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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Bernie Sanders Speaks to Press Following Meeting with President Obama; Interview with Man Freed from Prison After Murder Conviction Vacated. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 09, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:34:01] BERNIE SANDERS, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- which currently exists toward an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires exercise enormous power over our political, economic and media life.

This is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not be having millions of senior citizens and disabled veterans struggling to put food on the table because of inadequate social security benefits. We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. We should not be having Americans in inner cities, in rural communities, on Native American reservations who have life expectancies lower than many people in third world countries.

[12:35:01] We should not be having many of our young people leaving college deeply in debt. We should not be having in this great country an infrastructure which is crumbling while we have millions of workers prepared to rebuild that infrastructure and in the midst of all of that, we should not be having a situation where Wall Street, Corporate America and billionaires are failing to pay their fair share of taxes.

These are some issues that many millions of Americans have supported during my campaign. These are the issues that we will take to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia at the end of July.

Donald Trump would clearly, to my mind and I think the majority of Americans, be a disaster as president of the United States. It is unbelievable to me, and I say this in all sincerity, that the Republican Party would have a candidate for president who in the year 2016 makes bigotry and discrimination the cornerstone of his campaign.

In my view the American people will not vote for or tolerate a candidate who insults Mexicans and Latinos, who insults Muslims, who insults African-Americans and women. Needless to say, I am going to do everything in my power -- and I will work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the United States.

I will, of course, be competing in the D.C. Primary which will be held on next Tuesday. This is the last primary of the Democratic nominating process. The major point that I will be making to the citizens of the District of Columbia is that I am strongly in favor of D.C. Statehood. The state of Vermont which I represent has about the same number of residents that Washington D.C. has except we have two United States senators and one congressman with full rights while D.C. does not. That does not make any sense.

Also, I look forward to the full counting of the votes in California which I suspect will show a much closer vote than the current vote tally. I spoke briefly to Secretary Clinton on Tuesday night and I congratulated her on her very strong campaign. I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent. Thank you very much.

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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And there you have it, an hour plus meeting with the president. And if you were expecting to hear some kind of concession from one Senator Bernie Sanders, you did not get that. But what you did get was a commitment to the platform that he wants, the issues that he still stands for and a commitment against the election of the Democrat's opponent, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Interesting at the last thing he said which I was waiting, hanging on at every moment was that he spoke with Secretary Clinton on Tuesday night, that's not a secret, but that he looks forward to a meeting to work together with Secretary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump. You can read that anyway you want. But it sure it doesn't say to help her defeat Donald Trump. It may be so that together or that she can help me defeat Donald Trump.

And one other issue that he brought up, a statement that I think again somewhat nebulous would be that he intends to take these issues that he spoke of, life expectancy for Native American Indians is lower. College debt is out of control. Infrastructure across the country is crumbling. Wall Street corporate taxes and billionaires failing to pay taxes is his issue. He says the issues I will take to the convention in Philadelphia in July. How? Does that mean by continuing to fight for the nomination or does that mean by edging these things on to the Democratic platform? These are all extraordinarily critical questions we have been waiting to have answered and particularly after this meeting with President Obama which we were assured the president would not outright ask Senator Sanders to step out of the race but said it would be an encouragement, it would be a discussion and clearly there is no decision based on what we just heard from Senator Sanders.

[12:40:16] Michelle Kosinski standing live at the White House. I know you were listening in. Give me your take.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's something he's going to stay in but only up until the end of the election process up until this D.C. Primary. But then, you know, it's always Sounds like he's out after that. I mean he talked about working with Secretary Clinton moving forward, working to prevent Donald Trump from being president. I was surprised he didn't take questions, though. I mean that's kind of unlike Bernie Sanders.

And when he was here at the White House in January for what was a little bit of an awkward meeting after certain things were said on either side in places where Sanders and president do not connect. He took questions then. He had a lot to say. I think he really stated his position here. He wanted to get those policy points out and he wanted to get them out in the strongest way possible because this in a sense his last harana (ph).

Keep in mind, he does have an important meeting with Senator Harry Reid this afternoon. They are going to be talking about a way forward, what he wants to do in the Senate. Then he has a rally tonight in Washington D.C.

