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Remembering Kendrick Castillo; New Video Raises Questions about Sandra Bland Case; Harris Resetting Campaign; Fighting Fat Without Giving Up Taste. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 09, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] CHRIS ELLEDGE, STUDENT AT STEM HIGHLANDS RANCH: Everybody looked up to that kid. He was brilliant. He was -- he was probably the best of us. He was -- he was one of the best of us by far. He was just an extraordinary kid.

You know, I didn't even need to know her personally to know that he was -- he was a star student and he was just a star person who anybody could go to and look up to as a role model. And this is -- he was the most undeserving of what happened to him.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We can tell from the pictures, I mean we can see that smile and we hear people talk about him. He was just a few days away from graduating.

And, Chris, what do you want to say to his parents?

C. ELLEDGE: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that we live in a society where you guys had to lose someone so important to this community and so amazing to our school. I'm sure that you guys did your best raising him, you guys did an unbelievable job raising him, he is an amazing person and you guys are parent role models as well. You guys should be very proud.

CAMEROTA: Those are such beautiful words. I mean, Chris, it shouldn't be up to you guys to have to save yourselves and your classmates when you go to school every day. It shouldn't be up to students. You're there to learn, obviously, and to graduate and to go on to your lives. And the idea that this has happened so many times this week. There have been three different heroes, students who have had to -- well, heroes and one was at a synagogue, who have had to stop a mass shooter on their own. And how do you make sense of that as a 15-year-old?

C. ELLEDGE: I can't. I can't. Just even putting myself in the situation again, trying to remember how it went down and remember how I was feeling is impossible because it was too -- it was too devastating and too -- how I was feeling in the moment is too horrible to remember. And I can't imagine anyone who had to go through that in the past week or in the past year or whoever's had to go through a shooting like what happened here, you know, there's -- just the feeling of not knowing what's going to come next, you know, worrying about what your parents are thinking and what your friends are thinking and getting texts from, you know, your friends all over the district who you haven't talked to in a while who are asking you if you're OK and if you go to STEM because there's a school shooter at your school and they're worried about you. And it's just scary not knowing what's going to come next. So, no, I can't -- I can't even make anything of it even -- especially with the people that had to go through this at their schools.

CAMEROTA: It's really nice of you to think of other people after you've just survived something so horrific.

It's going to be really hard, I imagine, to go back to school, but your community sounds wonderful. Obviously there are heroes among us.

And so, Chris Elledge, Eldon Elledge, thank you very much for taking time to tell us your personal experience with this tragedy. We really wish you the best and we will stay in touch with you guys.

ELDON ELLEDGE, SON ESCAPED SCHOOL SHOOTING: Thank you.

C. ELLEDGE: Of course. Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I've got to say, if I'm Eldon, if I'm the father, I'm not letting my son take his arm from around me for three months.

CAMEROTA: Of course.

BERMAN: Three months.

CAMEROTA: How are they going to go back to school? You hear how -- you hear how shaken of course he still is. It's just not -- it doesn't have to be this way. We are better than this. We don't have to have our kids be sitting ducks.

BERMAN: All right, I want to leave you with a picture of Kendrick Castillo. You just heard Chris call him the best of us. I think that about sums it up.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:00] BERMAN: New video raising questions about the Sandra Bland case, the African-American woman who was arrested after being pulled over for failing to signal and later died in a jail cell. The video was recorded by Sandra Bland on her cellphone during the traffic stop. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER: Get out of the car, now.

SANDRA BLAND: Why am I being apprehended? You're trying to give me a ticket for your failure.

OFFICER: I said get out of the car.

BLAND: Why am I being apprehended? OFFICER: I gave you a lawful --

BLAND: You just opened my car door. You just opened my car door.

OFFICER: I (INAUDIBLE) drag you out of here.

BLAND: So you're going to -- you're threatening to drag me out of my own car?

OFFICER: Get out of the car.

BLAND: And then you're going to strong (ph) me.

OFFICER: I will light you up. Get out.

BLAND: Wow. Wow.

OFFICER: Now.

BLAND: Wow.

OFFICER: Get out of the car.

BLAND: Just for a failure to signal? You're doing all of this for a failure to signal?

