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Michael Slager Trial Ends with Hung Jury; White Supremacist Speaks at Texas A&M Tonight; The Messy Truth Preview. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired December 06, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00] ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Strong foot.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: On a strong foot. Alison, thank you very much.
KOSIK: You got it.
HARLOW: Appreciate it.
Up next, Donald Trump's thank you tour heads tonight to North Carolina. That is where we will take you, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Today prosecutors saying the fight for justice is far from over after the murder trial of Officer Michael Slager ends with a hung jury. Slager is, of course, the former police officer seen in the video, the cell phone camera video shooting Walter Scott in the back after he ran away after a traffic stop. The shooting was captured by a witness on their cell phone back in 2015 when it happened. And now Scott's family says they're looking ahead to their next chance in court.
[09:35:00] Our Nick Valencia is live for us from Charleston, South Carolina.
Not the outcome I think that either side was expecting.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. Good morning, Poppy.
This lack of a decision, if you will, has caught a lot of people in this community off guard. More than five weeks of a trial, days of deliberation. And it was Monday --
HARLOW: Nick, let's listen to the president-elect. Donald Trump just came out of the elevators to address the press.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Everything fine? Got some great people coming in today. You'll see them.
QUESTION: Mr. Trump, what are you going to talk about with Mayor Bowser from Washington, D.C., today?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to talk about a lot of things to a lot of people. We have a lot of people coming up. A great group of people. Doing very well. Thank you all very much.
QUESTION: Mr. Trump, you tweeted this morning about canceling the contract for the new Air Force One. Is that something you're serious about (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Well, the plane is totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion. It's -- for Air Force One program. And I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. OK, thank you.
HARLOW: Well, that was fascinating. The president-elect, who has yet to hold a formal press conference, coming out of those golden elevators and addressing the media this morning, as he heads up to have more meeting with, obviously, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Laura Ingraham, who is rumored to be up for press secretary. Also meeting with Muriel Bowser from Washington, D.C. He would not get into specifics about what they will speak about, but he was asked by a reporter about Boeing and the tweet he just put out this morning saying the $4 billion cost for the next Air Force One is ridiculous, out of control, and we should cancel the order. He said that the costs are totally out of control. He just said it's ridiculous and he said he thinks that Boeing is doing, quote, "a little number," seeming to mean on the American taxpayers. So we'll see where those conversations go from here.
I believe we can get back to Nick Valencia. Is that right, guys? Back to Nick Valencia in South Carolina.
Nick, let's begin again. Obviously, it was a hung jury in the case of Officer Slager. Not, frankly, an outcome that either side was expecting.
VALENCIA: Well, there was an indication there could be a mistrial on Friday. But even still, this mistrial has caught a lot of people here off guard. It was five weeks of a trial, days of deliberation. Jurors on Monday afternoon handing a note over to the judge saying that they regretted to inform the court they could not come to a unanimous decision. This was supposed to be a slam dunk for the state. It was anything but.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are unable to come to a unanimous decision.
VALENCIA (voice-over): A mistrial declared in the case of Michael Slager, the white police officer who killed an unarmed black man. Video of the incident sparking outrage nationwide. Former Patrolman Slager charged with murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott after firing eight gunshots as he ran away from him during a traffic stop last April.
JUDY SCOTT, WALTER SCOTT'S MOTHER: God is my strength and I know without a doubt that he is a just God. Injustice will not prevail.
VALENCIA: The South Carolina prosecutor vowing to immediately retry the case. Scott family attorneys confident they'll get a conviction. CHRIS STEWART, SCOTT FAMILY ATTORNEY: We don't need to scream or shout
because we know that it's coming, it's just been delayed.
VALENCIA: The jury deadlocked Friday by one holdout who told the judge he could not in good conscience convict Slager of murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cannot and will not change my mind.
