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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Funerals for Dallas Officers; Trump Meets with Gingrich; GOP Platform. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 13, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: That's the type of justice he wants to appoint.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, there we go. Brian Fallon.

BOLDUAN: That was not us. That was clearly our satellite window cutoff right then.

Brian Fallon, thank you so much. Brian, we appreciate it.

And thank you all so much for joining us AT THIS HOUR.

BERMAN: "Legal View" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We're going to take you live this hour to the old state capital in Springfield, Illinois. That is the land of Lincoln, folks, where the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is about to speak on the Lincoln-esque theme of a house or more aptly a nation divided. We're going to bring you the remarks by Hillary Clinton about 30 minutes from now. Our live eye ready. Give or take. It could be 30, it could be a little bit more. When she hits the microphone, you will be privy to what she has to say.

First, though, I want to take you south from Illinois down to Texas, because there are funerals taking place right now for three of the five Dallas police officers who were gunned down by a sniper at a protest last week. We have some live pictures as well from the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, where the funeral for Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens just began. Sr. Cpl. Ahrens was a 14-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. He was 48 years old. He leaves behind a wife and two children. In fact, his wife, Katrina, spoke with our Anderson Cooper last night about her husband. She is a detective and they met on the police force during his training. Katrina described him as tough as nails when he needed to be, and soft as a teddy bear when he needed to be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATRINA AHRENS, WIFE OF SR. CPL. LORNE AHRENS: There's certain people that can do this job. A lot of people try. A lot of people want to and they never can. But very few can do it and be as good at it as my husband. He was here because it was where he was supposed to be.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's where he wanted to be.

AHRENS: If he hadn't been there that night, he would have been so upset. He would have been livid if that had happened and he wasn't there.

COOPER: Say about - a lot about the kind of guy that - that he was.

AHRENS: It really does. He would have - he would have taken a bullet voluntarily for any of his other officers. Again, if he was able to fight and able to see it coming and save one of their lives, save his partner, Krol, he would have done so in a minute without thinking about anything. That's just who he was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Also this morning, the funeral for officer Brent Thompson, 43 years old. A nearly seven-year veteran of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Force.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A silent tribute to that officer. Brent Thompson had just gotten married in recent weeks to another transit officer, Emily Thompson. And she spoke at his funeral just moments ago. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY THOMPSON, OFFICER BRENT THOMPSON'S WIFE: Tuesday, June 21, 2016, was one of the happiest days of my life. I married the most amazing, caring, loving, selfless man I've ever known. Brent was a fighter, a warrior, a hero, and quite the scrapper. The kind of guy you want fighting with you.

Brent was also an amazing husband, father of six beautiful children that he talked about all the time. Brent was a son, a brother, an uncle, and an all-around phenomenal guy. Brent showed me that even though I would doubt myself from time to time, I'm strong and can do anything. Thursday, July 7, 2016, at 8:58 p.m., that was all ripped from in an act of senseless violence. It took some time to process everything and try to understand why. I can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: There was also a private mass this morning for Sergeant Michael Smith. He was 55 years old, married to his wife of 17 years. Michael Smith had two daughters, aged 14 and nine. A family friend told us they had just gotten back from a short trip to Florida. And the day he was killed was his first day back from vacation. At the funeral mass today, the priest spoke of a conversation he had with Smith's daughter.

[12:05:28] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But then Caroline asked me, why did God do this? I immediately answered and said, oh, Caroline, God didn't do this. The anti-god did this. The evil one did this.

Then a little while later, Heidi shared with us that before Mike left for his shift the evening he told Caroline to kiss him good-bye like it was his last time. I immediately looked at Caroline and said, Caroline, now, God did that. That's what God does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Smith joined the Dallas Police Department in 1989. A viewing was held yesterday where his fellow officers had a chance to pay their respects and salute their fallen comrade. A public service is planned for tomorrow.

