and he lost. So he can lose. I don't hold that against him. But I raised him a lot of money. But he called these people crazies. There were so many that had to turn like I think 1,000 or 2,000 away like they did here. I hear they had to turn a lot of people away. Even though they have the (INAUDIBLE) rooms all over the place, they have to turn people away. That's the kind of crowds we're getting.

There's a silent majority out there. We're tired of being pushed around, kicked around and acting and being led by stupid people. They're stupid people. I mean you have a president who can't just say a few words, put the flags at half-mast for the five Marines that were just killed. Why? Why? Why?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Trump attacks there in South Carolina. Not even a day after this moment on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: What he said about John, I think, was offensive. He's becoming a jackass at a time when we need to have a serious debate about the future of the party and the country. And all we're talking about is Donald Trump and everybody he insults. But he's crossed the line here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This as a new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll released him Monday - released Monday puts him high at the top of the Republican field nationwide with, as you can see here, 24 percent. Folks, that is an 11-point lead over his nearest rival. So first up, someone who was in the room there in Bluffton, South Carolina, she is CNN politics report MJ Lee.

Where to begin? I mean you're in the room. Here's Donald Trump giving out not just once but twice the cell phone number of Senator Graham, his rival for the White House. Was this really his personal cell phone number?

[14:05:14] MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: We believe it was, Brooke. Listen, the people who came to this rally were so excited to see this bombastic, unfiltered host of "The Apprentice," and boy did they get what they came for. You played a lot of the sound bite and some of the best sound bites. But even for Donald Trump's standards, this was an especially colorful and, you know, interesting speech where he went after a lot of his fellow Republican candidates. I think he referred to Lindsey Graham as an idiot. He said that Rick Perry likes to wear glasses so that he can look smart. Look, this is not someone who has a filter, even in a public space like this, and I think we really got a sense of why people are going so crazy for Donald Trump and why people want to come here and see him.

Lindsey Graham's campaign manager put out a statement responding to Donald Trump reading out his cell phone number on the stage. I'll read that to you. This is from the campaign manager. He said, "Donald Trump continues to show hourly that he is ill-prepared to be commander in chief. The two people most excited about Donald Trump's candidacy are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Because of Trump's bombastic and ridiculous campaign, we aren't talking about Obama's horrible deal with Iran or Hillary Clinton's plan to continue Obama's failed national security agenda."

So, Brooke, it's only July 2015 and I think the name calling has officially started.

BALDWIN: I'm going to talk to a state representative, get his thoughts on this - these words being thrown around. But let me ask you this. I mean here you are in the deep south. Bluffton, South Carolina. Did you get a chance to talk to any of these constituents after said speech? What do they think of him?

LEE: Yes, I spoke to some people who were here and, look, the people that are excited to see this side of Trump and see this atypical candidate, I think a reminder for Trump is that a lot of people actually were offended by something he recently said. Of course, these are the comments that he made about Senator McCain, questioning whether he was a war hero, questioning his time that he served as a prisoner of war. I talked to a couple of veterans here actually who said, you know, even though I am a supporter of Donald Trump, those comments totally crossed the line.

BALDWIN: MJ Lee, thank you so much, in South Carolina.

Let's continue the discussion. Let me bring in New Hampshire State Representative Stephen Stepanek.

Representative, wonderful to have you on.

STEPHEN STEPANEK (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Thank you so much for having me, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So you have endorsed Donald Trump for president. And as we were just discussing, and you're watching all this back and forth, I mean, sir, words like jackass and idiot are now being hurled between two presidential candidates. It's getting a little childish, would you say?

STEPANEK: Well, I believe that Donald Trump is somebody who is not going to back away from any kind of a fight and I think that's why people are endorsing him and supporting him and getting very excited about him. I was one of the (INAUDIBLE) people to -

BALDWIN: But if we're talking about being the leader of the country, and this goes toward - any of this goes towards, you know, any of these folks running for president, should these words be used?

STEPANEK: Whether the words are used or not, what we need is a leader. And right now we haven't had that. And we need to turn this country around and we need somebody who's going to lead it. And who's not going to take anything from any of our enemies or any of the special interest groups. Donald Trump is somebody who cannot be bought. He is somebody who is going to take this country and turn it around. And that's what we need. And I think you're seeing that resonate with a significant number of people today across the country because -- go ahead.

BALDWIN: No. No, it's clearly resonating. I mean we showed the polls. We can show them again in a second. But on that note, and all this buzz around Donald Trump, you just had Senator Graham say that it's President Obama and Hillary Clinton who, you know, this is the biggest gift for them, the two most exciting people when it comes to Donald Trump. What do you make of that?

