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Conservative Event Disinvites Donald Trumpj; Jurors Could Not Reach Unanimous "Death" Decision; Terror Group Shifting Focus To Mass Casualty Attacks; South Carolina Officer Shoots, Kills Unarmed White Teen; Gas Use Suspected In Break-In At Race Driver's Home. 11a-Noon ET

Aired August 08, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[10:59:56] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. It is the 11:00 Eastern hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. NEWSROOM starts right now.

Oh, Donald Trump, he is at it again. His comments to CNN last night getting him dumped from a conservative political gathering in Atlanta tonight. Here is what he told our Don Lemon when asked about his feud with Fox anchor, Megyn Kelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just don't respect her as a journalist. I have no respect for her. I don't think she is very good. I think she is highly overrated.

But when I came out there, you know, what am I doing? I'm not getting paid for this. I go out there and they start saying, lift up your arm and then I didn't know there would be 24 million people. I knew it was going to be a big crowd because I get big crowds. I get ratings. They call me the ratings machine.

So I have -- she gets out and starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her -- wherever but she was, in my opinion, she was off base. By the way, not in my opinion. In the opinion of hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter because it has been a brutal day.

In one way, a great day for Fox and in another day, in the Twittersphere it's been very bad because she's been very badly criticized.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at --

TRUMP: She is a lightweight. I couldn't care less about her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Then, Trump tried to clarify once again his comments this morning with this tweet saying, quote, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever", and then he adds in parenthesis the inference was nose, "just got on with thought," end quote.

That's what he tweeted.

But it was a little too late for Erik Erickson the head of the redstate.com, which is holding the conservative gathering today in Atlanta. He said this, just hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERICK ERICKSON, REDSTATE.COM: I disinvited Donald Trump. Hang on, just hang on. For those of you who haven't heard, you all deserve an explanation. I'm glad despite some of the comments that the Trump team made last night. I can honestly say this event was sold out before we've even announced he was coming.

I have given Donald Trump a lot of latitude because he is not a professional politician. He has been a very blunt talker. I have said some dumb things in my life. Then I've apologized for them.

I reached out to the Donald Trump campaign last night and said, is Mr. Trump willing to apologize or clarify that he wasn't suggesting that a national reporter who asked him a tough question was having her period? And the campaign manager said, Mr. Trump was talking about her bleeding out of her eyes. She was bleeding everywhere all over Mr. Trump. I said, the bleeding out of the eyes part wasn't the problem. It was what came after that.

And the campaign manager refused to acknowledge he said that. So I told him -- he asked me to send him an e-mail. I put the exact quote in the e-mail. I said, everyone, myself included, is interpreting it this way.

I think it was inappropriate. I really think it was inappropriate. I have my wife here, I have my daughter here, I have 800 friends of mine. It is a family friendly program. And if he is not going to clarify that this isn't what he meant, I don't think I want him at my event.

And so the campaign manager called me back and said, Mr. Trump had said, "Whatever. He was trying to move the questions along, that she was bleeding out of her eyes or whatever trying to get Don Lemon to move beyond or at least he meant whatever. I asked him if he was going to clarify that publicly. They said no. So I said, "I'm sorry, I would prefer Mr. Trump not come to the event."

Now, immediately thereafter, the Trump campaign promptly -- well, first of all after we had reached out to them. Before I had even gotten involved, I was at dinner, our staff here reached out to the Trump campaign to ask if he had actually said this. And instead of responding to us they immediately sent out a press advisory that he was going to speak. That was kind of an indicator.

So after all of this was over, Mr. Trump went on Twitter and said I was a weak and pathetic leader, which is ok. I actually think it is really weak and pathetic to take a tough question from a journalist and assume she is having her period and that's why she asked you a tough question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's bring in Mark Preston, our executive editor for CNN Politics, who is live in Atlanta here outside of where the event will be unfolding. Lots of events throughout the weekend, in fact.

[11:04:58] So Mark, you know, clarity over the comments from Donald Trump and his camp. And now you are also hearing from Erick Erickson who says in his view, this is inexcusable and that an apology is necessary.

