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2016 White House Race; Road Rage Killing; Missing Florida Teens. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 27, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:05] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf, thank you so much. Great to be with you on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

President Obama, very far removed, of course, from the day to day grind of running for the White House, but even while traveling in Africa, it's clear he's paying very close attention to the race to succeed him because he is now weighing in on comments by Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee, who accused the president of marching Israelis to, quote, "the door of the oven," by signing the nuclear deal with Iran. That Holocaust reference has caused quite a stir far beyond the campaign trail. We'll get into that.

Also, it adds to the raw rhetoric that has characterized the Republican race ever since Donald Trump joined the fray. The president said the nation deserves better.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are I think part of just a general pattern that we've seen that is - would be considered ridiculous if it weren't so sad. I mean we've had a sitting senator call John Kerry Pontius Pilot. We've had a sitting senator, who also happens to be running for president, suggest that I'm the leading state sponsor of terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Jeremy Diamond joins me now. He's a reporter for CNN politics. And along with him I have CNN's senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson.

So welcome to both of you.

And let's begin with the, you know, Mike Huckabee, he's standing by his remarks, you know, and why wouldn't he? He's a Republican. And when you get called out, Jeremy Diamond, by name by the president, I have to imagine that this is a bit of a badge of honor when it comes to your base, yes?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. Well, I think he's certainly getting what he hoped to get out of these comments, which is he's grabbing headlines, he's drawing fire from the president, who's the head of the Democratic Party essentially, and he's firing up his base at the same time. Listen, this rhetoric may be considered inflammatory and controversial by many, but for Mike Huckabee and especially for his base of supporters who he's looking to fire up, especially as we near the first Republican primary debate, I think his comments are doing exactly what he wants them to do.

BALDWIN: I think it is important to point out that even groups like the ADL (ph), and Jewish organizations, they agree with his stance and what he was saying about the Iran deal. It was just the - obviously disagreeing with the language that he used.

Nia, to you. You know, when we talk about some of this language, the divisive language, listen, Democrats are guilty as well in pervious cycles, you know, getting personal. But I'm wondering now, do you think the real difference is that these are presidential candidates talking like this? It's almost like Donald Trump, right, like rolls up on the scene and suddenly they're all in the mud wrestling.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean in some ways, yes. And I think the president kind of talked about there, he seemed to suggest there's kind of been some sort of historical and cultural fall from grace in terms of the political rhetoric that's been used these day. I sort of disagree with that. I think this is kind of porta-politics. If you look back years and years, not only into the 1960s but back into the 1800s, political rhetoric tends to be coarse at every level -

BALDWIN: You're taking it way back there. All right, all right, I appreciate the historic references.

HENDERSON: I'm taking it - I'm, yes, it's like Throwback - Throwback Monday or something. So - so in some ways I think this is just par for the course. I think what the president is trying to do, as well as Hillary Clinton, is they're trying to essentially make Donald Trump the poster boy - Donald Trump really and Mike Huckabee, the poster boys for the Republican Party, right? Voters tend to draw assumptions about a party, and the direction of a party, from presidential candidates. So in that way I think they're really making a very clever argument that they hope does them well in a general election.

BALDWIN: Some people really, really, really like Donald Trump. We're about to, you know, hear from some people who Alisyn Camerota spoke with and they're actually loving how he's sort of this, you know, shall we say, off the beaten path, outside of the belt line kind of guy.

Let me also point out, because I was really curious to see how he'd do in this post criticism of John McCain as a war hero era. And here you have at the top of the latest CNN/ORC poll, Donald Trump with 18 percentage points, followed by Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, et cetera. You know, you have these other candidates, Jeremy, who are in single digits. My question - and I've been asking this and I'm curious your response, where - where is the ceiling here when it comes to Donald Trump? I mean how far do you think he needs to go for him to fully be vilified instead of, you know, supported?

DIAMOND: It's unclear, I think, especially a lot of people, a lot of political analyst, a lot of people in Washington thought that after the McCain comments, they really saw that as kind of a moment that - where things might change, where the direction of the Trump campaign might change.