Our Sara Sidner joins me live now from Dallas police headquarters, where if you look behind her, it's pretty obvious that that tribute to those officers, the memorial, so to speak, is growing and growing.

It looks remarkable behind you, Sara. Take me there and tell me what's happening?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ashleigh, every single day crowds of people show up, and every single day this memorial grows. I want to give you a look at it. Look, they've got police bears from eastern Michigan. They've got messages to the families saying, we are with you. We are with you for the fallen officers. They have messages to them as well. There are paintings and teddy bears. Take a look at this painting. Almost a ghostly presence that someone has painted there. That is the city of Dallas skyline with five people representing the five officers who lost their lives. And then just right next to it, you see the teddy bears with the last names of each of the officers who died. Three of those officers, as you mentioned, got laid to rest today.

I do want to show you some other parts of this. It's really poignant, some of the messages being left by the families here in Dallas. But people have come from all over the world. There's someone from Cardith (ph), Wales, that has left a picture saying that we support and love you. And there's also these two large message on the side of the police car. One of them says, back the blue because someone I call dad is on the force. And just above that, there is a letter from a woman that we saw coming to this memorial who fell on her knees weeping. And we asked her what was wrong. She said, I want to be here to support the police because they were there in my time of need. Her name was Djuana Franklin. And she was homeless. And she said Dallas police were there for her when she was raped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DJUANA FRANKLIN, HOMELESS IN DALLAS: I trust my servant, which is the Dallas Police Department. I thank them. God was ready for them, y'all. We have to come together as a nation and come together right now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. You know, we've got to do it right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: I want to also show you a picture from above, a bird's eye view of this memorial, because it really gives you an idea of just how large this has gotten. You can barely see the two police cars underneath all of the messages and flowers and balloons. There are t- shirts. There are quilts. People have really taken the time to make sure that the Dallas police know that they are loved.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Sara, just an incredible sight. Just brings back Boston Strong. It brings back all of these remarkable tributes when those who are unfairly killed in such a graphic way are memorialized by their community.

Sara Sidner, thank you.

Rush hour in Minneapolis this morning when suddenly a crowd of Black Lives Matter activists shut down a large part of interstate 35. They just stopped their cars and they blocked the highway, backing up cars for miles. Police came in and broke it up after close to an hour of demonstration. Several people were also arrested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Now to Memphis, Tennessee. The call, "no justice, no peace" echoing in the streets as protesters tied up traffic outside of Graceland for a couple of hours on Tuesday. We're seeing scenes like this one all over the country, large and small groups, all of them passionate and loud and committed to this cause.

[12:10:18] One of the men whose death sparked this new wave of Black Lives Matter activism is set to be laid to rest himself tomorrow. Philando Castile, 32 years old, and shot one week ago by a police officer outside of Minneapolis. His funeral is scheduled for tomorrow at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

And one of the other men shot dead by police last week, Alton Sterling, yet another funeral. And it is set for Friday. It's scheduled to be on the campus of Southern University. Alton Sterling died in an altercation with police outside of a convenience store in Baton Rouge.

Today, Sterling's teenager son, just 15 years old, spoke to reporters. His name is Cameron Sterling and he says that he's troubled by the violent demonstrations in the wake of his dad's death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMERON STERLING, ALTON STERLING'S SON: But I want everyone to protest the right way. Protest in peace, not guns, not drugs, not alcohol, not violence. Everyone needs to protest in the right way, with peace. No violence. None whatsoever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And, of course, as there are so many of these tributes, memorials and funerals, for the next three days CNN will continue our coverage to make sure that there is significant note to each of the lives that was lost in this last week.

I want to move on now for a moment to some other news. Just getting word now that Donald Trump is meeting with another of the men on his short list of potential running mates. CNN's Dana Bash scooping up the details.

I am - I'm wondering when we're actually going to get some definitive word, Dana Bash, but it turns out that what we thought might not be a top of the list might be right back up on the list.