OFFICER: Get over there.

BLAND: Right. Yes. Yes, let's take this to court. Let's do it.

OFFICER: Go ahead.

BLAND: For a failure to signal. Yes, for a failure to signal.

OFFICER: Get off your phone.

BLAND: (INAUDIBLE).

OFFICER: Get off the phone.

BLAND: I'm not on the phone. I have a right to record. This is my property.

OFFICER: Put your phone down.

BLAND: This is my property.

Sir.

OFFICER: Put your phone down, right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Three days later, Bland was found hanged in her jail cell. Authorities ruled her death a suicide. The officer was indicted on a perjury charge and fired in 2016. A grand jury did not believe his statement that he removed Bland from the car so he could conduct a safer traffic investigation. But the charge was dismissed in 2017 when he agreed to surrender his law enforcement license.

Joining me now is Sandra Bland's sister, Sharon Cooper, and Cannon Lambert, an attorney for Bland's family.

And, Sharon, I want to start with you and just ask, what's it like to see this video for the first time this week three years after the death of your sister?

SHARON COOPER, SISTER OF SANDRA BLAND: It is -- it validates what our family has long felt and just confirms that Sandra should have never been detained, she should have never been taken into police custody, and it validates what we felt as a family is that Brian Encinia's inability to deescalate the situation resulted in -- resulted in a fatality for Sandra that was completely avoidable based off of his actions.

BERMAN: What did you see in their interaction?

COOPER: I think what we see and what I think is so powerful is the stop from Sandra's perspective. So much of this case at the outset was shrouded in what people thought transpired in the car because of the low quality of the dash cam footage. And so what we see is what she experienced from her personal point of view because of her decision, rightfully so, to record on her mobile device.

BERMAN: And I think that's such a good point. This is a video from her perspective, from the perspective of the individuals sitting in the car face-to-face with the police officer yelling like that.

And, Cannon, let me ask you this, because the prosecutors have said in this case that this video is not new. They had this video. Their statement was, this video was considered in the investigation, and I'm not sure why it's just being released now in the media.

Do you understand why this wasn't made wildly public three years ago?

[08:40:08] CANNON LAMBERT, ATTORNEY FOR SANDRA BLAND'S FAMILY: Well, I'll tell you this, it's unfortunate. I -- if the special prosecutors had this video and they considered this video, then it strikes me as particularly concerning that they would drop the charges in the way that they did. They promised this family that they were going to prosecute Mr. Encinia. And the family met with them and spoke to them about how they would rather see them prosecute the claim, prosecute the perjury charge and lose as opposed to cut a deal. They promised that they would do so and they cut a deal anyway.

BERMAN: And you think this video would have made a stronger case or makes a stronger case to convict the officer of perjury?

LAMBERT: Absolutely. You can see that the officer has no basis to suggest that he's in any way in fear of his safety. If he -- his whole contention in terms of the arrest and pulling her out of the car and the like was that he was in fear for his safety. This video from Sandy's vantage point makes it abundantly clear that there's nothing that supports that claim.

BERMAN: Sharon, what do you want from this now? There was a settlement with the family a couple of years ago. Is there something else now that you would like to see happen?

COOPER: What we'd like to see happen honestly is that -- and I know there's been a lot of conversation around calls to reopen the case and to reiterate Attorney Lambert's point, the special prosecutor has definitely robbed our family of that opportunity when they failed to adequately charge Brian Encinia at the time. So I'd ask that folks start to really hone in on the grand jury process and eradicate for the dismissal of the use of that in these types of cases because the problems with grand juries is that they're shrouded in secrecy, and also want people to learn a little bit more about our personal journey as a family and really take a moment to watch our HBO documentary "Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland," which really gives you a personal account of what our family went through in dealing with trying to figure out what happened to our loved one while in police custody.

BERMAN: Yes, I know, this is real for you. She was your sister and you loved her. It's more than just a court case here.

There are politicians, Julian Castro from Texas, Beto O'Rourke from Texas, Kamala Harris, of course, from California, the senator, they all say, reopen the case now. When you hear these candidates, these politicians, these leaders calling for the reopening of the case, how does that make you feel?