So where are we now as it relates to the events? What was planned for Donald Trump this evening, no longer. Now what?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS: Well, Fred, let's just set the table because this is really just unraveling by the minute. We have seen Donald Trump on Twitter addressing this issue in the past hour. We have seen Erick Erickson just a couple of hours ago addressing this issue. I was able to speak to some attendees here to get their reaction.

Now, we saw the crowd reaction to Erick's explanation as to why Donald Trump was disinvited and, by and large, it was received favorably.

However, I did speak to one woman who came down all the way from Indianapolis. And she was upset by it. She is not a Donald Trump supporter. In fact, she said she is probably going to vote for Ted Cruz or Scott Walker but she said that the media and everybody is twisting these words and that Donald Trump should not have been disinvited.

In addition to that we're starting to hear from the Republican presidential candidates and their reaction to this. We have heard so far from Carly Fiorina, George Pataki. We've also heard from Lindsey Graham and just a short time ago, I was able to talk to Governor Mike Huckabee here at the event and asked him what he thought about Donald Trump's comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, Mark, Megyn Kelly was a colleague for me for six and a half years when I was at Fox. She is one of the most remarkable people I know, intellectually, unsurpassed as a broadcast journalist. She has great integrity. And so, you know, I'm going to stand for Megyn Kelly.

PRESTON: Do you think it was inappropriate? Did he cross the line with that comment?

HUCKABEE: You know, Mark, I certainly would never say anything about a person like that. And I hope he apologizes, because I think that he should.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PRESTON: And there you have the former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee who is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination just a short time ago here on CNN.

In addition to that, Fred, Donald Trump, as I said, has been very active on social media. Let me just read you a quick tweet that he has written. Now he's written several of them but let me just read this one very quickly. It says, "Red state, I miss you all. And thanks for all of your support. Political correctness is killing our country, weakness."

So again, another day where Donald Trump is dominating the headlines for the Republican presidential nomination -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Ok. And now the RNC is also asking that more needs to be said. What is this relationship between the RNC and Donald Trump?

PRESTON: Well, they are caught really in a rock and a hard place. In many ways, comments like this from Donald Trump are not helpful to the Republican Party and the Republican brand. The RNC really can't do much. I mean they can't tell Donald Trump that he can't be part of the Republican presidential race.

I mean they are just an organization. It really is going to be really down to the voters. And we will see in public polling over the next week whether this has really hurt Donald Trump.

I can't imagine that it's certainly going to help him. You are probably going to see him slip in the polls. But at this point the RNC, all they can ask, Fred, is for an apology. The big concern amongst Republicans though is that if Donald Trump leaves the Republican Party and launches a third party bid, siphons off enough votes allows the next president to be a Democrat, perhaps Hillary Clinton.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right.

Mark -- stay with us. I want to bring in two more people into this conversation: Jason Johnson, a political science professor at Hiram College and CNN political commentator Ana Navarro, also here in Atlanta.

All right. Good to see all of you now.

Boy the hits just keep coming. It gets more and more interesting.

All right. So Ana, you first. You know, the Trump camp has actually now released yet another statement. You have all these tweets coming from Donald Trump himself. Now, you have the camp saying, "Mr. Trump made Megyn Kelly look really bad. She was a mess with her anger and totally caught off guard. Mr. Trump said, quote, 'Blood was coming out of her eyes and whatever', end quote." Meaning "nose", "but wanted to move on to more important topics. Only a deviant would think anything else."

So now we've got the camp saying, you know, here's some clarity and I don't know, a bit of a jab for those who have interpreted his comments. So does this help or does this kind of make it worse?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: At this point, I'm not even sure how to answer that, because it feels like you are trapped inside a telenovela called "As the Trump World Turns". And it gets weirder and weirder and more surreal by the minute.

He got asked tough questions. So did everybody else on that stage. When you are running for president, your life is an open book. He doesn't have a record in politics. He has a record in business.

WHITFIELD: But Donald Trump, you know, says, tough questions -- instead he says the moderator came out swinging and attacked him. That's his version.

NAVARRO: Because they asked him, for example, they confronted him about his four corporate bankruptcies. What he brings to the table supposedly is his business acumen. So I think it is a very fair question.

[11:10:07] He is a Republican debate -- running for the Republican nomination. It is very fair to ask him. Will you refuse to -- will you pledge to not run as a third party? The questions that everybody else got asked.

