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Trump Hits Daily Beast; Joyce Mitchell's Confession; Kerry Defending Iran Deal Before Congress; Lion Killing Sparks International Outrage. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 29, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:10] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me now, one of "The Daily Beast" reporters who wrote that controversial article, Brandy Zadrozny.

Thank you so much for being with me, Brandy.

BRANDY ZADROZNY, REPORTER, "THE DAILY BEAST": Thanks.

COSTELLO: So you heard what Donald Trump said. "Daily Beast" is a loser, losing money. You're desperate. You wrote this article.

ZADROZNY: Well, that's -- that's what he says, right? Anybody that goes against Donald, anybody's -- that has something to say that he doesn't like, we're losers. We are poor. We're ugly. These are the things that he says. These are the comebacks that he has for people that disagree with him or people that pull out things that he's embarrassed or doesn't want to be in the limelight.

COSTELLO: He's remarkably consistent in the way he criticizes people who criticize him. For example, we just had a lawyer on who said that Donald Trump was disgusted by her need to breast-feed.

ZADROZNY: Right.

COSTELLO: And he's been tweeting about her interview on CNN. He says, lawyer Elizabeth Beck did a terrible job against me. She lost. I even got legal fees. I loved beating her. She was easy. Lawyer Beck was easy for me to beat. Ask her clients if they're happy with her results against me. Got total win and legal fees." Those are tweets from Donald Trump right after her interview aired. And remember --

ZADROZNY: Right. He doesn't say anything about the actual event.

COSTELLO: The actual event.

ZADROZNY: Right. It's just that she's a loser, the end, move on.

COSTELLO: I might -- I -- well, on the other hand, Ivana Trump did come forward, and she said she wasn't raped. I mean she said those things in the heat of a nasty divorce, and things like that happen. And she also said that Donald Trump would make a great president. So why did "The Daily Beast" feel the need to write this article? ZADROZNY: Well, first, she softened her stance, right, as the behest

of Trump's lawyers as part of a gag order. The book that we talked about, that we reported on, was published after her divorce proceedings, after a $14 million settlement. So -- and part of that settlement was a gag order that she can no longer speak about Donald Trump or their marriage without Donald Trump's consent. So you can bet that those caveats went through Donald Trump's organization.

Now, I didn't see anywhere in her -- in her statements that those things that she said in the sworn deposition about that -- the alleged assault didn't happen. I saw that the story is without merit. I saw that they're great friends. I saw Trump 2016. But I have yet to say -- hear her say that she lied about what happened that night. She softened. She said, I didn't mean, you know, criminal rape, but I felt violated. It happens.

COSTELLO: So what does that have to do with him running for president of the United States?

ZADROZNY: Right. So, you know, Trump is -- he's notorious for telling us he's going to run all the way up to the last minute and then stopping short and saying, oh, I've got to go back and do my television show or I've got to do this, or I've got to go make money. Now he's running for president. He is the front-runner in the GOP. So he's going to get scrutiny. You know, the past is important. People want to know what kind of character this person has. What he's said about rape in the past. What he's said about important situations that voters care about. So this scrutiny is really just the tip of the iceberg. If he can't handle this, I worry about him going forward.

COSTELLO: Has he threatened to sue "The Daily Beast"?

ZADROZNY: Only through Michael Cohen so far. I haven't been to work yet today, so who knows if we were -- if something's waiting for us. But, you know, he's one of the most litigious people that I've ever heard of. He's sued countries. He's sued stand-up comedians. He's sued -- he's threatened to sue everybody from, you know, Rosie O'Donnell to whoever, to us, I guess. So, not yet, but who knows.

COSTELLO: All right, Brandy, thanks for stopping by.

ZADROZNY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, her graphic confession. Joyce Mitchell in her own words. The sex, the lies, and why she felt she couldn't stop helping two convicted killers escape.

Plus, an American dentist hunts in Africa and sparks outrage around the world. Now he could face poaching charges for killing one of Africa's most popular lions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:38:04] COSTELLO: A stunning and at times x-rated confession. Joyce Mitchell, in her own words, explaining her illicit relationship with inmate Richard Matt. Mitchell in tears as she confessed to helping convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat escape from the prison where she worked in upstate New York. Mitchell now facing time herself. In a multi-page confession, Mitchell details Richard Matt's grooming process that led to favors. Mitchell says she met Matt in 2008. By October 2013, they're talking daily. A month later, the first favor, Mitchell calls Matt's daughter. In 2014, Matt offers to paint Mitchell a portrait in exchange for boxing gloves. Fast forward to April of this year, their first kiss. By May, their sexual relationship is escalating and the favors are becoming more clear to Mitchell of Matt's intentions.

So let's talk about how this got out of control. With me now is Percy Pitzer, he's a former federal prison warden and now the executive vice president of Creative Corrections.

Percy, thank you so much for being with me.

