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Trump Increases Lead; Birth Certificates Refused; Bombing in Thailand; Rosie O'Donnell's Missing Daughter; Deliberations in Manslaughter Case. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 18, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:04] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello on this Tuesday. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Brooke Baldwin.

And nationwide, on virtually every key issue, Donald Trump is on top in the Republican race for the White House. In CNN's first nationwide poll since the Republican debate, 24 percent of registered Republican voters choose Trump. Jeb Bush is still in second, but he's 11 points behind with just 13 percent. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in third with 9 percent. He is followed by Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, both at 8 percent.

And even more striking here is that Republicans seem to be getting more comfortable with Trump. Look at this. Trump's favorability rating is up to 58 percent among GOP voters. That's an eight point gain since our last survey in July. Now, Trump is defying his critics and his doubters yet again.

Let's dig a little deeper into these poll numbers with our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

OK, Jeff, walk us through what the poll shows and what we can take from the numbers.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Ana, I think you hit the point on the head there. You said voters are getting more comfortable with Donald Trump. I think that is exactly what we're seeing. Initially it was a bit of a curiosity. People were tuning in to see how this celebrity could actually run for president. But since then, his staying power has only grown, as you can see from our poll now compared to June, and he has started to become a touch of a bit more serious of a presidential candidate. We've heard him talk about immigration. We've heard him talk again and again about he wants to make America great again.

And, Ana, after spending some time out there with voters, both in Iowa and New Hampshire, other states, you - I can tell you that voters want - are liking what they hear about his - you know, how he's talking back to Washington. He's sort of reflecting their concerns, reflecting their frustrations and they like that so far. But it's not complete positive news for Donald Trump in this poll. There are some signs of - of, you know, some questions about his staying power in this race, Ana.

CABRERA: Right. How do you explain, for example, he's got these improved favorability ratings, but yet also in the polls, the majority of Republicans say that the GOP would have a better chance to win with someone else at the top of the ticket. You can see 58 percent believe that.

ZELENY: Right. That's about almost six in 10 of Republican voters believe that the party would have a better shot with someone else. And that basically is all of the other people - the people who are supporting all of the other candidates except Donald Trump. If you add up Marco Rubio's support, Jeb Bush's support, Rand Paul's support, Ted Cruz's support, Carly Fiorina's support, all the other Republicans who are supporting these other candidates, they are worried about Donald Trump. But the reality is here, in this crowded of a Republican field, Donald Trump, he clearly is holding steady with about 24, 25 percent of the Republican vote. So until this becomes more of a - a smaller field, a one-on-one competition between him and someone else or him and a couple other people, he is going to remain driving this race.

CABRERA: He did have the biggest gains of all of the candidates in - from poll to poll.

ZELENY: He did.

CABRERA: So, Jeff Zeleny, thank you for the update on that.

ZELENY: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Donald Trump has made ending illegal immigration the cornerstone of his campaign from the beginning. His vow now to repeal the 14th Amendment's guarantee of what's known as birthright citizenship is creating divisions among Trump's GOP opponents. Now, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is now quick to compare his own immigration reforms to Trumps. He has endorsed this idea of no more birthright citizenship. But just a few hours ago, Senator Marco Rubio weighed in from the Iowa State Fair and he has a different take. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I don't agree with that. I certainly think that we have to do a better job of preventing people - I'm open to doing things that prevent people who deliberately come to the U.S. for purpose of taking advantage of the 14th Amendment, but I'm not in favor of repealing it. I haven't read his plan. I've only red press accounts for some of them. Obviously there's some ideas that have merit, but the majority of it is really not a workable plan that could ever pass Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Well, the issue of birthright citizenship is front and center in one Texas county right now. Let's bring in our CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Also in Atlanta today, CNN's Rafael Romo.

