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Moderators for Presidential Debates Revealed; Brock Turner Leaves Jail After Serving Three Months; Hurricane Hermine Hits Florida. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the "Newsroom," a furious mix of rain, wind and waves. Hermine becomes the first hurricane to hit Florida in 11 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have substantial flooding down on the coast.

COSTELLO: Also, it's the rape case that gripped the nation. An ex- Stanford swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman and sentenced to just months in jail. Today, he's walking out and back into the national spotlight. Plus, O! say can you see the controversy. NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick doubles down on his anthem protest but this time he's not alone and he says he's not stopping there.

COLIN KAEPERNICK , NFL QUARTERBACK: I am planning to take it a step further.

COSTELLO: Let's talk live in the "CNN Newsroom."

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COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me in an unpredictable political campaign, there's one thing that is a certainty, the presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, they will be must-see TV. And this morning, we learned who will be moderating those debates. Here's the scoop from CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hey Carol. Yes, this is going to be a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. I am moderating the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And now this morning we know who the moderators will be. The commission on presidential debates announcing that Lester Holt, the "NBC Nightly News" anchor, will moderate the very first debate, that's 24 days from today on September 26th at Hofstra University out on Long Island. That debate will be followed by the vice presidential debate, October 4th, that will be led by Elaine Quijano of "CBS News." And then the second presidential debate is a town hall format in St. Louis, it will be led by CNN's Anderson Cooper and ABC's Martha Raddatz. That debate, the candidates will take questions both from the audience and also from social media, an interesting twist in this digital age. And then third final debate before Election Day, it's on October 19th in Nevada. And it will be led - it will be moderated by "Fox News" anchor Chris Wallace. He's the moderator of "Fox News Sunday," he has been on television for decades. Just like Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper, Elaine Quijano, all of these veteran journalists now with one of the most important assignments of their careers. Carol back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Brian Stelter reporting. - And I want to show you a scene that happened outside the Trump tower just a few moments ago.

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COSTELLO: This is Mr. Trump leaving Trump Tower to head to his -- intelligence briefing, but something different this that time. You see that barricade there, that kind of not so beautiful wall? Well, our embed producers are telling us, this is the first time they could ever recall a sort of wall being erected to shield Donald Trump from the cameras. Of course, secret service actually put it up. We don't know exactly why this happened. But secret service did put it up.

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COSTELLO: Although we could see clearly through the crack in the wall between the building and the wall that Donald Trump left with Chris Christie and one other man that I assume is Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but I don't know that for sure, after he has his Intel briefing here in New York City, Donald Trump that is, he'll head to a roundtable in Philadelphia to meet with African-American business and civic leaders. And tomorrow then, Mr. Trump will head on to Detroit. Now, according to "The New York Times," Mr. Trump will now talk face-to-face with an African-American congregation in Detroit. This comes after criticism that Mr. Trump would only agree to a sit-down taped interview with the bishop of Great Faith Ministries Church. In the meantime, an NBA superstar is urging Trump not to use his family's tragedy for political gain. For the first time, Dwayne Wade is speaking out about the shooting death of his cousin and this tweet by Trump after that shooting happened. "Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying, African- Americans will vote Trump." Here's Wade's reaction on "GMA."

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DWAYNE WADE, NBA SUPERSTAR: You know, it's like, a one end. Your cousin's death is used as a ploy for political gain. On the other hand, it's a national story. It goes back to that for me. I want eyes on the city. You know. I want us to be able to do more together,

[10:05:16] the only way we do more together, if more people know what's going on. So I was grateful that it started a conversation. But on the other hand, it is -- just a bad taste in my mouth because of - you know, what my family is dealing with and what our city of Chicago is dealing with and it looks like it's been used as a political gain.

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COSTELLO: CNN National Correspondent, Ryan Nobles has more for us this morning, good morning.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you. And Donald Trump is going to make a direct pitch to African-American voters over the next few days. As you've mentioned, he'll travel to Philadelphia this afternoon. That's where the GOP nominee will meet privately with business, religious and civic leaders from the African- American community. Then tomorrow he heads to Detroit. He will speak in front of a large church. But then also sit down for an interview with The Impact Network which is a religious television channel run by the pastor of Great Faith Ministries, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Now, that interview and church appearance will be closed to the press and Trump's team is making sure their candidate is prepared. "The New York Times" has revealed a lengthy list of scripted answers to the questions that Trump will be asked in that interview. "The Times" reporting that the Trump campaign will even be able to edit portions of the interview before it airs in about a week. Trump's campaign has yet to respond to that report. But this direct outreach to black voters is a bit of a new approach for the Republican. In the past, he's asked African-Americans in front of largely white crowds, "What do you have to lose?" Well, Trump is now refining that message a bit. Listen to what he said last night on Fox.

