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Newspaper Editorials Stand Against Trump; Surgeon Delivers Adorable Baby Gorilla; Kalamazoo Shooting Suspect Had Degree in Law Enforcement; Sanders Targeted Wealth Gap in Town Hall; Storm Rips Roof Off Louisiana Gym. Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired February 24, 2016 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:01] JON HEALEY, DEPUTY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, LOS ANGELES TIMES: Well, he has been hitting several of the hot button issues that editorial boards care about. I mean, we're all into policy. He has been talking about immigration and refugees in ways that I think are anathema to the way most of us think.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And Trump really isn't talking much about policy. I mean, do you actually even know what his policy is?
HEALEY: That's a good point. He has been describing most things as vague plans and saying that whatever he does will be great. And so we're left to fill in the blanks based on a lot of the one-liners and these kind of offhanded comments that he makes about the way he'll approach this country and the issues that face it.
COSTELLO: Bill, why are so many newspapers across the country on the same page when it comes to Donald Trump? Is this unusual?
BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: It's really unusual, I think.
HEALEY: Well --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Bill, go ahead.
CARTER: I think it's partly -- there's a whole lot of overheated rhetoric going on. He has a lot of overheated rhetoric and it's inspiring a lot of overheated response to him. You know, the "Washington Post" said, you know, he was moral poison. I mean, it's very, very sort of over the top commentary about him. I also think it's kind of antithetical to what their purpose is because really this feeds into Trump's narrative that everybody is against him, the establishment is against him, the media is against him, and he can just play with that in these kind of really strong stringent statements against him being made by editorial boards.
COSTELLO: And maybe you're on to something there, Bill, because Trump supporters, and I'll pose this question to you, Jon. Trump's supporters, they hate the media. You only have to look at what happened to Katy Tur from NBC News. And she tweeted this about covering a Trump campaign event. Quote, "Trump trashes press, crowd jeers, guy by press pen looks at us and screams, you're a B," it rhymes with witch. Another gentleman gives the cameras the double birds."
So, John, are papers across the country just feeding into this and making Trump ever more popular?
HEALEY: Well, you may be confusing correlation with causation. I think that Donald Trump recognizes that there is relatively low popularity for the media. So if you're bashing the media, you're not making a lot of enemies, right? It's an easy target. And as for the coordination among the media, I don't see coordination. I see rather a lot of people looking at the things that he says and finding a visceral response by themselves.
When we write editorials at the "L.A. Times," there's seven or so of us in the room. We're not talking to the editorial boards at the -- at the "Los Angeles Daily News," at the "New York Times," at the "Wall Street Journal." If we all happen to come to the same conclusion, it says something about the candidate as well as something about us.
COSTELLO: And, Bill, along those lines, it is the newspaper's responsibility to tell it like they see it. To tell it like it is. An editorial board has a responsibility to do that.
CARTER: Of course. I think they should. I think they have every right to say this is alarming. A lot of the rhetoric is alarming and I think people have the right to look at it and say, is this legitimate for us to say this guy is over the line? What he's done is, you know, appalling.
I just don't know if it's effective because I think in this context -- this is a guy -- the Republicans have always attacked the media and it's been very successful with them. But this guy is play into the anger of the public. Look at those poll numbers for anger. And this is going to make it worse. They're going to say, yes, we're angry, and what you're saying is the guy we like is moral poison. I don't think it's going to make them change their minds.
COSTELLO: Jon, I'll give you the last word on here because it's not like newspapers write editorials at a moment's notice. They actually sit down, they think about it, and it's -- I mean, it's a real concerted effort. And they look at issues. And they -- so just stand up for yourself a little bit.
HEALEY: Sure. We hadn't yet endorsed in the presidential race. However, we have looked at the things that Donald Trump has said and looked at where we are on a lot of these issues, and he has tried not just to be different and to occupy a policy place that's unique, he's tried to be outrageous, he's tried to provoke and yes, there is some resonance to that with the anger in the general population, a frustration with a lot of things that are going on in America. But on the specific things that he said you can't simply say well, we're going to ignore that because he's saying what a number of people want to hear. That there's something good about that? I'm sorry.
When he says we shouldn't allow any Muslims into the country or when he says that Mexicans are -- some are good people but they're sending their worst into the United States, that kind of stuff we have to respond to because there has to be some push back to ideas that are, as has been described, poisonous.
[10:35:18] COSTELLO: I think, though, Bill, that people right now, voters right now, don't really want to get into policy matters, per se. Maybe when the general election rolls around, they'll listen to candidate's policies and then decide if those policies will really improve their lives.
CARTER: I think that's exactly right. I think right now -- this is -- look, the Republicans have for years sort of pushed this narrative of anger and fear and it's playing very well with that constituency. I don't know that it will play very well. He has huge negatives, Donald Trump. Still has very, very huge negatives. And you're going to see that more in the general election but right now it playing extremely well and why would he back off? I mean, he's not going to back off because the "Washington Post" is telling him to.
COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Bill Carter, Jon Healey, thanks to both of you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM -- you're welcome. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, shocking new details into the suspected killer's past in Kalamazoo. We'll have that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:34] COSTELLO: New details about the suspected Kalamazoo gunman's past. CNN confirming last hour that the suspect, Jason Dalton, earned an associate's degree in law enforcement back in '92.
This is new images of Dalton surfaced inside a gun shop. These pictures were taken just hours before Dalton allegedly gunned down six people.
Nick Valencia is in Kalamazoo with more. Good morning.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I spoke to the police chief earlier and he tells me that the suspect in this alleged rampage legally purchased and registered the firearm he used in the shooting.
I did speak to the gun owner earlier and he says that he was regular enough of a customer that he recognized when he walked in earlier that afternoon him but he did not purchase a gun or ammunition. What he did do was purchase that heavy duty concealing carry jacket. It was just three hours later that he was spotted circling around in that apartment complex that was the scene -- the first scene of the three that happened over the weekend that saw gunfire from this alleged suspect. I spoke with the neighbor of the first victim he shot at. He called her a hero.
(INAUDIBLE), according to witnesses, stepped in front of the gunman as he appeared to aim at four children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAMMY GEORGI, SHOOTING WITNESS: I don't know if it was her mother instinct. She just knew something was wrong. Told her to run.
VALENCIA: So she was a hero in all of this?
GEORGI: Yes.
VALENCIA: It could have been the kids that were shot.
GEORGI: Could have been the kids and I really think that any kids were out there she would have done it for anyone's kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: Now we have been looking into the mental health history of this suspect. Perhaps to find some indication of what triggered him here. He has no mental health history and he wasn't said to be on any medications either. According to the police chief, he believes that this man just one day. Of course what led him to allegedly shooting and killing six people, eight all together, is unknown -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Nick Valencia, reporting live from Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, from Florida all the way to Virginia, severe weather set to deliver another nasty blow. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:46:32] COSTELLO: Just days before the critical South Carolina primary, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are using the economy to win over voters. Clinton focused on student loan debt last night during CNN's town hall, while Sanders took on the staggering wealth gap.
Christine Romans joins us now with a reality check. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And some really I think intense moments between both of those candidates and voters who want to know how they're going to pay for what they're promising and whether it's really going to fix what they think is a rigged system.
You know, there was somebody in the audience, a guy named Chris Fleming, who asked -- been in banking for 40 years who asked Bernie Sanders, how are you going to pay for all of this, free health care, free education, and Bernie Sanders got to the core of what his entire campaign is all about, Carol. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Middle class has shrunk, trillions of dollars have flowed to the top one tenth of 1 percent.
Any of you here in uproar about that? What a terrible thing. Middle class shrinking, people living in poverty, top one tenth of 1 percent saw a doubling of the percentage of wealth they own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So we ran that through -- those numbers through the fact check, Carol, and he's right. In 1978, the top 0.1 percent of Americans, the richest of the rich, they had about 7 percent of the nation's wealth. By 1983 that had grown 2 percentage points to 9 percent. By 2012 it grew to 22 percent. Now the recession made it worse. But it's been something that's been happening for a long time. And of course, his -- you know, he says we should have free health care, that we should have free education, that we should make Wall Street pay for it, how you start to level that playing field.
Hillary Clinton last night also very, I think, more precise in her kind of laying out her plan for education, too. She talked to a female voter -- a young female voter who said, you know, about 7 percent to 9 percent interest rates on my student loans and she really laid out her case as well. But I think that graphic we just showed you, that's at the core of what they're trying to both sell to the American people.
COSTELLO: And I think that everybody gets that but what to do about it is the rub, right?
ROMANS: That's right.
COSTELLO: Because --
ROMANS: That's right.
COSTELLO: I don't think that raising the minimum wage and, you know, giving people free health care will solve -- in fact, I don't even think you can get free health care through Congress so I'm not sure how that works.
ROMANS: The interesting -- on the Republican side, I mean, this is one of the things that Donald Trump keeps talking about, too. He recognizes that there's this feeling that the system is rigged. He says he knows how to fix it as well. That means getting China to play fair and it means getting Mexico to play fair. It means looking at the American interests first.
So he has a completely ideologically different view of what's driving those numbers there. I think those numbers there are at the core of why people feel so bad about the economy. Even with a 4.9 percent unemployment rate, those numbers there are why people go into the polls and say, I don't have opportunity and why is that happening?
COSTELLO: Yes. Especially my kids don't have the same opportunity as I do.
ROMANS: That's right.
COSTELLO: And that bothers people. Understandably. Christine Romans, thanks.
