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Son of Trump Advisor Spreads False News Story; Lone Juror Holds Up Michael Slager Verdict; Trump Nominates Ben Carson for Housing & Urban Development Secretary; Trump Warns Companies Not to Move Out of U.S.; Police Press Conference on Power Cuts for Crane to Reach Burned Oakland Warehouse. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 05, 2016 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00] BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: -- onto a number of theories, for example, citing thousands of Muslims were cheering on 9/11. No evidence of that. He also tweeted out links to clearly fake news stories. That hasn't happened in recent days. I would say it's been about a week where he tweeted something that was clearly false. He said there were millions of illegal votes. That didn't happen.
To see, in this case, Michael Flynn's son tweeting about Pizzagate in a very serious way, it goes to show the people in Trump's orbit or in his aides' orbit do latch onto these outlandish theories. Pizzagate is an anti-Clinton conspiracy theory that's taken on a life of its own online. Even today you have people saying this incident yesterday must have been fake, a setup, this man that showed up with the weapon must have been an actor. You can convince yourself of just about anything when you want to believe a conspiracy theory.
I think it's up to the rest of us, most people, most Americans, who know this stuff is nonsense, to say so and to refuse to be confused by it.
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Not just to ignore it.
STELTER: Not just ignore it. Right.
CABRERA: Brian Stelter, thank you.
STELTER: Thank you.
CABRERA: Well, the former South Carolina police officer featured in a stunning video could soon learn his fate. Remember, he shot and killed an unarmed black man in the back as he ran away. That was on video. But will there be a verdict here after a lone juror said he could not convict.
Plus, Trump's tariff warning. The president-elect projecting a 35 percent tariff for companies that move jobs overseas? But can he do that? And how will other countries respond? Detail ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:40:46] CABRERA: Deliberations for the trial of former Police Officer Michael Slager are still under way in Charleston, South Carolina. This nearly ended in a mistrial last Friday. Slager is the former north Charleston police officer charged with murder in the death of Walter Scott in 2015, captured on video. This began as a traffic stop, which you didn't see, which turned into this foot pursuit. You see Slager shooting Scott five times in the back as Scott is running away. Now, the former officer says it was all self- defense.
Friday, the jury said it was having trouble reaching a unanimous decision and there was a lone juror who wrote a letter to the judge saying, quote, he "could not and would not reach a verdict of guilty." But this panel, after a few more instructions from the judge, agreed to keep going. The judge told jurors they could consider the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
The panel is made up of six white men, five white women and one African-American male, who is the foreman.
Let's bring in CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Mark O'Mara. He represented Florida watchman, George Zimmerman, who as acquitted on murder charges in the death of Trayvon Martin.
Now, the judge told the jury it had a duty to make every reasonable effort to reach a unanimous verdict. Mark, after hearing what that one juror wrote in his or her letter, are you surprised they are still deliberating?
MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: At this point, I am, because what happened on Friday. I thought was getting it was close to a mistrial and I thought it was dangerous to allow the jury to go home over the weekend because that doesn't often help. Now they come back today, an hour or two into it, they come up with four other questions and even suggest that maybe the majority is unsettled. So, the Allen Charge, prompting the jury to keep working, seemed to have worked. And now it seems they're considering it.
Their questions were interesting because they are looking at the difference between murder and manslaughter and how or whether or not they'll hold Slager responsible for causing the death criminally or not.
CABRERA: How unusual is it for the judge to make public a letter like that from the juror who said, I just can't find him guilty?
O'MARA: All of it is unusual. I do know South Carolina allows -- the judge can't ask, but if the jury presents it to the judge, then it is now public record. But I think it's a dangerous path to start talking about anything about what the jury is deliberating, the number, the votes, because if for no other reason, they now get sort of cemented into what they said publicly.
The other problem I see with, it quite honestly, if it ends up in a mistrial, we now know that one juror, who unfortunately will probably be identified somehow, is now going to have the weight of everyone's frustration on his conscious.
CABRERA: I'll have to wrap it there.