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DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have so many African-American friends, where they're doing great and they're making good money. They're living a good life. They've got the American dream going. But you have tremendous numbers of African-Americans that have really had a hard time. I mean, beyond belief. And, you know, I read the numbers where you have so many in poverty and the crime is horrible and the education is terrible and they live terribly. And I say, what do you have to lose? I say to them what do you have to lose? Give it to me. I'm going to fix it.

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NOBLES: All right, and Carol, he has nowhere to go but up. A recent NBC news, "Wall Street Journal" poll shows that Donald Trump has only has one percent support with African-American voters, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ryan Nobles, reporting live from Washington this morning, thank you so much. So let's talk about this. My next guest says Mr. Trump is an opportunist who only wants to get into the White House. And he's planning to protest against Trump's visit to Detroit as a result. Joining me now from Detroit, Rev. W.J. Rideout III, pastor of All God's People Church, he's also a Hillary Clinton supporter, and is the founder of Defenders of Truth and Justice. Good morning, reverend.

REV. W.J. RIDEOUT III, PASTOR OF ALL GOD'S PEOPLE CHURCH AND FOUNDER OF DEFENDERS OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Good morning, how are you today, Miss Costello?

COSTELLO: I'm good, thank you so much for being with me.-

RIDEOUT: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: You know I talked to Bishop Jackson yesterday. Bishop Jackson invited Mr. Trump into his church and here's why.

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BISHOP WAYNE JACKSON, PASTOR OF GREAT FAITH MINISTRIES AND THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE IMPACT NETWORK: I am a registered Democrat. I've been voting Democrat all my life. And one thing I do want to say is this, is that the last two candidates that came who ran for the Republican Party, they didn't come to Detroit. At least Mr. Trump is coming to Detroit. John -- George Bush did, but the last two candidates that ran for the presidency of the United States, for the Republican Party, -- didn't come to Detroit. So at least he's coming.

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COSTELLO: OK, -- so what's wrong with that? Bishop Jackson says, you know, at least Mr. Trump is coming.

RIDEOUT: Well, it's still not doing us any favor. Voting for Donald Trump, Donald Duck or Donald Trump, whatever you want to call him, is a joke, and it means making a deal with the devil. And certainly we don't want that in our America or in American society, the vote for a man like Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: So there's no listening to Donald Trump? I mean he shouldn't go into that congregation and look at African-American church goers and voters face-to-face and tell them what he's thinking?

RIDEOUT: As I have always said and I will continue to say, Donald Trump is an opportunist and he knows that he needs the black African- American vote to win this election, which he's not going to have an overwhelming - support of the black African-American people. He's looking for 93, 95 percent, which he won't get. He may not even have one percent. It's a waste of time.-

COSTELLO: If he reached out to you and said, you know what, reverend, I would really like to talk with you, would you talk with Mr. Trump?

RIDEOUT: Sure, I would talk with him. But there's no bamboozling me or the black African-American or Latinos or anyone else for that matter into voting for him at this part of the stage. He should have thought about this before he began to talk evil against the people of God all over the world. So, I mean, he's late.

COSTELLO: Mr. Trump has said that Democratic politicians had failed the African-American community

[10:10:16] and while Detroit has boasted some good Democratic Mayors, one of Detroit's Democratic Mayors is in prison for enriching himself at the expense of Detroit taxpayers. So isn't Mr. Trump partially right about that?

RIDEOUT: Not at all. Mr. Trump is absolutely 190 percent incorrect.-

COSTELLO: So all Democratic politicians have done great things for the African-American community? -- We're talking about Detroit now and Kwame Kilpatrick.

RIDEOUT: Well, -- I understand. One - mistakable or incorrect Democratic person that has made bad choices or - poor choices doesn't mean that the Democratic Party is a joke. I mean, come on, the Republican has failed America for years. If you really look at the statistics, every time the Republicans get in office, we have a slam dunk bad deficit for black African-Americans and for others who are trying to survive. We cannot elude that this sitting president has made a wonderful change in America. President Obama has done great things and wonderful things and he's done things that no other president has ever done and this is going down in history and he's a Democrat.

