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Three Officers Killed In Baton Rouge By Gunman; Rnc Kicks Off; Trump And Pence Sit Together For First Joint Interview; Highest Ranking Officer Charged In Freddie Gray Death Case Is Acquitted Of All Charges. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 18, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:32:25]

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: OK as you well know we've been covering the murder of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One man responsible for that. We have some new information into the investigation. Police have reviewed some tape from the area. Although we're not exactly sure where that tape came from. So let's head live to Baton Rouge and Fredricka Whitfield. What have you found out?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So Carol, we're outside the Baton Rouge Police Department which is about a mile and a half from where that shooting took place outside that convenience store right on this road, Airline Highway. And we're learning right now from sources that have spoken to our CNN's Nick Valencia, that what is being said is they reviewed a tape -- still unclear where this tape came from, or from what perspective it shows. And in the tape, and I'm quoting now, "in reviewing a tape of the incident, this was a meticulous, planned approach towards police officers."

You heard from our Drew Griffin earlier, that he's learned that a number of police officers would regularly go to this kind of Quick Stop convenience store/gas station. This is a place sometimes of gathering and respite. We do know, according to eyewitness accounts, that this suspect -- the gunman, 29-year old Gavin Long -- was seen, according to witnesses, carrying a long arm weapon there.

What we now know is an AR-15 in that location -- the people, witnesses called dispatch and then police responded. And shortly after their arrival, that's when we know shots were fired, taking down three police officers who were killed there. Two of the Baton Rouge Police Department and one of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department. Other officers also hit, six in all hit. One remains hospitalized.

But this information now, as people try to figure out what provoked this gunman, what brought him here from Missouri -- because that's his last address. We've since learned through various sources that he may have made his way from Missouri. He may have been in the Dallas area before making his way here to Baton Rouge.

Still unclear whether he's had contact with anyone here, whether he received any aid or support. That investigation is still ongoing. We expect a press conference later on today. But just the latest that there was this videotape or tape that has been reviewed by authorities. And their conclusion is that this was a planned, meticulous attack. More when we get it. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right, Fredricka Whitfield reporting live from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Thanks so much. Person at (ph) the Republican National Convention. The theme tonight? It'll be "Make America Safe Again." With me now is CNN's Phil Mattingly. He has a rundown of what exactly we can expect today.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol, right now obviously this is a big day for the Republican Party. This is a big four days for Donald Trump. But first and foremost, this is really ground zero for Republicans. You've got Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor and potential vice president pick until about a couple days ago. Meeting with delegations all morning. Paul Ryan doing the same exact thing.

But the focus tonight will be on security. Now Melania Trump will speak and that will be something that everybody's going to keep an eye on. Donald Trump saying he's going to introduce Melania Trump -- not something you normally see. But the roster of speakers, whether they be congressional officials, actors, former administration officials, will all be talking about national security issues.

If you look at the headliners today. You have Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, a former Obama administration intelligence official. Who is actually also in the running for vice president. You have Joni Ernst, a rising Senate star from Iowa who's served in the military.

Even the second tier people that are going to be talking. People like actor, Scott Baio and duck hunter Willie Robertson are also all going to be talking about security issues. And the reason is why, when you talk to Trump officials, Carol, they believe that this is an area of weakness for Democrats.

This is an area when people across the country look at what's happened over the last couple of weeks, both domestically and across the world, they're unsettled. You hear Donald Trump a lot talk about now that he's the law and order candidate. Over the course of his campaign, the silent majority -- that sounds familiar to you? You might look back at 1968.

Richard Nixon who, during his acceptance speech talked about a country that was plagued by "unprecedented lawlessness and torn apart by unprecedented racial violence." Trump advisors now saying that Donald Trump is looking at that speech as a model for his speech. Themes to keep an eye out all week today. Carol.

[10:36:40]

COSTELLO: All right, Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. So with unity on their minds, it's no secret that Donald Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, are divided on certain issues like waterboarding. We're going to get into that in just a minute. But I'd like to introduce my panel right now.

With me now is Jackie Kucinich. She is the Washington Bureau Chief of The Daily Beast, welcome. Andre Bauer is a CNN Political Analyst, and a Donald Trump supporter. And former Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. Lanhee Chen is also with me. He is a CNN Political Commentator, and former Mitt Romney Public Policy Director. And Matthew Tully is a political columnist for the Indianapolis Star. So welcome to all of you.

