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Oregon Protests; Republicans Spar in Trump-less Debate; California Jailbreak: Arrested Teacher to Appear in Court. Aired 9:30- 10a ET

Aired January 29, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:15] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello.

I need to warn you, the video you're about to see shows one of the occupiers of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon being shot to death. The FBI releasing the disturbing video of two days - of Tuesday's fatal incident to counter allegations that LaVoy Finicum was killed while surrendering with his hands up. The video was taken from a plane and shows a white SUV running off the road at a road block. A man gets out with his hands up while a law enforcement officer approaches. And then the man's arms go down. It was not possible to tell from this vantage point exactly what was going on, but you saw there another law enforcement official closing in from the other side. The FBI says the man, later identified at LaVoy Finicum, was killed while he was reaching into his coat for a loaded handgun.

Let's take a closer look at some of the key moments in this video with Sara Sidner.

Good morning, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, there were seven people in two separate vehicles that were being followed by the FBI and the Oregon State Police before the shooting happened. The Oregon State Police officer is the one who shot and killed 54-year-old LaVoy Finicum, who is the father of 11, a rancher turned protestors here in Princeton, Oregon, at the refuge.

Now, initially some of the protesters, including the father of the men that have been leading this protest here and this occupation at this refuge, he basically said that LaVoy Finicum was killed in cold blood with his hands up, but that is not what the video shows. It was a plane flying in the sky and we'll give you kind of a breakdown here. And I know this is disturbing. This is a man who has 11 kids. This is a life being lost. But there was so much consternation over this video, and so much misinformation that the FBI decided to release the whole entire thing.

What you see in these still shots, first you see that LaVoy Finicum has come out of the car. He was the driver. He comes out of that white vehicle. He has his hands up, yes. But then at some point he puts his hands down. And he is not shot initially when his hands are down. Then he kind of puts his hand out but then he puts them back around or near his pockets, and then turns around and he's shot by an Oregon State Police officer. According to the FBI, that is who shot him. So you can see in those still photos that his hands were indeed down somewhere near his pockets when he was shot and killed.

We did see the aftermath of that. The FBI ended up shooting into the vehicle, deploying some flash bangs as well. The other occupants of the vehicle included Ryan Bundy, who was the brother of Ammon Bundy, who was arrested earlier in the Jeep that you can't see in the video. And there were two other people in that car, two women, one of whom was an 18-year-old woman who is not going to be charged or named. The other was another woman who has been charged, Shawna Cox. She was also in that vehicle.

[09:35:12] There are still people here at the refuge. This is not over by any means. And we can see that the FBI and authorities have lit up the area, which is usually pitch dark out here because there are no lights. This is the wilderness. They have lit it up and they've been standing out there for the last - overnight, really, Carol.

COSTELLO: So - so will they eventually force those remaining people who are holed up in the wildlife refuge out?

SIDNER: This morning very early, about an hour ago, I was able to get some information from inside of the refuge, the people who are still left there. As we understand it, there are still four people left inside of that refuge and they had been talking to the FBI overnight. We do not know what's happening at this moment, but certainly the FBI and local authorities are getting closer and closer to that headquarters where there are still people holed up inside, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Sara Sidner reporting live from Oregon this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, substance takes center stage at the Donaldless debate, but did you miss the GOP frontrunner? Did Fox?

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[09:40:52] COSTELLO: The star of the Republican debate was substance. Still, Donald Trump's ghostly presence hovered over the stage. Word is the Fox debate got the second lowest ratings of the season. So, Trump's debate desertion and the rift between Trump and Fox could change politics for good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Fox called me, because they very much want me there, they called me just now, they called me just before you walked into the plane, and they called me and, in all fairness, very nicely, but they want me there very badly and I never once asked that she be removed. By the time they apologized, I said, look, the problem is, we now have a big event scheduled for the vets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were on the phone - apologized - that was the phone with (INAUDIBLE) -

TRUMP: Yes, Fox could not have been nicer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got an apology?

TRUMP: Yes, and they could not have been nicer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who - who apologized?