If we're going to get Dana Bash -

DANA BASH, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Right, well, let's start where we -

BANFIELD: Are you with us? Have I got you?

BASH: Yes, I'm here. Do you hear me, Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: I got you.

BASH: OK. So let's start where we are right now. I can tell you, I'm standing outside a hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Inside that hotel is Donald Trump and his family and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who I am told got on a plane this morning and flew here, wanted to come and have a final meeting with Mr. Trump to make his case about why he believes that he would be the best vice presidential pick. Interestingly, several sources have made it pretty clear that of the - of the - at least the three final contenders we've been talking about, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie and Mike Pence, that Gingrich has been the most sort of obvious about his desire and really lobbying the hardest and have people around him lobbying the hardest for - for this job. So that meeting is taking place here.

It's very interesting that the - sort of the optics of it and kind of where it shows you things stand, that Gingrich flew to the Midwest to have this meeting with Donald Trump because he was here and Trump and his family, they went to the turf, if you will, of the Indiana governor, Mike Pence, this morning, to his residence, where we were earlier today, to have breakfast again with the Trump family, Governor Pence and his wife.

And so it is definitely the final - final round. My understanding in talking to sources close to the process is that Trump truly has not made this final decision. And that's part of that process - the final process that's taking place right now.

Another interesting development. A couple of things. Number one is that our Sunlen Serfaty is on her way to Indiana. And on her plane with Senator Jeff Sessions, who also was - has been talked about. Certainly not as aggressively in the past several weeks, but has been talked about as a potential running mate. And he is on his way to Indiana now. So we'll see if he shows up at this hotel where we are to be another person who has a final meeting with Mr. Trump and the Trump family.

One more thing I want to just tell you, as we've been, you know, working our sources and I've been talking to people close to the process, is that Chris Christie, who, as of yesterday, some people were saying was - has kind of fallen down on the list, is very much on the list. In fact, Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared, and Eric - excuse me, Donald Trump Jr., were in Trump Tower yesterday with Chris Christie, having a meeting with him, having a discussion while their father was - about - about this vice presidential pick, while -

[12:15:09] BANFIELD: And you know what, Dana, I'm - I'm actually going to - I'm going to talk to Sara Murray about some of the inside reporting that she has on that particular breakfast meeting. But I'm trying to do the geographical math right now and you just said that Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions on his way to Indiana. The meeting this morning was with the Indiana Governor Mike Pence in the governor's mansion. And then the meeting that you're now reporting on with Newt Gingrich is ongoing.

Yesterday, again - follow the bouncing ball here. Yesterday we had news that Fox News Channel had actually - I'm going to have to use the right word here, severed or -

BASH: Suspended.

BANFIELD: Suspended, much better, because that's not so permanent. Suspended its relationship with Newt Gingrich given the fact that he is now part of the news and perhaps that doesn't give a good appearance of being able to comment on the news. And then we still have the Chris Christie story going as well.

So, all right, Dana's on Newt Gingrich, has the Jeff Sessions information, was out in front of Mike Pence's home. And, you know what, Sara Murray was with you.

If Sara Murray - if we could pop her up on camera because I need her to now weigh in with some of that inside reporting.

You had - this is always a parlor game, Sara Murray, always a parlor game to figure out who the running mates are going to be and when they're going to be announced. But what's that background that you had this morning? It was very insightful?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Ashleigh, this is beyond a parlor game now to just moved on to a full on Donald Trump spectacle. What we saw today was last night Donald Trump had originally planned on leaving. He decided to stay in Indiana. He had dinner with both of the Pences and then he showed up this morning with his adult children at the governor's mansion where he had breakfast with Mike and Karen Pence. And as we were talking to folks going into that meeting, they made it

clear that Donald Trump had not made up his mind about who he was going to pick. He was going into that meeting to spend a little bit more time to see if he could get comfortable with the idea of Mike Pence being his VP.

