Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Synagogue Shooting Investigated as Hate Crime; Friend Recalls Woman Who Lost Life Saving Rabbi in Shooting; Biden Taking on Issue of Rise in Racial Violence as Campaign Message. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2019 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, vice president Joe Biden will hold his first campaign rally in Pittsburgh.

[07:00:07] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're really going to get this first glimpse of how Biden is going to adapt to the campaign trail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the beginning, he's going to have to have a much broader narrative about why he should be the next president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

An investigation is under way after that deadly attack at a California synagogue. Police say a 19-year-old man stormed into the synagogue, armed with an assault-style rifle, and opened fire on innocent people celebrating the end of Passover.

Today, the congregation will hold a funeral for one of their congregants, Lori Gilbert Kaye, who was killed in that attack.

According to her friends and authorities, this 60-year-old woman tried to shield her longtime friend and rabbi from the bullets as he tried to evacuate children. That rabbi and two others were also injured in this attack.

BERMAN: Officials are investigating this attack as a hate crime. An anonymous letter posted online from someone claiming to be the gunman referenced recent attacks on houses of worship, including the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue and at mosques in New Zealand.

President Trump strongly denounced the synagogue attack and anti- Semitism at a rally over the weekend. However, the president is still defending his controversial response to the deadly Charlottesville white supremacist rally, this after former vice president Joe Biden criticized it in his campaign launch video.

The rising tide of white nationalism is very much now an issue at the center of the 2020 race.

We want to begin with CNN's Dan Simon, live in Poway, California, with the very latest on the synagogue attack -- Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

The details of this attack are absolutely chilling. The woman who died, 60-year-old Lori Gilbert Kaye, she died after her husband tried to revive her. In fact, he is a physician. And at first, he didn't even realize that it was his wife.

And once he did, he collapsed next to her. In the meantime, we're also hearing from the rabbi, who says he was in the banquet hall trying to prepare for his sermon when he heard what sounded like a loud bang. The next thing he knew, he was face to face with the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RABBI YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, CHABAD OF POWAY SYNAGOGUE: Terrorism like this will not take us down.

SIMON (voice-over): His hands wrapped in blue casts, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein recalling the horrifying moment his congregation became the latest target of a deadly attack at a place of worship, following massacres in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

GOLDSTEIN: I hear a loud bang. I turn around, and I see a sight that I can't -- undescribable. Here is a young man standing with a rifle pointing right at me. He had sunglasses on. I couldn't see his eyes. I couldn't see his soul.

SIMON: Rabbi Goldstein, one of four people shot at the Chabad of Poway Synagogue in Southern California, a lone gunman armed with an assault-style rifle opening fire upon worshippers celebrating the last day of Passover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting like crazy. He was just focused to kill.

SIMON: Rabbi Goldstein was shot in both hands, losing his right index finger. Sixty-year-old congregant Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed in the attack, police identifying the suspect as 19-year-old John Earnest.

SHERIFF BILL GORE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY: As the suspect was fleeing the temple, an off-duty Border Patrol agent opened fire on the suspect, but it apparently did not hit him.

SIMON: Earnest eventually surrendering to the police. He's now charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Authorities say they believe Earnest acted alone. Investigators looking into an anti-Semitic letter posted online by someone claiming to be Earnest before the attack.

GORE: We are in the process of reviewing to determine its validity and authenticity. SIMON: San Diego police and the FBI now examining whether Earnest is

linked to arson at a nearby mosque last month. President Trump swiftly condemning the attack.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.

ALMOG PERETZ, SHOT IN LEG BY SHOOTER: I need to warn (ph) all the kids.

SIMON: We are learning more stories of heroism inside the synagogue, like Almog Peretz, visiting his family from Israel. The 34-year-old shot in the leg before helping children escape the gunfire.

PERETZ: He's like have a vest. He's coming like the soldier. He's standing in the door like the focus, and he's staying like that. And he's staying that way, relaxed and shooting.

SIMON: Peretz tried to protect his 8-year-old niece, Noya Dahan, who was injured by shrapnel.