TRUMP: I don't want to say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So Fox insists it did not apologize to Trump but stood up for journalism. The network issuing a statement that reads in part, quote, "Roger Ailes had three brief conversations with Donald Trump today about possibly appearing at the debate. There were not multiple calls placed by Ailes to Trump. In the course of those conversations, we acknowledged his concerns about a satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly and prevent her from being smeared any further.

With me now to talk about this, CNN's John Berman, Charmaine Yoest is a former senior advisor to Ronald Reagan, and Brian Morgenstern, who is a Republican strategist.

Welcome to all of you.

CHARMAINE YOEST, FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT REAGAN: Great to be here, Carol. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Great to have you all.

So, John, from voters who attended the debate, did they miss Donald Trump?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think they missed something. They missed a presence that had been there in the previous six debates. And, by the way, for the people who watched the debate, there were fewer of them, right, by half. The first Fox debate got 25 million-ish. This probably had half the viewers.

What the absence of Trump did, though, is it turned focus away from him to the other candidates. And the other candidates had to figure out how they wanted to deal with that. One of the big questions going in was, would they take the stage and attack Trump, attack him in absentia? For the most part, they didn't. For the most part they turned their attention to each other, which is why there are people like "The Des Moines Register" all keep holding this up who say it was a rough night for Ted Cruz. Some of the candidate had to face questions and pressure they haven't had to face before.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So going back to the feud between Fox and Donald Trump for just a minute, Charmaine. Fox said that it wrote that satirical press release to protect Megyn Kelly because she was being attacked. Now, I have stood up for Megyn Kelly and I've gotten a few choice e-mails myself from Donald Trump supporters and they've been quite nasty.

YOEST: Right.

COSTELLO: So I sort of understand where Fox was coming from. Still, it probably chose the wrong method to protect Megyn Kelly, right? The wrong way, right?

YOEST: I think it continues to underscore this misogynistic theme that goes - runs through the Trump campaign, to attack Megyn, to attack you. There seems to be a real trend line here. And, you know, the problem for Donald Trump right now is, on the plus side, he did drive the debate and drive the narrative for the last 24 hours. But at the end of the day, you don't change politics. It's still one man, one vote in America. And so we're into a phase now where we're going to move to where people have to show up at the caucus. And I can tell you, Carol, from talking to people on the ground here in Des Moines, there is a real undercurrent of the fact that Donald Trump is not working on that element of the campaign. I was hearing people yesterday kind of derisively say, well, you know, he flies in on his airplane and then he flies back out again. And I was like, oh, that's very interesting. So I think that he's got this real challenge with being, he's a reality star campaigner. He is approaching this as if it's a reality TV show. But at the end of the day, voting is not reality TV. Reality - it's showing up. It's actually caucusing. It's in person. It's not sitting back watching the television and throwing popcorn.

COSTELLO: Well, but I must say for Trump's followers, and I'll pose this to you, Brian, they like the fact that Trump blew off Fox News and held his own event. I'm going to read you something from Sarah Palin because she tweeted this this morning. This is from Sarah Palin. Quote, "America's TV controls feature two buttons tonight, victory and defeat. Thank you, Mr. Trump, for bringing victory to our vets, and thanks to CNN for bringing this uplifting, patriotic broadcast into our living rooms. Over $5 million raised for veterans already."

[09:45:09] So, Brian, Trump supporters were all-in on Trump's decision to hold this separate

BRIAN MORGENSTERN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yeah. Trump supporters seem to be all-in on everything he does. Right? But I don't see as it as some kind of profound cultural shift, really. He talks about "The Art of the Deal," what he's really good at is the art of the feud, if we're being generous, or the art of the temper tantrum, if we're not. It's the ability to pick fights to get attention and then we in the press are dutifully playing along because it rates well. It's an interesting story line.

But I agree that last night's debate was an opportunity for some other candidates to maybe walk through the door that Trump left open by skipping it. And we don't know if that's the case or not. He admitted as much. We don't know who's going to show up to caucus on Monday. And if one thing Iowans have been consistent about over the last several cycles, it's that they like to prove people wrong, and they like to pick somebody other than the person who we thought was going to win. Maybe Trump skipping it helped us get to that point. Maybe it solidified support. But this has been the hardest cycle to predict so far, and this is just another unprecedented element that we have going into it.