COSTELLO: And -- I have to ask you this question because two billionaires are currently rebuilding Detroit, Dan Gilbert who owns Quicken Loans, and Mike Ilitch who owns Little Caesars Pizza and the Detroit Tigers. Gilbert owns more than 90 properties in Detroit. Both men have invested millions of dollars in the city of Detroit. So might a businessman president be good for the city?

RIDEOUT: He's not as you know, -- he's not the best businessman that we could ever look forward to. If he cannot run his own businesses, he cannot run New York. He has filed bankruptcy five, nine times. How is he going to help America? America is trying to get out of deficits not go backwards. We have moved forward. We have been doing wonderful things. We have more jobs now. We have better health care. We have a lot of things that are on the arousal. And to put this man in office is going to be a horrible mistake.

COSTELLO: All right, Rev. W.J. Rideout, thank you so much for joining me this morning, I do appreciate it. -- Later this hour, Bishop Wayne Jackson will join us live and we'll ask him about "The New York Times" reporting and find out what the latest plan is for Mr. Trump's visit to his church. Labor Day weekend the unofficial end of summer. And for millions of Americans, it's going out with a roar.

COSTELLO: Hermine charges ashore as a hurricane and batters Florida's gulf coast, up to 15 inches of rain in some areas and of course heavy flooding along with that, hundreds of thousands without power, trees down across the region, one even fatally crushing a homeless man in Central Florida, Hermine now churning its way across Georgia. It's heading towards the Carolinas. It has been downgraded to a tropical storm. But it does remain a fearsome rain maker. Some computer models suggesting it could follow the path of superstorm Sandy, gaining strength at sea before slamming back into the eastern seaboard. We're covering all the developments of this storm from the CNN Weather Center to the path of the storm. Let's begin though with CNN's Brian Todd, he's in Charleston, South Carolina, good morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We're starting to see the storm surge really kick up. This is the seawall along East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Look at the white caps here. You see a lot of the spraying along the seawall. We're just past high tide right now. It is intensifying here. Some of the initial rain bands of the storm have already come through. And officials are telling us that they're advising residents to baton down the hatches for the next 24 hours. I'm going to climb up on the seawall here, put the mike down for just a second, climb over here. Thanks, my producer here helping me out. What they're telling people here is, look, don't -- you have to take this seriously. This is what they're afraid of. A lot of gawkers, people like this coming out here and just out of curiosity wanting to be in the storm, wanting to feel it. They say, that's not a good idea. In the next 24 hours, they're telling people hunker down. They've handed out about 3,000 sandbags to people along this street and merchants near here and they're going to be handing out more. Here's another warning, Carol. One official told us this is a city of high bridges, when the winds really start to kick up here in the next couple hours, that's going to be a danger. Also tornado watches along here, Charleston County and many adjoining counties, Carol, they're just getting into the danger zone right now.

COSTELLO: All right, Brian Todd, reporting live from Charleston, South Carolina this morning. Let's head to the CNN Weather Center now, check in with Chad Myers. Good morning, tell us where's this thing headed?

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, It's headed to Charleston. In about - I'd say maybe ten hours or so. Bryan will see the worst of this weather. What he sees there is the rising seas because of the wind coming on shore, something else that will come on shore, Brian eluded too, tornadoes, the potential there. Every time a big storm

[10:15:16] rolls off the ocean, it could contain a water spout that will roll on shore and possibly create a tornado on land. These are small tornadoes but they still cause damage. Something else Brian was eluding too and you too. Where does this thing go after it leaves North Carolina? Well, it goes off shore. It goes off to Del Mar, off Rehoboth Beach, and it sits there, it could sit there for three days, gain some strength too, because there's still a lot of warm water there. We're seeing wind speeds on some computer models, Carol, of over 50 miles per hour, and eventually all the way from Nantucket, all the way to Atlantic City, as far south as tidewater, and it will be a rough weekend. No matter where you are here along the Mid-Atlantic Coast. This isn't going to be a pretty Labor Day weekend.

COSTELLO: All right, Chad Myers, reporting live for us, thanks so much. Still to come in the "Newsroom," he was convicted of sexual assault. Now, after serving just three months behind bars, the ex- Stanford swimmer Brock Turner is a free man.

