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Movie Theater Attack; Iran Nuclear Deal; 2016 Presidential Politics; Triple Homicide: Signs of Ritualistic Killing; Jon Stewart Signs Off Tonight. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired August 06, 2015 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:29:47] MATTHEW HORACE, SENIOR VP, FJC SECURITY SERVICES: That is absolutely not the answer in my view. Just because you have a gun doesn't mean you're trained how to use a gun.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And it's a dark theater and let's face it, if somebody attacks somebody, it's difficult to get your bearings, right? You're watching a movie.
HORACE: It is absolutely difficult.
COSTELLO: Dark in the theater.
HORACE: Absolutely -- 100 percent. And if you look at what happened yesterday, the Nashville Metro Police Department responded but they train for incidents just like this. They're a full time team. They know what to do. They have the process down.
If you look at the way that scene developed yesterday, it developed flawlessly. The police officers did exactly what they were trained to do and what they were supposed to do.
COSTELLO: Yes. There were hero officers involved -- right. They kind of corralled him in a certain area and then there was a gunfight although we later find out this guy's gun wasn't real which was strange -- right. The whole thing is strange.
HORACE: The whole thing is very strange but now it's coming out that he may have had some mental issues as in so many other cases. You and I were here two weeks ago and we were here two weeks before that -- too little too late is becoming too often.
COSTELLO: Matthew Horace -- thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate it.
HORACE: Thank you. Have a great day.
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
This just in to CNN. One of the main negotiators of the controversial Iran nuclear deal is leaving the State Department. Wendy Sherman will become a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. She will join the institute in early October. The U.S. Senate, by the way, will take up that nuclear deal
September 8th, right after the August recess. A big concern for lawmakers, new satellite imagery suggesting the Iranians are attempting to clean up a site ahead of international inspections. President Obama warned that if Congress rejects this deal though, it could set the stage for another war in the Middle East.
That provoked some back and forth on Twitter between the White House and congressional leaders. One House majority whip Steve Scalise complained about the secret side deals. The President fired back, "Important detail, there are no secret deals. My staff can brief you on any question about any part of the deal." That's what the President tweeted.
Here is CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am stating a fact.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Today the President made an impassioned, even defiant defense of the Iran nuclear deal, attempting to dissuade skeptical lawmakers from blocking the agreement.
OBAMA: I have had to make a lot of tough calls as president, but whether or not this deal is good for American security is not one of those calls. It's not even close.
SCIUTTO: But the skeptics got new ammunition today. CNN has learned that the U.S. intelligence community believes Iran is attempting to clean up one of the most sensitive suspected nuclear sites. The military installation at Parchin after new satellite imagery showed heavy construction equipment including bulldozers.
The President dismissed the possibility that Iran can hide nuclear activity.
OBAMA: Nuclear material isn't something you hide in the closet. It can leave a trace for years. The bottom line is if Iran cheats, we can catch them and we will.
SCIUTTO: A senior intelligence official familiar with the imagery in question tells CNN that the IAEA, the international agency responsible for inspecting Iran's nuclear sites, is, quote, "familiar with sanitization efforts and the international community has confidence in the IAEA's technical expertise.
Many lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats aren't convinced. They take particular issue with the fact that the administration has not released details of agreements between Iran and the IAEA and won't confirm if U.S. Officials even read them.
SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: Why now will you not give us the documents that exist that are so important to all of us relative to the integrity of this, why not?
WENDY SHERMAN, STATE DEPARTMENT UNDERSECRETARY: We don't have the documents in the first instance. We don't have them. So we don't have them to give to you. I didn't see the final documents. I saw the provisional documents as did my experts.
SCIUTTO: For the President however, the choice remains clear.
OBAMA: Let's not mince words. The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy or some form of war. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon.
SCIUTTO: Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: A news conference going on right now in Shreveport, Louisiana. That's where a manhunt is under way after a police officer was shot and killed. The officer was responding to a call about a prowler when he was shot several times.
Police are actively searching this area. A helicopter is assisting. Of course, we'll monitor this news conference and bring you any new information that comes our way.
[10:34:34] Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum did not make it into the prime time debate because his poll numbers were too low. But he says that should not matter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's been called the happy hour debate and the under card. I'm talking about the candidate forum featuring seven Republican presidential hopefuls who did not score well enough in the polls to get a spot in tonight's prime time face-off.
One of them is Rick Santorum. He's pushing back on that format and the idea that poll results this early should have been a deciding factor.