BALDWIN: Not so, apparently.

DIAMOND: But, no, yes, it hasn't - it hasn't happened according to our poll released on Sunday. But - so it's unclear exactly what it's going to be. And you also have to keep in mind that, whereas other candidates when they make controversial comments, that might affect their funding. It might cause donors to kind of start, you know, worrying and pulling out and supporting somebody - somebody else. Trump doesn't have that problem. He's self-funding and he has nobody kind of pulling strings or who he needs to keep satisfied, aside from the voters. And as far as the base is concerned, you know, they seem pretty satisfied with what he's saying.

[14:05:28] BALDWIN: When you hear - Nia, final question. When you, you know, finally hearing the president commenting on some of these, you know, personal attacks and even just, you know, verbiage that someone like a Mike Huckabee would use, and here he is over in Africa commenting on all of this, and in a sense it's almost like the president, you know, he's taking the high road, but it also gives him a chance to hammer the entire Republican Party with a couple of quick remarks. And is - to just, you know, be fair to both side here, I mean is this the president playing politics as well?

HENDERSON: Oh, yes. Absolutely. He's very much playing politics. They want a Democrat to secede this president. He very much thinks that's a part of his legacy. Everybody in the White House agrees with that. So when he gets a chance to ding the entire field, I think that probably was based on a question. He wasn't just like freelancing.

BALDWIN: Right.

HENDERSON: But if you've seen, folks have tried to pose these questions to folks at the White House, at press briefings, and they've kind of batted them away. The president very much wanted to take a swing at this one and I think he did so in a very surprising way and it could be the emergence of a president who is a kind of sixth man in terms of this race and really trying to help the Democrats in advance of what will be a very, very close 2016 campaign.

BALDWIN: Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you. Jeremy Diamond, thank you as well.

As we were just showing you, the latest CNN/ORC poll, all of the unvarnished rhetoric, shall we call it, it doesn't seem to be hurting Donald Trump and at one point it really strikes a chord as his criticism of anyone and everyone in Washington, as I was just alluding to. Our survey finds 53 percent of registered Republican voters don't think Washington represents their views at all. That is nearly double the 27 percent of Democrats who feel the very same way. And you can hear those views loud and clear when you talk to people who support Donald Trump for president. My colleague, Alisyn Camerota, she went to Connecticut and she heard their frustrations firsthand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALISYN CAMEROTA, ANCHOR, CNN'S "NEW DAY": You are all Republicans. You all consider yourself Republicans. What if Donald Trump does not get the GOP nomination and decides to run as a third-party candidate. Can you see that happening?

SEAN VAN ANGLEN, REPUBLICAN/TRUMP SUPPORTER: I don't think any of the other Republican candidates can win. Therefore, if Trump doesn't get the nomination, I can't see myself personally actively supporting someone else other than Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: So then why not say that he should run as a third-party candidate? Maybe - because you don't think he could win the (INAUDIBLE)?

PAULA JOHNSON, REPUBLICAN/TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, because then we -

SUSAN DELEMUS (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE HOUSE: Because then it splits the party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only if Bernie Sanders runs as a fourth party candidate.

JOHNSON: Yes.

VAN ANGLEN: I would like to see that.

JOHNSON: Yes, it would split the vote too much.

S. DELEMUS: Yes.

JOHNSON: But they want to squeeze him out because they don't want the public to hear the truth anymore because they have to get their money by donations and they are beholden to all the special interests and they are the special interests down in Washington that are controlling this country already and it's about time that we take this country back and I truly believe that Donald Trump is the only person that's going to bring jobs back, bring integrity back to that White House, that -

VAN ANGLEN: Make America great again.

JOHNSON: Make America great again.

JERRY DELEMUS, REPUBLICAN/TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, his leadership ability is obvious. I mean just like what he's been doing in the last few weeks in this campaign is he's led every other candidate around by the nose pretty much chasing after him, trying to figure out how to get - even when they're interviewed, it's - the conversation's about Trump.