STEPANEK: I really don't think that they're going to be very excited if - if and when Donald Trump becomes the nominee because he will be somebody who will not be pushed around. He will say it the way it is. I was asked a while ago and actually by one of your reporters when Donald Trump first announced in New Hampshire as to who Donald Trump would take votes from. And I told them at that time that he'll take votes from a number of different candidates, but what he's going to surprise everybody is the fact that he's going to go out there and he's invigorating people who have given up on politics and people who haven't voted. We had 50 some odd percent of the registered voters in the last presidential election vote. That means a significant number of people are not voting. They've been turned off by politics, as usual.

[14:10:11] Donald Trump is not politics as usual. He is somebody who is going to make things happen. And he's exciting these people.

BALDWIN: He's -

STEPANEK: And he is going to get people who have not - who have not participated in the presidential process in years, he's going to get them involved. He's going to bring them out. And I think he's going to surprise a lot of people, especially the political establishment.

BALDWIN: He is not an ordinary candidate. This is not an ordinary campaign. But here's my question. When we talk about the polls and how he is doing incredibly. But when we have a new wave of polls, you know, that comes out later this week, if the base, if the Republican base rejects those remarks he made about Senator John McCain, are you prepared for that? How will you counter that?

STEPANEK: I believe we will continue to just get out his message, which is, we cannot continue with politics as usual. We cannot continue managing the decline of this great nation. And that's what's happening with the current political establishment. They're managing the decline of this great nation. And Donald Trump is not going to allow that to happen. He's going to turn this nation around and we're just going to keep hammering that message home because that is the message that is resonating with the people of this country. They're sick and tired of what's been going on in Washington. All you have to do is look at how the Congress and the Senate have registered in the polls and they are down into the teens because people don't believe the politicians anymore.

BALDWIN: No, you're right. I've talked to a lot of people -

STEPANEK: And they're sick of the politicians.

BALDWIN: Sure, they're frustrated. Both sides of the aisle, frustrated with Washington. But here - here we are now. You add John Kasich in today. So you have 16 candidates, 16 Republican candidates, you know. New Hampshire, even nationwide, who do you think among the others, who is Donald Trump's biggest challenger?

STEPANEK: Quite frankly, when you look at the entire field, I believe that it's Donald Trump against the politicians. And so there's - there's -

BALDWIN: You've got to give me one name, sir. You can't - give me one name. Who, honestly, who makes you nervous?

STEPANEK: Quite frankly, none of them make me nervous. I think right now at the top of the polls behind Donald Trump is both Governor Walker and Governor Bush. But overall, you know, we're just looking ahead. We're not looking behind. And I don't think any of them are - what we're trying to do is just get the message out that we need to save this country. We need to turn this country around. And that's a message that is resonating with people. And that's the message - it's not us against a particular candidate. It's us against the political establishment and the mess that they've made of this country. And are we going to continue with the political establishment or are we going to take a new course? I've endorsed Donald Trump because I'm going outside the box. I'm sick of politics as usual. And I think that's what's happening with a lot of Americans.

BALDWIN: State Representative Steven Stepanek, I appreciate your perspective. Thanks for joining me.

STEPANEK: Thank you so much for having me, Brooke. I appreciate it.

BALDWIN: You got it. You got it.

Coming up next here on CNN, we have some breaking news here involving that Chattanooga shooter. New evidence now points to the motive of terrorism, including an online search he did just days before the attacks. We have those details for you coming up.

Also ahead, stunning new video shows the exact moment those riots in Baltimore erupted. Hear what police were told during that standoff.

And brand-new information involving how the two inmates escaped from that maximum security prison in upstate New York. We'll speak live with one former inmate who knew them behind bars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:18:18] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We are getting some new information right now in the Chattanooga shooting rampage that left four Marines and a Sailor dead. Our sources tell CNN, investigators have examined the shooter's writings and Internet activity and they discovered that Mohammad Abdulazeez had recently searched the word "martyrdom." Investigators saying this new evidence increasingly points to terrorism as a motive.

So let's go straight to our justice correspondent, Evan Perez, who's been digging into this.

So terrorism, Evan, what more are you learning?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, the search for the word martyrdom actually occurred a day before the shooting, on Wednesday. And so that adds to the evidence that the - that the FBI has been looking at, including some of Abdulazeez's writing that go back to 2013 in which he makes reference to Anwar al-Awlaki, the cleric, the American-Yemeni cleric who was killed in a drone strike and who was - considered by the U.S. to be a leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The writings don't necessarily explain the shooting, but they do point to the fact that the FBI believes Abdulazeez was radicalizing in the last couple of years and finally reached a point in which he carried out these attacks. That one of the things that he seemed to be obsessed about and focused on was whether he could use martyrdom to atone or to make up for some of his sins, including his drug abuse, his alcohol abuse we know that he struggled with. We also know he struggled with mental health issues. And, Brooke, you know, one of the things that it's important to

remember here, the FBI has not reached a firm conclusion on the - on his motive, but they do say that one of the things that they're looking at is simply that, you know, you can't just explain this for mental health issues. There are plenty of people who have mental health problems in this country and they don't carry out attacks like this.

