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New Day Sunday

Texas Shooting; Poll: Sanders Cuts into Clinton's Lead; Fan Dies from Fall at Braves Game. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 30, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Hundreds of people attended this vigil last night at the gas station where Goforth was killed.

[08:00:06] Another deputy, watch this, just listen to the emotion here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really are out here to do good. And I know the guys that I work with, these deputies out here, when there's bad guys out there, we're out there to catch them, and we're out there to protect the citizens. We love you guys, we really do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Hmm.

Nick Valencia is following this story.

And, you just feel for not just that deputy, but the community. We heard that the entire community was embracing this department after the disaster.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The voices there, you hear them trembling, the emotion for this police department, the Harris County sheriff's office. They've still yet to figure out exactly what this motive was.

We understand during the questioning of Shannon J. Miles, this 30- year-old charged with capital murder, he has not yet confessed or given them a motive. But at a press conference yesterday, Ron Hickman, the sheriff there in Harris County, made it pretty clear what they think happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RON HICKMAN, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: We have not been able to extract any details regarding a motive at this point. As far as we know, Deputy Goforth had no previous contact with the suspect. And it appears to be completely unprovoked.

At this moment, as this morning, our assumption is that he was a target because he wore a uniform. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: They went on to say the police officer, the sheriff's deputy they believe was assassinated. He was caught off guard. He walked into a gas station, refueling his patrol car in uniform. You're looking at Darren Goforth, ten-year veteran with the Harris County sheriff's office and he was blindsided according to witnesses.

This Shannon Miles approached him from behind, opened fire and kept firing, Victor, as you were saying while that deputy was on the ground.

PAUL: And this suspect does have a criminal history.

VALENCIA: Yes, he does. And we've been looking closer into that. A lengthy criminal history in the state of Texas. Offenses include resisting arrest, trespassing, evading detention, disorderly conduct.

And, actually, what we heard yesterday from the Texas Department of Public Safety is that his mother may have played a huge role in turning him in. The spokesman told us that his mother had a conversation with him, and somewhere in that conversation she learned that he may have had some involvement with this shooting. She calls the deputies, they come over, they take him into custody.

So, he was in custody all day long yesterday, even during that press conference we had at 2:00 p.m. and they later charged him officially, charging him with capital murder in this case, but still trying to figure out the motive.

We heard a lot yesterday during that press conference. Emotional pleas. They believe that there's an open warfare on law enforcement officials not just in Texas, all across the country. We've been talking about this a lot in the last few weekends, officers killed in the line of duty.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

VALENCIA: Yesterday you heard the sheriff there Ron Hickman saying, we should drop the qualifier lives matter, all lives matter, especially police officer's lives.

BLACKWELL: All right. Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Nick.

(MUSIC)

PAUL: All right. Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is within striking distance of Hillary Clinton. At least in Iowa it seems. Look at this new survey from "The Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg Politics, showing Sanders edging within seven points of the former secretary of state in the critical early voting state of Iowa.

CNN's Polo Sandoval live in Washington. You've been looking at these numbers and it doesn't just mark, really

a remarkable eight-month time for Sanders, it reveals maybe a little more about the former secretary of state.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Christi. I think we have to remind ourselves it is still early. But as you mentioned these numbers should at least be reality check, if you will, for the Clinton campaign.

They really do seem to suggest that the former secretary of state is not really drumming too much support in the critical state of Iowa. That survey you just mentioned from "The Des Moines Register" as well as Bloomberg politics finding Senator Bernie Sanders trailing Clinton 37-30 percent.

Now, while it surprised some. For others, not a whole lot. Since when you think about it, Clinton actually finished third in the 2008 caucuses.

And then you look at Vice President Joe Biden's numbers, the candidate who is not a candidate. He actually captured 14 percent, and that easily distanced himself from other actual declared and established Democratic candidates like martin O'Malley or Jim Webb.