You know, they got asked tough questions. Kasich got asked about expansion of Medicare. Jeb Bush got asked about common core, immigration and his brother's war on Iraq. These guys were not out there doling out, you know, puffy questions.

And Trump is the only one complaining because he is used to being the celebrity reality show star who does not get put under scrutiny.

WHITFIELD: So it's interesting here Jason because he -- the inference here is he is being picked on.

JASON JOHNSON, HIRAM COLLEGE: Right, right.

WHITFIELD: And then he has said even before the debate that whenever somebody throws punches, he has a counter punch and this is it.

JOHNSON: Look, he knows how to swing back. And I think we have two different issues actually going on here. One, yes. lots of tough questions were asked but I think he was held more accountable than other people. He was asked by Chris Wallace for follow-up. There were more Trump-oriented questions at that debate than anybody else.

And I thought that was unseemly. It is the debaters who are supposed to attack each other and not the moderators.

WHITFIELD: But now, is it less about what happened and more now about the response, his comments on Lemon last night and now the back and forth over whether there should be clarification or even an apology? Why should anyone think that Donald Trump is going to apologize?

JOHNSON: I don't think he should.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: And you don't think he should.

JOHNSON: I don't think he should at all.

NAVARRO: I think it is ridiculous to suggest that he apologize. This is a man who has said that he has never asked God for forgiveness and I don't know what makes anybody think he'd ask Megyn Kelly for forgiveness.

Look, this is one more stripe on this zebra. This is not an isolated event. He has said offensive things about so many people that we could spend the rest of the show talking about what he said about Mexicans, what he said about Rosie O'Donnell --

JOHNSON: Right.

NAVARRO: -- what he has said about anybody that he doesn't like or that may attack him in some way.

JOHNSON: And we have to say, so did Erick Erickson. He referred to Wendy Davis as "Abortion Barbie". You know, he got on Megyn Kelly and said --

WHITFIELD: And he even said, Erick said I've made some inappropriate comments. I've said and, you know, he's acknowledged that.

JOHNSON: Exactly. He did acknowledge --

NAVARRO: And oftentimes, he's apologized. But look, Erick is no -- Erick is no -- Erick is a good friend of mine.

JOHNSON: Yes.

NAVARRO: Erick is no porcelain rose.

JOHNSON: I was not going to suggest that.

NAVARRO: He is a tough guy and he plays hardball politics. But, you know, I think this is the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of people.

WHITFIELD: Ok. So, Mark, you are here too -- I'm sorry. You're out there but you're here in Atlanta. I want to bring you back into the conversation.

You made -- you know, you talked about the political debates are one thing. The RNC backing the political debates are one thing. He can't be disinvited to that -- Donald Trump. He can because this is an independent kind of forum, you know, four-day, three-day event.

But is Erick Erickson, you know, commenting being more forthright about Donald Trump, his behavior his words that even the RNC Reince Priebus being very delicate about how to handle Donald Trump. Is that a problem. Does this now underscore that there is a problem in which how the RNC should either rein him in if they can, how they handle him?

PRESTON: A couple of things: one, Erick Erickson and the RNC have two totally separate jobs. By the way, they don't even like each other. They are now politically aligned. They're politically aligned in the fact that the Republicans -- and they're probably laughing -- but they're politically right of the Republicans but Erick certainly represents a more conservative side than the RNC.

Now look, for legal reasons right now, the RNC can't disinvite him to a debate. I mean the bottom line is if you qualify for a debate and there is an eligibility criteria that has been created then the person gets invited to the debate.

We have seen the RNC ask for an apology. I'm not really quite sure how much more they can do. It really does rests with the voters right now, with the folks that are attending this red state gathering right behind me. And quite frankly, his rivals for the Republican presidential nominee -- that's what it comes down too.

It will be interesting to see what Scott Walker has to say, what Ted Cruz has to say, what Jeb Bush has to say in the next few hours. We have already seen some of the candidates come out and chastise Mr. Trump.

WHITFIELD: yes because they're all on the line up later on today.

PRESTON: Right. But let's not forget this about Donald Trump. Even folks who I talked to that were happy that Donald Trump was disinvited they did make this point and it is true. Donald Trump is talking about issues and forcing issues into the lexicon right now that conservatives want to hear about even though they are not happy with the Megyn Kelly comment.

