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Donald Trump is Fending Off Criticism from Both Sides of the Aisle after Vowing to Ban Muslims from Entering the U.S.; Arkansas State University Still on a Lockdown. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 10, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

[15:30:00] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the message, of course, of this video, don't judge a book by its cover. But the question here then is, was this, this photograph, taken during well intended albeit ill conserved Christmas sketch. Was this considered a context of the citadel really meant to be a racially charged statement by dressing up members like the KKK or were they making a response video to I just showed you that's been viewed more than three million times and they are trying to, I guess, challenge people's rush to judgment. We don't know. But I can tell you this. The citadel is investigating and the president of the citadel says that he will update the media once that investigation is complete.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Let us know. Those guys are really good.

Victor Blackwell, thank you.

Coming up next, Donald Trump, he is indeed fending off criticism from both sides of the aisle after vowing to ban Muslims from coming to the U.S. Why he is telling Don Lemon he is the least racist person you ever met. We will chat with Don live.

Also ahead, a former police officer on trial accused of raping 13 African-American women. So why is the jury all white? Let's talk about that coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:48] BALDWIN: Just passed bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump making his case and really tripling down on his controversial proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States. He talked at length to my colleague Don Lemon in defending his plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST, CNN TONIGHT: Are you a racist?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm the least racist person that you have ever met. I am the least racist person.

LEMON: Are you bigoted in anyway?

TRUMP: No. I don't think so, no.

LEMON: Islamophobic?

TRUMP: I am a person - no. Not at all. I am a person who happens to be very smart and I happen to have a certain street sense. And I know where things are going. What I'm doing now is far more important. And I'm talking for the Muslims. I'm doing good for the Muslims. What I'm doing now is far more important than any particular business I have in the Middle East.

LEMON: Here's a pledge you sign. You saw this pledge. You know where I'm going. Are you going to break this pledge?

TRUMP: I think it's highly unlikely unless they break the pledge to me because it's a two way street.

LEMON: What is that mean?

TRUMP: They said they would be honorable. So far I can't tell you if they are. But the establishment is not exactly being very good to me. But I'm leading in every poll by a lot. It looks like I'm going win. My whole life has been about winning. I'm not like so many of the other people that you talk to that are essentially losers, OK. I know how to win. I intend to win.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Well, speaking of winning, check out this poll in terms of leading "New York Times"/CBS poll national poll he holds a double digit poll among Republican voters with a 35 percentage points there.

Don Lemon is joining me from New York.

Don Lemon, I mean, you had 35 minutes sitting right there with him. He said to you he was not a racist, that his policies aren't racist, and he is being treated unfairly. What was your sense of everything?

LEMON: Well, my sense is that he believes all of those things that he said or he would not have said them. He said that he believes that the president, the current president, his words, obviously not mine, has not done well when it comes to bringing the country together when it comes to race. So he doesn't understand when people say that, you know, he is racist. He think that's this president is a divider. And as president he said he would be a healer. I asked him how. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK. You said you don't want -- you want to talk straight. Do you sometimes the language, do you think sometimes the language and the tone might incite some sort of hysteria or some sort of Islamophobia and that the person as the leader of the country should calm people rather than anxiety (ph). TRUMP: What about on president? Our president is the greatest

divider I have ever seen. Excuse me. Our country has never been more divided than what Barack Obama has done. Whether it's white on black, whether it's our country has never been more divided.

LEMON: What do you mean?

TRUMP: Just take a look. Take a look what's going on. Our country has never been this way. Look at the riots we have the horrible things taking place on in Ferguson, St. Louis, Baltimore, all over the country.

LEMON: And that's the president's fault, you think?

TRUMP: well, I would have thought that he would have been a great healer. I would have thought - And I've said this. That he was going to be a great cheerleader.

LEMON: But aren't you saying what I'm saying?

TRUMP: By the way, excuse me. I didn't think he would be a great president, but I thought he was going to be a great cheerleader. He has been horrible cheerleader.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: So I went on the say, Brooke, how do you know those things? You haven't sat in that chair, you don't really know what it's like to be president. Everybody goes I know what I'm going to do. He kept moving on. He said I'm just going to be -- needs be more passionate and he needs to be more of a cheerleader that's basically was his answer.