But we have to remind ourselves, Biden is not a candidate, or at least not yet, although obviously there's plenty of speculation building in Washington. But back to the Democratic front-runner, Clinton, she really her apparent drop in support may actually be due to the deep support for Bernie Sanders. In fact, another survey suggesting that 96 percent of his backers say they actually support his ideas, while only a very small number of potential caucus-goers say that they would actually want to use their vote to stop a Clinton candidacy.

But again, Christi, it's still very early. There are still plenty of polls, and plenty of dates left on the campaign trail.

PAUL: Well, what's interesting, it also reveals that one-fifth of voters who have a negative or do have a negative view of Clinton, but it reveals that the majority of voters don't think this Clinton e-mail issue is actually important, right?

[08:05:09] SANDOVAL: Right. It does remind us, though, that we do still have or she still has that dark cloud of the e-mail controversy looming over her. But it seems that especially since she began to address that issue, and actually answer reporters' questions publicly, that there -- that has not really been the key issue for potential voters here.

Again, she is at least addressing it. Now whether or not she's using the right answers or at least the best answers, that's really where the debate starts.

PAUL: All right. Paolo Sandoval, we appreciate it. Thank you.

SANDOVAL: You bet.

BLACKWELL: All right. We talked about the GOP at the 7:00 hour. Now we're going to talk about the Democrats.

CNN political commentator Charles Blow joins us now.

Charles, I want to start with this Bernie Sanders climb -- 5 percent in his poll in January, 30 percent now. That's not happening only because people are learning more about him. We see for Hillary Clinton, she's lost a third of her support since May.

Is it more viable, for feasible that Senator Sanders can win Iowa? And we've seen the numbers in New Hampshire.

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think you have to first start by understanding that we shouldn't expect Hillary win to every single state, right? So, and if Bernie is going to have a, you know, his best shots are going to be in places like Iowa, places like New Hampshire. Iowa is more than 91 percent white. New Hampshire is even more white than that. Large part of Hillary Clinton's base, at least at this point, is a diverse base, looks more like the Democratic Party.

I saw one Bernie Sanders report among African-Americans he was at 2 percent. A lot of people didn't know about him yet, hadn't become familiar with him and maybe that will change over time. But you have to put that in the context of where these early caucuses and primaries are.

PAUL: OK. Well you --

BLOW: That said, you know, yes, the -- you know, there is a bit of a media thumb on the scale.

PAUL: OK. So you say that there -- I want to jump in here. You say that we can't expect Hillary Clinton to win every primary caucus. But if Bernie Sanders wins the first and the second, those aren't just two contests, he wins the first two, it turns the entire race on its head, doesn't it?

BLOW: I don't think so, unless you have other viable candidates in the case. Now, that doesn't mean Bernie won't do well in subsequent races. But March is our biggest primary month for Democrats. Half of those primaries are in the South, with tremendous numbers of African- American voters in those primaries. Bernie has yet to this point been able to connect with that voting base.

And if Hillary maintains her strength with that particular voting base, it's very hard to see how the math could add up for it being a problem for her. So, it quickly becomes not these northern Midwestern states. It quickly becomes Southern states, black belt states where Hillary has a built-in advantage at least at this point.

BLACKWELL: But let's talk about the slide here, because as we said she's lost a third of her percent in Iowa since May. We know that apparently the e-mail scandal isn't the reason -- 76 percent of her supporters say it's not important, 61 percent of all likely Democratic caucus-goers say it's not important.

So, why is she sliding?

BLOW: Well, I mean, I think that some of it, some of it is about the e-mail and -- but also media coverage of it. I mean, I think it's really important for us to -- to kind of convey to viewers that this part of an election campaign, 430-plus days out from an actual election the media has a tremendous amount of sway at this point, because the candidates are not running as many political ads at this point. The political ads ramp up closer to Election Day.

So, at this point, it really is about how much media coverage you get. What kind of media coverage that is. Hillary gets a tremendous amount of discussion of these e-mails.

I, you know, I'm part of the media. I can't -- you know, I get the idea that if she understands that it probably wasn't the smart thing. I also -- but I don't quite get how we frame it as being as big a deal as it is. It just doesn't seem to be quite that big a deal.

BLACKWELL: It is quite complicated.