The other thing that we learned, though, Ashleigh, is after that meeting he had already had a scheduled call with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, once again, to talk about the VP pick for Christie to sort of give his final pitch and discuss what he would bring to the table as VP. And we have now learned that that call has already happened. They have already had this conversation and now we've - we're on to these meeting with Newt Gingrich and Jeff Sessions. So it does have an very "Apprentice" like feel here in Indiana today, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So I'm - I'm juggling a couple of different things at the moment. But if you've already said this, my apologies. Did you also report that there is this school of thought from his children that are pushing him towards the Indiana governor, Mike Pence, but that he, in his gut, is favoring Chris Christie?

MURRAY: Yes, it's sort of a head and a heart scenario that's been playing out with Donald Trump right now, and that's part of the reason that he's still been so undecided about who to go with. We've seen a number - we've heard from a Trump adviser that a number of the members of Donald Trump's family feel like Mike Pence is the stronger pick in this situation. He's steady> He's a rust belt state governor. He brings a wealth of political experience to the table. He can also bring a lot of the party, particularly social conservatives, behind Donald Trump.

But Trump has known Governor Christie for a long time. They've known each other for over a decade. Chris Christie was one of the earliest officials to endorse Donald Trump. He endured a lot of blowback because of that. But he stayed loyal to Trump. And he has continued to defended Donald Trump publicly after Trump had set up a number of media firestorms. That's all stuff that really matters. And he also looks at Chris Christie as a guy who knows how to navigate the campaign. A guy who knows how to be an attack dog and who could be good on the debate stage. And Trump just personally feels more comfortable with him and his gut. And so that's sort of the push and pull we're seeing play out.

BANFIELD: No, he is a good attack dog, I'll give him that, until he hugged President Obama faithfully and that, you know, brought a lot of ire towards him from fellow Republicans.

Just real quickly, the whole idea that Donald Trump, in the last year in this campaign, has been known for is the notion of let Trump be Trump. And so I'm wondering how much of the let Trump pick who Trump wants is going to play out in this VP choice, or how much Trump needs some guidance from the experts now that he's in the big race, the general election race. How much of those two philosophies are batting heads right now? MURRAY: Well, that's really the core question that's at the heart of

this decision because Trump does have the sense, and there are some around Trump who have the sense that he has followed his gut to this point and it has gotten him this far. He is the presumptive Republican nominee. There are a handful of swing state polls out today that show him essentially tied with Hillary Clinton despite having a rocky couple of weeks. And so that's the one hand.

The other is that a general election is a reset in many ways. This could be a new battle. This could be a new campaign. And we saw the exodus of Corey Lewandowski. We've seen the rise of Paul Manafort and the children within the campaign. And so the question is, which way does Trump feel comfortable going at this point? Does he feel like he needs to trust his children, he needs to trust some of his top advisers right now and choose a guy he doesn't know as well, that he isn't quite as sure about, or does he trust his gut again? And I think everyone is sort of waiting to see what decision he comes to in the next few hours, Ashleigh. And, of course, we know this has to happen by Friday.

[12:20:26] BANFIELD: Oh, there is that, yes. It's an important deadline. OK, Sara Murray, stand by. I want to bring back Dana Bash, who's still with us live on the phone, who is still working her sources on what I guess is her other phone, her bat phone. You have more news on the Chris Christie phone call?

BASH: So I just wanted to follow up on what Sara was reporting on, on Donald Trump and Chris Christie speaking this morning. The thing to keep in mind, which I think really helps inform what Sara was talking about as a - as a head versus gut kind of thing, is that it's not unusual for Donald Trump to be on the phone with Chris Christie. They talk a lot. And that just kind of gives you a perfect example and illustration of how comfortable he is with him. They talk a lot. He is - he has - is and has been since the moment Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump, before the primaries were over, somebody who is his most trusted - not his most trusted, but one of his most trusted kind of northern lights politically. And so that is no (INAUDIBLE) question that is something that could be and obviously is feeding Donald Trump as he goes along and tries to make his decision. They talk a lot (INAUDIBLE) Chris Christie is heading - excuse me, Donald Trump - excuse me, transition team. He's even in D.C. right now doing work for Donald Trump.

