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Oakland Police Scandal; Orlando Phone Transcripts; Trump Fires Campaign Manager. Aired 15-15:30p ET

Aired June 20, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

JAMES HERRON, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS FAN: Because we're going to throw a great party. We did last night. It's going to keep going.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Believe-land, Believe-land, I like it.

HERRON: That's right.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Keep that -- keep that party train rolling. Congratulations again. Thank you so much.

HERRON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: All right. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

We have got some breaking news for you off the top, a major shakeup in Donald Trump's campaign. Today, Mr. Trump fired his embattled campaign manager who has been with him from the very beginning here, Corey Lewandowski, after pressure apparently from Trump's closest advisers really, including and maybe even particularly, his family members and his daughter, Ivanka, for example.

Just a short time ago, Corey Lewandowski sat here and spoke with Dana Bash for about 20 minutes. They talked about his firing and ultimately he says he has no regrets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: From your perspective, what happened? Why were you fired?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: You know what? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

But what I know is what we have been able to achieve in this election cycle has been historic. You know, we had a candidate who in June of last year announced he was going to run for president with no elective office experience in a field of 16 other people in the race, plus him, who's gone on to do something historic, which was, he got almost 14 million votes and fundamentally changed the way people look at politics. And I'm proud to have been a smart part of that. And running as the

outsider of this campaign, which he has done, running against the corrupt Washington, D.C., establishment and political correctness has been something I have been proud to be part of.

BASH: So, you think it was appropriate for Donald Trump to make the change and let you go?

LEWANDOWSKI: What I think is that you -- the voters have a binary decision coming up on Election Day. They can either vote for Hillary Clinton and her liberal policies or they can put someone in place who is actually going to change Washington.

And I will do everything I can to make sure that the latter of those two happens, which means Donald Trump is elected president. If I can do that from inside the campaign, it's a privilege. If I can do that from outside the campaign, that's also a privilege.

BASH: Did Mr. Trump himself call you this morning and say, I don't mean to use this term, but it is the term, you're fired?

LEWANDOWSKI: I had a nice conversation with Mr. Trump and I said to him it's been an honor and privilege to be part of this. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

BASH: Were you surprised? Were you blindsided?

LEWANDOWSKI: Yes, I don't know if it's so much that. There's been a lot of conjecture in the media lately about what's going on well and what is not going on well in the campaign. I think a lot of that is just the media trying to hype up a campaign.

You know, what we have is, we have got a candidate on the other side who is under criminal investigation from the FBI that most of the mainstream media doesn't want to talk about. Instead, they want to talk about things that Donald Trump did or said 20 or 30 or 40 years ago.

And even when he gives a great policy speech, and he's probably the best speaker that our country has ever seen as a presidential candidate, he doesn't get credit for those things.

BASH: I want to get into some of the specifics about how the campaign was run and where you are right now.

LEWANDOWSKI: Sure.

BASH: But, before that, were you escorted out of the building by security today?

LEWANDOWSKI: It doesn't work like that. I mean, obviously, there are protocols in place when someone is no longer an employee. They just make sure -- there's no escorting out.

And, look, I have had the privilege of working with these people for 19 months. They're friends of mine. But there's a protocol in place and everyone follows the same protocol, regardless of who that is, and I think that's the right thing.

BASH: So, yes, you were. But that was part of...

(CROSSTALK)

LEWANDOWSKI: It wasn't security. It was a friend from the office.

BALDWIN: OK.

LEWANDOWSKI: Yes.

BALDWIN: Let's get into what went on inside the campaign. Sources who I have talked to and others I have talked to said that they described you as a hothead and that you just didn't treat people right. What do you say to that?

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I think I'm a very intense person. And my expectation is perfection, because I think that is what Mr. Trump deserves. I think he deserves the very best because he's put his life and his fortune into this campaign, spending tens of millions of dollars to go do something that, candidly, he didn't need to do.