PERCY PITZER, FORMER FEDERAL PRISON WARDEN: Well, thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Glad you're here. Have you read the confession?

PITZER: Yes, I have, and I think Joyce Mitchell was extremely fortunate with the sentence that she has. I mean, just look at the situation. She provided the equipment that allowed these two life- sentence inmates, both for murder, tools to affect the escape. She had sex with the inmate. She put the institutional staff at risk. She put the police officers that had to capture them at risk. She put the community at risk. And she cost the state millions of dollars. So I think she should be grateful for the sentence that she received.

COSTELLO: Well, it's just unbelievable. I want to read to our viewers a bit of her confession. Quote, "after a couple days, Richard Matt told me he and inmate Sweat had cut the holes and were going down in the pipes. I was already bringing stuff into him and didn't really feel I could stop. I had known about them cutting the hole in the wall for about three to four weeks."

[09:40:08] She went on to say, "I believe I helped inmate Matt and inmate Sweat escape because I was caught up in the fantasy. I enjoyed the attention, the feeling both of them gave me, and the thought of a different life. I don't know where either of them are. Nothing to follow."

She got caught up in a fantasy?

PITZER: Yes, and, you know, and I've seen this over and over. Well, not a lot, but I've seen it several times in my career and -- and generally it's not a very good home life, or at least she thinks it's not, or they think it's not and they think there's something better out there. But, you know, the point is, she could have stopped it at any time. She could have gotten several people killed in this ordeal.

COSTELLO: Well, apparently she was afraid that -- that someone was going to harm her husband. I'm trying to figure out -- because when she had her first sexual contact with Matt, right, she said she felt compelled to do it because she was afraid. But I couldn't figure out what exactly she was afraid of.

PITZER: Well, I mean, just put ourselves in that position. If somebody is threatening our spouse, I mean, I would come forward and tell. I -- probably at that time, the most she would get is terminated from her job. But she allowed it to go on and continue.

COSTELLO: So what have we learned from all of this? Anything?

PITZER: Well, I think -- you know, prisons, when they have incidents like this, it's normally -- and the governor mentioned it in his first interview -- it's normally complacency. You know, you go for a long period of time with nothing occurring in the institution and you become complacent. And as a result, incidents occur.

COSTELLO: Percy Pitzer, thanks so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

PITZER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Ending three years of public silence, the father of convicted -- the father of convicted Colorado theater shooting James Holmes testified on Tuesday, telling the court he still loves his son. Holmes' parents have been in the courtroom throughout their son's trial. Robert Holmes admitted there was a long family history of mental illness, but he said he had no idea his son was suffering any kind of disturbing thoughts before the shooting rampage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have any idea he was having these disturbing images in his head?

ROBERT HOLMES, JAMES HOLMES' FATHER: No, I had no idea he was having intrusive thoughts, disturbing thoughts or anything like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you still love him?

HOLMES: Yes, I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

HOLMES: Well, he's my son and, you know, we always got along pretty well and he was always -- he was actually really an excellent kid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The sentencing phase of Holmes' trial continues today. Holmes' defense attorneys are trying to avoid the death penalty after a jury found Holmes guilty last month of first degree murder charges. His mother, Arlene, will likely be called to testify soon.

I talked with a family devastated by these Aurora shootings. And while they blame James Holmes, they also blame a gun culture that's out of control. I was intrigued by that and saddened. There are so many examples of people who use guns to settle even the smallest score. We seem to have lost our respect for what guns are capable of, what they can do, kill. You can read more about this on cnn.com. I wrote an op- ed, it's titled "Feel Disrespected, Pull a Gun."

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Secretary of State John Kerry once again facing lawmakers, making his sales pitch for the Iran nuclear deal. He says backing out would carry dire consequences.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:47:55] COSTELLO: Happening right now, Secretary of State John Kerry on Capitol Hill for a second day, making his pitch to Congress to support the Iran -- the Iranian nuclear deal. He is joined by the Secretaries of Defense and Energy and the Joint Chiefs Chairman. Kerry told lawmakers yesterday killing the deal would put Iran on the fast track to a nuclear weapon.

Despite the deal, Iranian officials are still taking sharp jabs at the United States. A Twitter account affiliated with Iran's Supreme Leader posted this image over the weekend. It appears to show President Obama with a gun to his head, saying the aggressive and criminal U.S. will lose any war with Iran.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon to tell us more. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. As we look at the opening moments of the hearing, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain, making his opening statement. John Kerry still may face a few sparks from yesterday when he was on the Hill and there was a good deal of animated questioning of him about the fact that he may not have fully seen some side agreements that Iran had with the International Atomic Energy Agency, that they may have their own side agreements with the Iranians about some aspects of Iran's military program that the U.S. believes is involved with the nuclear program.

So a lot of questions about that. But today is going to be even more interesting. General Marty Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he is there with the three Cabinet secretaries. They are political appointees. General Dempsey is the president's senior military adviser. He is there to talk about what this deal means for the military balance in the Middle East and whether he is militarily satisfied that U.S. and regional security can be maintained if the deal goes into place.