JOHNSON: Exactly.

J. DELEMUS: So he's completely taken over the dynamic of the - of the election process. He's leading, they're following, and that's exactly what's happening. JEFF GOOLSBY, REPUBLICAN/TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think everybody knows that Trump is a natural-born show person. You know, he's - he's entertaining. And what has everyone in America been talking about? Trump. I think it's a brilliant move.

JOHNSON: I feel everybody in Washington who have been there all this amount of time that have backstabbed the American people, voted for their raises, voted for their own pensions, why are we paying for them to retire and have the best life? You've bankrupt Social Security. Medicare, there's no money.

S. DELEMUS: We need a hero in the White House.

JOHNSON: People can't retire.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump feels like a hero to you?

S. DELEMUS: I - yes, he does. To me, he - it feels as though - I - it's - I feel - I've got hope again. As a state legislator, I can tell you, I don't have a lot of hope. I'm looking for - I'm looking for someone to get into the White House who's going to look out for the best interests of the people and hear the people and not walk all over them and not go golfing when someone is killed and not pretend that our embassy in Libya is being bombed and burned and our ambassadors are being murdered and killed while stand-down orders are being given. And then -

J. DELEMUS: I think part of the point is, is that leaders lead. And he's a leader. And we have a lot of followers running for office and they're - on both sides of the aisle, I'll say. And - and I find it - I find it odd that Trump gets so much flack. I haven't heard a word lately about Hillary Clinton's role in Benghazi and - and those - we lost a sitting ambassador was mutilated and tortured. We don't hear about that. That's not touched.

[14:10:28] JOHNSON: Yes, because (INAUDIBLE).

J. DELEMUS: And really -and, to me, that's an unfair adjustment when you go after Trump, right, for saying - mentioning that - not a war hero and - but when we have - and a president who actually I heard when to bed when that happened -

S. DELEMUS: Went to bed.

J. DELEMUS: Is a - and then wouldn't lower the - wouldn't lower the flag to half-mast. And I just find it ironic that the way that things are picked and chose on what we're going to attack and what we're not going to attack when the reality is -

S. DELEMUS: It's orchestrated theatrics.

J. DELEMUS: And Trump's really good at pointing that light out. He's good at shining that light saying, why don't we get back to the real problem that we're having here? He may not have the solution yet. He'll have the team that has the solution. You can bet on that. GOOLSBY: Exactly. And I think - I think regardless of the entertainment factor or the theatrics behind the - behind The Donald, I think that - I think people understand that he's solutions-driven, and I think that's what - that's what people have been thirsty for in this country for years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Alisyn Camerota with that. Thank you so much.

Next here, a road rage encounter turns deadly and one man ends up dying in front of his family. Was the shooter defending himself? We have the 911 calls for you. That's coming up.

Also, lost at sea. Two teens disappear during a fishing trip. Their boat just found. What about their life jackets?

And Whitney Houston's daughter dies months after being found face-down in a bathtub. But how did she end up there? More on this investigation next. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:02] BALDWIN: You have two men behind the wheels in separate cars, this is in Florida, each calling 911 to complain about the other's driving. By the time this whole dispute was over, Robert Doyle here on the left side of your screen would be charged with second- degree murder. Police say he shot Candelario Gonzalez on the right multiple times in front of his family. Doyle has since posted bond and is out of jail. There are 911 tapes and they reveal differing views in what police call a, quote, aggressive driving incident. Let me play this for you. You will hear Doyle talking to this 911 operator. He's telling them he's being followed and that he has his gun ready.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DOYLE, ACCUSED SHOOTER: They're following me to my house. I'll be there in 20 seconds and the guns are already out.

OPERATOR: All right, hold on for me, OK?

DOYLE: It's going down right now.

SHOOTER'S WIFE: You know what, I can't even get the garage open.