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COSTELLO: The former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a trash bin is a free man today. He walked free from a California jail where he served three months behind bars. Earlier this year, Brock Turner was convicted of three separate felonies, charges that could have resulted in 14 years behind bars. But the judge handed down that sentence of six months. Here's what the county sheriff had to say about Turner's early release.

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SHERIFF LAURIE SMITH, SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: We don't know who picked him up or where he's going but we're done with him. He should be in prison right now but he's not in our custody.

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COSTELLO: Tough words from the sheriff. CNN's Ashleigh Banfield has been involved with the story since the beginning. She's covering Brock Turner's release. Good morning, Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. I guess with the sound you just heard from the sheriff, it would be pretty clear that there would be no special treatment of his release. I think that's an understatemet. Those visuals just over an hour and a half ago of Brock Turner being released after three months of serving here at the Santa Clara County main jail, pretty stark. I mean, he was made to walk a gauntlet out of these doors behind me and then though sort of the bicycle racks with all the media set up, didn't say a word. I think it's fair to say it's probably the last time he ever wants to see these doors and probably this county and maybe even this state. Conventional wisdom is he wants to go back to Ohio, -- Dayton, Ohio, where he's from. He left in that white vehicle, drove off, destination unknown at this early stage. But at some point in the next few days, one his destinations has to be an official office, because that's where he needs to register as a sex offender. And that will be a repeated occurrence for the rest of his life. In fact, with all of the criticism of this very lenient jail sentence, six months for the three felonies, right, he serves three, good behavior and overcrowding in the state means you get two days of good time for every one you serve. He still has a pretty oppressive probation that's coming up. And then that registration regiment he's going to have to follow for the rest of his life, everywhere he goes, within a period of months, he's going to have to register and re-register and re-register sometimes as frequently as three months. He will not be able to be live in certain places or be in certain places without certain notifications. If/when he has children in the future he may not be able to go to their games at their schools. I mean there is a very strong sentence that continues that a lot of people won't see. That's more than just the actual jail. That said, there's a protest planned here later on because of this sentence that Judge Aaron Persky handed down. And the public defender in the case backed up Judge Perksy and said some of those protesters may not have all their facts right. Have a listen to what he said.

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GARY GOODMAN, SANTA CLARA COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER: The people that are saying he has a repeated bias are actually factually and legally incorrect. Brock Turner was, what, 19 years old when this occurred, I believe so, and he had no record and his past was, athlete aside, was pretty stellar. So he's done a lot in his life, in his short life, to say I am a good person and this was a mistake.

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BANFIELD: And then the facts of the case are such that this was a legal sentence. Judge Aaron Persky -- operated within the confines of the law. It was just sort of at the very edge of that law and that's why all those protesters are coming out here later on this morning, Carol. We're going to continue to cover this for you and hear what they have to say about all of this, this morning.

COSTELLO: All right, Ashleigh Banfield, reporting live from San Jose, California this morning, thank you. So to come in the "Newsroom," Donald Trump in his immigration reforms, is he softening his plans or just changing his tone?

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COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me. Talk about whiplash. When it comes to immigration, Donald Trump's tone hasn't exactly been consistent. Now, many voters still don't exactly get where he stands on deporting those 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Here's what he said last night on Fox news.

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TRUMP: We're going to get rid of all of the bad players that are here, the gang members, the gang leaders, the drug dealers, all of the cartel people. We're going to get them out of our country. After that takes place, which will be a process, it won't go that quickly but will go as quickly as any human being can do it. After that takes place, we're going to sit back, we're going to assess the situation, we're going to see where we are, because we'll have people in the country that, you know, that have come in illegally. We're going to sit back, we're going to assess the situation, we're going to make a decision at that time.

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COSTELLO: OK, so here's what Mr. Trump has said in the past.

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TRUMP: There certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people. We want people -- we have some great people in this country.

I don't think it's a softening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But 11 million are no longer deported - TRUMP: I think it's a heartening actually -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- but 11 million who have not committed a crime. There's going to be a path to legalization, is that right?

TRUMP: You know it's a process. You can't take 11 at one time and just say boom, you're gone.

There's softening. Look, we do it in a very humane way, and we're going to see with the people that are in the country. Obviously I want to get the gang members out, the drug paddlers out. Then we're going to make a decision at a later date once everything is stabilized. I think you're going to see there's really quite a bit of softening.

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COSTELLO: OK. That is his word, softening, that we're going to talk about now. With me now to do that, CNN's Political Commentator, Kayleigh McEnany, she is also a Trump supporter.