So Donald Trump has his supporters. Let's not forget that. Will he drop in the polls? Very likely. But who knows how far that drop is going to be?

WHITFIELD: Ok.

NAVARRO: We'll never know what --

WHITFIELD: I was going to say -- do we really think a very likely drop in the polls? That is hard to tell, isn't it?

PRESTON: Well, even a few percentage points is a lot, certainly with a race of 17 people and everyone scratching for every vote that they could get. So if you lose four or five points, I mean that's significant this early on.

WHITFIELD: All right. So Mark, Ana, Jason, we are not done. We have more time to talk about this. We are going to take a short break and continue this conversation in a moment.

[11:15:04] And you will hear what Trump told CNN about a possible run for the White House as an Independent candidate. Yes, I said the word. All right. Don't forget CNN hosts our first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday September 16th. Plus the first Democratic presidential debate will be live right here on CNN -- that's Tuesday, October 13th. Don't miss either one. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. I am joined again by Jason Johnson, political science professor at Hiram College and CNN political commentator Ana Navarro. We have been talking about Donald Trump's latest controversial comments which actually got him booted from this weekend's conservative gathering in Atlanta held by redstate.com. Trump also is refusing to say whether he might run as an independent candidate telling our Don Lemon last night this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Why can't you just say, if it is a man or a woman, no matter who the nominee is, that you are going to support the Republican nominee no matter who it may be?

TRUMP: Because I don't choose to do so, Don. That's all. I mean what difference is it to you? I don't choose to do so. I will probably at some point do that. I'm only looking forward to one thing, and that's to running as a Republican and winning as a Republican.

LEMON: If you run as a third-party candidate, the concern of the Republicans is that -- from the Republicans that you are going to hand it over to the Democratic person, whether it is Hillary Clinton?

TRUMP: Don, don't worry about it, ok. That's not your problem. That's not your problem.

So what happens is look, I'm leading as a Republican. Obviously it is better to run as a Republican. I'm leading as a Republican. That's what my choice is. And if I'm treated fairly and with respect, and even if I don't get it, I would most likely go ahead and not do that.

But if, on the other hand, I am not. I might very well. At some point, I may switch over and make everybody happy. I would be happy also.

[11:20:02] I will say -- with that being said, I'm being treated very nicely by the RNC and Reince and everybody. They are treating me very nicely and that's basically what I want. I want a level playing field. If I get a level playing field, fairness, it is highly unlikely that I would do the other, which would be what you would call a third party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right.

Jason and Ana back with me now. All right. So Jason you first. How would you describe, what are the words you would use to describe how Donald Trump conducted himself in that exchange with Don Lemon?

JOHNSON: He sounds irritated. I mean part of it is because that's generally speaking Donald Trump's personality. And partially I think there is some legitimate concern. It is kind of like saying, when you don't make the playoffs, what are you going to do? When you don't make the Super Bowl. He's saying -- look, would you let me run. Let's figure this out after Iowa.

WHITFIELD: And he has said for a very long time that he believes he's going to win the nomination. He's in it to win it.

JOHNSON: Exactly. Exactly. So I think that the question of are you going to run for a third party -- I think he is a bit annoyed with that for somewhat good reason.

WHITFIELD: But at the same time, Ana, he has already made the inference early on that he could potentially leave the party if he felt like he needed to. And so now, he is being asked that again. He seems to be irritated, which is the word you used, irritated about the question.

NAVARRO: I thought he was irritated. I thought he was short. I thought he was condescending to Don. And I think that doesn't like to be asked questions. He just likes to talk with no filter.

It is a very different perspective when you are a Republican and you sit there wondering to yourself, well, why is he attending? Why are we giving him all this publicity? Why are we letting him speak to Republican voters? Why is he coming to events like this if he is not saying he is not going to run a third party?

Remember this is a guy who has limitless money. He is also a very good friend has been a good friend of the Clinton. Have given them large amounts of money. He's taking political advice from Bill Clinton. So I would tell you it would make a lot of reasonable Republicans nervous to think we are making this guy a bigger brand. We are giving him more political platforms to speak at. And he is not telling us that he is not going to go and hand over the presidency to Hillary Clinton by running as a third party.