I'm going to start with this -- with Mike Pence and Donald Trump's appearance on 60 Minutes last night. Because at times it was a little uncomfortable because they clearly were not on the same page on many issues ..

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: Right.

COSTELLO: ... And one of those many issues was the waterboarding issue. So before we dive in, I'd like a -- my viewers to listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, CORRESPONDENT, "60 MINUTES": Waterboarding. Mr. Trump wants to bring back waterboarding. And "a hell of a lot more." Are you comfortable with bringing back waterboarding?

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think we should ever tell our enemy what our tactics are.

STAHL: But what about that? What about -- he's publicly said that ...

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I like that answer.

PENCE: I don't think we should -- I think ...

STAHL: But are you OK with the idea of waterboarding?

PENCE: I think -- I think enhanced interrogation saved lives.

STAHL: And you're OK with that?

PENCE: What I'm OK with, what I'm OK with is protecting the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Jackie, does it matter if they're on the same page on such issues?

KUCINICH: Well I think Mike Pence is on the same page as waterboarding -- as Donald Trump. He just says it differently. And that's -- it's a stylistic thing. Mike Pence isn't going to be as bombastic as Donald Trump, and I think it's one of the reasons he was picked. He's more careful, he's more steady in that regard. And I think, again, it's one of the reasons his advisors thought that Mike Pence was a good pick.

COSTELLO: OK so let's -- on the subject of the Iraq war, when, what, when Mike Pence was a Congressman, he voted for the Iraq war, Andre. And Donald Trump said, "oh that's OK, everybody deserves a mistake in their lives." But when Donald Trump talks about Hillary Clinton spoke for the Iraq war, it was a dreadful mistake. So how do voters kind of, come to terms with that?

ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well I think they look at a multitude of different actions. It's not just the Iraq war and that one vote. But what the follow-up was after that, the actions that were taken. I think that's where a lot of his problem actually comes from. You know, did we leave troops there? Did we put enough troops there? And so it's a multitude of different issues, it's not just how we trim up places (ph).

COSTELLO: No, no, no. Donald Trump gets on Hillary Clinton for her vote for the Iraq war. Donald Trump says that he knew the war was a bad idea from the get-go. And he slams her all the time but he didn't slam Mike Pence on that issue.

BAUER: Well and, these are two different individuals. And they're not going to agree -- you know, Republican Party is first and foremost independent thinkers ...

KUCINICH: They voted the same way ...

COSTELLO: So it's OK if a Republican voted for the Iraq war but not OK if a Democrat did?

BAUER: Well again, I think it's a bigger picture than just the vote, the single vote.

LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But see, Carol, this gets back to the vetting process, right? Traditionally these are the kind of differences we'd be talking about in a vetting process. We'd be saying, "look, the candidates differ on this issue, this issue. We need out figure out how to reconcile those two things."

If you look at the process through which Governor Pence was picked, a little haphazard, a little bit different from prior cycles. And I think that creates some tension. The roll-out probably wasn't as smooth as it could have been because maybe they didn't foresee, "hey, here are the important things that we need to be working on before we actually make our public announcement."

COSTELLO: So Matthew, you're from Indianapolis, you know Mike Pence. A; Is Jackie right? Does he like, believe in waterboarding? Does he think waterboarding is an effective way to get information out of terrorists? And B; Does it matter that he voted for the Iraq war and Donald Trump said, "oh, that's the --" I didn't really understand where that was going, did you?

MATTHEW TULLY, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, INDIANAPOLIS STAR: Sure. Well waterboarding didn't come up much these past four years when he was governor, I will admit. I think what you're seeing though is Mike Pence is making very clear that for the next four months at least, he is willing to say and do what he's told to say and do.

And he's going to brush aside disagreements with the presidential candidate and not hurt himself for future races, perhaps, by coming on record saying, "yes I support waterboarding." He kind of dodged the issue in a safe way for him.

So I think that's what you're seeing, is that this is a very traditional presidential candidate-running mate relationship. Where the running mate does and says what he's told to do and say.

