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North Korean Troops in Wartime State; U.S. Closely Monitoring Korean Hostilities; St, Louis Man Shot in the Back; Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired August 21, 2015 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:01] CUOMO: Haley threw out the first pitch at Monday night's Orioles game.
CAMEROTA: Do I have -- oh my gosh.
CUOMO: With her new hand.
PEREIRA: So proud of you, Haley. There you go.
CAMEROTA: That was better than anything which I've ever thrown.
PEREIRA: I love it.
CAMEROTA: Love it.
CUOMO: Good stuff. Impressed? Impressed?
PEREIRA: Impressed?
CUOMO: Say nothing.
CAMEROTA: Time for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello on this Friday.
PEREIRA: Can I get a -- it's Friday.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: My favorite day of the week.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Have a great weekend. NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Happening now on the NEWSROOM, full battle ready.
Kim Jong-Un puts North Korea in a semi-war state an exchange of fire at the border. Is war on the horizon?
Also --
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know they're calling it the summer of Trump.
COSTELLO: Trump expects a stadium sized crowd in Alabama today. But two words are the talk of the campaign trail. TRUMP: I'll use the word anchor baby.
COSTELLO: And Trump isn't the only one using them.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you regret using the term anchor babies yesterday on the radio?
JEB BUSH (R),cy PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I didn't.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: I don't. I don't regret it.
COSTELLO: Is Bush sounding more and more like Trump? Plus --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an unprecedented cataclysm in our state.
COSTELLO: Hundreds of thousands of acres burning in Washington state. Firefighters killed in the line of duty. This morning the state is asking residents for help.
Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
He may be the most unpredictable and dangerous dictator in the world. And right now North Korea's Kim Jong-Un has his troops braced for war. Earlier this morning he held an emergency meeting with military leaders and ordered frontline troops to ramp up to, quote, "a wartime state."
It comes after an exchange of artillery fire with South Korea over the heavily fortified area separating the two. South Korea, home to some 28,000, U.S. troops is rolling out barricades and going on high alert. Emotions also running high. This is a rally in South Korea's capital condemning this latest saber rattling from their hostile neighbor and likely worrying that the threats this time are more ominous.
CNN's Kathy Novak is live near the DMZ in South Korea and our Pentagon reporter Barbara Starr is standing by.
But let's begin with you, Kathy, and the situation from your vantage point.
KATHY VANTAGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, South Korea's Defense Ministry, Carol, is saying it is prepared for anything now from North Korea. It says that it will not stop the propaganda broadcasts that North Korea has demanded that it cease. Now because of that, it is saying that there is a high probability that North Korea will attack speakers along the border tomorrow.
Now what this is all about is that South Korea has been using these speakers to broadcast anti-North Korean messages into North Korea. Now we know that this is something that makes the regime of Kim Jong- Un extremely angry. He likes to control all of the communications that go on inside North Korea. And this is a place where it is considered treason to say anything bad about the regime.
And now what South Korea is doing for the first time in more than 10 years is broadcasting these messages saying basically exactly that, saying that the regime is doing a bad job and telling people in North Korea what Kim Jong-Un doesn't want them to hear -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Kathy Novak, reporting live from Seoul, South Korea.
Let's walk quickly how we got to this point. Just over two weeks ago two South Korean soldiers were injured by landmines planted in the DMZ. When North Korea denied laying those landmines, South Korea began blaring propaganda those giant speakers across the border. North Korea would later call that a declaration of war and vowed indiscriminate strikes.
By last night both countries had exchanged artillery fire. This morning North Korea opened its frontline troops to enter a semi- wartime state. And the South is now saying it will retaliate against anymore hostilities from its neighbor.
As we mentioned, 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea. So the Pentagon is closely monitoring the situation. For more on that, let's head to the Pentagon and Barbara Starr.
Good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Certainly tensions are spiking. Rhetoric is spiking. But for the U.S., they are going to continue now with some exercises, military exercises they're doing with the South Koreans that will run through the end of the month, sending the message they're not going to be warned off by the North. But one of the key things here is for the U.S. to really figure out what the North Koreans are up to. Is there real evidence that their troops have gone on this war footing that Kim Jong-Un is talking about?
Look, North Korea maintains thousands of troops near the DMZ, artillery, weapons. They are capable of breaking the armistice and attacking Seoul on very short notice. But would they do that? Is that really what they have in mind right now? So the U.S. looking for any signs that troops are actually on the move, ramped up, more ready to attack. Do they have food, fuel, ammunition resupply at the ready?
[09:05:07] The North Koreans have a couple of key advantages. They are very close to Seoul with their long-grain artillery pieces. They are masters at deception. They have been working on underground bunkers where they can roll out weapons very quickly and put them into launch positions, very difficult for the U.S. to detect.