He's had a great life, but he wants to change the country for the better. And I see how hard he has worked in the campaign. He works 18, 19, 20 hours a day consistently.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: But the big question is about you.

LEWANDOWSKI: Because -- I understand. Because leadership starts at the top. And I see what he's put into the campaign. And when I see someone who I don't think is working as hard as the person who is funding the campaign, who is the campaign principal, meaning the candidate, yes, that bothers me, because leadership is at the top.

And I have never asked somebody to do something in this campaign I wasn't willing to do myself and Mr. Trump has never asked me to do something he wasn't willing to do himself. I have had the privilege of traveling with him a lot. And he doesn't sleep on the plane. He just works all the time. That's the mind-set and the tenacity and the intensity he would bring to being the president of the United States.

And I think you can expect that of people. We don't have -- we never had 700 people at the campaign. We were in that campaign with 70 people, more efficient, more effective, leaner, meaner. Does that mean sometimes you need people to do extra and stay late and get in early? You bet you do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:05]

BALDWIN: That was just a piece of Dana's interview with Corey Lewandowski. This is all coming amid concerns about the direction of Trump's campaign headed into the general election against, of course, Hillary Clinton. And, you know, check your calendar. We have less than a month to go before the Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland.

So, let me bring in Republican strategist and Trump supporter Kevin Paul Scott. I have with me also here in New York CNN politics editor Juana Summers and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Doug Heye. Doug is also the former coms director for the RNC.

So, great to have all of you here.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And, Kevin, you're closest to me, so you get the first question. That's not really a rule. I'm just being facetious.

What do you think was the real problem here? Was it Corey Lewandowski or was it Mr. Trump?

KEVIN PAUL SCOTT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think what you are seeing here is a classic case of what got you here won't get you there.

And you're seeing a campaign that is trying to transition to try to become ready for this general election.

BALDWIN: So, it is Corey's fault?

SCOTT: I think the style that honestly worked well -- it was let Donald be Donald -- during the primary. They're starting to get worried.

Do you remember, during the primary, every day it seemed like Donald Trump was standing up and reading poll numbers? And they were always positive poll numbers. Now those numbers aren't as positive.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: He's down seven points, according to the polls today, 47 to 40 percent.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: Yes. So, they're looking at that and saying, OK, now we have to do something different to get those numbers back up.

BALDWIN: But it's got to be more than polls.

SCOTT: Well, I think it's more than polls. It's more than style. There are a lot of things.

But this is how it goes. When there's a challenge within the campaign, there's got to be a sacrificial lamb. Corey had obviously ruffled feathers within the family, within other key groups, especially with the RNC. And so now you're seeing him. He's got to take the fall for this one and they're going to try to get somebody else that can hopefully keep Donald Trump on message.

BALDWIN: Doug Heye, from an operative perspective, this is less than a month before Cleveland.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

Look, I think it demonstrates a lot of the problems that Donald Trump and his campaign have. And we should keep in mind this is a campaign of, for and about Donald Trump. Replacing one person, whether that's a campaign manager or spokesperson or anyone else, doesn't change the fact that it's Donald Trump who's running a campaign of division. It's Donald Trump who is having trouble raising money and it's Donald Trump who doesn't have an organization on the ground in key campaign states.

And while I think Corey did a very commendable job today in his interview with Dana -- Dana did a great job as well, of course -- these are tough interviews to do. And while he put his best foot forward, sounded like it was his first day, not his last day, the realities of what the Trump campaign faces are very steep challenges. And they're also ones that a lot of people have been predicting for a long time.

BALDWIN: So, moving forward, Juana, let me just ask you. Dana was asking about the fund-raising. We mentioned the poll numbers. He is down 7 percentage points today. They're having a tough time fund- raising. Half the Republican Party, you know, isn't showing up to Cleveland now.

What will the -- you know, what will the convention look like? How do they make it look like it's unified?

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN APPS EDITOR: This is going to be really tough.