[10:41:20]

COSTELLO: OK, I want to talk a little bit about unifying the country now. Because I would suspect that that's going to be talked about during these three days in Cleveland, right? So after what happened in Baton Rouge, the terrible killing of those three police officers, right? President Obama came out and he called for unity.

Mister Trump tweeted that President Obama doesn't have a clue. Saying "our country is a divided crime scene and it will only get worse." What does he mean, "it will only get worse," Andre?

BAUER: Well I think we've seen that we've continually had these instances. It hasn't stopped. We've defended dysfunction for too long and we've defended criminals for too long. Quite frankly, we give them too many rights in this country. And I think he said, "hey, I'm going to be a law and order candidate. You'll see Rudy Giuliani speaking this week, who I think would be a great Homeland Security Director. And so when law and order becomes ...

COSTELLO: But so what would Rudy Giuliani do differently?

BAUER: Well what he did with New York ...

COSTELLO: Ben fee (ph).

BAUER: ... He has a history of taking a crime-riddled city and turning it around. Nobody would argue that Rudy Giuliani has done one of the best jobs ever, in taking an American city and turning it around.

COSTELLO: So how would he prevent these shootings?

BAUER: Well number one, they would vett people who come into our country more thoroughly. They would make sure that we don't ...

COSTELLO: The guy who shot the police officers in Baton Rouge was a U.S. Marine.

BAUER: But now we understand he had ties to radical Islam.

COSTELLO: We don't understand that, yet. We don't know anything about him yet.

BAUER: Well as of watching ...

COSTELLO: No, no, no, no.

BAUER: ... this morning, CNN, it actually tied him to ...

CHEN: You know, unfortunately this is kind of the problem we have with the Trump candidacy. Is that usually by this point in the campaign we'd have some fleshed out policy. We'd have a better sense of what this candidate would do as president. Right now what we still have are largely sort of vague generalities.

I think he's going to have to fill some of those things in as we go along. I know he probably doesn't want to. But ultimately in order to defeat Hillary Clinton, the Republican Party, and Donald Trump in particular, are going to have to start to specify, how is it that the actions of a Trump administration would be different from the actions that this administration's taken? In more than just tone.

COSTELLO: Something else that Donald Trump said this morning on "Fox & Friends." He talked about President Obama's body language. Hiding what he really means. And Jackie, you'll address that after we listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (via telephone): So I watched the President and sometimes the words are OK. But you just look at the body language, there's something going on. Look, there's something going on. And the words are not often OK, by the way.

STEVE DOOCY, HOST, "FOX & FRIENDS": What does that mean, "there's something going on?"

TRUMP (via telephone): There's just bad feeling. And a lot of bad feeling about him. I see it, too, that there's a lot of bad feeling about him. We have a country that's ...

DOOCY: You know ...

TRUMP (via telephone): We have a country that has not been like this since I can remember it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Jackie, Mr. Trump says there's "something going on" with President Obama's body language. What do you suppose he means by that?

KUCINICH: You know, we've heard Donald Trump kind of collapse into these conspiracy theories, for the duration of this campaign, and before. And there has been some thought among Republicans that he is going to grow out of this. That he is going to start acting like a normal, general election Republican candidate.

And this is just an example that he is not ready to let go of some of these more -- I don't even know, tin foil hat type conspiracy theories that are rampant in some parts of the right. COSTELLO: So Andre, part of the reason for this convention is to make voters think that Mr. Trump can be presidential. That he'll say presidential type things. But then he says stuff like that on "Fox & Friends."

BAUER: It's not what I would pick. I wish he would steer clear of that ... clearly when I supported Donald Trump it wasn't everything I agree with. And I don't agree with everything now. But in the direction I wanted the country to go, he represented things that I thought were most important.

So -- and I wouldn't be talking about the President's body language. But I'm not the nominee for President of the United States.

COSTELLO: All right, hold on for just a second. Because I've just been handed some breaking news that I want to pass along to my viewers. It has to do with the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore, Maryland. There is another "not guilty" verdict for that officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice has been acquitted on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office, for his part in the death of Gray last year. Rice is a supervisor, and the highest ranking officer charged in the incident. He is the fourth of six officers charged in the case, to go to trial. Two of those officers were found "not guilty." And there was a mistrial for the third officer.