Thank you so much, Mark O'Mara, for joining us. We appreciate it.
O'MARA: Sure think, Ana.
CABRERA: We'll continue to stay on top of all the developments in the Slager trial and we'll bring those to you as they happen.
Up next now, the president-elect threatening American companies with a 35 percent tax if those companies ship production overseas. But can he actually do this? And could it backfire?
Plus, Trump says he is thrilled to nominate Ben Carson and his, quote, "brilliant mind" for his cabinet, the same Ben Carson who Trump once compared to a child molester and often skewered on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[14:39:11] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNTIED STATES: He took a knife and he went after a friend and he lunged, he lunged that knife into the stomach of his friend. But, lo and behold, it hit the belt. It hit the belt. And the knife broke. Give me a break.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He took a knife and he went after a friend and he lunged, he lunged that knife into the stomach of his friend. But, lo and behold, it hit the belt. It hit the belt. And the knife broke. Give me a break.
He wrote a book, and in the book, he said terrible things about himself. He said that he's pathological and that he's got, basically, pathological disease.
But if you're a child molester, there's no cure. They can't stop you. Pathological, there's no cure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Well, that was President-elect Trump during the Republican primary likening Ben Carson's pathological temperament to that of a child molester. Trump was describing an incident in Carson's childhood where he stabbed a friend in anger to have the knife break. One year after questioning the retired brain surgeon's sanity, Trump has found a place for him in his cabinet. Trump sending out tweet today saying, quote, "I'm thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Here to discuss this new cabinet pick is CNN senor political reporter, Nia Nia-Malika Henderson. Nia-Malika, there have been ups and downs in this Trump/Carson
relationship. Ultimately, Carson jumped on the Trump train after he dropped out of the primary. So, should we read this more as a loyalty pick over experience?
[14:45:02] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, in some ways I think loyalty and this idea that is becoming known, that Trump wants to fill his cabinet with stars, right? He's got Ben Carson there, who does have this amazing story, which really has become the bread and butter of his political story. I think a lot of critics say, listen, here's a guy who was excellent at neurosurgery, famously separated those conjoined twins, but when it comes to overseeing an agency with something like 8,000 employees that has, you know, $40 billion budget, that is quite something else. There's nothing in his biography to suggest this is something that he would be good at, other than the fact that he grew up in public housing something like 50 years ago. So, you know, I think some critics are looking at this to say it's a quizzical pick. If you look at Donald Trump himself, he doesn't have any experience in governing. Ben Carson doesn't have any experience either in running an agency. And, in fact, in talking to his business manager early on, this is one of the reasons why Ben Carson felt he didn't want to go into the administration, because he himself thought he was a novice and didn't have this kind of experience. So, you know, it will be interesting to see what he does with this multibillion dollar agency.
CABRERA: His inexperience was his reason for not wanting to accept a Health and Human Services secretary nomination, for example.
HENDERSON: Yeah.
CABRERA: Now, on the other hand, Carson does bring diversity to Trump's cabinet, right?
HENDERSON: He does bring diversity. And one of the things you're seeing, it is a diverse cabinet, particularly at the lower level cabinet positions. Typically, if you look at the big four cabinet positions, defense, treasury, attorney general and state, it looks like those might be four white n. That's certainly a departure from what we saw from Obama, who, of course, nominated Eric Holder and Secretary Clinton as well. And then if you look back at Bush, he had Colin Powell at state. Looks like there's some diversity at least at the lower-level cabinet positions but certainly not so far, from what we're hearing, what the big four cabinet positions might look like. They might not be as diverse.
CABRERA: Nia-Malika Henderson, thanks to you.
HENDERSON: Thank you.
CABRERA: Days after he cut a deal with an American company to keep jobs in America, President-elect Trump sends a strong warning to any company that ships U.S. jobs away from home. In a series of tweets, Trump says, "the U.S. will reduce taxes and regulations, but any company that moves their operations outside the U.S. will be taxed 35 percent." We have a team of correspondents and analysts covering this for us.