NOYA DAHAN, INJURED BY SHRAPNEL: The world isn't supposed to be like this.

(SINGING)

SIMON: Poway, the latest American city trying to heal from another hate-filled attack.

GOLDSTEIN: No matter how dark the world is, we need to think of light. A little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness.

SIMON: While honoring those like its youngest victim, Noya, sitting tall on her father's shoulders at a vigil Sunday.

[07:05:02] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was wounded yesterday. And today she's here with us. This is bravery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: The injured rabbi from Poway was filled with emotion as he remembered Lori Gilbert Kaye, one of the congregants, who was killed at the synagogue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOLDSTEIN: This horrific, terrible event that has occurred here. In my own interpretation, Lori took the bullet for all of us. She died to protect all of us. She didn't deserve to die. She's such a kind, sweet-hearted, just a good human being.

I do know that this is Lori. This is her legacy. And her legacy will continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Lori's friend of 25 years, Dr. Roneet Lev.

Dr. Lev, thank you so much for being here. We're so sorry for your loss. We know how horrible these past 48 hours have been for you. And we really appreciate you being here to talk about your community, your congregation and your friend Lori.

You know, Lori sounds so special from everything that we've heard from her daughter, from the rabbi? What can you share with us about your friend?

DR. RONEET LEV, FRIEND OF LORI GILBERT KAYE: So thank you so much. Really appreciate the kindness of everybody and really happy to be here. And important for me to tell and let the whole world know Lori Kaye, my best friend, the second mother to my children.

We raised our children together here at this congregation of Chabad of Poway. Anybody who knew her, and she reached many lives around the world, countless people that may not even know her name. Now need to know Lori Kaye.

Because she was a most amazing person. She was human. She had false and positive aspects. She's had ups and downs in her life like all of us. But no matter what, in the worst and her darkest days, and she's had, you know, trauma in her life, she always, always looks as the positive.

Before coming here, I came and took some of many books she has all over her house. And this is -- this is her. This is "Be Happy, "You are Doing a Freaking Good Job," "14,000 Things to be Happy About." And that was -- that's Lori, always looking at the positive. Always giving. Anyone who knows her, know her someone who's giving.

As I was looking in her car, I found greeting cards. I found gift cards. I found an Easter basket full of things to give to someone else, the people she knew were giving.

I've traveled around the whole world. And she loved that. And admired from afar. And so before every trip, she would give me a check or two checks, each for $100 or more. And I'd be all over the world. And she'd say, "Roneet, go find some charity that's -- that needs it."

And I told this story to another friend. She goes, "Oh, she did this from me, and she did this for me."

CAMEROTA: My God.

LEV: She is a symbol of random acts of kindness.

And the more we are talking about her, the more I hear about it. My mom -- she took my mom to breakfast the other day. She loves her coffee at Einstein Bagel, and gets a bagel. And she gets two. And my mom goes, "Oh, no, I don't need."

And she goes, "No, no, no, don't worry. There's some homeless person. And she is giving her extra coffee and bagel for someone else. She -- she's sometimes late. And why is she late? She goes, "Oh,

because I had to stop by this person's house or that person's house." She collected people; she loved people.

And we're standing here in front of my synagogue, a house of worship. We believe in God. We believe God is good. And if God picked Lori Kaye, if God picked Lori Kaye, and he did this for a reason and the reason is good, because we believe God is good.

And Lori is a person who can spread goodness in this world. She's making us stronger as a Jewish people. We will not let anti-Semitism stop us in any way. We know there is evil in this world. But it is nothing compared to the good we have.

And we see that now, especially in her demise. And we see the goodness in Poway, in San Diego. She loved the media. She would want to get her message heard. She -- I wish she was alive to see this. Because this would be her message.

And her message is to be random acts of kindness, to be good. Regardless of the faith, regardless of who you are anywhere around this planet. We are -- we have -- we are much better people and we see that in our law enforcement, in the medical community, in the vigils. And people of all faiths that we've seen here come together to remember Lori Kaye, my best friend, and to send a message of good and unity to our world.

