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North Korean Troops in Wartime State; St, Louis Man Shot in the Back; President Obama's Approval Rating Slips; Trump Rally Moved to Stadium Due to Crowds; Trump Supporter Changes View on Immigration; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:00:05] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in 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), 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 --

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D), WASHINGTON: 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. Early 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 is going on high alert. Emotions also running high. This is a rally in South Korea's capital condemning the latest saber rattling from their hostile neighbor and likely worrying that the threats this time are more ominous.

CNN's Kathy Novak live near the DMZ in South Korea. Good morning.

KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Kim Jong-Un has ordered his army to be prepared to launch surprise attacks against South Korea, and South Korea says it will strongly retaliate against any further provocation from North Korea.

All eyes are on a deadline tomorrow that Pyongyang has set for South Korea to stop broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda messages across speakers that are blaring these messaging over the border. South Korea says it will not stop this. South Korea says it started this campaign of psychological warfare for the first time in more than 10 years in retaliation for a landmine attack that it has blamed on North Korea which badly injured two of its soldiers.

So it says it's not going to stop and that when this deadline comes tomorrow, when Pyongyang says if South Korea does not stop the psychological warfare by 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, and it will launch military action. South Korea is expecting North Korea to attack those propaganda speakers, Carol.

COSTELLO: . All right. Kathy Novak reporting live from the DMZ.

The Missouri man shot and killed by police this week died from a single gunshot in the back. This is 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 the story.

Good morning, Ryan. What do you have for us?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. In fact, we wanted to get more information about this case so he found the attorney for the man who was shot.

Jermaine Wooten, who is here with me, who says there's new information involved in this case.

First of all, from what police have said so far, what is the family's contention and what is your contention about what actually happened that night? JERMAINE WOOTEN, VICTIM'S FAMILY ATTORNEY: The family's contention of

what happened that afternoon is plain and simple. Mansur was not at the house where this search warrant was executed at. Actually, he was two doors south of that property in the backyard. Upon seeing two plainclothes young man in the alley, he didn't know they were police officers or what. Him and another young man seen these two armed guys, and they took off running. Upon taking off running, Mansur may have ran roughly about 30 feet, then he was shot from the back in the right upper back.

YOUNG: And you said -- show me the location again you said?

WOOTEN: The bullet would have traveled in this area coming -- traveling in a leftward motion. The bullet did not exit the body. It would have actually hit his artery killing him instantly.

YOUNG: OK. But there is a contention he had a gun and pointed it toward officers. There are people who say he had a gun while he was running. What do you guys think so far?

WOOTEN: No, no. Speaking with every witness on the scene, no one confirms he had a gun. Everyone said just the opposite. He did not have a gun. The police theory of this case or the police story of this case is he was in this house where the search warrant was executed, he ran out the back door, pointed a gun at them, and after they fired and hit him, he continued to run. That could not have -- medically that's impossible.

He was -- all the young people who were in the house and all the people who were in the house say he was not even there. They had no idea he was even the person that had gotten shot. He doesn't even live in that area, and after he was shot, like I said, per the medical examiner, it's no way he would have lived to even have been able to travel more than five feet.

[10:05:12] YOUNG: There's a talk that DNA of his may have been on the gun. Is that true? Have you guys been able to find out that information so far?

WOOTEN: No, we have not gotten the DNA results but it wouldn't surprise me if DNA would have appeared on the gun. If police had shot this unarmed man from the back, we have a major, major problem considering the environment in this particular city the last 14 months. We have Michael Brown that led things off here. It was followed with Kajieme Powell and then it was followed with the VonDerrit Myers.

So we have another kid being shot by the police and now we have another kid being shot from the back by police. So it wouldn't surprise me that his DNA would be found on the gun if the police are continuing that, but certainly there's no one who would say he had a gun.

YOUNG: So we hear anger from the community and people are very upset. We saw people marching just last night. You said you've talked to people in the community who say they didn't see him running with the gun because I know it's a small hallway, right?