CNN senior political reporter, Manu Raju, is on Capitol Hill getting reaction from lawmakers; and with me is CNN global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar.
Let's begin with Manu.
And what necessity say about Trump threatening to tax companies who leave the U.S. What are you hearing?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Not a lot of support, even from Trump's own Republican Party, Republican leaders not yet getting behind this idea. This goes against a lot of Republican orthodoxy, Republicans who want to let the free market work its will and create what they believe are attractive economic conditions for companies to want to stay in the United States.
Now, I had a chance to question House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, earlier this morning at a pen-and-pad briefing for reporters, and at this briefing, he made it clear he does not necessarily support what Donald Trump is saying. He says, quote, "I believe there's a better way of solving a problem than getting into a trade war." He said that, perhaps, we could do this --
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNNA WATSON, SPOKESPERSON, OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: -- this afternoon but we have very important information we would like to share with our community. Currently, PG&E is scheduling a power outage to take place around 12:00 noon this afternoon. And the reason why is they have a very large crane that needs to come into the area to continue the work that needs to be done. Therefore, the power outage -- now, this is a planned power outage, is expected around 12:00 noon.
UNIDENTIFEID REPORTER: What time?
WATSON: I'm about to share that with you. It's planned for 12:00 noon. It is estimated to affect the 50 to 500 customers. So, the number between 50 up to 500 customers. It will be in this immediate area. Additionally, the power outage will last have guesstimated about 12 hours. At 12:00 noon planned power outage up to 12 hours in this immediate area affecting customers 50 to about 500.
Now, we have a team, a team of neighborhood service coordinators, Red Cross, as well as our chaplains, are going to go door to door, check on our residents. It's absolutely imperative we take care of our community during this power outage. We're going to make face-to-face, and contact our residents to ensure they're all right, do they have any needs, do they have any resources we can provide them.
[14:50:21] Additionally, our economic development improvement team is going to go through and contact all of the businesses. We understand concerns regarding refrigeration, other equipment that is being used.
So, having said that, we are trying to assemble all of our teams, all of our services, all of our resources to try to minimize the impact that this will cause. We are also waiting for the PG&E spokesperson. They will come. I understand they have questions. How large of an area will this affect? I don't have that answer. Right now, we're looking at the immediate area.
For the more intricate details regarding PG&E, I'll refer to the PG&E company and their spokesperson.
Additionally, I would like to add around 9:00 a.m. this morning, the work did resume -- the work did resume at the building, so the Oakland Fire department along with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office have resumed their work. That again started at 9:00 a.m. At this time, we do not have any change in the number of victims. We will provide an additional update later this afternoon, but right now, we really want to push the message out to our community that's going to be affected by this planned power outage. Additionally, PG&E will be doing the call system to alert the customers in this area.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WATSON: That's a very good question. How are they using the large crane? They're bringing the crane in to help assist with some of the structure. I'm not going to get into the intricate details of that. I'll leave that to the building engineer and fire department.
Does anyone have anything specific to exactly what we're talking about this morning?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WATSON: The need to cut off the power is because the crane has to come in and the location -- thank you, all. That's an excellent question.
If you look behind me there's a row of telephone poles with wires. The crane has to come in on that side, or even if it accesses the other side and anything should swing or move, we don't want anything to touch those power lines. So, this is a safety issue. The movement and placement of that crane, we'll take a look. They're still logistically coordinating that. The crane versus the power lines makes it extremely dangerous for everyone. That's why we're doing the planned power outage.
Thank you very much for that question.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you say 12 hours? 12 hours?
WATSON: Yes, the planned power outage is up to 12 hours today. That could change but we'll certainly keep you updated.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: As far as the radius and which areas, can you speak to that?
WATSON: The immediate area will be affected. Again, 50 to up to about 500 PG&E customers will be affected.
Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When you talk about the -- (INAUDIBLE)
WATSON: That's right. The search resumed approximately 9:00 a.m. This morning. So, work does continue inside the building.
Yes, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You've got it stabilized now?