From my recent memory, this is the latest this kind of a big, colossal shakeup in a presidential campaign, and in terms of looking at the calender heading into November. So, I think there are going to be a couple of things that are really important to look at in the convention.

That is, do any of these elder Republicans, those who are kind of the party stalwarts who have said they're not so much into Donald Trump, they don't want to go, will any of them change their mind is one thing I'm looking for.

Another thing we have seen recently is a lot of corporations who have said they don't really want to get involved. They don't want to be there because of Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Will we see more of that or less of that?

The other big thing I'm watching is whether or not Donald Trump can get the full support of someone like a Senator Ted Cruz, who remains on the sidelines. We saw him earlier today, still is not coming forward, not embracing Donald Trump, not saying he would support him, not endorsing him. I think Donald Trump needs to signal to mainstream Republicans that he

is on their side and that the party can come together, or else the polling right now, even though obviously we're still 4.5, five months out from November, it is not good for him.

BALDWIN: Sure.

SUMMERS: And I think that's worrying a lot of people, particularly in the donor class within the Republican Party.

BALDWIN: We do know that Corey sitting in your seat earlier today, he name-checked Mitch McConnell, he name-checked Paul Ryan. Obviously proud to have them behind the campaign, although sometimes they're having to answer for some of what Donald Trump has said.

What will -- and you talk about replacing -- will Paul Manafort just take over operations? What will this real battle moving forward look like?

SCOTT: Yes, it's going to be interesting to see.

They're going to have to do some things different. I think Juana is right in terms of, you're going to see this be an outreach move. But I don't think ultimately you are going to see anybody get on board or not get in board because of Corey being there or not being there.

What you are going to see is some strategic approaches? Can they keep Donald on message? How are they going to tackle key states? How are they going to turn some traditionally blue states red? That's what you are looking at. This is a strategic decision, not a P.R. decision. And there's going to be a lot of shakeups and a lot to things to come.

BALDWIN: We were remembering, Doug Heye, when Ted Cruz, this was a big deal in February. Ted Cruz fired his communications director and Donald Trump took to Twitter and said this. "Wow. Was Ted Cruz disloyal to his very capable director of communication. He used him as a scapegoat. Fired like a dog. Ted panicked."

[15:10:10]

Is Donald Trump panicking?

HEYE: Well, I think loyalty's a one-way street with Donald Trump. You're loyal to him. He won't be loyal to you.

I think the campaign is panicking because they're seeing a lot of bad poll numbers which have come after weeks and weeks of bad press for Donald Trump. It seems to be the only kind of press that he's getting right now that all springs from him. And operationally, to use the word that you used earlier, there are two messages that voters are hearing right now.

One is of a Trump campaign that is on the ropes and in disarray and the other are the pro-Hillary ads that she is running, positive ads, biographical ads, a positive message from Hillary and a Trump campaign in disarray. That's not the message -- granted, it's still June -- but that's not the message the Trump campaign wants or need right now.

BALDWIN: Do you want to respond to that?

SCOTT: Well, they're also hearing Hillary Clinton e-mail scandals and they're hearing a lot of things like that. So it's not all roses and flowers for Hillary Clinton at this point either.

We have to remember we have two key candidates, party leaders, that both have extremely high negatives. So, while we're talking about Donald Trump right now, the Clinton campaign is not smooth sailing at this point. They have a lot of challenges as well.

(CROSSTALK)

HEYE: The difference is, Democrats are united and Republicans just aren't and aren't going to get there any time soon, if at all.

SUMMERS: I think that this, though, this tells us that we have a general election matchup that is going to be a question of trust vs. temperament. Right?

Voters are trying to figure out whether or not they can trust Hillary Clinton. To your point, it's obvious that the e-mail standing has had some issues with her public support if you look at polls when people are asked about trust for Hillary Clinton.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SUMMERS: On the other hand, the question is, Donald Trump constantly voters talk about the things that he comes out and says, whether or not he says he will be more presidential. The next day, he tweets something about somebody that maybe is less presidential.