WOOTEN: It's a very small hallway. People in the community, everyone over there who had seen these events say, hey, he did not have a gun. Many people over there did not even know him because he didn't live in that community and that's what's even more problematic. He lived in a suburban community. He had just gone down there to see relatives and he had just gotten there less than -- really less than one hour to see relatives, hadn't even made it to his relatives' house, had sat there and talked to another young man and shortly while talking to that young man, that was shortly before this incident had occurred.

YOUNG: There was a contention there was a search warrant that was supposed to be served on that house. Police say they found three stolen guns in that area. Was he a part of that search warrant? Were police actually looking for him when they showed up?

WOOTEN: No, he was not a target of the search warrant. The police did not even know who he was. Like I said, he did not live at that house. He did not frequent that house at all.

YOUNG: OK. So as of right now the evidence you've been able to gather, you're saying your client never had a gun?

WOOTEN: Never had a gun.

YOUNG: When he took off running, everyone says he didn't point back toward the officers.

WOOTEN: He did not point back toward the officers. He was not at the house where the search warrant was executed. He would have been, like I said, two properties south of that property.

YOUNG: Thank you for joining us.

This is Jermaine Wooten obviously talking about what's going on here in St. Louis. So many people upset about the information they're learning obviously with the autopsy report now coming out saying he was shot in the back. A lot of conversations will be had. We'll have to figure out what happens next and whether overnight will be peaceful.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll let you get back to it. Ryan young reporting live from St. Louis this morning.

At the White House President Obama is facing another dip in the polls. According to the 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. On popular foreign policy decisions have contributed to the dip, and likely at the top of that list is the president's Iran deal.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty joins me now to parse the numbers.

Good morning.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. When you dig deeper into these numbers, it really reveals some concern for the White House as they try to sell this nuclear deal with Iran and specifically a lot of unhappiness with how President Obama is handling himself. 60 percent according to this poll of Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling Iran. Only 38 percent of Americans approve of what he's doing.

Now this comes as the president has really been ramping up his pressure on lawmakers and others really reaching out, engaging more on this issue from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Writing an op-ed that appeared in 30 newspapers across the country this week saying in part, quote, "Here is my bottom line. If we are committed to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the choice we ultimately face is between a diplomatic solution and what would likely become another war in the Middle East in the near future."

And that's an argument the president is also taking directly to members of Congress, especially those skeptical Democrats in Congress like Congressman Nadler from New York. President Obama wrote him a letter directly saying in part, quote, "Should Iran seek to dash towards a nuclear weapon, all of the options available to the United States, including the military option, will remain available through the life of the deal and beyond."

And that was certainly a message not just to that specific congressman but to others who are still on the fence, Carol, and that Congressman Nadler coming out this morning in favor of the deal.

COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen Serfaty reporting live from the White House this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, thousands expected to turn out for Donald Trump tonight as he takes his campaign to Alabama. But one Trump supporter is having a change of heart on his immigration plan. She'll join me next.

[10:09:57]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Tonight the town of Mobile, Alabama, could be the site of the biggest crowd seen so far in the 2016 campaign trail, and it's all because of Donald Trump. The Republican frontrunner set to rally supporters at a stadium normally used for high school and college football games. The campaign spokesman saying Trump's vow to make America great is making voters take notice.

CNN's Athena Jones in Manchester, New Hampshire, to tell us more. Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, this event was moved more than once. It was originally set to take place in a civic center theater, but that theater only held about 1900 people. It was then moved to a larger arena that holds 10,000, but then after the campaign said that at least 35,000 people claimed free tickets for the event online, they had to move it to that huge stadium that, as you mentioned, usually hosts high school and college football games.