[07:10:10] CAMEROTA: What a beautiful message, Dr. Lev. What a beautiful message. And how well you have channeled her spirit for all of us. And, you know, the story goes that when the gunman came into the synagogue, it was Lori who put her own life in jeopardy and stepped towards the gunman to shield the rabbi.

How is that possible? Why would she be capable of doing something like that?

LEV: When you say that, it pains me, because I know that that's Lori. And anybody who knew Lori knew that, of course that's Lori who stepped in front of the rabbi.

And the rabbi told me, when I saw him being rolled into surgery, "Let people know that Lori died saving my life." And that was his words to me as he was rolled up to the operating room. And -- and it sounds like why would someone do that? And anybody who knew that would know, and that was Lori.

And that's how Lori made the ultimate sacrifice, perhaps to send this message of unconditional love, which is the words that Lori would use.

CAMEROTA: How's her family doing today?

LEV: Not good. Her -- her daughter, Hannah, is an amazing, amazing young woman. She -- you will see. She's a replica of her mother. And -- in terms of good and kindness. And I hope she gets to speak to you some day. But she had a terrible night. And so is her father, her husband are not well at this time. They

appreciate their support. If I had to speak on her behalf, it would be thank you. Thank you so much to everyone and hugs to everyone. But she's not in a position to be on camera.

CAMEROTA: Of course, of course. We understand. I mean, I -- I think one of the most -- one of the many affecting moments of this story is knowing that Lori's husband is a doctor. And when he heard that there was a shooting at the synagogue, he raced to help people. And he didn't know that it was his wife who was close to death.

And when he saw her and realized that it was she that he would have to be treating that he collapsed, as well, just from the shock of it. I mean, it's all so horrible, just hearing the aftermath of all of it.

LEV: Our synagogue is blessed -- we are blessed with a lot of physicians in our synagogue. We have the stop-the-bleed bag, you know, that a trauma area should have. So we're equipped. And it's not the first time someone or even Howard, her husband, has come to rescue in the synagogue after, you know, 30 years here. Things happen. And we're prepared.

So he did run to the scene when he heard a very loud -- that's the biggest description I hear about how loud the gunfire was. So he was told that "We need your help, Dr. Kaye," and he ran to the scene. And it was after they put the stickers of the defibrillator that he saw that it was Lori, and he fainted.

Our synagogue is also blessed with amazing bravery. We are not sitting ducks here waiting for someone to -- we know we're a potential target. We know anti-Semitism exists. We're ready to protect ourselves, as synagogues throughout the world should be able to do. And we have people who ran to the gunfire to subdue and to chase the gunman away, to protect the children and to protect the rest of the congregants. And I -- I'm just amazed by the heroism and proud of the people at Chabad of Poway.

CAMEROTA: So are we. But I just want to ask you about that. I mean, that feeling of knowing that you could be targeted. That off-duty Border Patrol agent, was he regular -- who ended up shooting at the gunman and hitting his car to the point where the gunman had to surrender. Was he often there at the synagogue because you all felt or had heard other threats?

LEV: No. The off-duty Border Patrol agent is a member of our community. He's a member of Chabad of Poway. We have retired military who are members of our congregation.

And this was a big day. This was the last day of Passover. This was a day that people -- the reason Lori came to the synagogue, she was celebrating my daughter's graduation on Friday night. On the first day of Passover, it was at her house. And she and her husband led the most wonderful Passover Seder. And -- and on Friday night, we celebrated the most wonderful sabbath meal together.

But she was rushing to be at the synagogue on Saturday to say the mourner's prayer for her mother. She recently lost her mother, and she wanted to say this prayer. It would have been the first time in her life to have to say the kaddish prayer, the mourning for the dead. She was very anxious. And that's why she was in the hallway. She was sitting -- she was standing, which was typical of Lori. She was, you know, nervous about the prayer she was about to say. And she -- she never got to say it. And she will be meeting her mother in person.

CAMEROTA: The rabbi that you -- you raced to the hospital. And you, as you said, saw the rabbi being wheeled into surgery. He lost fingers as a result of this. He also is very strong.