BANFIELD: All right, our Dana Bash reporting on the ongoing negotiations, discussions, pitch meetings, so to speak, for Donald Trump and his potential VP candidate choices.

We'll continue to update you as we get information.

And then on the other side of the race, we're also expecting any moment to start hearing live from Illinois from Hillary Clinton in the next few minutes. The campaign trail activates again. She's going to be addressing the police shootings, as well as the protests, from the very place where Abraham Lincoln made his historic "house divided" speech.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:26:18] BANFIELD: More breaking news. This coming from Maryland. The Six Flags America Theme Park, just east of Washington, D.C., is closed after some sort of threat and - then subsequent to this threat, a discovery of a suspicious package in the park. A source in the Prince George's County Fire Department says the threat came in after the employees had showed up for work, but - and this is a very important but - before the park actually opened to any visitors. There's no word on the nature of the threat or any word on what that discovery was. What the package may have been.

But we do know that workers have been moved out and the bomb squad, at this point, is investigating. We're going to bring you more information. I can tell you, Six Flag has tweeted out, "working with authorities after bomb threat. The safety of our guests and employees is our top priority. As precaution, park closed until cleared."

So a very busy time for Six Flags. There's just - it's summer vacation and the kids flock to Six Flags during summer vacation.

We're going to continue to watch that story for you and bring you details as we get them.

We're also watching the clock and the live mikes because in a few minutes we're expecting Hillary Clinton will be speaking live from that podium. It is the state house in Springfield, Illinois. We're going to bring you that speech live just as soon as it gets underway. And amid all of the Donald Trump VP speculation that's swirling today, the Republicans are still tweaking and adjusting and nip tucking their platform. And they will do that right up until the start of their national convention, which is just days away. It gets underway on Monday.

So here's what's going on in Cleveland. The delegates are using these remaining pre-convention days to put the finishing touches on that platform, especially when it comes to a few issues that are particularly divisive. I think that's fair to day.

Our CNN's Phil Mattingly is in Cleveland live right now and he's been looking at what the issues are and how the GOP has really shifted. And it seems if you look at the totality of the platform as it stands right now, Phil, they really moved to the right and they have moved farther right than Donald Trump is. I'm wondering if that's sort of a negotiation tactic. Maybe they'll end up somewhere where they want to be with Donald Trump.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's an element of strategy there, Ashleigh, no question about it. And looking over the platform, sitting through the two marathon meetings over the last couple of days related to that platform has made very clear, on two specific issues, Donald Trump wins, no question about it. The language on trade, the language on building a wall in Mexico, those are Trump staples, those are in the platform. But specifically on social issues, this was a committee dominated by

social conservatives. A lot of people who are very uncomfortable with Donald Trump, and they took this platform much further in their direction than say a moderate Republican or even what we've heard, as you noted, Ashleigh, from Trump, specifically on LGBT issues. There were delegates who over and over again tried to insert language that was more friendly to LGBT individuals. Over and over again that was rejected.

And so it's been kind of an interesting view of a Republican Party that is really still struggling to unify, and a Republican Party that still have a very strong base of social conservatives despite the language we've seen from Donald Trump over the course of this campaign, specifically related to LGBT issues, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So I have - I have to ask you about that, because it seemed to me that one of the things that was significantly different with regard to LGBT issues was that the - the - the push for a marriage amendment is not there. While there's language about marriage being recognized as between a man and a woman, there isn't that similar push for changing the Constitution to recognize that. So is that being considered as significant as it sounds?

MATTINGLY: Yes, I think so.