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Charlotte D.A. Announces Decision on Charges; Trump Taps Steven Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary; House Democrats Hold Leadership Vote; Protesters Vow to Stay Despite Order to Vacate. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 30, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Culmination of a more than two-month investigation into the shooting requested by Keith Scott's family. We're told that the D.A., Andrew Murray just met with Keith Scott's family in the last hour and that he may be on his way over here right now -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Brian Todd reporting live from Charlotte, North Carolina. And of course, we'll be keeping an eye on Charlotte. And any time that announcement is made of course we'll take you back there live.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello in Washington. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump has outlined the major players on his economic team, a series of familiar faces to the men and women who work on Wall Street. For Treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin. For Commerce secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross. And Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts as deputy Commerce secretary.

So let's talk about this. I'm joined now by John Allison. He's a board member of the Cato Institute and a retired chairman and CEO of BB&T.

Good morning, sir.

JOHN ALLISON, BOARD MEMBER, CATO INSTITUTE: Good morning. Good morning.

COSTELLO: So -- good morning. I know that you met with Donald Trump with the possibility that you might become the Treasury secretary. What was that meeting like?

ALLISON: It was very interesting. I would say -- I would say President-elect Trump is very committed to accelerating economic growth. He believes that -- he knows he was elected by the so-called working class. He believes that the solution to the working class problem is to accelerate economic growth and he wants to do a major restructuring of the tax laws, not just cut taxes but lower, flatter less complicated taxes, and he wants to do a lot of deregulation. And that's really mostly what we focused on.

COSTELLO: Got you. So Steve Mnuchin, because you say Donald Trump wants to work for the little guy, right, but Steve Mnuchin, he's a Goldman Sachs guy. He has his own private equity fund. He's a hedge fund guy, right? He has close ties to Wall Street. He'll be -- I mean, so how will he serve the little guy with that kind of experience when he's very much a Wall Street insider? '

ALLISON: Well, I think that's a fair question. I like Steve. And I met him for the first time when I was visiting with the President- elect Trump and we spent a long time talking. He does have a -- what I call a main street experience. He bought a failed bank, IndyMac. He turned it around and then sold it and he got the experience of trying to work with government regulators when he was actually doing them a favor taking over a failed bank. But you're right, he doesn't have as much main street experience and, you know, that's just an objective fact. But I do believe that's their goal, you could argue about their knowledge of main street.

COSTELLO: But he'll also be in charge of regulating Wall Street as Treasury secretary. And again, very much an insider on Wall Street. So how does that work?

ALLISON: Well, I think he understands Wall Street which is in a way good, because he understands a lot of its weaknesses. He did choose to get out of Goldman Sachs on purpose. He didn't like some of the things I think that were happening in that environment. So I think he's reasonably objective. Again, I think it's fair question but he's a smart guy and I think he's well intended in terms of trying to drive economic growth and I think he -- I think he's not afraid of Wall Street which is some advantage. But it's a fair issue.

COSTELLO: Yes. And you know, I ask you all these questions because Wall Street seemingly loves Trump, it's been going crazy, right? I mean, I'm sure that the Wall Streeters are looking forward to a 15 percent cut in the corporate tax rate because that's what Donald Trump suggested during the election. They are looking forward to massive tax cuts for the wealthy, a rollback -- for the wealthy, rather, and a rollback of regulations. Democrats say these things will balloon the deficit, right? And they'll raise interest rates. Will they?

ALLISON: I think that clearly you are seeing interest rates move up but part of that's expectation of more rapid growth which is not all bad. I mean, we've had a suboptimal recovery. We should be objective about that. The growth rate since the beginning of the recovery has been way low compared to historical standards. Something is wrong. We should be growing long-term at 3 percent, over the short term we should be growing 5 percent or 6 percent which is typical recovery numbers.

Certainly tax policy and regulatory policy have played some role. I personally believe that Dodd-Frank has been extremely destructive to community banking. Now I don't think that was the intention but you know, I started as a small business lender. My bank was a community bank. And we grew into a bigger bank you know, but I helped a lot of people get into business that created a lot of jobs and I'm proud to do that, but we couldn't make those loans today.