ROMANS: You're welcome. COSTELLO: Right now eight million people from Florida to the
Carolinas are under threat as dangerous storms make their way up the East Coast. We've already seen what the severe weather is capable of. At least three people are dead here. Dozens injured, entire communities literally wiped out after 27 tornados twisters ripped across the Deep South. One of those tornadoes carving a two-mile path of destruction through Pensacola, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tornado was so loud that you couldn't hear much of the trees when they were snapping. But you could hear it, and of course the power went out and you could hear the arcing from the power as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:50:06] COSTELLO: The storm tossing cars and flattening homes. Jennifer Gray has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Overnight three people killed and dozens injured across the Gulf Coast. Severe storms and tornados ripping through swaths of the Deep South and Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just knew that -- you know, that it was a tornado. I was crying and I was so scared. I mean, the house would not stop shaking. The windows -- I mean, it was just -- it was terrible.
GRAY: In some parts of Louisiana, entire communities reduced to rubble. 160 motor homes blown apart after a storm ravaged an RV park in New Orleans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The noise of the tornado was so loud that you couldn't hear much of the trees when they were snapping.
GRAY: And in neighboring Prairie Ville, gym goers dodging debris and running to take cover when the storm struck, the roof of this Gold's Gym peeling off as glass walls came crashing down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the weather gets so bad the roof of your gym and the wall just blows off.
GRAY: In Florida, apartment complexes demolished. Damaging winds tossing cars like toys.
Texas not spared from the storm's wrath. Hail the size of golf balls pummeling homes. Thousands without power, with hundreds of reports of broken windows, and damaged rooftops.
(On camera): The tornados were fierce across the south and as these storms push to the east, the same concern exists this afternoon into this evening for the East Coast, particularly portions of North Carolina and Virginia. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Jennifer Gray reporting. Thank you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, an adorable baby gorilla and her mom saved by a British surgeon. Jeanne Moos will have that story for you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:56:05] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 55 minutes past. Ramon Castro, the only brother of Cuban revolutionaries Fidel and Raul Castro, has died. Ramon was a farmer and later became a Cuban agricultural official. At times he sent his brothers supplies but he declined to take an active role in the 1959 armed revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. Ramon Castro was 91 years old.
You're looking at live pictures from a Nashville courtroom where Andrews -- where Aaron Andrews' negligence lawsuit went to trial this week eight years after the sports reporter was secretly recorded in her hotel room. Andrews is suing the National Marriot for $75 million. She claims the hotel made it easy for her stalker Michael David Barrett to record naked videos of her through a peephole back in 2008. Those videos were posted online and went viral. In 2010, Barrett pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to two years in prison.
The federal government -- beyond the San Bernardino case and its efforts to get Apple to unlock encrypted phone. According to court documents, the Justice Department is trying to force Apple to extract data from iPhones in as many as a dozen other cases across the country. Details of those other cases are unknown but they are not related to terrorism. A lawyer for Apple says the company has not agreed to perform any services on the devices.
It's a once in a lifetime chance that saved the life of a baby gorilla. Jeanne Moos introduces us to the doctor who -- who delivered a baby gorilla by C-section.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a C- section that had even the main doctor going ape in that low-key British way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most unusual, special, exciting delivery I've ever done.
MOOS: It's a girl gorilla. The staff at Bristol Zoo knew the mother wasn't feeling right and then the fetus grew unresponsive. That's when zoo staff called in gynecologist Dr. David Kyle, whose delivered lots of human babies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over a thousand. You know, I don't keep count.
MOOS (on camera): And how about gorillas?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One.
MOOS (voice-over): They decided to do an emergency Caesarean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, this was just like any other mother but she had very thick skin and felt very different to the touch.
MOOS: Things got tense when the two-pound, 10-ounce newborn came out not breathing. Bristol Zoo's vet did CPR, blowing air into her lungs as someone else do chest compressions. It worked.
There have been other rare gorilla C-sections. For instance two years ago in San Diego a 4.6 pound baby famous for her blue knit hat. So far the as yet unnamed Bristol Zoo infant is being hand raised by staff. She's brought within sight and smell of her mom but the mother hasn't shown any interest in taking care of her.
As for the doctor turned gorilla deliverer, we wondered what did he tell his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did he tell you when I get home?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All in a day's work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All in a day's work, I think was the comment.
MOOS: The patient is doing very well while the doctor is getting teased by colleagues for the hairy special delivery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Famous person. Have your dinner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, darling.
MOOS: Bon appetite.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We hope it improves between the baby gorilla and her mother. We hope --
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: We hope it will. That's an amazing story.
A reminder for you before I bid you adieus, tomorrow night in Houston the five remaining Republican presidential candidates will meet for the final GOP debate before Super Tuesday. Wolf Blitzer will be the moderator, 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Be sure to tune in because things are really heating up between the three frontrunners. Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. It's sure to be a spirited debate, right?
Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan" starts now.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.
