Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Arrests & Violence During Ferguson Protests; Trump Refuses to Apologize to Kelly; Colorado Governor Declares State of Emergency; Deadly Violence Surges in Turkey. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 11, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:40] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

More arrests overnight in Ferguson after protests marking one year since the Michael Brown shooting turned violent. Police say demonstrators threw rocks. They threw frozen water bottles at them and 23 people were then taken to custody.

This followed an earlier demonstration, a much bigger one, outside a St. Louis courthouse where almost 60 people were arrested. A state of emergency remains in effect in St. Louis County.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump refusing to apologize for his remarks about FOX News moderator Megyn Kelly, and now, a twist. After Trump had a conversation with the head of FOX that, quote, "clear the air," Kelly did not go at him on his show and called his campaign successful. Trump says he got an assurance that FOX will treat him fairly, the whole scenario, raising questions about FOX's role in the GOP process.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper forced to declare a state of emergency Monday after a chemical leak in the Animas River turned out to be worse than initially thought. The EPA now saying 3 million gallons of toxic orange sludge spilled into the river. That's three times more than earlier estimates. It happened last week when an EPA clean up crew broke a debris dam inside an abandoned gold mine.

CABRERA: Breaking overnight, a deadly surge in violence rocking Turkey as Turkish warplanes bombed more than a dozen Turkish separatist targets in southeast Turkey this morning. This, as the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, set to reopen after coming under fire yesterday.

CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is joining us live in Istanbul, Turkey, tracking all the latest -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are still warning American citizens to avoid large gatherings, even though the consulate is still open. They know those that attacked the consulate were obscure Marxist/Leninist group. Two female gunmen, one injured and one arrested during that attack.

At the same time, roughly, a police station was hit there in the capital. Violence rocking this place that should be full of tourists right now, relaxed and calm. Not that sense right now.

And in the south today, this morning, another soldier killed bringing the total to six in the last 24 hours now, four police killed in remote controlled bomb and a soldier killed in a helicopter accident. It's a very complex fight here.

(AUDIO GAP) up the stakes and go for ISIS targets with its jets, abut at the same time, said it would go against its controversy, the Kurds, those 17 air strikes mentioned earlier hitting targets around Turkey earlier on today.

[06:35:10] The problem for the United States in all of this is that, in fact, the Kurds the Turkish are attacking are allies the U.S. is using to fight ISIS, other Kurds. An extraordinary complex fight here and one is that as the violence escalates gets more challenging for the U.S. -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Nick, thanks so much for that. We turn to business now. Big, big changes at Google this morning.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here for CNN Money now.

A new parent company for Google.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Google shaking things up. It's separating the advertising business from its diverse so-called "moon shots", think driverless cars, robots, hot air balloons that bring Internet service, all of these different endeavors of Google, restructuring and streamlining all these businesses under the umbrella of this new parent company called Alphabet run by Google's cofounders.

Google's senior vice president of Product will be the CEO of the core Google business that serves android maps and YouTube.

Here are the business lines, we've got a graphic for you I think. We've got research focused life sciences, the maker of Google contact lenses, for example, Google X labs, that's the brilliant and crazy ideas department, its driverless cars, drone deliveries, et cetera, Google Ventures. Calico, that's longevity, living longer.

Google says these new companies will have more independence and more freedom to take risks. The stock, you guys, up 20 percent this year. This morning, investors are excited about this restructuring, the stock up another 6 percent this morning.

And Larry Page says they are calling it Alphabet because it is one of humanities most important innovations, Alphabet. So, they wanted to name the whole company up there.

CABRERA: When you put up the tree, you know what Google has going on and whey they had to split up.

All right. Thank you so much, Christine.

Donald Trump dominating the polls and the headlines, and its rival finding it hard to even get noticed in this race right now. It's a predicament for the Republican Party. We'll discuss with the former Minnesota governor and 2012 presidential candidate, Tim Pawlenty.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:41:17] MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I have decided not to respond. Mr. Trump is an interesting man who has captured the attention of the electorate. That's why he's leading in the polls. Trump, who is the front runner, will not apologize. And I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly went on TV, typically not taking on the Trump situation, that Trump says put her on the bad list with many of his supporters. Now, Trump says he won't apologize, and you heard her say she is not apologizing either.