COOPER: Certainly appreciative of their support and would ask that they really align themselves as well with Texas officials who are working through ongoing efforts to bring some components back into the Sandra Bland Act from a legislative perspective because what remains unchanged is that Sandra is no longer with us, but what we can do is stop this from happening to other families so that they don't have to experience this type of traumatic loss.

BERMAN: And, Cannon, do you feel at this point that the prosecutors and officials were straight with you during this whole process?

LAMBERT: Well, you know, from the very inception we had difficulty getting the police report, we had difficulty in a whole host of things. We found ourselves getting information through the media instead of through them. There was problems with the video when it was initially disclosed and so forth.

So I'll just say this, we were fortunate to be able to navigate all of that, and I think we were able to bring a resolution to the case on the civil side of it. But I think that the issue that was really brought to fore in this situation is that a police accountability and that sort of thing need to really be honed in and addressed. And so when you talk about presidential candidates, it should definitely be a platform issue.

BERMAN: All right, Cannon Lambert, thank you very much for being with us. LAMBERT: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sharon Cooper, sister to Sandra Bland, we will say her name, thank you for being with us this morning. I really appreciate it.

COOPER: Thank you.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, back to 2020. Kamala Harris has been a top tier candidate in the Democratic race, but her campaign is sometimes struggling in the very early polls. So how she is already reworking her strategy. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:05] CAMEROTA: OK, so who is the candidate that voters say they want to hear more about? Answer? Senator Kamala Harris. So we all saw her prosecutorial style of questioning during last week's hearing with Attorney General William Barr, and before. People have been impressed. But now the 2020 Democratic hopeful is changing her strategy somewhat.

And here to explain that we have "The New York Times" Jonathan Martin. He has insight into her new campaign strategy and an entire article about it. And he is joined by Josh Green, CNN political analyst and, national correspondent for "Bloomberg Businessweek."

Great to see you guys.

So, J. Mart., how has Kamala Harris already shifted on the campaign trail?

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you mentioned that interrogation she had of Bill Barr and I think that really points to her upside, her possibility, that she does come off best when she is taking on Trump administration officials, the president himself. She has the sort of catch phrase that she wants to prosecute the case against Trump, which, of course, invokes her record as a former DA and the California attorney general.

And I think her campaign has come to the conclusion that it's a loser's game to try to keep pace with the Bernie Sanders left, to try to sort of bow on every issue that comes up or at least not offend the perceived views of the left on every issue and play to her strengths. And they polled this, they've tested this extensively, and they found that there's not a lot of down side in emphasizing her record as a prosecutor and they think that she shines the best when she is in that role and doing so, taking on the president himself because, guess what, guys, that's what most Democratic primary voters care about, who can beat President Trump.

BERMAN: I like your articles most when they validate things that I have said on this show already, Jonathan. And we were talking about Senator Harris, her speech at the NAACP the other night in Detroit as a moment when things shifted --

MARTIN: Yes.

BERMAN: Where she directly took on President Trump. And it's not that the Democrats ignore the president, but many have been trying to run candidates sort of independent of him. And she also took on the issue of electability, which seems to be an acknowledgment to the presence of Joe Biden.

MARTIN: Yes.

[08:50:10] BERMAN: And so this is a shift. You have seen a shift and are hearing about a shift from inside sources in that campaign, Jonathan.

MARTIN: Oh, absolutely. You know, in fact, the campaign confirms on the record that she is, in fact, going to now focus on prosecuting the case, which is her catch phrase. And they say that they recognize now that she is best when she is out there taking the case against President Trump, not getting bogged down in the sort of roster of litmus test issues on the left. And that's how they're going to project her going forward.

This has caused tensions, though, in the campaign because there has been a camp of people that haven't been pushing her on this to really embrace the prosecutorial background. But at the same time, she's faced immense pressure on her left flank.

And, you know, being from California, she's sensitive about the kind of demands of her party base because obviously growing up in politics in San Francisco, that's a constant push and pull, you know, on you. So I think they've now gotten to the point where two things happened, the Barr hearing happened and Biden got in the race. And I think seeing Biden take on President Trump and seeing her go after Barr, it crystallized this for the Harris folks, this is our best strategy here (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: Josh, I just did one of my signature -- one of our signature voter panels.

