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Wolf

Trial Begins in Freddie Gray Death Case; Trump On Top in New Polls; Sander Berger Dies. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 02, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:33:07] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We are following the breaking news out of Baltimore right now. The prosecution has just finished the opening statement the as the first trial of the so-called Freddie Gray Six is under way. The jury was seated this morning. And Officer William Porter is facing a slew of charges including involuntary manslaughter and second-degree assault for failing to secure Gray in the back of a police van and not calling paramedics when Gray asked for help. Gray later died of a spinal cord injury.

And we go the Miguel Marquez who is there at the trial.

After being seated, what did the jury then hear?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is mostly female, eight men and four women on the jury, and four alternates, three white men and one black man. And the prosecution started in ten minutes later to lay out the case to the jury saying that the basically, Mr. Porter, the officer Porter was at four or five of the six stops where Freddie Gray stopped on that morning, and that Freddie Gray went into that van as a healthy young man, and he came out of that van about 42 minutes later not breathing, unconscious, and for all intents and purposes dead essentially. He survived for another five days in a coma and never regained consciousness.

He went into great detail of how Mr. Gray received that injury in the van, and it is the compression of the neck into the spine crushing the fourth and the fifth vertebrae basically, and causing Mr. Gray ceased functioning from the neck down basically. He was able to breathe shallowly using the muscles of the neck, and that his breathing became more and more shallow as time went on.

This is how one young man who is protesting and he is from west Baltimore where Freddie Gray was arrested near that neighborhood, and he made his way into the court, and not easy to get into the court. And this is the reaction of the prosecutor as he laid out the line of questioning about how Mr. Gray died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELVIN TOWNES, HEARD OPENING STATEMENTS: It was a little -- it pisses me off a little bit how he was treated like an animal and last minute to get medical attention when the spinal cord was broke even and his neck was broken, and he couldn't communicate with the officer any longer. And so, it made me mad, and nerve-wracking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: And at one point, he said that he was called upon to open the door, and the first thing that Mr. Gray said was "Help." And then Porter asked him what's wrong, and Gray said, I can't breathe, and Porter said, do you need a medic, and Porter said yes. And Porter asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, and then Gray said yes. And the prosecutor drove home the point that again and again he asked for help, and again, they didn't do anything, over and over and over again, and driving that point home to the jury, and the defense will have its chance to the jury at the opening statement. In 10 minutes from now, and it will be underway. They are going to be coming out swinging. The Gray family is there, and members of Mr. Porter's family is there and very, very intense, and members of the community in there, and it is very, very intense situation -- Wolf?

BLITZER: How long do they expect the trial to go on?

MARQUEZ: Well, the judge has said that it will be over on or before December 17th. I will tell you that they have a list of potential witnesses, and some 200 long. So I doubt that they will be calling certainly all of them. And you won't get through them in three weeks certainly, but it is going to be a very intense few weeks. This trial, the first of six is going to be watched very closely by the other defendants clearly, and if the prosecutors can get, find him guilty on any of those charges, it will be certainly be a wake-up call to all of the other defendants waiting out there -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Miguel Marquez is covering the trial for us. Miguel, thank you very much.

Just a head, Donald Trump's controversial comments certainly not hurting him in the polls, at least not yet. And a new survey shows him the undisputed leader of the Republican field. Maybe the remarks are helping him with the Republican base. We will break down the numbers when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:42:06] BLITZER: Let's get to the race for the White House. Donald Trump now opening up a 10-point lead in the Republican race for the presidential nomination. That is according to a new national poll. The Quinnipiac poll shows that he is ahead of Rubio and Carson and Cruz and then look at this, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor is trailing with only 5 percent. And on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is way ahead of Bernie Sanders by a large margin of 60 percent to 30 percent.

Let's bring in our CNN political director, David Chalian; CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

The numbers for Donald Trump are amazing, considering all the controversy over some of those remarks. They don't seem to hurt him. In fact, they may be helping him. What do you gather from this poll?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Without a doubt. It is the third national poll in a row that we have seen Donald Trump with a commanding lead. If you look at the sup pores, they are not going anywhere. And 46 percent of the Trump supporters say that their mind is made up and two months before the voting, and they won't go anywhere and that is much higher than any other candidate, and the supporters are sticky, so the controversial is what is the media focuses on does not impact where the people go.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And the more the Republican establishment complains about Trump, and the more the media complains about Trump, the more the supporters are loyal to him. As you point out, Cruz supporters and Rubio's, and only one quarter of them will stick with the candidate through thick and thin, and with Trump, half of them.

BLITZER: He has loyal supporters out there. And Jeb Bush, his numbers are collapsing right now?

CHALIAN: It is unbelievable. A year ago, I sat here and said to you that a couple of months before the vote Jeb Bush would be down to 5 percent, you would have thought that I was crazy. He has been trailing downward and the trend line has not been going in the correct direction in some time. They have a turn-around mission on their hand if Jeb Bush is going to be having life, but these numbers, he is bottoming out.

BORGER: And another thing, his PAC has spent $28 million to get into -- to get their candidate into the single digits. If you look at Donald Trump -- how much has he spent -- $200,000?

BLITZER: In paid advertising.