[14:20:08] BALDWIN: Evan Perez, as soon as you get more information, let us know.

PEREZ: Sure.

BALDWIN: As a picture of this puzzle is being filled in. Thank you so much.

Next, we have new video that shows those first moments of those Baltimore riots days and days of unrest that were sparked by the death of Freddie Gray. Now those police officers there on the scene standing by as that CVS burned, but were they just doing what they were told? We have more on that.

Also, video from inside the jail where an African-American woman was found dead in her cell. What that tape could reveal about the way in which she died. Stay here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just released audio and video now shows how outnumbered and underequipped Baltimore Police were in the hours after 25-year-old Freddie Gray was laid to rest. Outrage over Gray's death in police custody sparked riots on April 27th. That was the day of his funeral. Police and the public have criticized why more wasn't done to stop that unrest.

[14:25:16] And now we have city surveillance video. And here it is. And it shows exactly how little officers did on the scene. You see a group of them standing by the CVS, that was really the epicenter of the rioting as it began to smoke and burn. And that is the red brick building right - not here, but you'll see it in a second on the screen, that was the CVS. The video shows police stayed in position by this CVS for more than an hour before moving to block the store's entrance. Last month, two Baltimore police officers who were in the middle of the chaos shared this with me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as the low level officers, like we are, we were told to not engage. When I say not engage, to allow the people to throw whatever items were being thrown at us, and just hold the line. That was the one thing we kept hearing all day, hold the line. So wherever the line moved to, that's what we did.

BALDWIN: What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just stand pat. Hold the line. Don't move. Don't give up any ground. Don't back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold the line! Do not go forward and do not chase them!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're sitting ducks here and there's a couple hundred people here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not going to let my guys get hurt because we have equipment we're not using. Somebody give me (INAUDIBLE) rank.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What we just heard was the police radio that day in that second clip. More than a dozen officers were injured that day. And in the calls, you can really hear the fear some of them shared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need shields down here. We're getting creamed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't proceed (ph). (INAUDIBLE). We don't proceed (ph) (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need a medic. Liberty Heights and Reisterstown (ph). Officer down. I need a medic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got one female officer injured in the bodice (ph). She sustained a head injury and is in and out of consciousness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The two active police officers in Baltimore who did not get permission to speak from their department, so we didn't reveal their faces or names, they corroborated to me, you know, what you saw in that video, in that cold command, hold the line, don't give up any - don't give up any - any space here. They told me that they felt they were forced to violate their oath to protect and serve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were scared.

BALDWIN: You were scared?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: What were you scared of?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting hit with a brick and possibly - I mean, we've seen people in our profession hit with objects and never recover and become vegetables or die.

Your riot helmet, and your riot baton and everything else is inside your vehicle, and you're told not to deploy. And if things get out of hand, then you'll be able to response and get your riot gear and all. Things escalate so fast that, you know, a riot helmet doesn't do an officer any good when it's in his patrol car four blocks away. And because of the public perception -

BALDWIN: The optics of what a baton and a shield and a helmet would look like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They didn't - they didn't want that. They wanted a softer and gentler police department. We took an oath. Every police officer has taken an oath to protect property, to protect life and to serve people. Pretty much we were told to break that out because when you're told to stand down, when you're watching a mob of people destroying somebody's livelihood, destroying, you know, their business, the - you know, people being violated, being assaulted and you're told to stand there helpless -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's talk about this with Miguel Marquez, who was really there from day one covering the riots in Baltimore. You know, and again, these officers - and I know you talked to

officers as well, saying they were frustrated. They were told to hold the line. And had they been able to act quicker, they feel like so much of the destruction would have been prevented.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is something we saw on the Saturday before the riots started. I saw small groups of police officers being swarmed by rioters down at the baseball park on Saturday. This is what caused concern about what was going to happen Friday -- on Monday during Freddie Gray's funeral and after the funeral.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MARQUEZ: The schools had some warning that something was going to happen beforehand and it just spiraled upward until we saw what you see here. It's weird to watch this video that "The Baltimore Sun" got ahold of.

BALDWIN: You were there. You were there at the corner by the CVS.

MARQUEZ: We were standing at that corner for several hours. It started (INAUDIBLE) Mall, just about a mile away, some hours before. Then down by the CVS. And on that day, that was the day of the guy who walked up and punctured the hose right in front. This video ends, that "The Baltimore Sun" got ahold of, ends right at the point where that hose was punctured. Police, their lines were 20 feet away from that hose when that guy walked in and punctured it.

[14:30:08] BALDWIN: So after some of these initial riots, I know Even Perez sat down with Anthony Batts, who is no longer the commissioner of the Baltimore City Police Department.