WHITFIELD: But at the same time he is -- while he is being blamed, he is also getting credit for bringing up issues that other Republicans, supporters and other contenders have said, we like this. We like that we are now talking about immigration because of his comments that so insulted many.

NAVARRO: Yes. He has been talking about immigration from day one.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: It was in a completely different manner than the way he had done it. WHITFIELD: But he is at the top. He's at the top of the polling. So

the way he is bringing these things up or topics he is bringing up certainly is winning him favor.

JOHNSON: Yes. He is leading in the polls for a reason. He is not being given anything by the Republican Party. There are Republican voters who actually like what he has to say. And if somebody doesn't like him running for a third party, then let Jeb beat him and let Scott beat him. Let someone else beat him rather than worrying about him running as a third-party candidate.

Navarro: Right. But the point is what if he gets beat and then run because he's not pledging not to run. Look, what he is doing is tapping into the anger, the frustration that so many American voters have with the dysfunction that's going on in Washington?

There are a plethora, you know, you pick it, of issues that are not getting addressed. People are frustrated are angry, are worried, are concerned, are fearful and he's tapping into that.

WHITFIELD: And that word unfiltered he used earlier -- that's also why he is winning such great support.

NAVARRO: Because they see him as --

WHITFIELD: So why does he suddenly become filtered?

NAVARRO: Nobody is suggesting that. I am not sure that he could. I don't think anybody should suggest that he be filtered because I am not sure that Trump is capable of filtering what goes between his brain and his mouth.

WHITFIELD: The RNC says he needs to apologize. This is somebody who has already said he has no regrets. Apology is not something that we should expect from Donald Trump. He wouldn't be as unfiltered as he is. What is the expectation moving forward?

While Redstate.com is able to disinvite him. The RNC -- any upcoming political debate they can't. And we don't know whether the poll -- his poll numbers will take a hit as a result of in the debate the other night. How does Donald Trump need to position himself? What should we expect from Donald Trump and what should we expect from the other contenders who feel like they have to respond to Donald Trump?

NAVARRO: Fred, I've given up. I've given up predicting -- what to expect from Donald Trump a long time ago.

JOHNSON: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: You may as well just throw it up in the air and see what lands.

JOHNSON: If he is smart at this point, he should recognize he fell into a trap. Like he should have known that they were going to ask him these kinds of questions and he should have been more prepared. If I was his staff, I would say, we need to really think clearly about --

WHITFIELD: Prepared in what way -- in terms of specificity or certain issues? We didn't hear anything about policy I guess from him at all? But expecting what?

JOHNSON: I mean -- you know. Trump has a tendency to say sexist things, racist things, offensive things. He has and so have other Republicans who were on that stage that particular night. And he should have known better than to attack Megyn Kelly, not because she is a woman, not necessarily because she's Megyn Kelly but also because she works at Fox News.

And that is a place that many Republicans have --

WHITFIELD: And that's another interesting relationship. I guess there was some thinking or feeling that perhaps he would feel like Fox is his friend, you know, because he is a Republican and he is conservative, et cetera. There is an interesting relationship going on between them.

[112502] NAVARRO: And frankly, I'm glad that that first debate was on Fox and that it was the Fox moderators asking those tough questions of every single Republican that was on that stage. Because, you know, had it been our Jake Tapper, who is the next moderator, he would be accused of being in cahoots with Democrats and being biased.

They can't make that argument against Megyn Kelly, against Bret Baier, against Chris Wallace. So he is going for ad hominem attacks.

WHITFIELD: So what kind of frustration might there be among the other contenders who thought at least at this event this weekend -- this three-day even this weekend -- that everyone would be on a level playing field -- I'm using the words of the Donald Trump earlier? You know, wanted to be on a level playing field. They have this event where there is great support and interest in the party and these candidates and here we go again. It is Donald Trump who is not even there who is upstaging everybody?

NAVARRO: Look they have to get on with what they are doing. They have to focus on their campaigns, their message delivered, go out and do more retail politicking during the event. I think that's what everybody is doing. If you sit down and just, you know, pop yourself some popcorn and pour yourself some wine and watch Trump telenovela, you are not going to get elected.