So certainly all eyes and ears on North Korea. But trying to figure out what the difference is between the rhetoric, the political theater, if you will, and the military reality on the ground -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr, reporting live from the Pentagon this morning. Thank you.
The Missouri man shot and killed by police this week died from a single gunshot in the back. This according to the "St. Louis Post Dispatch." Authorities say two officers fired at Mansur Ball-Bey after he pointed a handgun at them.
Ryan Young is in St. Louis following this latest development.
Good morning.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know a lot of people here are holding their breath wondering what happens next after this report has been released. We do know that officers fired four shots, one of them hitting the 18-year-old in the back. But then look, there's been a lot of conversation about this in the community and we saw just a few nights ago the fact that people took to the streets with violent protests at one point, setting things on fire.
In fact, they set a building on fire. They set a car on fire. So everyone wants to know what's going to happen next, especially after the bricks and water bottles were thrown toward police officers.
We do know the police chief here believes that there was a gun involved, and he was running and then pointing it toward the officers and they opened fire. The police chief spoke about that a few days ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF SAM DOTSON, ST. LOUIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Police work is difficult. Split second decisions are made. Officers come to work every day wanting to do the best job they can for their community. But it's very sad. It weighs heavy on them. They often look at ourselves and the two officers yesterday after they were involved in this incident, it was, if I could describe it, as they were concerned. Not for themselves but for what was going to happen in the community. They could see this coming.
We have to be better as a city. We have to be better as a community and come together and work on our problems together. Work on our issues together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Now, Carol, of course there's a real conversation outside of this, the fact that police say he had a gun and was running away from them and even pointed it toward them. They opened fire. There were people in the neighborhood who are saying he didn't have a gun. And now there's those conflicting reports.
There's not a lot of trust between the community and police. So now you can understand why people are waiting to see what happens next.
COSTELLO: All right. We'll check back.
Ryan Young reporting live from St. Louis this morning. Flags flying at half staff in the small town of Twisp, Washington,
where three firefighters lost their lives fighting one of the state's many large wildfires. They were overtaken by flames when their vehicle crashed. Four others were also critically hurt. And a line of emergency vehicles escorting the bodies to a local funeral home. You see it there.
The men were part of a highly specialized team that is often first of the scene. The parents of one of those firefighters speaking out after losing their only child.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ZBYSZEWKI, FATHER OF KILLED FIREFIGHTER: He's the light of our life. You know. We would have given anything to have yesterday not happen. We had one week to go. He's going back to school next week. I just want people to know what a wonderful person he was, how bad we feel about it all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The governor echoed that sentiment, saying the men always will be remembered as big heroes protecting small towns.
Chad Myers has more from Atlanta.
Good morning.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. 390,000 acres in Washington state have burned so far this year. Now on average we should be around 250,000. So not double, but certainly more than normal. Everyone that you see here -- I can make that a little bit bigger here for the Northwest Fire. You can see every one of those dots is a major fire, over 60 across the northwest.
Let's zoom into the Twisp fire right here. This is the complex here. Now there are other fires around the area here near Beaver Lake on up here near the -- and this is chunk block with fire. There are so many hot spots. Every little dot is a satellite indicated hot spot here. And that is just one of many, many fires that are still going on across the area. And the problem is, it's going to get windy again.
We had the same problem last Friday and Saturday where the wind picked up as a storm came in. And then storm goes by tomorrow and will start to calm things down but shift the winds to the other direction. That's kind of good. You think it will blow the fire back on areas that have already burned. But the firefighters need to know when that wind shift is going to occur so that they can get ready for that, the fire changing direction, the smoke charging back at them from another direction.
Here's what the winds looks like tonight. Still winds picking up to 20 or 30 miles per hour. Finally, by tomorrow afternoon the winds are in Montana and into parts of Wyoming and Colorado. But there are big fires there as well. So firefighters have their hands full in a drought stricken western United States -- Carol. [09:10:11] COSTELLO: All right. Chad Myers, thanks so much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump and Jeb Bush refusing to dump the term anchor babies when talking about immigrants. Can the Republican Party win the White House with this sort of rhetoric? Our political panel weigh in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: At the White House President Obama is facing another dip in the polls. According to a new CNN-ORC survey, just under half approve of how the president is handling his job. 47 percent give him a thumbs up. 51 percent disapprove. It's the second straight month of sliding, though. Mr. Obama's rating falls from 49 percent last month and 50 percent back in June. In the next hour we'll take a closer look at what's behind this latest slip in the polls.
Thousands of people are expected to show Donald Trump a little southern hospitality tonight when he headlines a rally in Mobile, Alabama. Organizers citing high demand moving the event from the Civic Center to a 43,000 seat stadium that usually plays host to high school football games. Police say they expect at least 30,000 people to turn out.