So again, this officer found not guilty on all counts. So the State's Attorney in Baltimore -- I don't know, she doesn't have a good track record so far. Still to come in the Newsroom, just minutes from now Hillary Clinton will address the shooting in Baton Rouge. What she's expected to say, next.

[10:46:00]

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10:50:30]

COSTELLO: All right I want to take you way down South to Cincinnati, Ohio. Hillary Clinton will talk about the killing of those police officers in Baton Rouge. When she speaks to the NAACP at the top of the hour.

Donald Trump was also invited to the group's annual convention there in Cincinnati. But Mr. Trump declined. The theme, by the way, for tonight's Republican National Convention lineup, "Make America Safe Again."

Here to talk about how a President Trump would accomplish that goal is Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Welcome, sir. Thank you so much for being here.

ASA HUTCHINSON, GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS: Absolutely, good to be with you. COSTELLO: So Mr. Trump will introduce his wife tonight and she'll

talk about Mr. Trump. What do you suppose she'll say?

HUTCHINSON: Well I suspect she'll be on the personal side, introducing Mr. Trump in that context to America. I think that's what we want to see. About who future first lady might be, about the relationship, their history. And we're excited about that. I mean the introduction of the Trump family is really a plus for the convention.

COSTELLO: It took you a while to support Mr. Trump. What changed your mind?

HUTCHINSON: Well you know, I've started out with Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio. But in the end, the voters said, "we want Donald Trump as our nominee." I'm a team player. But also we got two choices in November, and without any question, Donald Trump, the team he puts together is the right one to lead America.

And so that's an easy decision in the end. And I have the expression that just because my quarterback was not chosen, I'm not going to stop blocking for the team. I'm in there, gonna be blocking in November for Donald Trump to win.

COSTELLO: The country is in a very divided state right now. Tensions are very high. A lot of Americans don't feel safe. They worry about police on the streets, right? Protesters worry about African- Americans and the way police are treating them. What should Donald Trump say at this convention to make Americans feel that he can handle that problem? That he can unify the country. That he can understand where both sides are coming from. Because as President of the United States, you have to do that.

HUTCHINSON: That's true, and he will express it in the right way. But let me just say first of all, this is a time of unity in our country, and support of law enforcement. Both sides of the political equation have expressed that sympathy. But also, more significantly, the support for law enforcement.

And we've got to be concerned not just about the men and women in blue -- we have to be concerned about that. But also what I'm worried about too, is the response capability. We're going to be diminishing our police response capacity because of the change in tactics of those that might attack law enforcement.

And so you worry about just simply carrying out the normal duties involved ...

COSTELLO: But what has Mr. Trump said about that, that makes you think that he's the guy that can solve that problem?

HUTCHINSON: Well one, he speaks very plainly. He supports law enforcement without any question about that. And you also look at the framework of the Republican Party. We have historically been a law and order party that supported strong military. But also our law enforcement and the rule of law in the United States. That's been our history, that's the framework in which Donald Trump

will govern. And that's a framework that I feel comfortable. It's not a divisive context, it's a reality that we understand the importance of how we have to have a orderly society that respects law, teaches the next generation to respect the law.

And I recognize there's mistakes that are always made. But we deal with each, individual circumstance of a mistake. And say, "we need better training here," or "there's consequences that have to be taken out here." But you don't start doing the broad sweep and saying law enforcement's bad. Because in fact, they are good, they need our support.

COSTELLO: Governor, thank you so much for being here.

HUTCHINSON: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And I'm going to see you throughout the week, I hope. Thank you so much. All right, I want to head out to Miguel Marquez. He has more on what just happened in Baltimore. The clearing of another police officer. Take it away, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes this is the third officer who has been acquitted of all charges in connection to the death of Freddie Gray. Lieutenant Brian Rice, he was the highest ranking officer on the scene that day that Mr. Gray was arrested, was injured in that van, and then later died from his injuries.

He was charged with several things but was found "not guilty" on involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office charges. The prosecution had earlier dropped one of the misconduct in office charges. And the judge had dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Officer Brian Rice.

Too many, two other officers will face a trial in the days ahead. And then Officer William Porter will face retrial. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right, Miguel Marquez reporting live from New York this morning about what went down in Baltimore. Thanks so much. And thank you for joining me today, I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan, after a break.

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