JOHNSON: And I think look, I just saw Mike Huckabee speak, you're going to have several other major contenders speaking this week. They are still behind. They have a job to do of selling themselves to Republican voters. I don't think they need to worry about Trump that much. They need to worry about themselves. What they're going to do, how to prepare for the next debate because Trump is going to be Trump and Jeb needs to be Jeb and Marco needs to be Marco. Everybody else simply needs do their job and stay in their lane. WHITFIELD: Yes. And here we thought this weekend, we're going to be

talking about the debate and how to prepare for the next one and -- boom.

NAVARRO: The good news is that where the red state gathering is, they also have a restaurant called (INAUDIBLE) I read has the best bourbon bar in the country. So at least there's something that we can control ourselves with.

WHITFIELD: There's lots more discussions there.

All right. Thanks so much Ana -- it's good to see you. And Jason as well -- good to see you. Thanks so much.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Don't miss CNN's STATE OF THE UNION with Jake Tapper, tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., noon eastern. Lots of political conversations taking place tomorrow morning. In fact, one of the candidates, Carly Fiorina, will be among his guests and also Ohio Governor, John Kasich.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: James Holmes who killed 12 people and wounded 70 others in Aurora, Colorado movie theater will soon be headed to prison for life. A jury chose life in prison for Holmes over the death penalty. CNN's Ana Cabrera has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Life in prison without parole, that is the sentence for the man convicted of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. It is the end result of a lengthy and emotional trial, 15 weeks, 306 witnesses, more than 2,600 pieces of evidence.

The jury deliberated for less than seven hours and ultimately determined they could not reach a unanimous verdict on his sentence. As a result, James Holmes, by default, gets a life in prison without parole sentence for killing 12 people inside that packed movie theater back in July of 2012 and wounding 70 others.

Now all along, the prosecution has pushed for the death penalty saying justice is death while the defense urged mercy. They said James Holmes was mentally ill at the time of the crime and that he should not be killed because you don't kill sick people.

Jurors did hear from several mental health experts. They agreed he does, indeed, suffer from mental illness, yet, they convicted him on all counts saying they believe he understood right from wrong at the time of the crime. Perhaps the mental illness did play a factor in their sentence. Again, the punishment for James Holmes, life in prison without parole. The families had been waiting three years for some closure. This offers them a chance to move forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE HOOVER, VICTIM A.J. BOIK'S UNCLE: Tomorrow, the sun is going to come up. We are going to have a little more pain, a little more hurt in our lives, but the sun will come up and there will still be love in our lives. We have to remember that. We have to remember the victims.

SANDY PHILLIPS, VICTIM JESSICA GHAW'S MOTHER: We didn't lose loved ones. Our loved ones were ripped from us and they were slaughtered in that movie theater. The jury chose another way. We have to accept that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: A little more perspective here, the death penalty is relatively rare in Colorado. There has only been one person executed in the past half century or so, back in 1997. Only three people are currently on Colorado's death row. Ironically they are all from this very county. Ana Cabrera, CNN, Centennial, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Still ahead in Afghanistan this morning, destruction and death following a series of attacks in Kabul. An American service member among dozens killed. Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:36:44]

WHITFIELD: All right, this morning, a U.S. defense official telling CNN that an American service member was among those killed in an attack on a coalition military facility in Afghanistan. At least nine deaths also reported including civilian contractors. It was one of the series of strikes by insurgents that left hundreds injured and more than 50 dead.

The U.S. State Department is condemning the attack saying, quote, "These attacks demonstrate again the insurgency's complete disregard for the lives of innocent Afghans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims," end quote.

This blood shed coming as the intelligence community warns ISIS may be getting more ambitious in its plots to kill Americans. Joining us via Skype from Portland, Oregon is retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and CNN military analyst, Rick Francona.

Good to see you, Colonel. We are being told ISIS may be trying to plan mass casualty attacks in the U.S. or at least in some way involving Americans, a real departure from the lone wolf strategy. How do you interpret this information? RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I wouldn't call it so much a departure. I think it will be in addition. They will continue to try these lone wolf attacks because it works for them. They want to play in the big leagues and like al Qaeda was a decade ago.

They want to set up training camps and bring in resources and create that massive casualty attack when the United States create that significant emotional event just like 9/11 was. It is very ambitious.

We have known they want to do this for some time. Now that they own territory on the ground, they can actually set up these camps. Until the air campaign is more effective, they are going to be able to do it.