BORGER: And you can say that it is because of us in the free media give him attention and, et cetera, but it does not explain the durability or his longevity at that top of the polls. And Jeb Bush just can't get that kind of traction, because he is selling something clearly that the Republican primary voters don't want, no matter how much money he puts into it right now.

[13:45:04] CHALIAN: And Jeb Bush is banking on the caucus goers in Iowa or the primary in New Hampshire voters will have something to happy to them when they go into the booth and say, who has the best chance to beat Hillary Clinton, and Trump got out of my anger in 2015. And now I want to put in 2016 something more presidential, but to bet on that as the path to the nomination is a risky bet.

BLITZER: And to his credit, Donald Trump is not afraid to go out to do interviews, even with the host that are not that inclined to ask him softball questions.

BORGER: I think that more of the candidates are willing to do it, because they realize that the window is closing a little bit, and they're taking a page from Donald Trump's book which is to put yourself out there, and the more you put yourself out there, the more the voters get to look at you, and why hide?

BLITZER: All right, guys. Thank you very, very much. Just ahead, Senator Ted Cruz is gaining ground in the race for the

Republican presidential race. What's behind his rise in the polls? Which of his rivals is he targeting? Some answers when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:44] BLITZER: Let's go get to the new poll numbers. Donald Trump advancing right now. He's way atop among Republicans for the Republican presidential nomination.

Let's bring in our CNN political commentators, Republican, S.E. Cupp; and Democratic strategist, Donna Brazile.

S.E. what's this for Donald Trump? Very impressive, a 10-point lead right now in this poll.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, god, if we knew.

(LAUGHTER)

If only we could explain, not only the rise but the longevity of Donald Trump through all of these inexplicable and largely offensive statements and moments. It's really hard to say. Clearly, his supporters like what he is saying, and every time folks in the media or Republicans or Democrats, Republicans like me who actually want to win the White House, push back on the things he has said, it only seems to bolster his supporters.

I was actually just talking to a Trump supporter the other day, a woman in Washington. I was asking her, what is it about him? And she just loves the way he talks. I mean, there's really no way around it.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think what explains it all is that, in the aftermath especially of the Paris attacks, he's coming across for Republicans as a strong leader. People may disagree, but he's coming across as a strong leader. If you look at the polls, the Tea Party Republicans and evangelicals are supporting Donald Trump. Ben Carson has started to melt away. I don't want to say fade away because a lot of people in the second tier are fading away. Ben Carson has gone down in the polls, Donald Trump up and Ted Cruz is a sleeper right now that also is making a strong impression.

BLITZER: He certainly is. You know, Donald Trump says controversial things. He was on FOX earlier this morning, and he made another controversial statement. Let me play the clip, and we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION (voice-over): They're using them as shields. But we're fighting a very politically correct war.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: With the terrorists, you have to take out their families. When you get the terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: But they say they don't care about their lives. You have to take out their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Is that going to have an impact on his popularity among Republicans, S.E.?

CUPP: Certainly not among his supporters. You know, what's remarkable about that is that usually it's only brutal dictators who embrace this idea of actively pursuing collateral damage, actively pursuing the slaughter of families of enemy combatants.

And usually the better ones have the common sense to pretend that they don't. And here not only is Donald Trump embracing this idea, he's probably saying we're going to do it, luckily there's the Geneva Convention and a lot of what he says is neither constitutional or fits into the international communities' ideas of moral guidelines. You have to wonder if his supporters are aware that so much of what he wants to do from this to building Muslim databases is just not possible. Do they ware that he makes promises that he can't keep?

BRAZILE: There are thousands of people, as you know, from all over the world that are attracted to the radical Philosophy of ISIS and to this notion that you're going to start bombing families, bombing communities. Well, let me just say this to Mr. Trump. You've got European countries, many of our Arab allies, and of course perhaps here domestically. I don't know if that was a statement that was intended to be a play on our strategy to defeat ISIL, but clearly Donald Trump is trying to feed into this narrative again that he has a plan as a strong leader.

CUPP: But he correctly identifies problems, right? He has correctly identified what a lot of Democrats have said, the ISIS strategy from Obama is not working. He has correctly identified we have a problem with illegal immigration in this country. He identifies the problems correctly but then offers up completely ineffective, ridiculous, unenforceable, offensive solutions to these problems, and his supporters rally around them. You have to wonder if you're Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz you have to wonder if that is going to collapse if ever.

BLITZER: Jeb Bush's new numbers in this new poll, 5 percent in this new poll. Pretty unimpressive for a guy who was considered one of the front runners not that long ago.

BRAZILE: Look, $28 million in advertisement, and he's still stuck below 10 percent? You have to wonder if it's the messenger or the message.

[13:55:17] BLITZER: Thanks, ladies. We'll continue to watch what's going on. And this sad final note. Many here in Washington are mourning an important figure in the national security establishment. Sandy Berger has died after a battle with cancer. He served as President Bill Clinton's national security adviser as well as advising Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. President Obama expressed his sympathies to Berger's family today saying, quote, "May they find some comfort in knowing that the America he loved is stronger because of his service." Our deepest condolences to his wife, Susan, and their children. Sandy Berger was 70 years old.

The news continues right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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