So, I think it will be interesting to see the tone of that. Again, he'll be able to speak out but now the sense is he is not working for himself and for his own campaign. He is working for the ultimate goal of the Democratic Party which is to see Hillary Clinton in office and defeating Donald Trump, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Michelle Kosinski, thank you for that. I want to bring in our CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson. So, Nia, again the interesting notion here was that there wasn't any kind of full throated effort to say I'm behind Senator Clinton's efforts instead of I'm going to the last primary in Washington D.C., I'll continue to fight D.C. Statehood and then I'll be in Philadelphia.

One thing he said right off the top and I just want to quote if I can regarding president whom he thanked for the meeting and Vice President Biden. He said "What they said in the beginning is they would not put their thumb on the scales and kept their word and I appreciate that very much." But your take on the rest of it.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah. You know, I think it was vintage Bernie Sanders sounding a lot of things he has been sounding for the last 40 years of that income and inequality and infairness and injustice, and even this idea of D.C. Statehood who (inaudible) campaign it sounds like or with this last primary next Tuesday, I think a lot of Democrats certainly breathing a sigh of relief.

This was the big story. What would Bernie Sanders do? What does Bernie Sanders want? It sounds like he is going to take those issues and concerns to the convention. He didn't say anything about a contested convention which is what he had been talking about for months and months up until this point.

You know, I think we also saw something of the Bernie Sanders that was giving Democrats heart burn this idea that he still wants to have that final count in that California race that he lost I think by 13 points and something like 400,000 votes but still wants to - you know, every vote counts. He wants to go into that convention with his many, many, many millions of voters that he can so he can make this case.

So, you know, I think at some point, we'll see a more kind of ra, ra, ra speech about Hillary Clinton and maybe them standing arm in arm talking about Democratic Party and Democratic Party values and the way that Bernie Sanders wants the party to, but for now, I think this is a move that a lot of democrats want to see. We'll see others. They are closer now. I think Democrats are being that kind of united party that they wanted to be going into this convention in Philadelphia.

BANFIELD: I don't know why I don't feel that. I honestly don't feel.

HENDERSON: You don't do it. You don't feel it.

BANFIELD: No. I felt that was really couched stuff. Our CNN senior political director David Chalian is with us, as well. Nia-Malika just pointed it out. He wants a recount in California. I mentioned it. Michelle Kosinski and I just spoke of it, David, and that is he said, he still headed to the - I want to take issues, to the convention in Philadelphia in July. Why not just say it? Why not just say I look forward to meeting with Hillary Clinton and discussing her bit? Why not just say and said because to me I'm not sure.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I am not hearing this the way you are hearing it.

BANFIELD: OK.

CHALIAN: I am with Nia. I think Sanders fight on is what the banner says there right now. I did not hear that. I heard somebody who wants to go through the last primary and who clearly ...

HENDERSON: Right.

CHALIAN: ... sees his race for the nomination.

BANFIELD: Why not just say it?

CHALIAN: He clearly I thought could not have been clearer that he was going to after the D.C. primary join forces to focus on defeating Donald Trump. And that means join forces with Hillary Clinton. He said he looks forward to meeting with her in the near future. I think he came out there. He restated his fundamental principles fighting against an oligarchic trend. That's classic Bernie Sanders right there.

[12:45:04] He restated his principles but in no way - I didn't hear a word from him that suggested he did not believe that the race for the nomination had been settled.

BANFIELD: And that was my point. I feel like it's not over at all. He is continuing this conversation guys. I would ask you a million more questions it weren't for this other thing that's percolating up in New York right now which I also have to show our viewers. I say thank you to the three of you and I'll let you also know that Donald Trump has emerged from this giant donors meeting, it's taking place on Fifth Avenue at his penthouse and his headquarters and his apartment. Thank you for not come out, went in. So effectively I would assume meeting is underway. We said it before and I will say it again, to be a fly on the wall because so many of those donors have been holding their hands in their pocket for a long, long time. So what will be said and will it have any effect? We're back after this.

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[12:50:21] BANFIELD: Davontae Sanford is 23-years-old. And today he did something he has not done since he was 14. He woke up in a bed as a free person, not as a quadruple murder suspect, not as a defendant and not as a convict sentenced to decades in a Michigan prison.

Yesterday, Davontae Sanford was like this, leaving that prison free and clear after state police and prosecutors and finally a judge accepted that he didn't kill anybody.