And so you -- you all personified the strength with which you will come back and practice your faith. And is inspiring to see. But will things change at your synagogue because of this? Because you know that you're under threat, will there be an armed guard present? What -- what will make you all feel comfortable going back to synagogue?

LEV: Well, it will change us. It's changed the rabbi forever. We're trying to think of some cute nicknames to call him with his hands.

So it will change us. It will change us, but it will change us for the better. It will change us for the stronger.

I have four children. And they're going to be proud Jewish people coming to the synagogue. Not afraid. We will be stronger. We'll have more security. That's not my expertise.

But our faith is stronger. We will come here more often, not less often. And -- and no one should be afraid. Like I said, there's more good, there's way more good than evil. Yes, evil exists, and we're going to wipe it out, but there's way more good. And the way we get to that is by coming here and being a part of the community; embracing our faith, embracing goodness in however you express it. And this will not stop us. This unites us. It makes us better.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Roneet Lev, you have made your friend Lori proud this morning. Thank you very much --

LEV: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: -- for representing her. And, again, we're just so sorry to you and your community for everything that you've endured this weekend.

LEV: Thank you so much. Thank you.

BERMAN: I have to say, you can see what must have been the enormous strength in Lori Kaye through her friend, Dr. Lev. Because where else would Dr. Lev get the strength to come on and talk like that this morning? You can see how broken up she is. But her faith is not shaken. And her love for her friend is not shaken. And it was just remarkable to hear.

CAMEROTA: I mean, I've read some of the notes of her friends and her family. And they do believe that she was chosen, if that's the right word, to symbolize what their community stands for, to symbolize forgiveness. They said that Lori was one of the most forgiving people they'd ever met. And to symbolize love. And so we just can't talk about her enough.

BERMAN: Dr. Lev said God chose Lori Kaye for this. Which is -- it's tough to take, but I understand why she's saying that and feels that way.

Just one other thing. The fact that Lori Kaye was at the synagogue for the mourner's kaddish, to mourn herself, and then lost her own life. Mourner's kaddish is such an important spiritual moment. It's just really hard to take.

All right. White nationalism is now very much an issue in the 2020 race. Former Vice President Joe Biden and the president feuding over the president's Charlottesville response. We're going to discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:23:07] BERMAN: The rising tide of white nationalism is now very much at the forefront of the 2020 campaign. President Trump and the former vice president, Joe Biden, they are feuding over the president's response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville that killed Heather Heyer.

Joining us now is Jeffrey Toobin, CNN chief legal analyst; Julie Hirschfield Davis, congressional correspondent for "The New York Times" and a CNN political analyst; and Arlette Saenz, a CNN political reporter, who is in Pittsburgh as we speak to cover the first campaign rally for Vice President Biden later today.

Jeffrey Toobin, I want to start with you. And we just heard a really moving interview that Alisyn did with Dr. Roneet Lev, who is a good friend of the victim of the synagogue shooting in Poway, California.

And it's just striking to me that what's happened over the last week, you had Joe Biden launch his campaign. The centerpiece of his campaign in his video announcement was fighting white nationalism, fighting this wave of hate that seems to exist in some places in this country. And then days later, there's a new shooting at a synagogue. It does seem like this is an issue for the campaign.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, and not only that, but Vice President Biden succeeded -- I guess that's the right word -- in getting the president to double down, to ratify, to agree with his comments in Charlottesville.

He said -- he expressed himself perfectly when he said that there were good people on both sides. And I think that's going to be a fundamental difference in this campaign about, you know, whether the president is someone who cares about white nationalism, you know, whether he is a supporter of it.

I mean, if you look -- look at what the president did this weekend, where he praised the No. 2 person draft -- drafted in the NFL draft, who had a history of racist, white supremacist tweets. I mean, this is --

CAMEROTA: But he did come out after -- I mean, we have to say that after Poway, he did come out, and he said all the right things. He said, "We condemn this in the strongest language. We condemn white nationalism. We condemn" -- I mean, he said -- in fact, we have it. Let me just play it --

TOOBIN: Yes.

