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Former Trump Adviser: I Resigned Because I Was Having No Impact; New Surveillance of Police Shooting of Teen. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 09, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Laura said, "I'm sure we can dumb ourselves down to gain entry into the next game, NFL Neanderthals."

[08:00:08] Caroline Elizabeth, she was supported. She said, "I kind of love this. I already have tailgating Pinterest board."

Now, Leah said, "We want sports not fashion and recipes."

So, a lot of heated talk with this. And we'll keep it coming. Keep using #NewDayCNN and we'll use your comments.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Coy, thank you so much.

And thank you so much for starting your morning with us.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Your NEW DAY continues right now.

PAUL: A campaign shake-up from the Republican presidential front- runner who we should hear from in just about an hour. Donald Trump and his top political adviser splitting up. Is this part of a bigger here, though?

BLACKWELL: A new surveillance video showing the moments before a rookie police officer kills an unarmed teenager. One of the many questions, why is this victim standing on top of a car?

PAUL: We always appreciate your company in the morning. Good morning. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

In about an hour, we will hear from Donald Trump directly. He's going to appear on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."

Now, two controversies we're waiting for him to address publicly. First, the comment about Megyn Kelly.

Also, the most recent claim that Trump fired a top adviser Roger Stone. Stone disputes that. He says he quit.

In his resignation letter, Trump's former adviser says that current controversies have distracted attention from Trump's platform and message. But, Trump's campaign says Stone was fired because he was using the campaign to seek publicity for himself.

PAUL: So, let's talk about this with CNN politics executive editor Mark Preston. What is your read and what is the buzz about all of this?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, this is really a he said/he said situation between Donald Trump and one of his top senior advisers. Now, this happened late yesterday afternoon as Donald Trump was withering this firestorm regarding his comments about Megyn Kelly. Roger Stone came on our air to say why he said he resigned.

Let's hear what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER STONE, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: I resigned largely because I thought I was having no impact and the campaign has been diverted from those picture issues that have catapulted Trump to the number one position in the polls, which I thought was counterproductive.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Can you take us into what happened behind closed doors? The camp says you were fired. You say, "I was not fired, I resigned." When exactly did it happen? And take us into that room.

STONE: It's very simple. I made a decision this morning that I was having no impact and I e-mailed a letter to Donald, saying that I wished him the very best that I would have nothing negative to say about him, or his campaign.

When you're in a campaign, you're in a situation where you have a lot of confidential information, and I have no intention of talking about internal campaign deliberations, or who said what to whom. All I can really do at this point is offer my advice and how I view the way the campaign should go forward.

HARLOW: So, you sent a letter.

STONE: Correct.

HARLOW: You sent an e-mail.

STONE: Correct.

HARLOW: What did you hear back?

STONE: I didn't hear anything back. I was called by a "Washington Post" reporter early this afternoon who told me that Trump said that I had been fired, which is inaccurate.

HARLOW: Thirty-five years you've been very close friend of Donald Trump --

STONE: I've been to two of his three weddings. I went to both his parents' funerals. His sister Maryanne Trump Barry is a very good friend of mine.

HARLOW: Do you still consider him a friend?

STONE: Yes, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: There you have Roger Stone explaining why he said he resigned. But there's even more intrigue to this. Roger Stone says that he thinks Donald Trump should still be president. Let's hear what he had to say there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STONE: He understands the issues facing the country. This is a very, very smart man. Isn't it time to have a president who is smart?

He graduated the top of his class at Wharton. He knows the challenges facing the country. And he's a superstar. It's why he is -- he's a real contender in this race. If I had the opportunity to vote for him in the primaries, I would.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: Well, there you have roger stone explaining the situation that is a he said/he said situation. You know, Roger Stone in many ways is saying that he would support Donald Trump.

There's still a lot of people out there that will support Donald Trump. We see that on social media. He is leading in the polls right now. We'll see what happens this week after the comments and his controversy to see if he slips.

Most importantly, as well, he will have that bloc of support that would back Donald Trump and he has a lot of money.

BLACKWELL: All right. Mark Preston, thanks.

PRESTON: Thanks.

PAUL: So, we want to talk more about this with Karin Agness. She is the founder of the Network of Enlightened Women. Also with us Donna Horvith, who is a member of the Women for Trump Coalition.

Thank you so much ladies for being with us.

KARIN AGNESS, NETWORK OF ENLIGHTENED WOMEN: Thank you.

DONNA HORVITH, WOMEN FOR TRUMP COALITION: You're welcome.

PAUL: We know that Donald Trump is set to appear on CNN in just about an hour.

Karen, what would you like to hear from him?

AGNESS: First, I'd like to hear an apology. The words he's using and the way he's talking about omen are unacceptable, and inappropriate. And then secondly I'd like to hear a plan for how he thinks he can actually win the election, when he's gone off and alienated a majority of voters, which is women.

[08:05:05] PAUL: Donna, do you think an apology would help in terms of talking to the masses? And I say that after he called anybody who believed that his comments about Megyn Kelly was a deviant if they thought that he was referring to her being hormonal. Would an apology help in this regard?