VALENCIA: By Monday, a majority of the 11 white and one black jurors were undecided. The shooting, caught on video by a bystander, a key piece of evidence in the case Slager shot Scott repeatedly from approximately 18 feet away. On the stand, Slager argued self-defense, telling jurors the video doesn't show the full confrontation. He saw Scott as a threat.
MICHAEL SLAGER: It was total fear that Mr. Scott didn't stop, continued to come towards me.
VALENCIA: Scott's family hoping a conviction could help heal the wounds.
ANTHONY SCOTT, WALTER SCOTT'S BROTHER: In my heart, I will find the peace to forgive Michael Slager for doing that. Until my family can see justice, no, there's no forgiveness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VALENCIA: Scott's family attorney went on to say that this was a missed opportunity, a missed opportunity to heal some very deep wounds in the black community related to a series of police shootings throughout the country. Also, some of Scott's supporters took exception with the jury makeup, 11 of the jurors were white, only one was black. The Scott family chose not to focus on that during a press conference, having a much more uplifting tone, saying that they are convinced during the retrial they will get the conviction that they want.
Poppy.
HARLOW: Nick, do we know how many jurors were holdouts as of yesterday? Because on Friday there was this one holdout juror and the rest were ready to convict. Did that change over the weekend?
[09:40:02] VALENCIA: On Friday we heard about this lone juror who said under good conscience morally he could not convict the former police officer with first degree murder.
However, on Monday morning, the courtroom started with a series of questions being read out loud by Judge Clifton Newman. He said that a majority of the jurors were still undecided as of Monday morning. How the jury voted, however, still has not been made public.
Poppy.
HARLOW: Nick Valencia live for us in Charleston. Nick, thank you very much. And now attorney Chris Stewart is with us live from Atlanta. He
represents the family of Walter Scott.
Thank you very much for being with us.
CHRIS STEWART, ATTORNEY FOR WALTER SCOTT'S FAMILY: Hey, how are you, Poppy?
HARLOW: I'm well, thank you.
Take us into the minds and the thoughts right now of the Scott family because I've been listening to you speaking since this hung jury was announced and you sound very upbeat. You're optimistic about a second trial and winning your case. How does the family feel?
STEWART: Well, the family is what made me upbeat. When the decision came out, you know, I'm kind of a fiery person and can get upset. Mama Scott reached forward and put her hand on my shoulder and said, God's got this. And that just calmed me down and calmed everybody down. And she has been leading this entire thing. We just follow her lead, and you can see how she's handling it.
HARLOW: And as you heard Nick Valencia just reporting, the jury on Friday we know had this one holdout juror. By Monday, according to the judge, it was a majority of the jurors that were undecided. What do you read into that? Do you believe that? And what does that mean for a second trial if this case is brought again, which I know is the intention?
STEWART: No, I think that jury -- well the 11 members of the jury were just being extremely smart. What they heard on Friday from the judge was that if it continued to be deadlocked, then it was over. So they came back, they wanted to come back to try and convince this lone juror to change his mind and they started off that morning by saying that they were undecided because they knew if they came back and said they were deadlocked, it was over. I think that -- those 11 people really wanted to try and change his mind but he just refused to do so.
HARLOW: The state had to prove what is called malice aforethought, right, to get the murder conviction. So jurors came back, we know, and they asked a few questions, including clarification on terminology on things like that, malice aforethought and also heat of passion. Does it show you -- do you believe that that's an indication, Chris, that the jury was considering both the murder and the manslaughter charge, because they were offered both, all the way up to the end?
STEWART: Definitely. You know, I'm sure some of the jurors are going to be talking soon, but they were clearly thinking about murder. For all we know, it might have been 11-1 for murder. But the guy who held out, as you heard Nick say, you cannot do that. You cannot hold up a jury for moral reasons. You have to follow the law. You have to follow the judge's instructions. And Michael Slager was guilty.