But Trump does seem to have made peace with FOX News in an odd mix of media and politics.

Now, intrigue aside, one thing the situation has done, for sure, is once again put all the other GOP candidates in the shadow.

So, what is the GOP to do? Let's talk to Governor Tim Pawlenty, who run for president in 2012, of course, governor of Minnesota, now the CEO of Financial Services Roundtable.

Governor, good to see you again.

TIM PAWLENTY (R), FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: Good to see you, Chris.

CUOMO: So, what do you do with Trump? You can't ignore his base. He is a big energy. The party has to make an assessment about whether or not he can be their guy. How do you see it?

PAWLENTY: Well, when you're dealing with a tornado or hurricane, you mostly just have to let it pass. I'm not sure there's a lot the party can do even if it wanted to as an entity. There's a little bit of collateral upside for the candidates. The viewership on that debate was triple or quadruple --

CUOMO: Huge, huge.

PAWLENTY: -- than a normal debate. So, they got some collateral benefit from that. But in terms of his sucking all the oxygen out of the media room, at least for now, that's just what it is going to be. There is a fusion of entertainment news and politics, this is Trump's moment, good or bad, and the other candidates have to wait for it to pass.

CUOMO: You think it passes?

PAWLENTY: I think -- it does. Look, there's a market in politics for rawness, for bluntness, for direct talk, for straight talk, but there's also a line between that and appropriateness. And you can be strong but you can't be mean, and you can't go over that line. I think Donald Trump is going to have to decide whether he really wants to be an entertainer or whether he's going to be a serious candidate for president, and his behavior last week indicates the later -- excuse me, the former.

CUOMO: The former, right -- thank you. I didn't get it either, Governor. Thank you for clarifying for us.

Governor, does it give you pause that so many people on that debate stage had some type of relationship with FOX and now, Trump doesn't like the questions, goes to the head of fox, gets assurances they will treat him fairly.

And then, Megyn Kelly who's not known for holding back, you know, seems to take the high road, and now, he is back on FOX News this morning.

If you were running in the race, would this scenario seem troubling to you?

PAWLENTY: Well, I think if you have a candidate who's talking to a network about the scope and nature of the coverage and trying to manipulate or manage that, that would be concerning. I'm not sure that's what happened.

The facts matter. If Megyn Kelly had factual basis for asking that question about the comments that Donald Trump allegedly made about women, that's a fair question. What is he complaining about? That was a fair question. You know, it would have been appropriate for the other candidates if they had said those things to be asked that as well.

CUOMO: People are raising the issue of temperance with Donald Trump. That, which makes him popular, may actually work against him if you were in a leadership politically. Do you share that opinion?

PAWLENTY: There's room in the race and leadership for strength, clarity, boldness, but it can't spill into something that is impulsive or irrational. If you put somebody in charge of the United States military and you have to make decisions about people's lives, you don't want somebody who loses it in that position. He has to demonstrate a better approach to be considered.

CUOMO: Rich Lowry, you know him, he works at the "New York Post", also a FOX News contributor. [06:45:03] He says he likes to talk about himself in superlatives. He's the biggest whiner, to paraphrase him.

Do you think that's a fair assessment?

PAWLENTY: Well, I don't think people want to see a baby as president. So, I'm not saying he's a baby, I'm saying the characters and quality of people running for president are going to get hit, that's a nature of running for president, and if you just come back and blame everybody, get defensive, whine and become a baby, those aren't the qualities the country want to see ultimately as president. They might think its' funny or interesting during the campaign, they're not going to put you in the Oval Office with those qualities.

CUOMO: I know life is good for you right now, Gov. But when you're looking at the field and you're looking at how Trump is having his way with it, do you feel like you wish you were in there?

PAWLENTY: Well, not during the tornado phase. I had my chance, didn't get the job done. There's a lot of great candidates in the field, by the way. And I think once the Trump hurricane or tornado clears, you know, people like Marco Rubio deserve a serious look. Scott Walker deserves a serious look. And others do as well. But the rest of the field, it's got some quality candidates in it, they are getting washed out at the moment.