BLOW: But that is what she is always asked about. That is what is always reported. It becomes a kind of nagging thing that follows her, and so, she can't quite shake it. And I think that is, that fuels, part of the slide.

BLACKWELL: All right, Charles Blow. Good to have you back on a Sunday.

BLOW: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Sure.

PAUL: Well, it was the top of the seventh inning. Alex Rodriguez from the Yankees is walking to the plate. But that is not what these people are looking at. A fan fell from the upper deck.

[08:10:00] We have the dramatic account, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right. This is heartbreaking and frightening.

A fan tumbles off the upper deck of Turner Field where the Atlanta Braves play and he died. A witness who was just rows away from where that fan landed describes what happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM STAUDACHER, WITNESS: People were really, really disturbed. The guy fell very hard. It was not good. They were doing CPR from the moment that they got to him, and they were still doing it on him when they left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Police are investigating obviously what caused the man to fall head-first, mind you, onto a concrete walkway. But they don't believe foul play was involved.

CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes is here with more information.

This really gives us quite the visual.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, to start off, Christi, though, authorities have released the fan's name. His name is Gregory Murray, 60 years old from Alpharetta, Georgia, which is a northern suburb here in Atlanta.

I want to show you what happened. A-Rod came up in the seventh inning. He was pinch-hitting. It was his first to bat at the game. And when A-Rod come up, fans get up, they start booing, they start yelling, and the fan Gregory Murray was standing right here in this first row, and --

PAUL: You can see how low --

SCHOLES: You can see that it's not very high. Actually was yelling at A-Rod. At some point he lost his balance and came over and he fell all the way down here to the lower level.

[08:15:01] PAUL: Yes, look how far this is.

SCHOLES: Fifty feet.

He hit one of these wires that this is the net behind home plate. He hit one of these wires on the way down, fell all the way down here. Somewhere in this section right here, where is where the players, home and visiting players' family sit. Luckily no one was sitting where he fell. No fans were injured, but a very traumatic experience for everyone sitting around that area who witnessed him fall.

PAUL: Didn't you say he actually fell, there are reports he fell --

SCHOLES: Between the second and third row, so just so lucky that no one was sitting there. Paramedics immediately came to the scene, they started performing CPR and they rushed him to the hospital. But, of course, he passed away once they got there.

PAUL: That is just and obviously this is not going to be a stadium that's used after this year. But, you have to --

SCHOLES: We have one more season. They do have one more season at Turner Field before they move to the new ball park. And safety concerns is a big thing at ball parks these days around baseball.

PAUL: Sure.

SCHOLES: You know in Arlington, Texas, just four years ago they had a fan fall to his death in the outfield and they said the railing, once they did a complete inspection of all the railings, they're too low. We're going to go ahead and raise them and they went ahead and did that at the ball park at Arlington.

It's going to be interesting to see what they do at Turner Field for next season or in to the new ball park in a couple years because of this.

PAUL: It is so sad for his family and the people that saw it, as you see, the video they're so -- I mean people are just traumatized.

SCHOLES: One fan said immediately picked up his son and left because the scene was so horrific.

PAUL: Yes, think of the kids.

All right. Andy Scholes, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

SCHOLES: All right.

BLACKWELL: All right. New polls showing that Bernie Sanders, cutting into Hillary Clinton's lead in Iowa. So what's Sanders saying about this?

He's a guest on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." We'll take a preview next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:33] BLACKWELL: Bernie Sanders making a significant move in the latest Iowa poll. He is moving up closer to Hillary Clinton in that poll from "The Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg.

However here's the real question, is he becoming a significant threat to her campaign for president long-term? Sanders here at 30, Clinton 37.

Presidential candidate will join CNN's Jake Tapper at the top of the hour.

Jake, good morning to you. What do you think of these latest numbers?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION" HOST: Well, it just shows this is such an unpredictable year. Normally, I think it's fair to say that, you know, we have an idea of who is going to win the nomination, and the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. But this year, the masses are angry, they are supporting outsider candidates, both in the Democratic and the Republican parties. And it's really up for grabs.