So I think that there's really a fundamental divide here. And that's why see in some polls 25 percent of people say they still don't know if they can vote for either of these people. They say they're still undecided.

BALDWIN: But if it was Corey Lewandowski who was the let Trump be Trump kind of guy and Paul Manafort, who I know a couple of months ago, when he was meeting with the RNC down in Florida, was saying he's going to move toward to the middle, he's going to act more presidential, ultimately, it boils down to Mr. Trump, right, and whether or not he listens to...

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: And whether any of these people can control him. And I don't think anybody is sure that they can at this point.

BALDWIN: OK. Juana and Kevin, thank you.

Doug Heye, thank you very much.

HEYE: Thank you. BALDWIN: Let's take you back now and talk Orlando. Breaking today,

the FBI releasing the transcripts of phone calls with the killer in Orlando in that nightclub as that massacre unfolded. We have new details today about the police negotiations and what this terrorist threatened.

Also ahead, three police chiefs gone in just nine days, the sex scandal that has rocked a major police department in this country and these stinging words from the mayor there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIBBY SCHAAF, MAYOR OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: As the mayor of Oakland, I am here to run a police department, not a frat house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:10]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

We now have the actual words of the mass killer as he carried out the deadliest shooting in U.S. history inside of that Orlando nightclub now a little over a week ago. New unedited transcripts of the gunman's conversation with 91 operations, and then later conversations with police hostage negotiators; 33 minutes into his deadly rampage, the killer called 911 and said this.

"Emergency 911. This is being recorded."

His response, "In the game of God the merciful, the beneficial," speaking in Arabic.

The 911 operator saying, "What?"

He responds, "Praise be to God and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God. I want to let you know I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings."

Nine-one-one: "What is your name?"

He responds, "My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi of the Islamic State."

Nine-one-one: "OK. What is your name?"

His response: "I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. May God protect him," again, still speaking in Arabic. "On behalf of the Islamic State State."

Nine-one-one responds" "All right. Where are you?"

His response, "In Orlando." They then ask, "Where in Orlando?" and the call drops.

Investigators chose to initially redact the name ISIS, the terror group he swore allegiance to and also the leader of that group, so as not to glorify or encourage copycats, but minutes ago they reversed course. And in a news conference a short time ago, they described the attacker's tone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD HOPPER, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: While we're not releasing the audio, what I can tell you is that while the killer made these murderous statements, he did so in a chilling, calm and deliberate manner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown and Art Roderick, CNN law enforcement analyst and former assistant director with the U.S. Marshals Office.

And, Pamela, first, you know, obviously, it is the language he used, but it's also the redacting of the transcript. Now we see it all, Pamela. Why? Why change?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, DOJ, the Department of Justice, is saying that it is sending out the full version of that 911 call because the redactions have called -- caused an unfortunate distraction, as DOJ calls it.

It says it initially wanted to omit the word ISIS and Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, so it doesn't further fuel terrorist propaganda.

But what seems strange to a lot of people was that earlier, you know, just a few days ago, James Comey, the head of the FBI, was talking about how he pledged allegiance to ISIS in the phone call and so many people are wondering, well, why would you redact this now?

And there was this strong statement from Speaker of the House Paul Ryan saying that it was preposterous that they would leave out the terrorist group that inspired the gunman, Omar Mateen, to go on this shooting rampage.

[15:20:08]

And so this transcript really does give a window, a glimpse into what he was saying, what his mind-set was. As he just mentioned, he pledges allegiance to ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during that 911 call. And then that was about half-an-hour in to the rampage.

And then later, after that, he has a total of 28 minutes on the phone with crisis negotiators in three different phone calls. And in this, he demands that America stop bombing Syria and Iraq. And at one point, the crisis negotiator asks, "What did you do?" And he says, "You know what I did." And then he goes on to talk about the fact he has explosives and threatens to set off these explosives. Here's what he said to the crisis negotiator. "There is some vehicle outside that has some bombs, just to let you know. You people are going to get it, and I'm going to ignite it if they try to do anything stupid."