Rafael, I want to start with you. Tell me what's happening in this Dallas County where they've stopped issuing birth certificates in certain cases. Explain. RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, it's not

only Dallas County, Ana, but also the entire state of Texas has stopped issuing birth certificates to parents of some - some children born to undocumented parents. The affected families are those trying to use an I.D. issued by Mexican consulate known as (INAUDIBLE). The Texas State Department of Health and Services says this consulate I.D. is not a secure form of identification because consulates do not verify the documents used by immigrants to obtain this I.D.

Now, civil rights groups say this has nothing to do with security and everything with discrimination. The Texas Civil Rights Project told us, this has never been an issue before until early this summer when the policy seemed to change all of a sudden, Ana.

[14:05:15] CABRERA: The policies seemed to change and the politicians started talking.

Jeff, I want to turn to you. I mean is this even legal to withhold birth certificates of children who are born in the U.S.?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Not as far as I can tell. The Constitution has been interpreted this way for basically its entire - since the 14th Amendment came into existence after the Civil War.

If you were born in this country, you are a citizen. It is possible to change the Constitution.

CABRERA: It is possible?

TOOBIN: It's possible, maybe -

CABRERA: But likely?

TOOBIN: To change a law that could change birthright citizenship. But Congress hasn't done either of those things and, at the moment, birthright citizenship is the law of the land. So I don't know what the possible rationale is for Texas.

CABRERA: Let's talk about the reaction there in Texas. Rafael, as you mentioned, immigration advocates, civil rights advocates, they're not happy about this. Are they doing anything to try to combat it?

ROMO: Yes, definitely. Not only are they not happy, but they're suing the state of Texas. There's a lawsuit that was filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project claiming this is a discrimination case because it violates some of the things that Jeff was talking about, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and its equal protection clause.

Meanwhile, the Texas State Department of Health and Services told us that this is not discrimination at all. They sent us a list. This is a list of valid identification documents. It includes foreign passports, accompanied by a visa issued by the U.S. State Department. It also has the Mexican voter registration card and even a foreign identification with a photo of the applicant. So they say we give people choices. We just want to make sure that the documents they're giving to us are secure, but this is not about discrimination, the state of Texas says.

TOOBIN: But that's so ridiculous because the identification of the parents is not relevant to the birth certificate for the baby. I mean that's what birth certificates are. It's a birth certificate for someone born, regardless of what their parents' immigration status is. So I think Texas is going to - this county -- it's not the state, this county is going to lose this case. But the issue is obviously very much a live one and Congress perhaps and certainly the states could change birthright citizenship if they wanted to amend the Constitution.

CABRERA: Well, this could be a litmus test of sorts, this situation we're seeing in Dallas County. We'll have to follow this one.

All right, Jeffrey Toobin, Rafael Romo, thanks to both of you.

A frantic manhunt is happening right now after not one but two bombs blasted in one of Asia's biggest tour cities. Two attacks that police now say involved the same type of bomb. Police in Bangkok are hunting for this man you see in that yellow shirt and glasses, seen on this surveillance video dropping a backpack at a popular shrine just moments before an explosion tore through the heart of this city's Times Square.

At least 22 people are now dead, more than 100 injured. And less than 24 hours after that first bombing, a second blast has rocked Bangkok today, this time at a river pier.

And joining me now for the update on the investigation, Nic Robertson. He is CNN's senior international correspondent.

Nic, what can you tell us about this manhunt that's ongoing right now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what the police are saying right now is there hasn't been a claim of responsibility. They still don't know who perpetrated these attacks, but they are saying that the two bombs involved on Monday and again today are exactly the same. And they say that this suspect, who's seen in this yellow t-shirt dropping off a backpack, they now say that he is the bomber. The bomber that put the backpack, that they say he hid the backpack underneath the bench on Monday. So they are directly identifying him as being the bomber and that's the man that they're looking for.

Now, they say they're going through days and days of closed circuit television camera video footage from that area because they believe he might have been to the area before to scope it out, to check it out, to have a look. So - but the police are saying they also believe that at least one person involved here is a Thai national. The implication seems to be towards this man being a Thai national. However, they say, were there other foreigners involved? They don't know that at the moment. The investigation is going on. They say at this stage, though, they don't need outside help, or at least they're not going to ask for it. They still feel confident that they're on a track and that they can pursue this man or these people involved.