HARLOW: So when you look at what is next, the prosecutor, Scarlet Wilson, said yesterday, we will try Michael Slager again. Given this mistrial, do you believe that the prosecution, the state arguing this case, should try it differently a second time around?
STEWART: I think Miss Wilson did a phenomenal job. I think the judge was phenomenal. You know, sometimes, and I've tried a lot of cases with a jury, sometimes you have a person that can just not listen to what's going on or the evidence, they make a decision based on their personal feelings and hold a verdict back. I mean it happens. That's why we're upbeat. People were saying we would never get a verdict because there was so many white people on the jury. Well, you see that only one person stopped the jury. It doesn't matter what color you are. People saw what happened.
HARLOW: All right. Obviously there is also the federal civil rights case that begins in January. A lot to get to. We'll continue to follow this.
Chris Stewart, thank you for joining us this morning.
STEWART: Thank you.
HARLOW: Still to come, as protesters prepare for a white supremacist to speak at a major American university, the man behind that event who brought him there to speak defends the movement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you think this is a white nation?
PRESTON WIGINTON, SPEECH ORGANIZER: I think it was at one time and I think that the reaction of Trump being elected and the reaction that's going on with the alt-right being popular is a reaction to it declining of being a white nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:48:31] HARLOW: A white supremacist who made headlines for quoting Nazi propaganda is speaking tonight at a Texas public university.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SPENCER: Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That was Richard Spencer celebrating Donald Trump's victory an few weeks ago. Now, Texas A&M University is taking flak for allowing him to speak there. The school says it does not support his views and that it did not invite him. So, who did? Our Gary Tuchman sat down with the man who set up this event.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the man who invited white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak at Texas A&M University. Preston Wiginton knows it will be controversial. He knows most people don't want this event to take place.
TUCHMAN (on camera): What do you think of Richard Spencer?
PRESTON WIGINTON, SPEECH ORGANIZER: Um, I think he has some valid points.
RICHARD SPENCER: Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The Nazi-era wording, the Nazi-era imagery at this gathering in Washington, D.C., upsetting to so many. Wiginton, a political activist who lives in Texas, says he doesn't agree with all of Spencer's views, but he certainly does some of them.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Do you think this is a white nation?
WIGINTON: I think it was at one time and I think that the reaction of Trump being elected and the reaction that's going on with the alt- right being popular is a reaction to it declining of being a white nation.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Wiginton says he doesn't like to label himself, but says he is sympathetic to the point of view of the so-called alt- right, a relatively new term for what in the past were simply called white supremacists.
[09:50:03] WIGINTON: Why would I want to see America become less white? Why would I want to be displaced and marginalized. Only --
TUCHMAN (on camera): Here's -- here's the thing, OK --
WIGINTON: Only people with a mental illness want to be displaced and marginalized.
TUCHMAN: But here's -- here's the thing, you, and people like you, have this hang-up about the color of people's skin. What's the difference of what color people's skin are? What matter is the kind of people they are. So why does it matter the pigment of their skin?
WIGINTON: It's not just pigment.
TUCHMAN: What is it? What is it?
WIGINTON: People's behavior. People's IQ. People evolve over different times and different places. People (INAUDIBLE) --
TUCHMAN: OK, there are lots of -- there are lots of -- there are lots of white people with low IQs. There are lots of black people with high IQs. There are lots of red people with low IQs and high IQs. Everyone's different. You're stereotyping. So my question is, don't you realize it?
WIGINTON: Better the devil I know than the devil I don't.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Texas A&M does not want this event to happen and has officially rejected Richard Spencer's views, but says it cannot ban the event because it's in a public university. A number of students who oppose Spencer's visit have organized what is expected to be a large demonstration. They pledge to keep it peaceful.
NICHOLAS MEINDL, TEXAS A&M GRADUATE STUDENT: We have a responsibility to take measured action to counter white nationalism, white supremacy.
WIGINTON: Yes, think there's going to be outside agitators, by all means.