General Dempsey's not spoken about this at length publicly. We're going to be watching very carefully to see what questions he gets and what he answers, of course, because he has previously raised concerns that some of the sanctions may be lifted too quickly, in some cases, on issues like ballistic missiles and conventional arms trade by Iran.

[09:50:09] So the first chance we really have if they question General Dempsey to hear his military thinking about the Iran deal in depth. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right, we'll check back. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon, thank you.

An American who served 30 years in prison for spying for Israel has been granted parole. Jonathan Pollard will be freed in November. The Obama administration will not challenge this decision but says Pollard's release is not a favor to Israel, which is strongly opposed to that nuclear deal with Iran. Pollard was convicted of passing U.S. government secrets to Israel while he worked as a Navy intelligence analyst. Israel later admitted to paying Pollard for the information.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, has the hunter become the hunted? An American dentist now wanted for questioning in the killing of a beloved lion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:22] OSTELLO: Checking the top stories for you at 55 minutes past. The Albuquerque Fire Department is investigating a dispatcher who hung up on a frantic caller who was trying to get help for her dying friend. 17-year-old Jaden Chavez Silver was critically wounded when a gunman fired into a house that was hosting a party. His friend desperately called 911. Dispatcher Matthew Sanchez listened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911 DISPATCHER: Is he breathing?

CALLER: He's barely breathing. How many times do I have to f-- tell you?

911 DISPATCHER: OK, you know what, ma'am? You can deal with yourself. I'm not going to deal with this, OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The dispatcher has now reportedly turned in his resignation.

Eight children are hurt, two critically, after being struck by a huge tree, the tree falling on them outside of the Children's Museum in Pasadena, California. The injured kids are believed to be among the dozens participating in a summer day camp at the museum. Museum workers, parents, and emergency crews quickly responded, cutting tree limbs to find the trapped children. City officials are now investigating.

French police say one man died when 1,500 migrants tried to enter the channel tunnel last night, the chunnel. They say the victim apparently was hit by a truck. Migrants have been swarming the tunnel trying to get into the U.K. Britain's Home Secretary is chairing an emergency meeting today on the crisis.

It's a story that's sparked international outrage. An American dentist faces withering attacks for killing Cecil, a beloved and protected lion in Zimbabwe. Walter James Palmer says he deeply regrets his role in Cecil's death, but says he thought what he was doing was legal. Here's CNN's David Mckenzie. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cecil was one of Africa's best-known lions, a major tourist draw for Zimbabwe. Conservationists and police say he was lured out of a national park and killed by an American hunter. Alleging it's this man, Dr. Walter Palmer, an avid trophy hunter in his 50s and a dentist from Minnesota.

In a statement, Palmer admits to killing Cecil but he says he didn't know the lion's significance and relied on the expertise of local guides.

Cecil's killing has sparked outrage on social media and renewed calls to ban trophy hunting.

(on camera): And this is a very large male right here.

(voice-over): Conservationists like Joana Dungler have been calling for a ban for years.

JOANA DUNGLER, DIRECTOR, LIONSROCK: Getting such a (INAUDIBLE) just because you want to have a picture and then maybe the skin on your wall, for me, it's a form of sickness.

MCKENZIE (on camera): Does it make you angry?

DUNGLER: Extremely angry.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Dungler runs Lionsrock, a sanctuary in South Africa that has rescued scores of big cats. Many of them were bred just to be hunted.

(on camera): When he's just a few weeks old, Khan was taken away from his mother. He bred to be killed. And trophy hunters for a gorgeous black mane lion like that will pay tens of thousands of dollars.

(voice-over): Hunting groups say that money can be funneled back into conservation, but lion numbers have plummeted up to 90 percent in Africa.

(on camera): Wow. Should trophy hunting be a crime?

DUNGLER: This is murder. It's really cold-blooded killing of a creature that cannot defend, because if she can defend, then OK, we're equal.

MCKENZIE: (voice-over) And Dungler and other conservationists want the killing of Cecil to spark change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: David McKenzie joins us now on the phone from Lionsrock, South Africa. David, is it legal to hunt big game in that part of Africa?

MCKENZIE (via phone): Well, Carol, it might surprise you but, yes, sometimes it is in fact legal. Big game hunters can pay a lot of money -- tens of thousands of dollars in some cases -- to hunt lions and other members of the big five, the sort of cherished African animals that mostly tourists come and take photos of.

But in this case, this animal was lured outside of the national park, according to authorities, and killed by this American dentist. And he's saying he believed it was all above board, all legal, and effectively he's passing the buck onto these professional guides from Zimbabwe. They are in court today facing charges and they want this American dentist to come in for questioning, but he's kind of gone to ground other than that statement that you saw.

[10:00:02] COSTELLO: All right, David McKenzie reporting live from South Africa this morning.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.