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Woman Arrested for Hoax Sighting Report; RNC to Ask GOP Candidates to Pledge Against Third Party Run; Bush, Trump Spar Over Speaking Spanish; Photo of Drowned Boy Symbol of Migrant Crisis in Europe; DOJ Report Slams Police Response in Ferguson; Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[09:00:04] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, this morning new leads in the expanding manhunt for three suspected cop killers, but one of them a hoax.

DET. CHRISTOPHER, COVELLI, LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS SHERIFF'S OFFICE: She fabricated the story because she was looking for attention.

COSTELLO: How hundreds of officers are intensifying the hunt as the officer's wife shares her grief.

MEL GLINIEWICZ, WIFE OF SLAIN POLICE OFFICER JOE GLINIEWICZ: Joe was my best friend, and my world, my hero, the love of my life for the last 26 and a half years.

COSTELLO: Also, Trump taking on Bush again.

Donald's new message for Jeb, speak English on the campaign trail.

Plus, this morning this Kentucky clerk faces a judge. Will he find her in contempt of court for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Next hour this woman is due in an Illinois courtroom in a bizarre new twist in the manhunt for a suspected cop killer. She reported seeing two suspicious men dash into a cornfield prompting a scramble of police and aircraft to a rural area. That report shifted the manhunt several miles from the site of Tuesday's killing. And now investigators say it was all a hoax, a reckless plea for attention.

Rosa Flores is following the manhunt. She joins us live from Fox Lake with the latest.

Good morning. ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning. What a play of

emotions and a waste of resources. Hear this. As soon as that tip came in, there was a swarm of resources to this area. More than 80 agents, 11 canine units and three aircraft searched for hours.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): Overnight police descending on this cornfield in Bolo, Illinois, just five miles south of Fox Lake, where Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz was gunned down by three suspects on Tuesday. The manhunt ratcheting up at 9:30 p.m. with canine units and air support after local resident Kristin Kiefer told police two men tried to get into her car to flee the area. Eventually running away into a cornfield.

COVELLI: Kiefer admitted that she had fabricated the entire story. She fabricated the story because she was looking for attention from a family that she nannies for. She was aware that a police officer was killed in this area. And she indicated that's why she chose this area to fabricate her story.

FLORES: Kiefer now faces two charges of two charges of disorderly conduct, further complicating an already difficult investigation with few clues.

COVELLI: Tonight's response speaks a lot to that and how present law enforcement is in this area and we're working hard -- working very hard to restore the peace and calmness in the community again.

FLORES: The sea of a thousand people attending the lieutenant's vigil Wednesday night, a testament to the impact GI Joe as he known had on this community for 30 years.

GLINIEWICZ: Joe was my best friend, my world, my hero. My world got a little bit smaller with his passing.

FLORES (on camera): Where do you think she found her strength to speak in front of several thousand people?

KELLY, FRIEND OF OFFICER'S WIDOW: I could only think that the strength comes from knowing that Joe knows that people needed to hear something from her so they could find some strength from all this. Nothing that makes sense in the world right now.

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FLORES: Now Kiefer is expected to face a judge. That bond hearing expected to go underway at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. Shortly after that, we're expecting a press conference here at the Fox Lake Police Department. And we're expected to learn the latest on this investigation -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll check back. Rosa Flores reporting live this morning. Thanks so much.

Now to Massachusetts where authorities are investigating another shooting involving police. Officials say a gunman shot at a cop cruiser without provocation on Wednesday in the town of Millis. That's about an hour away from Boston. The officer tried to avoid the gunfire but veered off the road and slammed into a tree. His police car was immediately engulfed in fire. The officer was taken to the hospital but later released.

Earlier in the day a middle school in the same town received multiple phone calls including a bomb threat. It's unclear if the calls and the shooting are related. As a precaution the town's public schools have been shut down today.

He may be sitting atop the Republican polls but so far Donald Trump has refused to rule out a third party bid. That could all change today if Donald Trump signs this loyalty pledge being circulated by the Republican National Committee. The goal, to get all the 2016 candidates to vow to support the eventual nominee.

[09:05:05] The Donald, meeting with the head of the RNC today, all this just a month after Trump did this during the first Republican presidential debate.

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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS DEBATE MODERATOR: Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican Party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person? Again, we're looking for you to raise your hand now if you won't make that pledge tonight. Mr. Trump.