WHITFIELD: So how does this further complicates counter terrorism planning?

FRANCONA: It does. Now the intelligence community who is trying to focus on al Qaeda and ISIS, and the lone wolf attacks, very, very difficult to do, now, they have to worry about ISIS morphing out into yet another aspect of attacks.

WHITFIELD: And in your view, does that mean potentially a greater collaboration between federal, local authorities and military as they anticipate whatever kind of planning may be under way from these groups?

FRANCONA: You know, we are getting better at this. You know, 9/11, that was one of the problems they said there is this wall between the law enforcement and intelligence community between the federal authorities and the local authorities.

I think a lot of it is broken down, but it still exists. The problem is the intelligence flow getting it out down to the local responders and we are getting better at it, but we still need to keep doing this, as we have seen, and as the FBI director has told us, these lone wolves are very, very difficult to detect and almost impossible to stop.

WHITFIELD: All right, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

All right, still to come, an unarmed 19-year-old is shot and killed by a police officer in South Carolina. Some are asking where is the outrage? Nick Valencia is covering this controversial shooting.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Fred. Police call it a justified shooting. The family of the victim says there is something missing. I'm Nick Valencia in Atlanta. We'll bring you that story right after the break. You are watching the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[11:43:33]

WHITFIELD: A South Carolina family says the police shooting of their unarmed teenage son was not warranted and they believe the case has escaped the national headlines because their son is white.

Joining me now is CNN's Nick Valencia. So tell us about this case.

VALENCIA: This is really starting to get a lot of national attention especially since you consider it, it happened more than two weeks ago. The police saying that this is a justified shooting, the officer had feared for his life. The family saying, their son didn't have to die.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): July 26th, 2015, 19-year-old Zachary Hammond is on a date with 23-year-old Torri Morton, who is the target of a drug sting. When they pull into a Hardee's parking lot, police are waiting.

According to the police report, Hammond, who was driving, attempted to strike an officer with his vehicle during the attempted arrest. He was shot twice and dies at the scene.

JOHN COVINGTON, SENECA POLICE CHIEF: It is a horrible situation. You get put in a predicament that when you sign up to be a police officer there is that potential that you might have to use deadly force.

VALENCIA: The Seneca police chief says his officer is a victim too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A victim of attempted murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a hard time believing it when my son is no longer here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That he is the victim.

VALENCIA: The Hammonds say police have not given them answers. They went looking for their own. An independent autopsy they conducted shows their son was shot from behind and at close range. The family attorney says the results show that the car was stopped at the time of the shooting.

[11:45:05] ANGIE HAMMOND, VICTIM'S MOTHER: It has been very hard. Not only are we grieving that our son is gone. We don't know why it happened or what happened. We are just trying to find answers.

VALENCIA: Lieutenant Mark Tiller is the officer involved in the shooting, a ten-year veteran and no history of getting in trouble. In a statement, Tiller's attorney put the blame on the 19-year-old Hammond.

"In order to stop the continuing threat to himself and the general public, two shots were fired by Lieutenant Tiller in quick succession. If not for lieutenant Tiller's quick reflexes and his ability to push off of the car, he would have easily been run over by Mr. Hammond."

On Friday, Hammond supporters held a vigil in hopes that attention to his killing will bring them answers from police.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VALENCIA: The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is investigating this and telling CNN they are still collecting evidence. We have asked them to release the dash cam video of the incident and they said it is still part of their ongoing investigation and will not be releasing it at this time -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, heart breaking story. Nick Valencia, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

All right still on the way, police in France investigated burglary that targeted a Formula 1 star driver, Jenson Button and his wife. Were they knocked out by gas before the criminal struck?

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[11:50:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. A Formula 1 driver, Jenson Button and his model wife are the victims of a burglary that sounds like something out of a "Mission Impossible" movie.

Thieves reportedly gassed the couple as they slept in their vacation villa on the French Riviera knocking them out for hours as the burglars made off with almost a half million dollars in loot. CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen has more.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): One of the top race drivers in the world robbed when he was most vulnerable. Jenson Button was asleep in a rented villa in France, and his wife, Jessica and some friends also in the house.