BALDWIN: OK. What about this possibility, you know, he is saying if he doesn't get the respect, decorum as he is running for the Republican nomination that maybe, maybe, maybe he would break the pledge and then run on a third-party ticket. How serious do you think he is?

LEMON: Well, I think he is serious. I mean, he is - I think he is serious he would do it. I mean, after all it is Donald Trump. He said he would rather not do it. I ask him specifically if it came down to it would you run as an independent and he said I would do it. I this it would be tough. But I would much rather run as a Republican. But, again, he said -- he kept bringing up this issue with the Republican establishment and I asked him why he had an issue with it. He just doesn't believe that they are giving him the respect that he deserves.

[15:40:22] BALDWIN: What an interview, my friend. Don Lemon, thank you. Good to see you. We'll see you tonight on CNN 10:00.

Thank you. Thank you.

LEMON: Take the cookies and the napkins.

BALDWIN: I will tonight. Thank you. Talk about a little party I'm going tonight.

Don Lemon, thank you.

Coming up prosecutors say he used his power to prey on women, a former police officer on trial accused of sexually assaulting 13 women. Who his legal team called to the stand in his defense. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:18] BALDWIN: We have an update for you on a situation we were watching at the top of the hour. Arkansas State University still on a lockdown. There was suspect who rammed his way through in his car through his barricade on campus.

Nick Valencia has been working for us.

Nick Valencia, tell me what you know now.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We got off with the department of emergency enactment. They are, Brooke, in the State of Arkansas. And they tell us the situation is still going on. That gunman is still inside of his car. That green Chevrolet pickup truck that he crashed into near the student union there in Arkansas State University campus.

We are told that he has 100 pound tank of propane in the back of his truck but that SWAT has surrounded the vehicle. And according to the department of emergency management they say he has not getting off this campus even if he tries. But as of five minutes ago this latest information that the situation was still ongoing, gunman still in the car. No injuries and still as far as we know, no shots fired either -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: No shots fired.

All right, Nick, stay with me. Let me get into this next story.

We are waiting on this verdict in a highly charged trial with all kinds of racial undertones in Oklahoma City the suspect named Daniel Holtsclaw. He is an ex-cop now but he was an officer on the Oklahoma City police force when he was accused of serial rapes here, 13 African-American women. The prosecution claims he picked them because he didn't think they would speak up. Holtsclaw faces 36 counts in all including sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy and rape.

So Nick Valencia, back on this. Also joining us criminal defense attorney Alison Triessl.

So, first Nick, bring us up to the speed.

VALENCIA: This has been lengthy trial, Brooke. Five weeks of testimony. And a lot of that has to do with what you just reported. Thirteen women all of them African-American, all of them accusing in Daniel Holtsclaw, that former Oklahoma city - city police officer of raping them, of sexually assaulting them. That the state alleges that Holtsclaw singled out his victims, trying to pick out people in impoverished areas, people who may have checkered pasts or run ins with the police department so if they ever did come forward to report this, that their credibility would be drawn into question.

Now, to Holtsclaw's credibility, the defense did call his ex- girlfriend to the stand to speak to his character. She talked about how according to local affiliate reporting that he had read bible scriptures to her. They were together about year and a half. That's about as much information as we know there.

But the big bomb shell in this case, Brooke, is skin cells. It rests on skin cells of then a 17-year-old who is accusing Holtsclaw of rape. Those skin cells found both inside and outside of the zipper of Holtsclaw. And his defense is arguing that this was secondary transfer. That he came upon the skin cells after a routine search of this accusers' purse. The state isn't just buying that.

Closing arguments, they ended on Monday. Jury has been deliberating. But a huge controversy in this all is the makeup of the jury. It's all white. And the local chapter of the NAACP is furious at that. They say this will lead to an unfair trial. And of course, Holtsclaw, that man that you were looking up there on your screen, he is being charged with 36 counts including first and second-degree rape. He face life in prison -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Alison, to underscore Nick's points, I mean, when have you ever seen, here you have all African-American accusers, the officer is white, the jury is white. How does that come to be?

ALISON TRIESSL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, what's incredible to me is that how the prosecutors could allow an all-white jury. That's very perplexing. And it is concerning that the deliberations have taken three days.

Now, there are 36 counts so if the jury is look at each charge and each victim individually, that's a lot of information to plow through. But it is concerning, specifically because the MO that each woman described is very, very similar. And there is DNA evidence on at least one found in his pants of at least one of the victims, so it's a very reasonable inference that what she is saying is true, therefore because the MO is similar, it happened to all the rest as well.