DOYLE: You don't need to, just - you take your hand and throw it in park as soon as I'm stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: In the 911 calls from the other car, Gonzalez's wife tells the operator that Doyle was, quote, "driving like an idiot." She says her husband followed Doyle all the way home just to get his address. In this 911 call, you can hear Gonzalez tell Doyle he has his number. Listen closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDELARIO GONZALEZ, VICTIM: I got your number, buddy.

OPERATOR: OK.

CATHY GONZALEZ, VICTIM'S WIFE: We're going on home. We're going home. Oh, I guess we're not.

(INAUDIBLE)

CATHY GONZALEZ: He's got a - he's got a gun. Get somebody here now!

Just don't shoot!

OPERATOR: Sir -

CATHY GONZALEZ: I've got 911 on the phone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's just awful. Police say Doyle held Gonzalez wife, his young daughter and his grandson at gunpoint until police arrived.

Let's discuss this. I have defense lawyer Bob Schalk and HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.

So, my goodness, first of all, there's a lot to get through. There's a dispute even - and I'm referring to - you have the grandfather and the homeowner. This is how I'm clearing this up. There's a dispute over whether the grandfather followed the guy to his home. Was he coming at him? Was he backing away? Does that matter in the eyes of the law who's approaching whom?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure, Brooke, it absolutely does. And so you want to find out who's the aggressor. And, you know, listening to that 911 tape is very troubling.

BALDWIN: It's horrifying. It's horrifying.

JACKSON: It's horrifying. But the defense, I think, has some challenges here because even in the 911 tape, it puts us into his frame of mind. It's going down now. Does it look like the prosecution will argue, was it someone in fear? Do they believe themselves to be in immediate fear, because that's going to be the issue? Remember, there's an independent witness here who goes so far as to say that it appears as though Gonzalez was retreating and backing up.

BALDWIN: Right.

JACKSON: Of course, Gonzalez being the victim who was shot. In addition to that, apparently the autopsy established, Brooke, that he was , shot three times in the back in addition to once in the chest. And so when you have someone who has a gun, they get out of the car and they affirmatively approach you, it's hard to argue that you're standing your ground, as we commonly hear.

BALDWIN: That's - that was my -

JACKSON: Right.

BALDWIN: Because you hear Florida -

JACKSON: Right.

BALDWIN: The sheriff is saying, no, this wasn't a stand your ground case and I think that sort of explains why this wouldn't be perhaps self-defense.

JACKSON: Right.

ROBERT SCHALK, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. Stand your ground, self- defense, it's all the same. The defendant is going to claim, you know, I was in fear for my safety. I was in fear for my family's safety. I'm at my residence. This individual is following me home.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SCHALK: Were on the road.

BALDWIN: On my property.

SCHALK: He - you know, he's got - he's on my property, right. He's following me. He's acting in an aggressive nature. He tried to run me off the road. The biggest issue I think here is obviously that independent witness does hurt the defense, saying that he was retreating, as well as to those bullets to the back. However, are there going to be other people now, knowing what happened after the fact, who may recognize this story, who saw individuals driving these two cars and maybe caught a glimpse? Maybe there's traffic cameras there, maybe who is the aggressor? Did Gonzalez try running him off the road?

BALDWIN: Really, they were shouting at each other on the road.

SCHALK: Exactly. So we live in a society of, you know, between social media, videos on intersections now with red light cameras.

BALDWIN: Right.

SCHALK: There should be enough subpoena ability to be able to possibly see where they were, to see whether or not the defense can continue to build in the self-defense.

JACKSON: And I agree with that. And to Bob's point, which is a very good one, all of that's critical. But remember what the prosecution is going to do is to zoom it down to exactly the series of events that led to his death. And so, yes, it's important what happened before. Yes, it's important to get the videotapes, if there are any, any cell phone to say who was aggressive, who was not.

[14:20:06] But at the time that the critical shot was fired, two questions need to be asked. Number one, was I in immediate fear for my life? If the answer is no, the defense has problems. Number two, did the force that I use exceed the threat that was posed to me? And if that's the case, again, more problems for the defense.