Also, Brooke, he apparently told the victims that he had four suicide vests that would put on them. I spoke to the SWAT team commander about learning that there were possibly explosives, even though it turns out that there were not after they did an investigation.

And he said that really revved up the risk for no only the civilians in there, but also the first responders, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes.

On that, you were sitting next to me.

BROWN: Yes.

BALDWIN: I was interviewing Mark Canty, the captain, the SWAT commander.

And, Art, let me come to you, but I want all of just to remember what he told me on live TV in Orlando Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CPT. MARK CANTY, ORLANDO SWAT COMMANDER: Our main goal is to try to save lives.

And when he started talking about the bomb vests, kind of the average or normal inclination of people is once you hear that someone has a bomb is, you want to back up. And our normal protocol is back up 1,000 feet.

(CROSSTALK)

CANTY: But my officers knew that they had to stay there, even though they were in jeopardy, because there was a chance that we could get some of us those people outside.

So, we started thinking about we have a good relationship with the sheriff's office here. They have an emergency -- or a bomb disposal unit that has the capability of creating charges to blow a hole through a wall. So, I asked him to start prepping for a charge.

We knew the suspect was in the north bathroom and we knew there were some additional hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was just a piece of our conversation I'm playing for you. Just, again, they thought -- you have to take a mad person at their word that they have explosive vests and they want to maximize casualties. ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, absolutely. You have

to take him at his word.

Plus, at that point at in time, he had killed 49 people. And once they say something like that, that changes the whole background of what you're doing in that particular instance.

You know, you're planning to make an entry, but then somebody says, oh, there's a bomb out in the vehicle. And there's also suicide vests that we're going to place on people and put them around the corners. Those are deadly, deadly weapons. And the commander was correct. If there was a bomb out in that vehicle, it would have taken them all out.

BALDWIN: But they chose to stay and then eventually engaged.

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: Art Roderick, thank you. Pamela Brown, thank you.

Next here, three police chiefs forced out in nine days. This all started with a shameful sex scandal at the Oakland Police Department. Now an investigation into racist text messages. We will take you live to California to find out what went so horribly wrong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:44]

BALDWIN: Claims of elicit sex involving a teenager, a probe into allegedly racist tweets, and now the third police chief ousted in nine days. This is all happening inside the disgraced Oakland, California, police departments. These scandals prompting citizen protests. The city's mayor is vowing to clean up the department, saying she is -- quote -- "not running a frat house."

CNN's Sara Sidner is live for us in Oakland, and also with us, CNN legal analyst and former law enforcement officer and police instructor Philip Holloway.

Sara, first to you. What happened?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this department is starting to feel to a lot of people like a house of cards.

They have a leadership vacuum. Three police chiefs in just nine days gone, either forced to resign or resigning because of two things, one, what's now become a sex scandal involving a teenager who was both underage and 18 eventually who has made some accusations against more than two dozen police officers, not just in this department, but in several departments across the Bay Area.

However, the majority of the officers came from this department. She says there were 14, and she says some of them knew that she was underage at the time that she was having sexual relationships with them. The accusations that she's made, Brooke, some of the more serious ones

have to do not only with the underage sex with police officers, but also with payments, saying that some of the officers would pay her for sex, and that some of the officers would pay her giving her information, tipping her off to prostitution stings, which she says, that she was a sex worker at the time.

And so those three things have really started a major, full-blown investigation here, the mayor coming out very strongly after the accusations, and not only that, but after the sex accusations, there were more accusations made against two officers that have nothing to do with the sex scandal for texting one another with racially explicit texts between very high-ranking African-American cops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHAAF: I feel that this is an appropriate time to place civilian oversight over this police department and to send a very clear message about how serious we are of not tolerating misconduct, unethical behavior and to root out what is clearly a toxic macho culture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You can hear Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's frustration and anger at what has been happening at this department.