BALDWIN: And the alleged victims quote from the prosecutor "they didn't choose CEOs or soccer moms and chose women he could count on not telling what he was doing. He counted on the fact no one would believe them and no one would care."

TRIESSL: And in fact that was their testimony that they didn't come forward because it was them against the police. They were distrusting of the police. They didn't think the police would come to their aid when they were accusing a fellow police officer and routinely, all of them said the same thing. We didn't think anybody would believe us.

BALDWIN: We will follow it.

Alison Triessl and Nick Valencia, thank you both.

Coming up, we will return to our breaking news involving the killers in San Bernardino. New threads today. One of the shooters we're learning was linked to a convicted terrorist. Those details are ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:27] BALDWIN: Hacker. Word alone tends to frighten people, but for some it's not about money and power but about hacking for a greater good as part of this CNN money special, CNN's Laurie Segall introduces us to the world of hackers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vegas, I have always found it strangely fascinating. You got gamblers, adrenaline junkie junkies, instant bride.

From this standpoint, Vegas is about the show, the promise of something better. But on this particular week there's a different type of show. You might not even realize it is happening. But I suggest you turn off your Wi-Fi because during this week this strange little mecca fills with what's becoming one of the most influential groups in the world, hackers.

Thousands and thousands of hackers descend on Vegas to party and hack.

If Vegas is a gigantic party, every year at cyber security conferences black headed Def Con, the best in the world gather to show off party tricks. It's not more like what you're drinking, it is more like what are you hacking.

Think about hacking is a modern day super power. It can be used for good or evil.

Josh Foreman is a hacker who uses his power for good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mistake number one is thinking hacking is bad, right? It's a form of power. I'm a big fan of Stan Lee and the whole spider man thing, with great power comes great responsibility.

SEGALL: One hacker who uses her power for good found a flaw with a Wi-Fi connected gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can just connect to the wireless network and you can talk directly to the back end of the system. What we tested specifically was to change the weight of the bullet. And that made the shot go two and a half feet to the left instead of the target that we were aiming at.

SEGALL: So when they told the gun maker they say it's safe to use and updated the rifle since the version she tested. It's that step telling the company that divides the hacking community. A good hacker or white hat reports the problems they find so other users aren't at risk. A bad hacker or black hat takes advantage of the problem, usually to make money or gain power. Exploits can sell for thousands online on the black market.

But it's not that cut and dry. In this community there's a lot of gray area. The white hat by day could be a black hat by night. And for those who use the skill for good, there's always the, what if.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always the fleeting thought here. I could be on a beach drinking out of a gold encrusted goblet. But I always keep in mind that like for any hack, especially one that would result in financial gain, there's a victim.

SEGALL: And here's what you realize when you hang out with hackers at Def Con. This strange cyber event is a microcosm to the real world. Connect to unsecure Wi-Fi in a room full of hackers, chances are you will end up on what they call the wall of sheep. Stolen passwords and emails display for everyone to see.

Now, this is meant to be a public service to remind you to only browse on trusted Wi-Fi networks.

So would you call yourself hackers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White hat hackers.

SEGALL: Because as they say with great power comes great responsibility.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: LAURIE Segall with that. Thank you very much.

And do not miss Laurie special. It's called "the secret lives of superhero hackers." It air this Saturday at 2:30 eastern and pacific only right here on CNN.

Before I let you go, I do want to update our breaking story, though. We have been reporting on for the better part of the last hour here. In Arkansas, Arkansas State University apparently has now apprehended this individual who did have a gun. But thankfully no shots were fired. Apparently this guy in his truck drove right on through some barricades on to the campus there at Arkansas State.

Here are some pictures. We know that the campus has been on lockdown. There were no reports of shots fired as I mentioned a moment ago. We did learn from Nick Valencia that there was a propane tank in this guy's truck through the barricade on campus, but again, the suspect is in custody.

And the world of politics just a quick reminder that our next CNN debate will be next week in Las Vegas December 15th. 9:00 eastern. The final Republican debate here of this year, six weeks before those Iowa caucuses, that being the first of February. So make sure you tune in for that.

I'm Brooke Baldwin here in Washington. Thank you so much for being with me. We are going to send it out just early to my friend, Jake Tapper. "The LEAD" starts now.