COSTELLO: All right. And last question for you, John Berman, because some people say that Donald Trump was very smart to do this because it exposed Ted Cruz. Right? Because on the cover of "The Des Moines Register" reads it was a bad night for Cruz.

BERMAN: Yes. You know, look, I got it right here. It's a big, glaring headline in the paper of record in this city, in this state. Look, you know, Carol, we're journalists. I would love there to be 100 debates and the candidates to go to every single one of them. But the campaigns have a different job. Their job is to win. And as we sit here this morning, it's hard for me to know how Donald Trump could be in a better position right now than he is if he had been at that debate. The man who was his No. 1 contender, Ted Cruz, got beat up on that stage pretty hard last night and Donald Trump didn't have to lift a finger.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. John Berman, Charmaine Yoest, Brian Morgenstern, thanks to all of you. I'll be right back.

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[09:51:23] COSTELLO: All right. I want to bring you out to New Hampshire. Excuse that shaky shot. But that is the stage and a podium set up for Donald Trump in New Hampshire, yes? The Donald has left Iowa just days before the caucuses to stump in the state of New Hampshire and as you can see, it will be a full house, as is usual for Trump's events. Of course, we're monitoring this and we'll bring you more as is warranted.

In other news, political news, a whirlwind day for Democrats in Iowa. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders making their final push just days before the caucuses. And their schedules are packed today. Hillary and Bill Clinton will be campaigning across the state. As for Bernie Sanders, he's got five stops. right now Clinton is holding a narrow lead. New Monmouth polling, though, among likely Democrats, among likely Democratic caucusgoers shows 47 percent support Clinton. Sanders comes in at 42 percent. Last month Clinton held a 22 percent lead there and with the race this tight, Clinton is unlikely to miss a debate. Here she is talking last night with Wolf Blitzer about Trump's boycott.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I deeply regret the tone, the rhetoric that you're hearing not only from Mr. Trump but a number of the other candidates. The kinds of insulting remarks they're making about groups of people in our country. Their strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Wanting to defund Planned Parenthood. Coming back to trickle down economics. You know, it's really a quite disturbing spectacle that we have going on. So whether or not they are together when they debate and reinforce these positions, which I think would be so harmful to our country, is something that they have to decide among themselves. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

A jailed teacher accused by authorities of helping three dangerous criminals to escape is expected to make her first court appearance today. The teacher, seen here, was arrested yesterday in connection with last Friday's jailbreak. She was teaching English to the ring leader of the group and officials believe she gave him some maps to help him escape. As for the fugitives, they are thought to be living inside this van. That van in Los Angeles was stolen last week.

Paul Vercammen is outside the jail with more on this. Good morning.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It looked like the trail was cold and then suddenly a big break. Authorities here in Orange County arresting this English as a Second Language teacher here at the jail. Her name, Nooshafarin Ravaghi from Lake Forest, California. She began teaching her last July. Somewhere in there in a group class setting, as you pointed out, she developed a relationship with the ring leader of the group.

Authorities now charge her with providing him and the other escapees with Google maps. Why is that important? At some point it seemed they needed to eyeball the roof of this facility and the surrounding area. Don't forget, they repelled four stories down during their escape.

So they're now looking into whether or not she played a hand in anything else. She has denied, so far, investigators say, bringing any tools into the jail. But they are still interviewing her and she will be arranged later today, Carol.

[09:54:49] You also pointed out about that white van. One of the three escapees, Mr. Duong, allegedly responds to some sort of possible ad on the internet. He goes to a single owner, he takes this van for a test drive. The owner doesn't accompany him, and allegedly, he then just does not return the van. So they're now looking for that van, a center of all of this, and they do believe that all three suspects were seen somehow in this van and may, in fact, be living in it. Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Paul Vercammen reporting live from California this morning. Thank you.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Just hours after stiff arming the Republican debate and holding his own rival event, Donald Trump is blazing his own trail again this morning. He's leaving behind this crowded field of rivals in Iowa and instead moving onto New Hampshire ahead of the nation's first primary there. He's about to host a town hall gathering and he springboards from a big night in Iowa, enjoying the spotlight all to himself. And today learning that the Trumpless debate scored the second lowest ratings of the season.