I talked to Bernie Marcus, who started Home Depot, and he said he couldn't get those kind of loans to start in today's environment. And that has been a consequence not necessarily an intention of Dodd- Frank. And that's been important in economic growth because it's hurt entrepreneurship and that's what spurs economic growth.

[10:35:02] So I think, you know, being objective, yes, Wall Street can be dangerous. I wholly agree with that. But thinking about how we undo the really negative parts of Dodd-Frank is really important for economic growth.

COSTELLO: I have to leave it there. John Allison, thanks for letting me pick your brain. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, despite harsh conditions, pipeline protesters are not budging. The major reinforcements planned to set up camp even in weather like that. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A critical vote on Capitol Hill today and a big test for Nancy Pelosi. Any minute now Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues will vote on who should lead the party after the stunning loss in the presidential election.

[10:40:04] One of those colleagues, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, is challenging Pelosi for the spot -- for her spot, the minority leader's spot, saying his party needs to, quote, "hit the reset button" if it wants to win.

Our senior political reporter Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill this morning. Hi, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Actually right now as we speak, Congressman Tim Ryan is addressing his caucus behind closed doors trying to make the pitch that he should mount this upset victory against Nancy Pelosi. It would be a major upset if he were to pull this off.

Pelosi just had a number of colleagues speaking in her favor, nominating speeches including Congressman Adam Schiff, saying that she would be the best person to bring the party back to the House majority.

Now on his way into the room, I had a chance to catch up with Congressman Tim Ryan and despite the expectations that he's not going to win this race, he was feeling pretty bullish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So what's your prediction?

REP. TIM RYAN (D), OHIO: I don't make predictions. The votes for change are in the room. I got -- we've got to see if we can get them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now the question after this vote will be how much power Pelosi still has within her caucus. Remember, she's been running the Democratic caucus since 2003 and she's had sort of an iron grip as she's run this Democratic caucus, but if she loses a lot of votes, even if she wins, it will show that she is a little bit vulnerable. A lot of folks are nervous about the way forward. But if she wins overwhelmingly and puts to rest any challenge, it will show that there's a lot of confidence behind her leadership. So a big test for her right now.

The vote is about to take place. I am told by sources in the room, and this is a secret ballot election, Carol, so we don't quite know how this is going to shake out. People can vote their conscience without worrying about repercussions from the leader -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Until afterwards.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Manu Raju, thanks so much.

Protesters fighting to block the Dakota Access pipeline vowing to stand their ground. This despite harsh winter conditions and an order to vacate. Now as many as 2,000 veterans are planning to serve as human shields for the protesters next week.

CNN's Sara Sidner is live in North Dakota with more. Hi, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes. We are standing in the main camp, the Oceti Sakowin camp, here in North Dakota and this is where there are now thousands of people who are camped out, they're staying in things like teepees as well yurts, and just regular old tents. A lot of folks here trying to keep warm. It is absolutely freezing. There has just been a major snowstorm that has passed over for the last couple of days which explains why you're seeing such a snowy scene in front of you.

The reaction to the governor and the Army Corps of Engineers basically saying look, you have to leave this camp by December 5th, the governor saying he's ordering an evacuation order right now. The reaction has been, we're not going anywhere. That is what we've heard time and time again from the people who are now living here and they are starting to put up some structures made of wood, so some more strong, permanent type structures giving you a real idea of how committed they are.

They have also said that they will leave, they will go, if the pipeline stops. And that's their caveat and it's nothing less than that is going to have the folks that are here right now leaving this camp -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Police could come in and start arresting people, right?

SIDNER: Well, it's interesting. The Army Corps of Engineers initially said that they were going to get everybody out of here by December 5th, then they pulled back on that, said wait, we're not going to forcibly remove anyone. Then we heard yesterday from law enforcement authorities including the sheriff's office saying that they were going to stop all supplies and people from moving in and out of this camp.