TUCHMAN: Wiginton, who is a former A&M student, is mentioned on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the monitor of hate group, which says he has declared he wants to prevent the populations of white nations from becoming what he has termed a homogenous muddle of sludge. Wiginton says he was misquoted but doesn't deny the point of the quote and says there is a way to make America more white.
WIGINTON: A ban on immigration, if not a strict curb on immigration. I don't think that you can bring Somalians into America and expect them to assimilate. It's a completely different culture. It just doesn't happen.
TUCHMAN (on camera): But some Somalis can, right?
WIGINTON: Oh, I would be very selective on that. I think we just freely let to many of anybody into America.
TUCHMAN: See, that's -- that's -- that's what prejudice is, though, is that you're saying they should all not come.
WIGINTON: Well, you know, when you -- when you have --
TUCHMAN: There are bad people -- there are bad people who absolutely should not be in this country from all nationalities, all creed, all religions. But by saying that all Somalis shouldn't come here, isn't that being a bigot?
WIGINTON: Um, sometimes maybe being a bigot is wise.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gary Tuchman, CNN, College Station, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Again, that address at Texas A&M is happening tonight.
A quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:56:49] HARLOW: All right, checking top stories for you this morning.
A sheriff's deputy is dead after her car falls into a sinkhole in San Antonio, Texas. Another driver, a 60-year-old man, was rescued, but no word on that victim's condition. The fire department needing a crane to lift the car out of the 12 foot sinkhole. Not clear how exactly it was formed.
Also, President Obama set to make his final speech today on the administration's counterterrorism strategy. It will happen at an Air Force base in Tampa. The president will address active service members and members of the special ops teams who have been fighting al Qaeda and ISIS around the world.
The future of grocery shopping, folks, it is apparently here from Amazon. No lines. Stores where you just shop with your app, grab what you want and go. The first store is, of course, in Seattle. But it's only available for Amazon employees right now. The public can shop there early next year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEYONCE (singing): They don't love you like I love you. Slow down, they don't love you like I love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: The Grammys showing love to Beyonce yet again. The 2017 Grammy nominations just announced this morning. Beyonce leading the pack with nine nods. Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West all earned eight nominations apiece. And Chance the Rapper picking up seven nods. As for the album of the year, it is Adele, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Drake, and Sturgill Simpson. We'll see who wins. The Grammys coming February 12th.
Well, Hillary Clinton may have won the popular vote, but she didn't win over every voter who supported President Obama. In "The Messy Truth," a new CNN special, Van Jones sits down with a family of long- term Democrats trying to better understand why they voted for Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JONES, CNN: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on in.
JONES: Hey.
SCOTT SITES (ph): Lord, thank you for this food and thank you for bringing everybody together.
JONES (voice-over): Scott Sites is a lifelong Democrat who voted for Obama twice.
SITES: Thank you so much, Amen.
JONES: Cameron, his only son, who is old enough to vote in the last election, also supported Obama. This year, all four Sites men voted for Trump.
JONES (on camera): You can't imagine two guys more different and yet you supported one and then you supported the other. What did you like about Obama and then what did you like about Trump?
SITES: I think Obama represents a lot of love. And I think that he's a good man and he did all he could. And we supported him for two elections.
JONES: Yes.
SITES: And then when those changes really didn't come about and Obamacare actually affected me personally with my own mother, I think we needed a change once again. Trump seemed to come through here and he's speaking change again. So I think we still voted for change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: For more from that conversation, you will not want to miss "The Messy Truth." It is tonight with Van Jones, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. A live town hall, right here on CNN.
The next hour of NEWSROOM begins right now.
[09:59:59] Good morning, everyone. Top of the hour. 10:00 a.m. Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow, in for Carol Costello. So glad you're with us.
We begin with politics and President-elect Donald Trump making a surprise appearance this morning. Moments ago, walking out of those golden elevators at Trump Tower, speaking with reporters.