CABRERA: Just very quickly, though, Nic, do they believe that this individual could be part of a broader group or network of sorts?

[14:10:02] ROBERTSON: The police aren't saying but the very fact when they say that they believe a Thai national was involved but don't know if there were other Thais or a foreigner, it certainly leaves that implication open to that interpretation for sure, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Nic Robertson, keep us posted. Thanks so much.

Up next, news just in involving Rosie O'Donnell. Her 17-year-old daughter reported missing. They haven't seen her in a week. Details, next.

Plus, tense video just released of Hillary Clinton meeting with members of the Black Lives Matter movement. We'll show you the back and forth here.

And the jury just getting the case in the trial of the officer charged in the death of an unarmed black man. Will dramatic dash cam video influence them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We're following a developing story right now, the disappearance of Rosie O'Donnell's 17-year-old daughter. O'Donnell just sent out a tweet a short time ago linking to her official website and in a statement she says her daughter Chelsea went missing from their New York home about a week ago with their pet dog. And she needs medication. But adding to the mystery here, CNN just reached out to local police who say Chelsea is not officially classified as missing.

[14:15:15] So let's bring in Alexandra Field. She's been looking into this story. Also with us, Rocsi Diaz, HLN anchor and correspondent.

Alex, I want to start with you and the basics. I mean what's Rosie saying about her daughter?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly Rosie is searching for her daughter, even if police have not yet characterized her daughter as missing. And, in fact, Rosie's publicist says that this is a case of a runaway. That Chelsea is a runaway. But here's what Rosie put up on her website which gripped so many people's attention. She said, "Rosie O'Donnell's 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea O'Donnell, was reported missing. Nyack, New York, police authorities have been looking for her in the Rawson (ph) County area since Sunday, August 16th. She was last seen Tuesday, August 11th. She left home with her six month old therapy dog named Bear. Chelsea stopped taking her medicine and is in need of medical attention."

We, of course, have reached out Rosie O'Donnell's publicist, who went on to clarify with this statement saying, "Chelsea, like millions of people, lives with mental illness. It has been a difficult road for Chelsea and her family and they just want her back safe."

Rosie has been doing everything she can, it seems, to reach out to her 17-year-old daughter. Not only that statement on her website, but also tweeting, sort of, it seems, trying to speak directly to Chelsea, asking her to come home, posting a picture of Chelsea holding a child and saying, Jude (ph) was asking for you today, #yourfamily #call. Rosie went on to say in one of these tweets that she believes her daughter may be in the New York City area. Again, she has said that her daughter is without her medication.

CABRERA: Right.

FIELD: The publicist says that this is a young woman who is living with some mental illness, so the family certainly trying to make every effort to -

CABRERA: And they're appealing to the public for help to try to be on the lookout. Are police involved in this too?

FIELD: Police are involved. Nyack Police, who we spoke to a short while ago, say that the O'Donnell family came forward, reached out to police on Sunday to report that Chelsea was missing since they had not seen her since Tuesday, but police say they didn't categorize Chelsea as a missing person because the family had been in contact with her at various points last week it seems. No further update on when the family has last heard from Chelsea. So it seems that may be why Rosie has now taken these very public means of trying to reach out to her child and anyone who may also know where Chelsea is.

CABRERA: And, Rocsi, Rosie has largely been out of the limelight since she left "The View" several months ago. What's she's been up to?

ROCSI DIAZ, HLN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, she's been keeping quiet. The reason why Rosie O'Donnell left "The View" was to concentrate on her family. You know, Ana, she was going through a very public divorce at the time, also health scares. Remember back in 2012 that she had that mild heart attack. So she was putting her family and her health first and trying to live a stress- free life.