Here is what he told Chris Cuomo this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: You can complain about how the RNC is doing it, how Fox is doing it in this first debate, but at the end of the day the polls do matter and you're not doing that well in the polls and neither is the group that's at 5:00 instead of at 9:00. And shouldn't that be relevant in deciding who is on and when if at all.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, yes Chris, if two weeks before the Iowa caucuses I was at 2 percent in the national polls and I won the Iowa caucuses and went on to win ten other states. So it's an irrelevant -- it's not a predictor of anything national -- it's not a national race. It's a state-by-state race. Again, that's what I'm focused on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:40:05] COSTELLO: Joining me now from Cleveland, John Brabender. He was a senior strategist for Rick Santorum's 2012 campaign and is a Republican political consultant.
John -- Glad to see you. Glad you're here.
JOHN BRABENDER, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Glad I can be here. Thank you for having me on.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So I heard what Rick Santorum said. On the other hand, Donald Trump is not part of the happy hour debate, and that means maybe people will actually listen to what the candidates have to say.
BRABENDER: Well, I look at it a little bit differently. I look at that 5:00 debate and here is what I know. We're all talking about the Iran deal, maybe the most important issue facing America. And the two people tonight in a debate that have far more foreign policy experience than anybody else is Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham.
We're talking about job creation. The governor that probably has the best success story is Rick Perry in the early debate, and Carly Fiorina is the only one in either debates that's run a Fortune 50 company.
You know, you can always watch Donald Trump on reruns on "The Apprentice". I think the more substantial debate today will probably be the 5:00 debate.
COSTELLO: I tend to agree with you because the candidates will also have a little more time to give their answers, right?
BRABENDER: Absolutely. And I think it will be less confrontational. I think what will happen in the later debate, somebody is going to be smart enough whose name is not Donald Trump to engage Donald Trump knowing that's what's going to be played over and over again tomorrow and the next day and the next day to do that to get their name in the news. It becomes a reality TV show almost environment.
I think in the first debate it will be more cooperative, more of a spirit of being together in this thing, but they will point out differences and I think it will be a very, very insightful debate.
COSTELLO: Do you think this prime time debate will be ultimately bad for the presidential race and the GOP?
BRABENDER: No, I don't think so, but I do think it's so early. You know, look, four years ago at this time the leading people that were center in the debates were Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty. You know, two of them didn't even make it to the Iowa caucus and one didn't make it past the Iowa caucus. It is really early. But I will say this, I do think somebody like a Donald Trump who
is way ahead who people know very little about needs to started being vetted, and I think today is -- tonight will be the first process of that.
COSTELLO: What do you mean start being vetted? You mean by voters, by who?
BRABENDER: You know, I made a joke on CNN the other night that if Will Ferrell got in the Republican race tomorrow, he might start at 10 percent because nobody knows anything other than he's a funny comedian. And, you know, in some sense, Donald Trump, the character, is running for president, but nobody has vetted him under the lens do we really want this person in the White House making decisions on trade, on manufacturing, on social issues, on our national defense?
You know, he's shown nothing in his history to show on many of those issues that he's capable and I think we have to find out.
COSTELLO: So when do you think Donald Trump will flame out?
BRABENDER: Well, you know, I don't know if flame out will be the word. I think you will find is there's going to be this hard core group of people who are mad at Washington, as mad as they can be, and are willing to have a protest vote and say until we do something drastic like voting for Donald Trump we're not getting anybody's attention.
So I think you will find that he will always have a certain 10 percent or something in the polls, which will keep him credible all the way through. I also think what he's doing is he's motivating a certain Republican voter who hopefully will stay engaged all the way through November of 2016.
COSTELLO: We'll see. John Brabender, thank you so much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.
BRABENDER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: You're welcome.
New York City has it all, however knowing what to do or where to go can be a real dilemma. In this "Travel Insider" I step away from the anchor desk to show you some of the hidden gems in my new backyard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Welcome to Hell's Kitchen, New York. This is my very favorite neighborhood because frankly it's real. You know, I'm the unpretentious sort, I like working class people. You'll see all kinds of characters here, there are great restaurants including this one, Pancho Tacoria -- the best Mexican restaurant anywhere.
What's the secret to your success?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My secret is I do it with love.
COSTELLO: You make us, the customer feel like family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's the main point for us.
COSTELLO: This is one of my very favorite places in New York City. This is Central Park but it's way up north away from the maddening crowds. This is one of the water falls in the park and when I sit here and listen to it, I can imagine myself anywhere in the world.
Another one of my favorite places in New York City, Grand Central Terminal. If you want to know why just look up at the ceiling, at the October sky full of 2,500 stars.
[10:44:54] DANIEL BRUCKER, GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL: This terminal covers 49 acres in midtown Manhattan. This is the world's largest and every single day 750,000 people come through here which is the entire population of Alaska, San Francisco. But on top of that information booth, that four-faced clock valued at $10 million to $20 million. Every face of that clock is made of one solid piece of precious opal.
COSTELLO: You're kidding.
DRUCKER: Little do they know, that is a fortune.