And the event comes as Trump continues to dominate the polls and take aim at his rivals. One of them, Jeb Bush, taking off the gloves and deciding now is the time to fight back hard.
CNN's Athena Jones has more from Manchester, New Hampshire.
Good morning.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Jeb is now hitting back at Trump after weeks of seeming hesitant to engage him. He's also getting some help from his big brother, the former president sending out a fund-raising e-mail to Jeb's supporters. That help is coming as Jeb is facing his biggest hurdle yet, a massively popular Trump who's drawing huge crowds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's the summer of Trump. You know, they're calling it the summer of Trump.
JONES (voice-over): The Donald Trump tour is making its way from the northeast --
TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you.
JONES: -- to the South today. The Trump campaign hosting a Friday night pep rally in Mobile, Alabama, possibly boasting its largest crowd, yet.
TRUMP: They're going to end up being 30,000 to 40,000 people in Alabama.
JONES: The bombastic billionaire has been known to exaggerate his numbers.
TRUMP: And outside, sadly, we have thousands of people that can't get in. We have a lot of people outside, hundreds and hundreds of people standing outside.
JONES: But perhaps this time, the proof is in the tickets. So many claim that tonight's event has been relocated, twice. It was first set to take place here in this civic center theater, occupancy 1,900. Then, the center's larger arena, occupancy 10,000. But now, after the campaign says at least 35,000 have claimed tickets, the pep rally will kick up the turf here at this high school football stadium, capacity 43,000.
Meanwhile, one of Trump's leading rivals getting some unwanted questioning after using a phrase many consider offensive in a radio interview this week, "anchor babies."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, do you regret using the term "anchor babies" yesterday on the radio?
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I didn't. I don't. I don't regret it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't?
BUSH: No, do you have a better term?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not -- I'm asking you.
BUSH: You give me a better term, and I'll use it. I'm serious. Don't yell at me behind my ear, though. Geez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry about that.
JONES: Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton's suggestion instead: "How about babies, children or American citizens?" An uncharacteristic defense for Bush, strikingly similar to Trump's unapologetic use of the phrase on Wednesday.
TRUMP: What else would you like to say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Child -- the American-born child of undocumented immigrants.
TRUMP: You want me to say that. OK. I'll use the word "anchor baby." Excuse me, I'll use the word "anchor baby."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: And one more point about that term, "anchor baby". The center right Hispanic Leadership Network which lists Jeb as one of its advisors sent out a memo in 2013 to avoid the term "anchor baby" because it's offensive -- Carol. COSTELLO: Athena Jones, reporting live for us this morning.
Donald Trump's defense of the term anchor babies is the latest in the series of controversial remarks he's made about illegal immigrants. But while the rhetoric has helped shore up support among some voters, it took a frightening turn in Boston where two brothers shown here have been accused of beating a homeless man with a metal pipe and then urinating on him.
The reason? Police say the men told him, quote, "Donald Trump was right. All these illegals need to be deported."
Now, we should note the man is not undocumented. That's according to a Social Security number listed on the police report.
Trump was asked about the incident at a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Two men in Boston, two brothers, were arrested for allegedly beating a Hispanic homeless man, and they told the cops it was OK because you were right on immigration.
TRUMP: I haven't heard about that. I think that would be a shame, but I haven't heard about that.
I will say -- the people that are following are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again and they are very passionate. I will say that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Marc Lamont Hill is "Huff Post Live" and a CNN political commentator. John Avlon is editor in chief of "The Daily Beast" and a CNN political analyst.
Welcome to you both.
Marc, what did you think of --
JOHN AVLON, THE DAILY BEAST: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
Marc, what did you think of Donald Trump's come back to that beating in Boston?
MARC LAMONT HILL, HUFF POST LIVE: I thought that it was unfortunate that he didn't offer stronger word against that awful beating.
Look, I don't blame Trump for the beating. Just like after the Black Lives Matter protests a cop was injured. And people said oh, it's the protests. I don't think there's a one to one correlation here. There are sick people who do bad things all the time. I'm not blaming Trump for that. But Trump has a responsibility as a leader, now as a presidential candidate, to say, hey, this was wrong.
[09:20:03] This was unacceptable. And this had nothing to do with immigration reform in any form or fashion. That's what he should have done. And this shows exactly how indifferent he is to the lives of immigrants in my estimation.
COSTELLO: Well, John, since, weigh in, to who can talk tougher about immigrants than Donald Trump. What can we expect in the future as far as rhetoric goes?
AVLON: Well, I think what we're seeing is a downstream effect of Donald Trump's demagoguing of immigrants. And the party ends up divided on this. You know, you have the people who can't wait to pander the conservative populace and move the goalposts farther and farther right on policy issues. And then you have some responsible reform Republicans who refuse to take the bait and stand by long held traditions and convictions of their own and their party.