Then an hour later, the sheriff's department said no, that was a misunderstanding but they might be doing things like fining folks, trying to bring things into the camp, for example, bunches of wood so they can make permanent structures. But we have not yet seen that. That was supposed to start yesterday and we haven't seen that at all. We have not seen them blocking off more roads at this time. But that's the concern here. And again, the response to that is they feel like it's psychological warfare, they are trying to me people afraid and encourage them to leave which the government is encouraging them to leave, at least the local and state government, but people are saying we're not leaving and they are trying to get that message across by hunkering down here and trying to stay warm.

But also, they're doing lots of things here, meeting every day two or three times a day, and really organizing in a very, very stern way. They keep every morning 9:00, everybody gets up and they talk about what they're going to do each day. So it is an interesting scenario here. As far as moving them out, I'm not sure what authorities are planning to do and neither are they -- Carol.

[10:45:04] COSTELLO: Should be interesting. Sara Sidner, reporting live from North Dakota this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, several hundred United States Marines are about to call Norway home. Why? Nick Paton Walsh explains, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. Back to Charlotte, North Carolina. This is the D.A. there in Mecklenburg County, telling people if he's going to file charges against Police Officer Brentley Vinson.

ANDREW MURRAY, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, MECKLENBURG COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA: To Mrs. Scott -- this morning, I got the opportunity to meet with Mrs. Scott and her sister to extend my condolences personally and to go over in detail all the evidence in this case, and to also discuss our legal analysis that my prosecutors and I went through to make the decision that we made. As you can imagine, it was a difficult discussion. However, the family was extremely gracious. No one, and I mean no one, should ever experience, let alone witness, the violent death of a loved one.

Confrontations in which deadly force are used are among the most important cases my office will ever handle. We have a duty to objectively analyze the totality of evidence and circumstances and that means we must face difficult issues, which we'll discuss today. But it's important that during this process, we, prosecutors and the public alike, never lose sight of the fact that a family is grieving.

At the end of our discussion today, a detailed report will be published on our Web site so it is available to the public and obviously you. I would like to share information from that report and I will start by describing how much -- how my office undertakes the review of any fatal officer shooting. In these cases my office is used a protocol that incorporates

nationally recognized best practices and is designed to ensure a thorough and impartial review of each case. Any time someone is killed by an officer working in the line of duty, a representative from my office reports to the scene and monitors the investigation. In this case, two of my most senior prosecutors responded to the scene. We were given complete access to every part of the investigation. When the investigation is complete and the law enforcement agency has turned over its investigative files, the case is presented to my homicide team, which analyzes evidence piece by piece and considers how state law would apply to the case.

[10:50:12] Then the group makes a recommendation to me as to whether or not charges should be sought. In the final step, I personally and thoroughly review the entire file. I can tell you that in this case, I thought it was important enough to have additional senior attorneys weigh in so my executive team and my previous homicide team members joined the present homicide team for this review.

Bringing together a group of about 15 career prosecutors. Their recommendation was unanimous. That bears repeating. Fifteen career prosecutors and their recommendation was unanimous.

The law that must be considered in these cases revolve around self- defense. Under state law an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm allows someone to respond in such a way as to negate or stop the threat. The state legal standards apply to both private citizens and police officers. The only difference is that by the nature of the work they are asked to do on behalf of the community, police are sometimes required to run toward rather than run away from dangerous situations in order to protect the public.

Several federal civil court rulings are instructive in cases of officer-involved shootings. Essentially the law says we have to determine whether it was reasonable for the officer to believe he needed to use deadly force.

The U.S. Supreme Court found that this reasonableness must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene rather than with 20/20 vision of hindsight. And that this reasonableness must allow for the fact that police are often forced to make split second decisions in rapidly devolving situations. The courts also say that the Constitution does not require police officers to wait until a subject shoots to confirm that a serious threat of harm exists.