[07:25:07] CAMEROTA: -- so that everybody can hear it. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America's heart is with the victims of the horrific synagogue shooting in Poway, California. Just happened. Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community. We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated. Just happened. Must be defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's what you'd want --

TOOBIN: Fair point. A fair point. People have to decide who the real Donald Trump is. And there's lots of evidence on the other side.

CAMEROTA: Julie, it's not just that white nationalism -- that, you know, say Joe Biden pulled this out of thin air. It's that the numbers have spiked. And so there are all sorts of statistics that show that hate crimes have gone up in the past year, that crimes against houses of worship have gone up. That there's more violence, there's more anti-Semitic graffiti. There are actual numbers saying that this is a real problem.

JULIE HIRSCHFIELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, absolutely.

And notwithstanding the fact that, you know, the president did condemn this individual incident and the anti-Semitism that clearly was underlying it, and he's done that in the past.

But what he was not been willing to do -- and he actually pushed back against this in the wake of the New Zealand mosque shooting -- is to admit that there is a huge problem that is on the rise of white nationalism and that it's something that he doesn't agree with, that this country doesn't agree with and that something needs to be done about that.

And I think, until he is willing to say that and acknowledge that, I think there will continue to be questions about why it is that he does not want to talk in a more fulsome way about what his role might be as the leader of the free world in sort of pushing back against some of those forces.

He seems to think that admitting that, or potentially, you know, talking about that would reflect poorly on him. And, you know, we saw in his response to Joe Biden's jumping in the race that he clearly sees this as a personal, you know, issue for him. And that he's not willing to talk about it in the context of a worldwide or national problem. He really is -- views it as a political problem for himself.

BERMAN: We should note, also, the president put out a tweet this morning, noting he had a long conversation with the rabbi from Chabad in Poway, Yisroel Goldstein, and talked about how they had a long conversation over the weekend.

CAMEROTA: That's really -- I'm glad that you said that. Because I know that with Rabbi Jeffrey Myers at the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, that meant a lot that him, that the president visited. And he felt that they had a really good conversation. So in these one-on-one moments, the president connects.

BERMAN: Right. But again, you look at the totality. The tweet about Nick Bosa over the weekend. Notable was the omission of any kind of congratulations for the No. 1 draft pick, Kyler Murray, who happens to be African-American. I mean, these things --

TOOBIN: And it wasn't just that Nick Bosa is -- is white. The issue was why is Nick Bosa a public figure? It's not because he's a great player for Ohio State. It's because he had this history of really ugly tweets, including some tweets that were for the president. That's why he was praising him.

BERMAN: All right. I want to go to you, Arlette, in Pittsburgh. Because in a purely political sense, it was fascinating that Joe Biden made this a centerpiece of his video launch. I'm very curious if he sticks to it.

He's got this campaign rally where you're standing in Pittsburgh later this afternoon, which we'll all be watching very closely. Because I want to know what his campaign message will be from a stage when he may be less scripted. Because we didn't hear so much about it on "The View," except when he was asked about it directly. He didn't drag the conversation back to that subject.

Will this be a central theme today?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that, if you look at Biden's past appearances over the course of the past six months, when he was out on the campaign trail, campaigning for Democrats in the midterm elections, this Charlottesville moment was a reoccurring theme that he often pointed to. He often was speaking about a battle for the soul of the country.

So I think, looking forward to this afternoon, while yes, it's going to be a speech that's focused on rebuilding the middle class. That's what his campaign has said about the event this afternoon. I also think that he probably will be drilling in on this entire notion of the battle for the soul of the country, pointing to Charlottesville, potentially making reference to the shooting at the synagogue over the weekend. You saw in his tweet, he brought things back to the battle of the soul

of the country as he responded to the synagogue shooting. So I wouldn't be surprised in Biden brings this up as one of the themes this afternoon.

CAMEROTA: It's interesting, Julie, because as we know from the reporting, they -- the Biden team was debating what to do in that campaign -- that campaign launch video. And maybe they were going to do something biographical, Scranton Joe.

[07:30:00]