You know, to build on Marc's point about Trump's comments, obviously, he's not responsible for the actions of two thugs in South Boston. But by saying it's unfortunate and by saying my supporters are really passionate -- this isn't passion. This is evil. This is thuggery. This is beating someone who was an American citizen, not an undocumented immigrant.
So, you know, we need to be careful when people sort of play the lowest common denominator. It can bring out ugly downstream elements. And there's a degree of responsibility for creating this environment.
COSTELLO: Yes. But let's face it, Marc, this harsh rhetoric is working. So why would anybody stop using it?
HILL: There's --
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: Because they care about this country, because they care about decency.
COSTELLO: Go on, John.
HILL: That's what we hope. We hope they'd invoke principle.
COSTELLO: Yes.
John, you were going to say?
AVLON: Yes. You know, the reason you don't simply play the lowest common denominator and try to divide and conquer in politics is that you have the larger perspective on politics and the responsibility of leaders in elected democracy. It's not about demagoguing because it works. You know, it's not about simply hurling whatever negative invective tuck because some people seem to like it. There has to be some degree of conviction and caring about the process
which you seek to lead. It's not simply about what rates. This isn't reality TV. This is our democracy.
COSTELLO: What's interesting, Marc, is that religious leaders are now coming out and say, can go you please stop it?
Political coach Russell Moore, he's the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He calls the rise of such talk dark and demagogic.
HILL: Yes.
COSTELLO: Can a Republican -- I heard what John Avlon was saying, Marc. But can Republicans -- can a Republican candidate win the presidency if such talk continues?
HILL: Yes, if the front runners make different choices. No disrespect to say Rick Santorum, who I actually personally like, although I disagree with him. He's not going to determine the direction of this race. Mike Huckabee likely won't determine the direction of the race at this point. Neither is George Pataki.
But if Jeb Bush leads, if Donald Trump leads, if Rand Paul and Scott Walker are leading, Chris Christie even are leading on this issue, by not engaging in that stuff, they can turn the tide. The problem is right now, Trump was a marginal candidate in people's estimation and he made some moves that other people would not have and it worked for him and it continues to work. Jeb Bush who would have previously said a term like anchor babies is now going to double down on it, because he doesn't want to alienate people who are supporting Donald Trump. And so, everybody is playing to their own interest.
But to John's point, this should be about the broader interest of the nation. The leaders, the front runners of this race have to change the conversation and make it a humane one.
COSTELLO: Marc Lamont Hill, John Avlon, thanks to both of you -- I appreciate it. Go ahead, John. Button it up for me.
AVLON: Just -- look, Jeb Bush has not been demagoguing issue of immigration. He's one of the few who's been supporting immigration reform and consistent on the issue.
We can debate the terminology and sometimes there's an attempt to control language that isn't particularly helpful. But the real question to me is not whether candidates can afford not to demagogue immigration, but whether the Republican Party can afford to win that way.
COSTELLO: All right. John Avlon, Marc Lamont Hill, thanks again.
Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: Wall Street bracing for a brutal day of trade as markets around the world sink ever lower. We'll take you live to the New York Stock Exchange, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:28:15] COSTELLO: President Jimmy Carter is recovering from treatment this morning, just one day after announcing that the cancer found in his liver had spread to four spots on his brain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT: They did an MRI and found that there were four spots of melanoma on my brain. They are very small spots, about two millimeters if you can envision what a millimeter is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: He had his first radiation treatment yesterday right after that news conference.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here.
So, what was that like for the president?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it was an emotional press conference certainly for sure. And, you know, he got up there. He was in a pair of blue jeans, as you saw, Carol, walking in, and look very vibrant. But it was emotional in the room.
He described the treatment in a fair amount of detail, talk about the radiation treatment for example. He had that yesterday afternoon, we know.
I can show you. There's a picture essentially of what it might look like. You know, you go into a machine and that's a sort of mask that helps hold you face into a particular position. And they sort of zero in on these particular areas of the brain, those four areas that President Carter mentioned to try and actually provide radiation to those areas only.
COSTELLO: OK. So that looks horribly uncomfortable and claustrophobic.
GUPTA: Yes, you know, some people do get a fair amount of claustrophobia. Again, he had it after the press conference yesterday. So, we don't know how he did with all of that. But it's just -- that probably looks a little bit worse than it is. That's sort of to hold the head and face into place. And then you're in the machine for a little while.
COSTELLO: Yes. Well, what's a little while?
GUPTA: It depends. You have to plan to get four separate areas. It could be an hour and a half, two hours sometime. You come in and out of the machine, it depends. You're planning in between each particular phase of the radiation. So, it's a commonly done thing.