[10:15:10] It holds 43,000 people, and, Carol, if that many people, between 30,000 and 43,000 people, come to Trump's event tonight, it will, of course, set a new record for this campaign season. Right now that record is held by Bernie Sanders. He's one of the Democrats running. He's also seen as an outsider candidate. He drew 28,000 people to his event in Portland, Oregon, just a couple of weeks ago. That was in an NBA arena. So some very big crowds -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to ask you about this. The term anchor baby and the controversy surrounding it. So Donald Trump uses it all the time. Jeb Bush then used it. This morning Donald Trump tweeted, and let's put the tweet up right now so I can read it to you, so this is from Donald Trump. He says, "Jeb Bush signed memo saying not to use the term anchor babies, offensive. Now he wants to use it because I use it. Stay true to yourself."

What do you make of this, Athena?

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: Well, for one thing, Carol, it's interesting that both of these candidates are using this term. You have Jeb Bush who's saying look, I'm the reasonable adult in the room, it's Donald Trump who says controversial things but they're both using this controversial term. The memo that Donald Trump is referring to is a 2013 memo put out by the Hispanic Leadership Network. That is a center right group that actually has Jeb on its advisory board.

Now it's not clear whether he signed the memo. We've seen the memo, there's no signatories on the memo we've seen, but certainly he should have been aware of it. So it's interesting to see Donald Trump kind of poking at Jeb Bush for using that term. And as you mentioned, he really, Jeb Bush did, defended himself quite strongly, defended his use of that term yesterday. So it will be interesting to see how that campaign, the Jeb Bush campaign responds -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's interesting you use the word interesting.

Athena Jones reporting live from New Hampshire this morning. Thank you so much.

Trump's campaign manager says he is expected to focus mainly on immigration during tonight's rally in Alabama. It's a topic that has caused controversy and sparked big support for Donald Trump. Earlier this week I spoke to Tara Grant, a big Trump supporter to get her thoughts on Trump's plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TARA GRANT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: A lot of illegal immigrants are in this country. They are making money from America. They send it back, but they also do spend a lot of their money here in the United States. So economically how will it affect the United States of America, and I really do, I love the plan. I love the idea that, hey, let's get some of these illegal immigrants out of the country, let's get them out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So Tara Grant joins me now live from Nashville.

And thank you so much for coming back because you wrote me an e-mail after that interview.

GRANT: I did.

COSTELLO: You were in your car, your kids were in the backseat, and you told me you had an epiphany, and I want to read part of your e- mail. You wrote, "My kids' laughter brought tears to my eyes. I thought how it would feel to live in a country for which I had to worry every single day that the drug lords would kill one of my kids. I realized that if I had the opportunity to get my kids and myself out of harm's way, I would do everything I could to get them to a safe location so they could laugh, learn, love, pray, play, hope, and dream our American dream."

Like I said, your e-mail was really touching. So what happened after that interview on Monday?

GRANT: I will tell you, I mean, I am a normal person, and over the last few weeks in life I have just been going through a lot of personal issues, and so I think Monday when I woke up and two hours of traffic and a lot of different things with babysitter arrangements and -- I just wasn't in a good place, you know, and so I couldn't wrap my mind around the immigration policy. Not necessarily all of the specifics but that in particular.

And I did, Carol, I got in my car and I was listening to my kids, my 5-year-old Nivea and my 2-year-old Draton, and they were laughing and giggling, and I thought as a mother, putting myself in the place of Latino mother, having someone show up at my door and say, OK, wrap it up, you got to go. You know, I couldn't get with it anymore, and it did. It brought me to tears, and you're exactly right, I would absolutely if I had to bend a rule or break a rule to get my kids into safety and so that I could offer them a life that I thought they deserved, I think that's my -- I think I have to do that as their parent.

COSTELLO: So how do you feel about Donald Trump's immigration plan now?

GRANT: I do. Now I agree with multiple specifics of that immigration policy. I do believe that we need a wall, we need a border, and that is to keep people from the drug cartel coming in and having easy access into the United States. I do think as far as immigrants coming into the country, do it legally, absolutely do it legally, but we cannot make these people wait years upon years upon years and pay huge amount of fines.