HORVITH: No, I don't believe so, because they came at him like he had a bull's-eye on him, and the questions were not fair. They had nothing to do with the current affairs of the country. And that's what Donald Trump is trying to run for president because he wants to fix what's wrong with this country. And there's a lot of things wrong with this country.

PAUL: Do you think, though, that, I -- the first question that was asked was about his temperament. You can understand, can you not, why some people would think with the name calling, and some of the rants on Twitter, that there could be concerns about his temperament as president?

HORVITH: I don't believe so. I believe he came out the way he did because he was badgered. We're not getting to any current events that are happening in this country. We're not touching on anything that whole debate didn't touch on any current events as far as I'm concerned with Donald Trump. They just badgered him about his --

PAUL: Well, they did ask him about Mexico. They asked him about some of his policies. What policies do you support? Why do you support him?

HORVITH: I support the immigration policy that he's hopefully will have. I support his patriotism for this country. I support that he loves this country and is going to try and bring us back to -- from where we are right now, which is not a good place.

PAUL: But his policies. Is there a policy, specifically, of his that he has outlined that you support?

HORVITH: Immigration.

PAUL: Immigration. OK. And, but, what is the policy? I haven't heard the policy. So I'm just wondering if I'm missing something.

HORVITH: No, I think that he's going to build a wall and protect our country from people coming in here illegal, and they're not, you know, people who -- I'm a little bit nervous. People that are coming in here are not really stand-up people for the community. They want to come in and they want to -- they want to come in and -- live off of us, basically.

PAUL: OK.

HORVITH: To want to come in here legally, you know, are doing the right thing. That's what I believe.

PAUL: OK. OK. I got you.

Karin, when you look at how well Donald Trump is doing, there is no doubt -- I mean even reading some of the tweets that are coming to him today, somebody said you're being attacked from all sides, yet you have the people's hearts, just be calm and trust yourself, we love you.

What do you make of, of the support that he has, and what would you like to say to Donald Trump if you could sit down with him?

AGNESS: Well, first on the issue of like how many people are excited about him we have to remember this is the primary, this is early in the primary, and he's got a celebrity show, right? He's got a reality TV show. So a lot of it early on is name ID, we can't lose track of that.

Carly Fiorina I heard her say the other day that only 40 percent of Republicans even knew her name before the debate. So, this makes the case for why we need these debates. We need people to hear these ideas and what Trump believes and what the other candidates believe.

And what I'd like to say, if I could sit down with Mr. Trump is let's talk about the policy that you just brought up. Let's talk about immigration. Let's talk about health care. Let's get the discussion back to policy, and away from the name calling. The name calling is not productive. And it shouldn't be in our primary.

PAUL: Getting back into the policy conversations obviously is one thing that both of you women certainly do agree on. Karin Agness and Donna Horvith, so grateful to have both of you with us this morning. Thank you, ladies.

AGNESS: Thank you.

HORVITH: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: New questions this morning about the shooting of an unarmed teenager by a rookie cop, new surveillance video out this morning. We're going to break it down for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:12:53] PAUL: New video this morning that we want to share with you of the moments before the death of Christian Taylor. The 19-year- old black teenager from Arlington, Texas, was shot and killed by a rookie cop earlier Friday morning. This was after he broke into a car dealership and this is the video. We do understand it has been edited, but it was released by a surveillance company appearing to show the teenager hopping on the hood of a car you see there. He's trying to bash in the windshield.

Nick Valencia has been following this story.

What do we know about the investigation thus far? NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Initial stages thus far. The

investigators still have not spoken to the officer involved in the shooting, 49-year-old Brad Miller, who shot and killed Christian Taylor in the early morning hours of Friday. Taylor was a football player at a local college.

He shows up at a car dealership acting erratically. You can see this video here that we just obtained overnight attempting to punch a car windshield. Next he jumps on top of the hood of a car, tries to smash through that windshield. He's wearing sunglasses at night, behaving very strangely as well.

At one point he drives his Jeep, according to police, into the front of that car dealership. Police chief of Arlington, looking at that video there of his driving into that front windshield, police chief spoke about this saying it's going to be a comprehensive investigation. Clearly he's saying that he has a lot on his plate right now. The timing of this, about one year since mike brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, and he mentioned that yesterday.

The father of this individual, Christian Taylor, spoke to the media, as well, talking about his son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIAN TAYLOR, FATHER: Shoot an unarmed man? And you trained to take down -- as a police officer you trained to take down men with your hands. You have your tasers, you have your clubs, whatever there is, unarmed, 19-year-old. And you shoot to kill?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: The police chief says that he's invited the FBI to participate in this investigation. He says in the next 7 to 10 days more video and more audio of that 911 call will be released. He says if they understand or if they come to the conclusion that this was an unjustified shooting, that that rookie police officer will face consequences.

[08:15:00] A lot of people paying attention to this because that officer was a rookie. He chose to use his service web weapon. The other officer who converged on Christian Taylor used his Taylor. But Brad Miller was the one who fired those fatal shots.