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COSTELLO: CNN's MJ Lee joins me now from Trump Plaza.

MJ, tell us more. Good morning.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Will Trump sign the pledge? That is the big question that we want answers to today. I'm standing outside of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan where we're expecting Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, to be here soon to meet with Trump to discuss this issue.

Now the pledge that the RNC have been circulating this week, the purpose is twofold. One the candidate would be pledging not to run as an independent and two, they are also promising to support whichever candidate does get the Republican nomination eventually.

Now Trump was asked about the third party run and his thinking on it recently, this weekend in Nashville. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been treated very nicely. As you know, I'm leading in every poll. I'm leading in every state by a lot and nationally by a lot. I have a great relationship to the Republican Party, to the conservatives, to the evangelicals, to the Tea Party. You probably noticed, right across the broad.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So will you not run as a third party candidate?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to see what happens. But it's going to be -- a decision is going to be made very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Now we're very focused today on whether or not Trump will sign this pledge. But we should also talk about what this pledge means for the other candidates who are not Trump. If they were to sign this pledge, it ultimately means that they are promising to support Trump if he were to win the Republican nomination, a possibility that a lot of people until recently thought was not really realistic.

Now Jeb Bush was asked about whether he would support Trump earlier this morning. Take a listen to what he said.

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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: Mr. Trump told me yesterday he'd support you over Hillary Clinton if you get the nomination. Would you support him?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I would. Of course I would. We need to be unified. We need to -- we need to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Pretty fascinating answer, Carol, coming from Jeb Bush. As you know, Bush and Trump have been going back and forth a lot this week whether it's through Web videos or saying critical things about each other on the campaign trail. And now essentially Bush is saying look, if Trump were to get the nomination, then he will support Trump.

Now I can tell you that there are probably a lot of candidates in this big Republican field who probably feel uncomfortable or uneasy with the idea of Trump becoming the nominee and having to support him eventually. But I think a lot of candidates are now starting to say we will do what's for the good or the party.

COSTELLO: OK. So, MJ, if Republican candidates sign this pledge, it's very short and simple, is it binding in any way?

LEE: That's the big question, Carol. There isn't anything to -- for us to be able to say that it is -- it will be binding. It's a piece of paper with a signature on it and I think especially for a candidate like Trump a lot of people are wondering, if he does sign the pledge who can actually enforce it and, you know, make him sort of keep his word and say that he won't run as an independent candidate. I think that a lot of people are hoping that this is, you know, sort of the faith that they're taking with Trump now that he's a serious candidate and leading the polls, if he does sign the pledge, that he will keep his word.

COSTELLO: OK. MJ Lee reporting live from Trump Plaza this morning. Thank you.

While Trump may soon make nice with RNC officials, he is escalating his attacks on Jeb Bush. In an interview with Breitbart News, Trump slammed his rival for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail, saying, quote, "I like Jeb, he's a nice man, but he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States." This morning Jeb Bush hit back on that, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: So what was your first thought when you heard him criticize you for speaking Spanish?

BUSH: I laughed. I mean, this is a joke. I was in a -- in a press gaggle where people asked me a question in Spanish and I answered it in Spanish. Part of it is you laugh because it's so bizarre, but it's hurtful for a lot of people. And Mr. Trump knows this. He's appealing to people's angst and their fears rather than their higher hopes.

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COSTELLO: So let's talk about this. Star Parker, founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, is here and Alfonso Aguilar, the executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles also with me this morning.

[09:10:02] Thanks to both of you for being here. I appreciate it.

STAR PARKER, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR URBAN RENEWAL AND EDUCATION: You're welcome.

ALFONSO AGUILAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LATINO PARTNERSHIP FOR CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES: Thanks for having me on.

PARKER: Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

Star, so what does Trump really mean when he says to Jeb Bush to talk English?

PARKER: I think that perhaps Donald Trump spends too much time in China with his business interests and in Mexico with his business interests. And so perhaps come back to America and see that we are a very, very diverse community. I'm one that has actually two apps of communication on my phone so that I can communicate with a variety of people all over the world. When I walk into a Korea merchant store I actually greet them.

We are a very, very complex and diversified society. And this insistence that he is going to -- Donald Trump -- divide the Republican Party on whether we communicate with people in a language that makes them smile is absurd.