From what we do know about Rosie O'Donnell is that she's always been a very family person. She always told - she always shared her own personal family stories on "The View" to the public of how she loved raising her kids. We - we always saw how family oriented Rosie O'Donnell was. So this is actually a real shocker to a lot because we didn't know that there may have been problems at home with Rosie O'Donnell and her kids, nor did we know that one of -

CABRERA: It makes you wonder.

DIAZ: Yes, it makes you wonder. And we didn't know also that Rosie O'Donnell had a child that was dealing with mental illness. This is the first that we're hearing about this at all.

CABRERA: And so she's definitely exposing a little bit more of that privacy in the hopes of helping to track down her 17-year-old daughter. Your heart goes out to her as a parent knowing she must be heartbroken right now. Rocsi Diaz and Alexandra Field, our thanks to both of you. Keep us updated if anything happens in the next couple of hours. And up next, deliberations are set to begin now for a white Charlotte

police officer facing manslaughter charges in the death of an unarmed black man. Do you remember this case? This happened before Ferguson, before Baltimore, and this dash cam video could be a key piece of evidence in the case. How is it going to influence the prosecution and the jury?

Also, described as a frank and tense discussion, newly released video taking us inside Hillary Clinton's closed-door meeting with some members of Black Lives Matter.

Plus, a few good women, history made, as the first women complete the intense Army Rangers course, but will they ever see the battlefield?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:11] CABRERA: Welcome back.

At any moment now, jurors are set to begin deliberations in the case of a North Carolina officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man back in 2013. It was one late September night Jonathan Ferrell crashed his car, he tried to seek help from a nearby home but the woman inside thought Ferrell was a robber. She called 911. And when the officers responded, Officer Randall Kerrick and two other officers arrived at the scene. Ferrell is seen on this dash cam video approaching them. Now, Kerrick is heard firing 12 shots, 10 of them hit and killed 24- year-old Ferrell. In closing arguments, the prosecutor said Kerrick made a bad choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADREN HARRIS, PROSECUTOR: He had a litany of options, non-deadly options, at his disposal. And he didn't use them. Do you know why? Because he panicked. He abandoned all of his training. We're not here to say he's a bad person, but he made a bad choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Now, the defense countered saying it was the shooting victim who made the wrong decision, quote, "charging at the officers." Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE LAUGHRUN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This case is not about an unarmed suspect not being harmless. You heard Mike Campagna and (INAUDIBLE), unarmed does not mean un-dangerous. The fact that no weapon was found doesn't matter. You could still be a danger to a person without having a weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let's bring in HLN legal analyst, the man, Joey Jackson. He's been following this trial since it began a couple of weeks ago.

And, Joey, what we're hearing from the prosecution here is that they don't necessarily think this officer's a bad person who was out for any -- anybody.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

CABRERA: But that he maybe panicked in this situation. So what do they need to prove voluntary manslaughter?

[14:25:00] JACKSON: Sure. Well, what happens is, the prosecution has to establish unreasonableness. Unreasonableness, Ana, in terms of the action of the officer and in terms of the following of the training. That certainly, there was a bad choice and that bad choice was on the part of the officer because you have Ferrell, who was unarmed. You have Ferrell, who was shot, according to the prosecutor and according to the tape we see within three seconds of them getting there. And, as a result of that, that officer who was on trial, Wes Kerrick, acted as an unreasonable officer under those circumstances.

Now, the defense, of course, has much to say about that, and that's what they did say in their closing arguments because what they're suggesting, two things that were very compelling for them. Number one, Ana, they brought in an expert witness on use of force training. And that expert witness happened to be the teacher of the expert for the state. So think about that for a moment. You have the person who taught the state's expert and that person looks that jury in the eye and says, this officer's actions were reasonable. Why? Because the person who was shot and killed was running toward the officer, number one.

CABRERA: Right.