PAUL: All right. We appreciate it, Nick. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump on CNN at the top of the hour. But he's not the only Republican presidential candidate on this morning. Jake Tapper joins us with a preview of his interviews with Carly Fiorina and John Kasich, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right. At the top of the hour we'll hear from Donald Trump. He's going to appear on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." Two controversies we're waiting for him to address. First the

comments about Megyn Kelly. And also the most recent claim that Trump fired his top adviser and friend Roger Stone.

And joining us to talk about this is host of "STATE OF THE UNION", Jake Tapper.

Jake, I don't know if you saw or heard it but we had a member of Women for Trump Coalition from New Hampshire on the show just a few minutes ago. And discussing with Christi this new controversy with Megyn Kelly and she says she still stands behind him because they were badgering him. They came after him.

And it just follows the pattern that, you know, the typical rules don't apply to Donald Trump.

[08:20:01] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, STATE OF THE UNION: That's right. And all these controversies seem to have made him only more popular, and stronger with the Republican base that is supporting him. At first, it was his comments about Mexico sending over illegal immigrants committing a lot of crimes. People thought oh, no that's going to really offend people. Trump went up in the polls.

Then, he went after John McCain's war heroism. John McCain not very popular among the conservative base because of positions he's taken throughout the years. People thought oh, no, you know, this is it. Donald Trump's finished. No, he got stronger and stronger, became the front-runner after that.

And I don't know that these comments, even though they are targeting a popular figure with conservatives, that is Megyn Kelly of FOX News, I don't know that these comments are going to hurt him either. Because it does feed in to this narrative that Trump and his supporters believe, which is that the establishment is against him. The establishment is out to get him.

So, I guess we'll see what he has to say in a few minutes. But I'm also interested in seeing is this going to have any impact on his support?

BLACKWELL: Yes, and Trump just one of three GOP candidates you have on the show today, right?

TAPPER: That's right. There are, just in case anybody was wondering, 16 other Republicans running for president. We will have two of the others, people who got good reviews from pundits and from voters for their performances in the two different debates.

Carly Fiorina, who she did not make the main debate but people are wondering if her debate performance in the undercard debate was so strong she might be there at the Reagan Library in September when I moderate the debate for CNN. She'll be on the show.

And then, also, we have John Kasich, he was a hometown boy of sorts given that the debate was in Cleveland. He's the governor of Ohio. A lot of people liked what he had to say. BLACKWELL: Looking forward to it. Jake Tapper, thanks so much.

TAPPER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: "STATEH OF THE UNION" starts at the top of the hour, 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

PAUL: An emergency landing and a shattered windshield. Would you have wanted to be on this plane? We'll tell you about the nasty storm that forced this cross-country flight to land early.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to Hell Kitchen, New York. This is my very favorite neighborhood because frankly it's real. I'm the unpretentious sort. I like working-class people. All kinds of characters here, there are great restaurants, including this one (INAUDIBLE), the best Mexican restaurant anywhere.

What's the secret to your success?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My secret is (INAUDIBLE)

COSTELLO: You make us feel like family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. 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 waterfalls 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 and if you want to know why, just look up at the ceiling. At the October sky, full of 2,500 stars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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, of 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 out of one solid piece of precious opal.

COSTELLO: You're kidding?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Little do they know that is a fortune.

COSTELLO: Thanks for tagging along. Now come on and visit New York City. Oh, I got to catch my train!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:28:00] BLACKWELL: A tragic find in Houston. Three adults, and five children were found dead in a house. Police say they were doing a welfare check at a home when they found a man inside. The man was wanted on aggravated assault charges. Officers then surrounded the home and went inside.

And when the 49-year-old man began shooting at them, they, of course, took him down, and after negotiating with him he was escorted out, taken into custody. Police have not yet released the causes of death.

PAUL: A Delta flight traveling from Boston to Salt Lake City looks like this after it had to be diverted as it flew through a thunderstorm. Things deteriorated quickly we're told. The flight experienced severe turbulence and hail. As you can see battered that plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was the scariest ten minutes of my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We went around the corner, and from the window we could see the shattered windshield, we could see kind of a hole over the engine where lightning had struck. The nose of the plane was missing. It was really intense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: The pilot had to make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport and one person was taken to the hospital.

BLACKWELL: Tropical Storm Soudelor causing some new major problems bringing heavy rains to China. This could go on for days. By the time it moved inland Saturday, Soudelor had weakened considerably but packed wind gusts up to 52 miles per hour. Before it was downgraded from a typhoon, it killed five people in Taiwan. Five others are still missing.

PAUL: And congratulations Kim Chambers. She just became the first women to swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. We're talking 30 miles of shark infested water. It took Chambers 17 hours 12 minutes to complete her journey and she says many times she wasn't sure she'd be able to finish. But she did, joining only four other people, all men, to do so.

So, congratulations to her and to her team all those people cheering her on there.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely.

PAUL: Good to see you.

We're always so grateful for you. Made some great memories today.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS WITH JOHN KING" starts right now.