Bernie Sanders drawing some of the biggest crowds there are on the Republican side. If you combine all of the outsider candidates, Donald Trump, and Carly Fiorina, and Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, they far, far outpoll in Iowa the establishment candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. So, it's really a sign of the discontent voters are feeling.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Sticking with the Democrats, for a moment, any good news here for Vice President Biden what we're learning in this new poll?

TAPPER: Well, there's an opening for him. And he has high favorability ratings. People like him. Now, of course, he hasn't really been engaged in the campaign right

now. So, it's tough to tell if that will last. But there is an opening for him when he enters the poll, when he enters the race, according to the Iowa poll, he draws equally from Hillary Clinton supporters and Bernie Sanders supporters. So there is something there for him if he's thinking about running.

BLACKWELL: All right. So you've got Senator Sanders this morning. What else do you have for us?

TAPPER: We'll also be talking to the father of that victim of that horrific shooting to talk about what he wants to see coming forward, going forward. And we have a very strong panel to talk about very tumultuous and exciting week in politics with all sorts of interesting things going -- ranging from Bernie Sanders' latest numbers to Sarah Palin interviewing some of the Republican candidates.

So, it's going to be a lot of fun.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jake Tapper, looking forward to it.

TAPPER: Thank you, sir.

BLACKWELL: And reminder, Bernie Sanders, guest on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper starts at the top of the hour, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

PAUL: Meanwhile the disappearance of MH370 gets more confusing if that's possible. What French experts are now saying about that mystery surrounding the plane wing found last month.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

[08:27:08] BLACKWELL: All right. Just in to CNN, Britain, Germany and France are calling for urgent E.U. talks on the escalating migration crisis in Europe. You see here, the video from that train station in Budapest, we just heard from CNN's Arwa Damon, that there are hundreds of people, maybe thousands here, waiting to board trains to get to Germany, but they don't have passports so they're being forced to stay there.

Officials say immediate action needs to be taken to face the challenge of thousands of migrants and the refugees coming into Europe. And steps must be taken to register them, fingerprint them, identify those in clear need of international protection, definitely by the end of the year.

PAUL: Meanwhile, Hungarian police have arrested a fifth man in connection with the deaths of 71 migrants. Their bodies were found in an abandoned truck in Austria last week. The suspect is a Bulgarian national and was taken into custody late last evening in Budapest.

BLACKWELL: French experts say they have not figured out if this part of a plane's wing actually belongs to MH370. The airliner disappeared last year with 239 people on board. Now investigators know the part comes from a Boeing 777. But they say they still need to identify a number inside this piece.

PAUL: And Europe is calling for change in railway security after an attempted terror attack on a train in France. They want an increase in identity and baggage checks at stations. More police patrols on board international trains, and better coordination and intelligence, including security across Europe's border-free travel zone.

BLACKWELL: A rising star who made history on Broadway suddenly fell to his death. This is Kyle Jean-Baptiste, 21 years old. He died Saturday after he fell from a fire escape. He was the first African- American to play the lead role in the Broadway production of "Les Miserables."

PAUL: A memorial day for three firefighters killed while fighting a massive fire. Men died last week when flames from the Twisp River Fire in Washington state torched their van. That fire is about 85 percent contained now. But look at it. Fellow firefighters are honoring those three at a citywide memorial.

BLACKWELL: You know the vow, for richer or for poorer. Well, this couple struck big on the rich side of that. One day, just one day after getting married, they won a $4 million lottery prize in Massachusetts.

PAUL: Happy wedding!

BLACKWELL: Yes, big smiles, everybody.

Here they are. You saw them with their daughter. They're taking a lump sum, $2.6 million. They're going to use it to go on a honeymoon.

PAUL: Hey, why not.

BLACKWELL: Pay off student loans. Buy two cars, and build an oasis right in their backyard.

PAUL: I want to see that.

BLACKWELL: Hopefully they'll have some left.

PAUL: Bless you.

All righty, thank you so much for starting your morning with us. Make some great memories today.

BLACKWELL: "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper is at the top of the hour.

But, right now, "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King.