I'm now going to discuss the timeline events and the provable facts. On September 20th, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers Vinson and Sergeant Pendergrass were conducting surveillance at an apartment complex off Old Concord Road to locate a person who was not related to this case. Officer Vincent parked his unmarked van in the complex parking lot with Sergeant Pendergraft concealed in the back. Because both were working undercover, they were in plain clothes.

Basically, the officers in the van pulled nose forward into a visitor spot. Sergeant Pendergraft is in the back hidden with tinted windows. Officer Vinson was driving. While conducting this surveillance, Mr. Scott parked his white SUV close to the van. Officer Vinson saw Mr. Scott exit the SUV and walk past the van. Officer Vinson said it appeared as though he was trying to look into the van's tinted windows. At that point, Officer Vinson was concerned that their cover may have been blown but Mr. Scott got back into his SUV and drove away. The officers remained in the unmarked van.

We now know at this point, Mr. Scott went to a nearby convenience store. Investigators later discovered a time-stamped receipt in his SUV that led them to the store. Where they found surveillance footage showing that Mr. Scott parked outside and then entered the store.

I'm about to show you a video of Mr. Scott parking directly in front of the store and then stepping to walking into the store. I'm going to call your attention to his right ankle as he goes to close the door that does not close immediately. I can't find the slide. So this is Scott pulling up in his white SUV. He gets out. The door doesn't automatically close.

[10:55:03] Please watch his right ankle as he turns to close the door which will be on the right side of the screen. There. That's a pixilated picture of that scene. The bulge you can see here is consistent with the holster and gun that later -- that was later described by officers and located at the scene.

Within minutes, Mr. Scott returned to the apartment complex, where he parked beside Officer Vinson's van. When he parked beside the vehicle, he backed in. So you have the police officer nose in, you have him backing in, with the driver side doors close to each other. At that time, Mr. Scott opens his door, leans to the side, empties a cigarillo -- for those of you who do not know what a cigarillo is, it's just a small cigar. Empties it and begins to put in marijuana from a pill bottle and roll it.

The pill bottle and marijuana blunt, blunt because it was smoked when it was later located or recovered at the scene. At this time, the officers decided the marijuana did not warrant an interruption of their surveillance operation. Officer Vinson told investigators and I quote, "We're not really worried about a little marijuana." That all changed when Officer Vinson saw Mr. Scott holding up a semi-automatic handgun as he sat in his vehicle.

Officer Vinson told Sergeant Pendergraft what he had seen and they decided to leave and come back with marked cars to make an arrest for the marijuana and further investigate the firearm. These observations are corroborated by both officer statements as well as radio traffic in which Sergeant Pendergraft asked other officers to join them because they had seen a man with drugs and a gun.

I'm going to play you that radio traffic. It is important because it corroborates the fact that officers saw Mr. Scott with a gun before any action was taken. Officer Vinson and Sergeant Pendergraft met nearby with Office Miranda and Wiggins. They decided to return to the parking lot with their undercover vehicles and they instructed Officer Hoffstetler to join in at the scene with a marked patrol vehicle.

Officers Vinson, Miranda, Wiggins and Sergeant Pendergraft were wearing plain clothes and all four put on tactical vests. Officer Vinson's vest had his badge clearly displayed on the chest. The others had vests with the words "police" in bold letter completely across the chest. Officer Hoffstetler was in the marked unit and wore a typical police uniform.

The officers had decided that Officer Vinson would use his unmarked van to pin Mr. Scott's vehicle into the parking space so that the SUV could not be driven away. After Officer Vinson parked his van in this manner, Officer Miranda, who was wearing a tactical vest as previously described, approached the passenger side of Mr. Scott's SUV. It was at this point that Officer Miranda says that he saw Mr. Scott reach for his ankle holster. Officer Miranda saw the butt of the gun sticking out of the holster. He yells, "gun, gun," to his fellow officers.

In his interview with investigators, Officer Miranda said that Mr. Scott looked at him and then pulled the gun out of the ankle holster. Officer Miranda began yelling, "Drop the gun, drop the gun." Officer Hoffstetler, he's the officer in uniform, ran to the SUV.