Jenson, Jessica and friends were on holiday in a rented villa in St. Tropez when on Monday evening two men broke into the property whilst they all slept and stole a number of items of jewelry including most upsettingly Jessica's engagement ring." Button's spokesman said.

The ring alone is allegedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In total, media reports say almost $500,000 worth of jewelry may have been stolen.

Even more disturbing, Button believes the burglars may have used gas to knock him and his guests out according to his spokesman. St. Tropez is on the French Riviera and frequented by the rich and famous and break-ins happen quite frequently says Will Geddes who runs the International Corporate Protection Company.

WILL GEDDES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE PROTECTION: There have been a number of reported instance where gas has been used by intruders, burglars who have been trying to obtain access to properties, to burglarize especially when the occupants are in residence.

PLEITGEN: In 2006, burglars allegedly pumped sleeping gas into the Canne home of French soccer star, Patrick Vierra (ph) before breaking in. But the vice president of London's World College of Anaesthetists says he is skeptical.

DR. LIAM BRENNAN, VICE PRESIDENT, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ANAESTHETISTS: Anesthetic agent as we use in operating state would need to be delivered in enormous concentrates to produce the effects that has been reported and that would be very difficult -- the delivery devices that we use in an operating state would just not fit the bill for this purpose.

PLEITGEN: Whether or not gas was used, Button says and he and his wife and friends didn't notice the break-in as it was going on and that all of them are shaken by the events. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, joining us from New York to talk more about this is fascinating, former special agent, Jonathan Gilliam. He is also a former police officer and former Navy SEAL.

All right, Jonathan, that is the most peculiar type of burglary, this use of gases and then to hear as you heard from Fred Pleitgen that there are a number of burglaries taking place there in St. Tropez. So how common is this method or how common is it becoming this method of using gas?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Well, Fred, I'm not sold on the fact that that's what happened. I think you said it best. It's very peculiar to me. What it appears to me if I was just going off the cuff here from the facts that we have. I would have to say this looks to me like somebody who probably works in that villa.

I mean, in one of the reports, it was described as a mansion. That's a lot of gas to be able to pump in. I mean, the Russians tried to do this in 2002 with a theater that was taken over by Chechnyans and they killed 130 of the hostages because it's hard to control this gas. You have to pump in such mass quantities of it. So I'm just not sold on that.

WHITFIELD: OK, so even without the use of gasses. We understand among the facts to be that they were in the villa. They were sleeping. They did have, you know, lots of property, jewelry, expensive things, you know, to amount so much in loot, a half million in loot. So how might somebody have done something like this while people were sleeping?

GILLIAM: OK, so let's go back to the gas real quick. They could have gassed individual rooms, that's possible because that makes it a little bit smaller and easy to contain. If they are -- if it's an inside job and people work at these villas, which -- this could kind of lay creams to the fact that it happens to a lot of these places because there is a lot of wealthy people that are there.

They have people that work there. They could have gone in if they were serving drinks and food and they could have put stuff into food or drinks that make them tired. I mean, if anybody that's ever taken Ambien will tell you that once you're out, you're out on that stuff. [11:55:10] So -- and then it's a simple as walking in and taking it. And if they work there, they could have keys where they are unlock the door and there is no break-in.

WHITFIELD: Yes, this is interesting because we are talking like you mentioned properties and the people who are attracted to St. Tropez, there is a lot of money there. So there are also a lot of cameras.

I remember while a back where there was this like jewelry heist problem happening and they ended up relying on a lot of the cameras in order to finally get the people who were stealing from these jewelers there.

So wouldn't there be a lot of cameras on perhaps the road ways leading up to these villas?

GILLIAM: There should be and that again leads to the fact that it was an inside job. I mean, somebody that's there that does not have to leave and come back, they're not going to be seen by the cameras. There are criminals, Fred, that are experts at doing things.

We have bank robberies in the United States that happen here that they go in from the roof and look like construction. These things happen all of the time.

With the people that were robbed, though, is they woke up from whatever haze it was and they put two what they think is two and two together, but they're confused because they don't really know. Whatever it was made them sleep right through it. They just can't imagine that.

WHITFIELD: It's quit the mystery. Jonathan Gilliam, thank you so much.

GILLIAM: You got it.

WHITFIELD: All right, the next hour of the NEWSROOM begins right after a short break.

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