(LAUGHTER) COSTELLO: Alfonso, oddly enough Mr. Trump met with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday and then a day later he slams Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish. How do you explain that dichotomy?

AGUILAR: Well, look, because of his comments he's got a huge problem with the Hispanic community. According to Pew his unfavorable or actually I'd say his favorable rating is negative 51. Hispanics don't like Donald Trump. If he were the nominee he would not get enough support from Latino voters to win that White House. That's the reality.

I think his comments about Jeb speaking Spanish are shameful, are insulting, not only to Jeb, but to Latinos like me that may speak Spanish at home or with their friends or who may watch TV in Spanish. It doesn't mean that we want government business to be conducted in Spanish or schools to be -- schools be conducted in Spanish. But to say something like that is just so offensive to Latino voters.

And I think he's playing to the worst instincts of a few in the conservative base, a nativist base, that is really not the majority of the conservative base. That's why he's at 28 percent, 30 percent. He's really peaking. He's not going to be able even to expand his support within -- with Republicans because he's playing to that nativist group that is a minority. But it's a sizable minority.

COSTELLO: Yes. And another poll came out, an ABC-"Washington Post" poll that shows 82 percent of Hispanic voters have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. So you're right, Alfonso, when you say that Hispanic voters do not like Mr. Trump.

Star, I want to go back to this -- you know, there are some white voters who fear that Spanish may become the official language of the United States and they point to places like Miami where there are neighborhoods where Spanish is the only language spoken.

PARKER: Listen, we are America. And most people that are in this country want to believe in America. We have very, very deep problems. The challenge that many are having with Donald Trump's message is that it is pulling out the worst of America. We've had 50 years of engineering of the radical hard left. And a lot of voters and even people that are supporting Donald Trump were sleeping while all of this social engineering was going on.

Now we have a broken culture, an $18 trillion to $19 trillion worth of debt. I get that. I work in Washington, D.C. But that said, to pick on people who decide that they want to speak a language that they're familiar with in their own private neighborhoods is not the place to go. What we need to do is start figuring out how we are going to unify our country and to build out public policy that will reverse the trends of the hard left.

COSTELLO: And, Alfonso, just a question about Jeb Bush because, you know, he says that Mr. Trump is insulting his way to the presidency. He say Trump's policies will cost taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. He says that Donald Trump is more Democrat than Republican. And then he turns around this morning and says, oh yes, if he gets the nomination I'll support him. That's just strange.

AGUILAR: Well, it is, but it's the nature of party politics. If you are a Republican, you support the party, you make a commitment to the party and you make a commitment to whoever the nominee turns out to be. Donald Trump doesn't have to run as a Republican. He can run as an independent or -- or in a third party right now. But if he's running as a Republican he should make a commitment to the eventual nominee unless he's afraid of losing, which it's always -- it's a real possibility.

COSTELLO: Alfonso --

PARKER: One of the best things that Donald Trump is doing for this debate is he is pointing to the fact that the Republican Party has not been the opposition party. This is a blessing what he has done, is he's forcing Republicans to become the opposition party to the hard left and that in itself is a good contribution that he is making to this discussion.

COSTELLO: All right. Star Parker, Alfonso Aguilar, I'll leave it there. Thanks to both of you. I appreciate your being with me this morning.

A former aide to Hillary Clinton plans to duck questions from lawmakers as they investigate her use of an unsecured e-mail server.

[09:15:04] Bryan Pagliano set up the e-mail system and has been called to testify before a House committee one week from today. But his lawyer is telling the panel that Pagliano will assert his Fifth Amendment right and remain silent.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a picture has become a symbol of the growing refugee crisis. A small boy's lifeless body washes up on a Turkish shoreline. Up next CNN's Arwa Damon joining some of those migrants on their harrowing journey.

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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These are families around us right now that have all fled the wars in Syria, making this horrific journey with their children. They're not entirely 100 percent sure where this train is going to end up.

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COSTELLO: It's the heartbreaking image that's on the front pages all over the world this morning. It's a picture of a little Syrian boy being cradled in the arms of a Turkish police officer.

[09:20:06] His family has identified him as 3-year-old Aylan. He drowned after the boat he was on sank off the coast of Turkey. His brother and his mother also died. The family was trying to reach Greece and eventually make it all the way to Canada. The picture is just a snapshot of what's become a much bigger issue in

Europe, where thousands are risking their lives in order to flee poverty and war.