BALDWIN: What about after that critical moment when we know Doyle, the homeowner, holds the wife -

SCHALK: Yes.

JACKSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: The daughter, the grandson hostage until police arrive and, on top of that, you have the 911 operator telling Gonzalez, go home.

SCHALK: Right.

BALDWIN: Don't go to this guy's house. Those two pieces of fact. How might that factor into this whole thing?

SCHALK: Well, huge, because, I mean, let's - let's jump forward to a jury.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SCHALK: A jury's hearing that you're being told by a member of law enforcement to stand down. And he's not even home yet and he's saying, the guns are already ready. Like this is going to happen. And I don't even - and he hasn't even gotten out of his car yet. Gonzalez is still in his vehicle.

JACKSON: Right.

BALDWIN: Right.

SCHALK: See, that's a huge problem that they're going to have as to saying that this is self-defense because you're now telling them that it's going to happen before it's even started. It's almost this premeditated act of I did it -

JACKSON: In addition -

SCHALK: Whatever happened on the road, he decided, if this guy's coming to my house, it's going down. And that's a huge problem for the defense.

JACKSON: And the children - holding at bay two children who were eight or under in a car at gunpoint? Really? And so, to your point, Bob, I mean, a jury evaluating that information, to what extent do we need to hold children at bay?

SCHALK: Right, I was just going to say -

JACKSON: Facing 30 years, Brooke. Thirty years on the second-degree murder.

SCHALK: You're -

BALDWIN: Quickly. SCHALK: You're talking about sometimes where you're looking for jury sympathy or jury nullification as a defendant where, OK, maybe the law's not on my side but they could justify what I did and you're hoping - but now you're holding children at bay with a gun. It's just - you're not going to have - there's no sympathy factor here whatsoever.

BALDWIN: How can you be that angry? Bob Schalk and Joey Jackson, thank you both very much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I know, shank your head at that one.

JACKSON: It's tough to talk about.

BALDWIN: Next, lost at sea, two teenagers are still missing after this fishing trip off the coast of Florida. Hear what the Coast Guard has now just found.

Plus, three years after the death of her mother, her mother being Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Brown here has died at the age of 22. So many questions remain here. Could a criminal investigation be coming? We'll discuss that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:24] BALDWIN: More than 10 agencies now are searching for these two Florida teenagers missing at sea. Fourteen-year-old Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos were last seen Friday gassing up for a fishing trip. I have some new video of their capsized boat. This is what was found Sunday. It was more than 100 miles away from Jupiter, Florida, where the boys started off. One Coast Guard officer says the air search is like finding a needle in a haystack.

I have Alina Machado live in Jupiter with more on these two 14-year- olds that went off on this trip.

Where are authorities focusing right now?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, the Coast Guard is focused right now in an area that's some 60 miles offshore, off the Florida coastline near Jacksonville, Florida. Yesterday, as you mentioned, they spotted a 19-foot boat that Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos were believed to have been on. That boat had capsized and there was no sign of those two missing teens. They were last seen on Friday gassing up their boat just down the road from where we are, getting ready for a fishing trip. Their families, as you can imagine, are absolutely living a nightmare. They, along with NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath are desperately searching for answers. They want to find these two 14-year-olds, Brooke.

BALDWIN: How can people help? What do the families want the public to know?

MACHADO: So the families are offering up a $100,000 reward for the teens rescue. They are also encouraging people today to walk up and down the Florida beaches, Florida coastline, looking for any possible debris that could be connected to the two teens. Now, they specifically mentioned a Yeti cooler and a Yamaha engine cover. And, Brooke, even though it's been several days since these teens went missing, these families remain very hopeful that they will be found alive.

BALDWIN: Alina Machado, thank you so much. We'll check back with you on that one.

Coming up next, Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina, has died months after being found in that bathtub. But questions remain about how she got there in the first place. Could this be a criminal investigation here. We'll talk to someone close to the family.

Also, an escort shoots and kills a man who attacked her and police say they actually found a kill list in the back of the car. There's now reason to believe he could be a serial killer with murders across the country. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)