WATSON: Yes, yes, because they were able to go back in, they've been able to shore up and stabilize to the point where they felt it was safe to go back in.
Now, our second challenge is the crane, the position of the crane, and the telephone -- or the power lines.
Yes, Ollie?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WATSON: That's correct, yes.
Yes, ma'am?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WATSON: I think we could have the experts who have been inside and managing a tremendous, tremendous amount of debris, a very complicated situation. When we come back a little later this afternoon, I'd prefer to have the experts speak in that field.
I really wanted to get this information out about the power that is going to affect this immediate area pretty much as we're speaking right now, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you say anything about -- (INAUDIBLE)
WATSON: Sir, we'll certainly go into those conversations later. Right now, we're very much focused on PG&E and the situation that's immediately going to affect this area as we're speaking.
Sir?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WATSON: I will share with you the search did resume. They continue to be very careful, very tedious, very mindful. This scene is being managed with -- with a lot of care and a lot of thought. So, yes, to your question.
I really want to stay away from the fire department. I want to stay away from Alameda County Sheriff's Department. I don't want to speak into their lane. I really want to just stay on what is happening right now with the power.
Thank you, sir.
[14:55:30] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
WATSON: The crane is going to be used for some other work that needs to be done. Again, work cruise would not go in unless the building was stabilized, so this is going to be specific to the work that needs to be done. And, again, when we brief later, we'll certainly let the experts in those fields manage those questions. OK?
We'll -- we'll take a look at approximately 2:00. But we'll certainly notify you if there's going to be change in that time.
Thank you very much.
CABRERA: So, that was a press conference with Oakland police discussing the ongoing process of going through that warehouse after that devastating and deadly fire over the weekend. She talked about turning off the power so they could get a large crane in there to pull back part of the building that has collapsed and how it's a painstaking, tedious process because they're still in a recovery process. 36 people already confirmed dead. They haven't made it all the way through the building and there's fear there could be more victims inside.
We know there were some building code violations previously at this warehouse. A criminal investigation has been opened.
And we're starting to hear more harrowing stories from that night, how challenging it was to get out of the building safely. We'll hear from some survivors of this deadly fire. 36 people killed. More on this story as we continue here in the NEWSROOM.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Days after he cut a deal with an American company to keep jobs in America, President-elect Trump sending a strong warning to any company that ships those U.S. jobs away from home.
I want to continue my conversation with Manu Raju and Rana Foroohar about this 35 percent tariff, Rana, that Donald Trump is proposing on companies that ship jobs overseas and then try to bring products back into the U.S. is that even possible?
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, what the president does have the right to do is declare a country a currency manipulator. He's already talked about making China a currency manipulator, Mexico. If he did that, he could then penalize those companies in those countries but it's not clear he has unilateral right to, say, penalize a U.S. company for moving jobs abroad. That is something that would require a change in the tax code, something Congress would have to get involved with. He may be alluding to this tax inversion. You remember during the Obama administration, he started speaking about companies that wanted to leave the U.S. and renounce their U.S. corporate citizenship and he wanted to penalize those companies. That's probably something else that's in play here. It's not at all clear he'll be able to slap a unilateral 30 percent -- you know, 35percent tax on a U.S. company that hasn't actually moved jurisdiction.
CABRERA: You talked about Congress would need to get involved for that to go through. We are hearing from members of Congress as Manu was pointing out, Kevin McCarthy, House majority leader coming out and speaking against this idea, the 35percent tariff. He brings up words like a trade war could ensue. Is that a real concern?
FOROOHAR: That's a real concern, but the other thing that's important is this may end up hurting U.S. companies because they get widgets, parts, hundreds of parts from abroad. They come in and out of the country. If every time something that is made in China or the Ukraine or wherever is coming into the U.S. and being taxed, that raises the price of U.S. goods. That hurts U.S. companies and it could hurt U.S. consumers. That would actually not be a popular thing to do here at home.
CABRERA: All right. Rana Foroohar, thanks for your expertise --
FOROOHAR: Thank you.
CABRERA: -- and weighing in.
Top of the hour --