CNN's Arwa Damon is on a train in Hungary with hundreds of migrants.

Arwa, what's it like where you are?

DAMON: Carol, this train left the Budapest station about four hours ago and has traveled perhaps all of 20, 25 miles before it was stopped at another station where we do know there is a Hungarian refugee camp.

Now the people that boarded this train, they did so after the train station was closed to them for days. And many of them hope at least that this would be a train that was taking them to Germany. Some had heard that no, it was only going as far as the Hungarian-Austrian border. Either way they boarded en mass with their families. And now they are stopped here.

Not entirely clear what is going to be happening. They're afraid that they're going to be forced to disembark and forced to go to the camp that is located here. So they're refusing to leave the train. And it's especially difficult for the parents having to look at their kids after everything that they've been through, gone through yet another arduous, very difficult day.

The heat inside the train cart is absolutely (INAUDIBLE). This family next to me, the little 8-year-old, when we left the Budapest train station was happily reciting and showing off her ability to say the alphabet in English and now she's just exhausted. Babies are crying. People weren't really expecting to be held up in the train, so a lot of them don't have water, food. That of course is making it more difficult for the children.

This is really just indicative of how broken the system is in the E.U., within the E.U. when it comes to trying to handle this influx of migrants and refugees. The system that exists. The Dublin agreement, it's just not working in this situation. The number of people flooding across Europe are -- Europe hasn't seen this since World War II. And every single government seemingly incapable of handling it.

And then you have, you know, the Hungarians and the Germans giving mixed different messages. No one really knows exactly why the refugees and migrants aren't being allowed on. Everyone is falling back to the fact that they're all individually adhering to European Union assignment legislation. But as experts will tell, as the Dublin Agreement just effectively dictates that you must register for asylum at your first point of entry into the European Union.

That agreement is leading to violation in international human rights. A violation of the team of convention. Clearly that has to change. But people can't keep waiting for politicians to come up with the decisions and be left in situations like this.

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon, reporting live from Budapest this morning. Thank you. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, under God's authority. This Kentucky

clerk is banning same-sex marriage licenses. But will that land her in bigger trouble when she's in court today?

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[09:27:37] COSTELLO: The Department of Justice out with a scathing report this morning, slamming the police response to the protests and riots that came in the wake of the death of Michael Brown. A 188-page report details nearly everything that went wrong. From officers removing their name tags to violating protesters' First Amendment rights to free speech. And the report reserves special criticism for the tanks and tear gas used against crowds.

The report reads, in part, quote, "The use of military weapons and sniper deployment atop military vehicles was inappropriate, inflamed tensions and created fear among demonstrators."

Our justice correspondent Pamela Brown is following the story.

Good morning.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. This report released by DOJ highlights a series of missteps by police on the ground in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown. This is looking at the 17 days from right after the death of Michael Brown. And it says that the problems began almost immediately.

One of the big things here, Carol, it pointed out was that police didn't do a good job of gauging the community, the protesters and how long this may last.

So here's a couple of highlights from the report. One of the -- one of the parts it points out is a lack of social media preparedness. It says law enforcement agencies underestimated the impact social media had on the demonstrations and the speed at which both facts and rumors were spread and failed to have a social media strategy. So it talked about that and the fact that these officers hadn't developed -- particularly in Ferguson, hasn't developed a relationship with the community.

That was a big part of this report, Carol. So the fact that there was this mistrust that have been growing, developing for years, that the police department hasn't really invested in developing relationships with the community and as a result sort of misread how to react.

It also talks about the different tactics used, the military type tactics used, and actually talks about the police snipers that were there. It says, "The over-watch tactic in which police snipers took positions on top of tactical vehicles and used their rifle sights to monitor the crowd, it served only to exacerbate tensions between the protesters and the police."

It also talked about the canines there on the ground also sort of fuelled the tensions. And that some of these tactics, while allowed within this department's policies, weren't necessary and weren't really with the overall protocol.

[09:30:03] Carol, so we have reached out to St. Louis Police as well as Ferguson Police. We haven't heard back yet -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We look forward to your gathering more information for us.

Pamela Brown reporting live this morning. Thank you.