JACKSON: And, number two, there was a suggestion that he was trying to get the gun of the officer and, therefore, it make it justified. And not only that - and, of course, you have a battle of the experts and it's certainly not uncommon for two experts for say two different things. The state expert says what they say and, of course, the defense says what they say. But more importantly you have the DNA expert that the state brought on that said there was blood. Where was the blood? On the uniform.

CABRERA: On the officer.

JACKSON: Exactly, of the officer, on the boots of the officer and on the gun of the officer. Now, that's an arguable point, to be clear, because it could have been blood splatter based on an unreasonable shooting or it could have been, as the officer testified, Wes Kerrick, that he was trying to grab the gun and climbing and crawling up him. So it's a lot for that jury to interpret under these circumstances.

CABRERA: Now the prosecution did have the fight the fact that Ferrell was running toward the officers, which we see in the dash cam video -

JACKSON: That's right.

CABRERA: Which was a key piece of evidence presumably for the defense. Let's watch it one more time real fast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground! Get on the ground!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Running. Out of frame, though, there's a long pause before you hear the gunshots.

JACKSON: Sure.

CABRERA: And the prosecution had to explain why he was running towards the officer.

JACKSON: Yes.

CABRERA: How important was that to the prosecution's case?

JACKSON: Very important. And here's - it's a matter of interpretation because both sides can interpret that video differently. For the prosecution's point, we see the arms and the hands of Ferrell.

CABRERA: He has noting in them.

JACKSON: He has nothing on him at all. So what's the justification for shooting? We see him running. And within three seconds, is that reasonable? He was shot and he was killed. So how dare you do engage in this unreasonable action and kill someone without justification. That's the prosecutor.

From the defense perspective, they're saying, he's running towards him. And as a result of that, certainly he feared for his life if he's running towards him and he had no other choice but to protect himself because you remember, Ana, when he testified, what did he say, he said, I felt I was going to die that day.

But now we shift back to the prosecutor. And why? Because the officer who was closest, Officer Little, pulled out a Taser, not a firearm, and that's telling that the only shots fired, and there were 12, 10 of which hit, were fired by the person who's accused of voluntary manslaughter. So there were two other officers there.

CABRERA: Yes.

JACKSON: One pulled something and it happened to be a Taser. The other, nothing at all. You tell me what reasonable officer would have done, what this officer did do, and that's going to be the argument.

CABRERA: Well, and the timing of this trial is interesting because the event happened well before all these recent events that have really been highly publicized.

JACKSON: Sure.

CABRERA: The Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown, the Baltimore situation leading to all of the riots with Freddie Gray, and yet this is now on trial and there is great public scrutiny about police actions. JACKSON: Oh, sure.

CABRERA: Could that influence the case?

JACKSON: You know, you always hope not in that you hope that the jury evaluating the case is going to evaluate is on the merits here. But to your point, interestingly enough, an initial grand jury - now they don't decide guilt and innocence, we know. They just decide, is there probable cause to move the matter forward to trial. The original grand jury said, no, and they dismissed the case.

CABRERA: They said there's not probable cause for an indictment.

JACKSON: That's right. And then another grand jury, merely a week later, based on more information, more evidence, more testimony presented by the prosecution, decided to indict. So even then you saw the interplay of perhaps other issues, you know, that are occurring here. But, you know, at the end of the day, you want that jury to focus on these case -

CABRERA: The facts.

JACKSON: These factors, these circumstances and make a decision on the merits here, not what happened in Ferguson, not what happened in Staten Island in New York, not what happened in North Carolina or anywhere else in the country.

CABRERA: Well, the fate of a man's in their hands any moment now as deliberations are set to begin.

JACKSON: Yes.

CABRERA: Joey Jackson, good to see you.

JACKSON: Thank you. And you, always.

CABRERA: Thank you. Always. Thanks for coming on.

Up next, this video has just surfaced showing that tense meeting between Hillary Clinton and members of the black Lives Matter movement. You heard about this meeting last week but you're going to see what happened when they confronted her behind closed doors and we'll speak live with one of the leaders of this movement about what she thought of Clinton's response.

[14:30:09]