CUOMO: You said Rubio and Walker. Are those you two favorites at this point?

PAWLENTY: You know, I like a lot of the candidates. I'm friend with them. But I think those two have a lot of potential. Jeb Bush obviously brings strength to it as well. But, you know, it's a big field and it's early, but they have stood out so far.

CUOMO: Governor Tim Pawlenty, thank you for the sober mind and the analysis. Appreciate it. Please come back again.

PAWLENTY: You're welcome. OK, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So, what do you think about the latest turn in the Trump train? Tweet us using #NewDayCNN, or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay. As we have been telling you this morning, Donald Trump is supposed to come on NEW DAY this morning about 7:30 to address what's going on with FOX News, where the campaign is headed and he does has this issue of whether or not he would consider a third party. Is that something he wants to appease?

CABRERA: It will be interesting to see, because you just never know what's going to come out of his mouth.

Well, unarmed black men being shot and killed by police, an all too common occurrence in America. In 2016, now, "The Washington Post" began tracking all officer involved shooting and their findings might surprise you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:51:07] CABRERA: New arrests overnight in Ferguson, amid a fresh round of protests one year after Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson. And so far, this year, an unarmed black man has been killed by police approximately once every nine days. Reporters at "The Washington Post" painstakingly put together a comprehensive list of every police shooting incident so far in 2015. This database is the first of its kind. You can believe that there is no government or university tracking these numbers nationwide.

So, "The Washington Post" did this on their own. And joining us now to discuss, one of the co-writers of "Black and Unarmed", "Washington Post" crimes and courts reporter, Keith Alexander.

Keith, thank you so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

I mean, what an undertaking. How did you guys go about doing this? And what exactly was the impetus? Was it Michael Brown's shooting in Ferguson?

KEITH ALEXANDER, CRIME & COURTS REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Thank you, Ana, for having us.

Yes, this has been a very magnitude of what we have taken on here. What we've discovered was we look to Michael Brown and we looked at Trayvon Martin and various supporters and researchers and various parts of "The Washington Post" saying we need to look at this and see what has happened in previous years.

And so, what we decided, we all came together and said let's look at these numbers, let's see if there are any trends, let's see if the numbers are going up or going down in past years. But, Ana, as you said, these numbers weren't tracked before. So, what we decided, we decided to do our own inventory, to take our own statistics, and look at these numbers and look at exactly what is going on and we decide to do it beginning of January 1 and going through December 31st this year.

CABRERA: Well, let's take a look at some of what you found. I want to put up a graphic here to really break it down for our viewers. Twenty-four unarmed black men were shot and killed, 585 people overall. That includes unarmed and armed people, 18 law enforcement during that time period shot and killed in the line of duty.

Were you surprised there weren't a greater number of unarmed black men who were killed especially when we covered those stories so prominently in the past several months?

ALEXANDER: That is a great question. And that's why this data base is so important. It dispelled myths and really put a face on what's actually happening out there. Again, 24 of the 60 deaths of unarmed people are of black men. That is an astounding number in and of itself.

What's also interesting, Ana, I'm sure you all know this. We looked at mental health. The number of people who die as a result of mental health challenges, family members calling police because their loved one was having a mental health breakdown. The loved one like in Miami Gardens, with Lavall Hall, all they had was a broom stick handle. Police show up, not knowing how to deal with a person with mental illness and end up fatally shooting that person.

So, over 150 deaths involving individuals with mental health.

CABRERA: Oh, that's really interesting.

And you did bring up a good point. I want to emphasize that the ratio of black men who were unarmed compared to the white men who were unarmed who were killed was significantly more when you look at the population overall. In fact, 40 percent of those unarmed deaths were black men, seven times more than white men, black men were being killed, as you found out in your great research.

Dashcam, body cams, cell phone videos seemed to have really exposed this issue and made it more prominent, particularly exposing some of the fallacies of police officers where we see police officers ending up getting charged. Without the age of technology, do you think that we'd be having this conversation?