Doubts began just two weeks after he was read his sentence in court, way, way back in 2008. If you are a kid you just think about what eight years is like. When police arrested a hitman two weeks after the trial that hitman confessed to the four murders that Sanford had confessed to and several more too, believe it or not. That man now is sentenced to 50 to 100 years, the real killer. Why would Davontae have confessed?

He joins now live by Davontae Sanford and Valerie Newman, one of the lawyers who worked day and night to get him free.

Welcome to both of you and especially to you Davontae. I saw you smiling as you walks out of that. But I see you smiling now. Just take me to your life right now and tell me how you're doing.

DAVONTAE SANFORD, EXONERATED IN 2007 MURDER CASE: Pretty good, still trying to take everything in. You know, one day, one step at a time. But pretty, pretty good, you know, yeah, good.

BANFIELD: Good, I could just, your smile says a million things that maybe your brain wants to but you're still just sort of in disbelief, I'll bet.

Valerie, I'm going to get you to do sort of the tough work that the legal is. I know that false confessions happen. I know that they happen with kids. What I don't know is how Davontae's false confession was let to stand for eight years when two weeks after he was sentenced someone confessed to this stuff and then led them to the gun, the actual murder weapon with ballistics testing proving it. Why eight years to prove bad policing and false confession?

VALERIE NEWMAN, STATE APPELLATE DEFENDER: Well, that is a very good question. And I think there's a lot of reasons. One is the defense attorney in this case failed to challenge that confession. So it went into court without any hearing to try and throw it out and talk to the judge about why it was a false confession and it shouldn't be believed. Other reasons are systemic, other systemic failures of the system. Yes, another person confessed and they found the gun and that person had details that were corroborated where the details in Davontae's confessions weren't corroborated. But again, it took time to even uncover that. That was not handed over to the defense team. The defense team heard about it, had to, you know, jump through a lot of hoops to even get access to that information.

And so I think that there's a, you know, they say justice moves slowly, right?

BANFIELD: Does it ever. I mean that is an under statement if I heard them.

Davontae, I understand false confessions. And I seen way too many of them in my long career. And I especially understand them when they're elicited from kids. You were 14 when you went through this. I don't know if you can even remember that far back because that's a long time for someone your young age now. But can you help our viewers understand why you might have said that you did this at the time that they had you in for two days in interrogation?

SANFORD: Manipulating, you know, took advantage of, you know. Yeah, manipulated and took an advantage of, you know. Prayed upon like if this -- just that simple.

BANFIELD: Do you remember the feelings that you had when you were being questioned by the police?

SANFORD: Scared, confused, you know, lost not really grasping, not really being able to grasp the whole situation. What was going, you know, like it was moving so fast. Everything was just like moving so fast, so it was. And so everything was just so tense and when everything was said and done, you know, like I was sitting in a prison cell with 39 to 90 years sentence, you know.

[12:55:10] BANFIELD: It's unbelievable what's happened to you, the suggestion that, you know, a 14-year-old can just go home if they just, you know, cap to it nothing will happen. These are the kinds of things that happened over and over.

Davontae, I'm so glad that you are where you are right now seated beside a faithful advocate who dedicated her time and her team as well to make sure that you would not spend one more day behind bars.

My friend, I wish you the best. And, you know, apologies from the system, apologies from society. Go forth and be awesome kiddo.

SANFORD: Yeah, I don't have no other choice but to do that but to make something myself so, yeah.

BANFIELD: I sense from your smile, you'll be just great at that. Thank you to both of you Valerie and Davontae, be well. Thank you.

SANFORD: Yeah, thank you.

NEWMAN: All right, thank you. BANFIELD: Thank you. And I want to just take you to some live pictures right now that you're seeing of a public service a prayer service in honor of Muhammad Ali. He died last week at the age of 74.

This is a Muslim prayer service but there are people of all faiths welcomed. So 18,000 people supposed to turn up today, that's the expectation in Louisville, Kentucky. This is at the expo center. They needed a venue that was big enough to hold the number of people who wanted to turn out, this prayer service today is for prayer. Tomorrow there is a public funeral and the champ's burial. Former president Bill Clinton, sportscaster Brian Gamble, those are two of the ones that -- among those scheduled to eulogize Muhammad Ali.

Thank you so much for watching everyone today. This been Legal view I'm Ashleigh Banfield. My colleague Wolf Blitzer starts right after this quick break.

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[13:00:15] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's ...