COSTELLO: Thanks for tagging along.
Now come on and visit New York City. I have to catch my train.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:49:54] COSTELLO: It was a sickening scene inside a Florida home. Three people found dead, beaten with a hammer, their throats slashed. Police say the gruesome murders could be tied to witchcraft and tied to last week's blue moon.
Alina Machado has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERIFF DAVID MORGAN, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: The elements of this case are odd at best.
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The violent deaths of an elderly woman and her two adult sons inside this Escambia County, Florida home may be tied to witchcraft.
MORGAN: The method of the murder, blunt force trauma, slit throats, positions of bodies, and then our person of interest has some ties to a faith and/or religion that is indicative of that.
MACHADO: The victims identified as 77-year-old Voncile Smith, 47-year-old John William Smith, and 49-year-old Richard Thomas Smith. All three of them were killed with a claw hammer. All three had their throats slit. Richard Thomas also had a gunshot wound to the head.
MORGAN: The crime scene was very complex and took several days to work.
MACHADO: Investigators have been talking to neighbors who say the family was very reclusive. Richard Thomas Smith worked for the Department of Homeland Security. His position is not believed to be the reason why the family was targeted.
MORGAN: There was a sizable amount of cash found at the house inside a safe that was not taken. So we believe that we can safely rule out robbery as the primary motive.
MACHADO: So authorities are turning their attention to the possibility that what happened inside this house was part of a ritualistic killing.
And it's not the first time we've heard of a case like this. Last year in Houston a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped and murdered. Her killers reportedly committed the crime during a satanic ritual.
Authorities in Florida meanwhile aren't offering specifics on the type of beliefs or religion that could be behind the triple homicide, but experts say ritualistic killings have very specific characteristics.
ALBERT WUAKU, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: The person has to be killed in a particular way, you know. Certain kind of injury has to be inflicted on each person. The bodies have to be put together in a particular way. That's the nature of ritual. If you deviate from that formula, the ritual ceases to be effective.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACHADO: Now, authorities believe the victims were killed sometime last week on Tuesday. Their bodies though weren't found until Friday. The timing they say coincides with last week's blue moon, but authorities have not said how.
Also worth noting, the sheriff says there were no signs of forced entry and that nothing appears to have been taken from the home. Authorities are asking anyone with information on this case to please come forward -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Alina Machado reporting live for us this morning -- thank you.
All right. Let's talk about something a little more uplifting. Still to come in the NEWSROOM , Jon Stewart's last night in hosting "The Daily Show" hours away. We'll take a look back at some of his greatest hits next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: After 16 years of lampooning the news media, skewering politicians and turning the day's headlines into jokes, Jon Stewart make his final appearance as the host of "The Daily Show" tonight.
CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter takes a look back at some of Stewart's most memorable moments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: More than 15 years after he took charge of "The Daily Show", Jon Stewart is stepping down. So before new host Trevor Noah takes over we wanted to look back at some of Stewart's best and most memorable moments starting with Indecision 2000.
The 2000 election that started in November and didn't end until mid-December was perfect fodder for Stewart.
STEVE CARELL, ACTOR: Jon, please address me as President-elect Carell.
JON STEWART, TALK SHOW HOST: I'm sorry. What?
CARELL: I'm assuming the presidency.
STEWART: Steve, you can't do that.
CARELL: Bush did.
STELTER: But Stewart is not just about laughs as he showed on his first broadcast after 9/11.
STEWART: Are you OK? And we pray that you are and that your family is.
STELTER: While difficult to watch it is remembered as one of Stewart's most heartfelt moments. More often he was a prankster, a jokester.
Poking fun at political idiocy and sometimes making people think. At the height of the Tea Party movement. Stewart and Stephen Colbert brought thousands of people to D.C. for a rally they said to restore sanity.
STEWART: Why would you work with Marxists, actively subverting our constitution? Or racists and homophobes who see no one's humanity but their own.
STELTER: But his criticisms were not just limbed to the Right- wing. "The Daily Show's" recurring Guantanamo Bay watch segment took aim at President Obama. For not following through on a campaign promise to shut down the prison. And Stewart tried to hold the news media accountable, too. He critiqued us here at CNN all the time.
STEWART: Giant floor maps, big fake airplanes. Little fake airplanes. Holographic airplanes. No airplane detail left unspoken.
STELTER: The only channel he mocked more often was Fox News.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: President Obama and the entitlement society that he enabled.
STEWART: This is the core of (INAUDIBLE) mountain
STELTER: This time we'll let Jon Stewart have the last word.
Brian Stelter, CNN Money, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Thank you so much for being with me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: New plane debris found on the island where a piece of Flight 370 is believed to have washed up. Window parts, seat cushion. That is the word from Malaysian officials but --