[10:20:11] They're poor. They are poor people. They do not have the money to spend lots of fees, lots of -- they don't have the money. So we've got to -- we've got to do something logically that allows these people to come into the United States just like lots of immigrants before them. We were built on the backs of immigrants. I mean, I don't think we came into this country the first white settlers and asked the Native Americans, hey, listen, guys, do you have paperwork that we can fill out and can we pay -- no. We didn't do that. So actually we're all technically here illegally.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: OK. So I'm hearing you, and I just want to ask you about one more thing because there was an incident in Boston where these two creeps, you know, allegedly beat up a homeless man and then urinated on him, and then supposedly told police Trump was right, we need to get rid of the illegals.

Here is what Donald Trump said when he was asked about that incident on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two men in Boston, two brothers, were arrested for allegedly beating up a Hispanic homeless man and they told cops that 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: Are you satisfied with Mr. Trump's response?

GRANT: No, I absolutely wasn't. When I heard that, I cringed, I did, because passion is one thing, but it was -- I would have loved for Mr. Trump to have come out and said under no circumstances does anyone have the right to urinate, beat up anyone, immigrant, Hispanic, white, black. It's -- ridiculous. And let's not mistake passion for lunacy. It was ludicrous on the part of those guys to hurt anyone, much less a Hispanic person, a black person, a white person.

It's ridiculous. It's cruel, and they had no right to do that, and I would have loved for Mr. Trump to draw a real definite line of it will not be tolerated and/or accepted.

COSTELLO: Got it. You know, I'm just curious because Mr. Trump is going to continue to use this term anchor babies, and by the way, when he refers to anchor babies, he is referring to American citizens. They are American citizens, right? But he's going to continue to use this word. It seems that harsh rhetoric is working for Mr. Trump. Do you think he should tamp it down now?

GRANT: I think he's going to do exactly what he wants to. I think the American public is sick and tired of political correctness. I think he's got every right in the world if he wants to use the word, quote, unquote, "anchor baby." I think he has ever right in the world. I do believe he was right in the fact that Jeb Bush automatically jumped on that bandwagon because now he's creating headlines.

So I think Donald Trump is going to do exactly what he wants to. He's going to use the verbiage that he wants to, and I think he does it unapologetically. Do I agree with the word anchor baby if it offends someone, I'm going to try not to use it. I have been told over the past week that undocumented was the word that we should use, and so I'll go with it.

COSTELLO: All right. Tara Grant, thank you so much for coming back, and thanks for your e-mail. I appreciate it.

GRANT: Thanks so much, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were having just a nice conversation, and he just came out of the blue when we were talking about the kids and he thought -- he said that he thought that the middle school girls were hot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Yes. An FBI informant speaks out. The disturbing proposition Jared Fogle made to her about her own daughters next.

[10:24:12]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Unprecedented cataclysm. That's how the governor of Washington state describes the 100-plus wildfires now burning across the state. The situation so desperate the state is now asking volunteers, civilians, to help dig fire lines, specifically people who can operate heavy machinery like backhoes and bulldozers.

The state is also mourning the death of three firefighters who died when flames overtook their vehicle after it crashed. Here's what the governor said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INSLEE: We know that these fires have burned a big hole in our state's heart and with the loss of these three firefighters, we know the smoke is still there and it's thick, but it is not going to obscure their incredible act of courage.

These are three big heroes protecting small towns, and we are going to remember them, and there are seven million Washingtonians that today are embracing them and their families and praying for them and hoping for the speedy recovery of our injured.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: It's probably not going to get any better anytime soon.

Chad Myers has the details on that.

Hi, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol. In fact, it's going downhill from here. A front is going to come through and make winds going to fan these flames. The flames are all across northern Washington and central Washington, too, but really across the northern tier blowing some of this wind here from west all the way across even into parts of Idaho. So let's zoom in here and show you this Twisp Fire.

This was the one that took the lives of those firefighters here. The winds coming down the valley here all the way across from Twisp and then blowing into the city. These firefighters were trying to keep it out of the city because as the wind was blowing from the west, it was blowing those embers back toward the town of Twisp. And this is what we have going this weekend as well.