ALEXANDER: You know, that's a great question, Dana. I've spoken to attorneys and family members who are basically saying, look, if it weren't for Ferguson, Ferguson really put a magnifying glass, if you will, on police shooting and police involvement and what happened to individuals who are arrested.

[06:55:07] Dashcams, body camera videos, this is an impartial witness. Oftentimes, police officers charged up in a moment, witnesses who happen to be there without video, charged up in a moment, but video, an impartial witness. If it wasn't for video, we -- there's been a lot -- so far, there's been three officers charged in these fatal police shootings. Without video, I'm sure, it will be more difficult for these officers to have been charged.

CABRERA: You know, the issue of the racial injustices, of law enforcement brutality, I mean, really have been exposed because of what happened in Ferguson. Let's bring it back around to where it began in terms of the national conversation and the movement.

And, you know, people on Capitol Hill are talking about this. Maybe that's a sign of progress. We heard from Representative Emanuel Cleaver, who's a Democrat from Missouri, yesterday. And here is how he put it in terms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. EMANUEL CLEAVER (D), MISSOURI: We are making progress. Remember, Ferguson, a year ago was in 1955. And so, now, I think it's in about 1965. There are still problems there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: All right, Keith, I guess I want to get your assessment, given all the research that you've done. How much progress do you think we have made on this issue and how Ferguson handled the progress and change since this all began?

ALEXANDER: Well, I think with Ferguson, years from now, one thing that Ferguson is really going to show is a symbol of is that people are now focusing on what happened when individuals are arrested, particularly African-American and African-American men. The Justice Department is now looking at cases closer. Police departments, internally, are looking at cases closer.

In the past, when you had officers who testify and said, look, I felt my life was threatened or this witness or this individual was being threatened by this individual, so we had to use lethal weapons to take up, to kill a person.

But now, with video, now, because of Ferguson, the Justice Department looking into it and looking further into these cases, I think that's the biggest legacy of what happened, as a result of Ferguson.

CABRERA: All right, we'll end it there. Keith Alexander with "The Washington Post," thank you so much for your time this morning, great reporting.

ALEXANDER: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: We really find fascinating, I do.

We're following a lot of news this morning. So, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities declare a state of emergency in Ferguson, as protesters continue for a second night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us some room. Back up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't afford to have this kind of violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody has a right to be safe.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.

KELLY: I'll continue doing my job without fear or favor.

TRUMP: She should be apologizing to me.

KELLY: I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism.

PEREIRA: Hillary Clinton firing back at Trump.

TRUMP: I said, bet at my wedding, and she came to my wedding.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't know him that well. I thought it would be fun to go to his wedding because it's always entertaining.

PEREIRA: For the first time, Donald Trump will speak to us here on NEW DAY.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Good morning. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Ana Cabrera joins us this morning.

Good to have you here.

For the second straight night, peaceful protests marking a year since the Michael Brown shooting taking a violent turn in Ferguson. Some of the demonstrators threw rocks and frozen water bottles at police, leading to nine arrests overnight.

CUOMO: Fifty people actually were arrested at a single demonstration outside a local courthouse. The concern is which way the community will go in the days and nights ahead. A state of emergency has been declared for St. Louis County. So, they are trying to get the resources in place.

We have CNN's Ryan Young with the very latest from Ferguson.

How was it there, Ryan, as how does it feel to you versus the last time we were together?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, excellent question. Of course, if you look back behind, it is quiet right now. We actually saw several times last night where it was -- all people were off the streets. We didn't see people with the signs. And all of a sudden, around 10:00, people started showing up. I can tell you, just in the last half hour or so, they have updated the numbers, 23 people arrested overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (voice-over): Overnight, several arrests made as rocks and frozen water bottles were thrown at police.

Protesters taking to the streets, blocking traffic.

Authorities earlier declared a state of emergency in Ferguson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us some room, give us some room. Back up.

YOUNG: As protesters continue for a second night surrounding the anniversary of Michael Brown's death. Armored police vehicles on the streets, police lining up in riot gear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People that run towards danger instead of from it.

YOUNG: Around 2:00 a.m., a puzzling scene, a small group of heavily armed men walked into a group of protesters, calling themselves the Oath Keepers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody has a right to be safe and secure in their person and things.