BERMAN: You said "my." You said "my."

CAMEROTA: On CNN and the person that that small slice of voters in Pennsylvania, three of them want more Kamala Harris. Let me play you a little portion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT FLANNIGAN, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Kamala Harris. I think she's -- provides a contrast to what -- to what Trump is. I think she provides a great opportunity to win.

NASYA JENKINS, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Definitely Kamala Harris. Not only is she a woman, but she's also a woman of color. I feel like she has the energy, she has the plan, she has the mindset to go against somebody so disgusting.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: And, Josh, I guess my point is that, is this a case where the media has been slow on the uptake with Kamala Harris. Beto O'Rourke has the cover of "Vanity Fair." Pete Buttigieg is on "CBS Sunday Morning." But, you know, the voters, if you look at our CNN town halls, it's Kamala Harris who sets the record for viewers and ratings and who the people want more of.

JOSH GREEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think Harris got off to a terrific start. I mean she had an enormous launch event with 20,000 people there. She did very well in first quarter fundraising.

But I get the sense, talking to voters, that she hasn't really distinguished herself. You have Biden and Bernie as the front runners, you have, you know, Warren pitching a lot of policies, helping to shape the race, you have Buttigieg as the exciting new candidate. She hasn't really quite gelled in the minds of a lot of voters. And I think that's reflected in Jonathan's piece when you see the struggle, you know, should she try and apiece the far left of her party and go in that direction, should she try and appeal -- take more of a centrist stance?

I think one of the reasons she hasn't gotten more media attention is that she hasn't really, a, drawn big poll numbers that would justify along the lines the way that Biden has, and, b, it's not quite clear what her -- what her candidacy stands for at this time or how she ought to be portrayed. But certainly on paper, you know, she's someone who is a top tier candidate and ought to be getting the kinds of attention that it sounds like these voters want her to get. So maybe we'll see more of that soon.

BERMAN: Well, one of the most interesting questions in our most recent poll was, which candidate do you want to hear more about, and she was leading.

MARTIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

BERMAN: She -- clearly -- and I thought that was an interesting question. It's one I hadn't really seen before.

MARTIN: Yes.

BERMAN: It was a really revealing question to me, Josh. And it's a mixed bag because, on the one hand, it shows there's a lot of room for growth that they want to hear more about Senator Harris --

GREEN: Yes.

BERMAN: On the other hand, it shows you that the time spent from January, which was a much ballyhooed launch, to now, that maybe it could have been used differently or more effectively if they're still wondering what she's about.

GREEN: I think that's probably right. But, you know, the other fact of the matter is, the media, the political media especially, tend to gallop in the direction of one candidate at a time. And, you know, the boom over the last month or so has been for Pete Buttigieg. He's been, you know, very available in the media, he's been all over TV, magazine covers. You know, maybe his moment has faded a little bit as Biden has come in and shown that he's got big leads in the polls.

But with 22 candidates running in the field, I think that that's what it is at the last count, you've really got to do something to stand out and stand apart. And my sense is that Harris really hasn't managed to do that yet. But we -- we all know that the quickest way to attention in politics in the Trump era is to frontally attack Donald Trump. And it sounds like that's -- that's the direction she's going to take now. And judging from history, that's a pretty good bet if you want attention to pick a fight with Trump and hopes -- hope that he notices and responds.

[08:55:02] CAMEROTA: All right, J. Mart, Josh Green, thank you.

MARTIN: And he has, guys --

CAMEROTA: Yes, quick -- quickly.

MARTIN: He called her nasty twice. I was going to say, he has. He's called her nasty in the past week two different times, which kind of vindicates this pivot, a picking a fight with Trump is what Democratic voters want and it gets you the most attention from us in the media.

BERMAN: And you asked her about that?

CAMEROTA: She laughed it off.

BERMAN: She laughed it off.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

Thank you, guys, very much.

GREEN: Thank you.

MARTIN: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: OK, up next, Republican-led Senate panel subpoenas President Trump's son, Don Junior. What will President Trump do about that?

BERMAN: But first, losing weight doesn't have to mean giving up food you love. Oh, really? CNN health contributor Lisa Drayer shares how you can eat your way to a healthier lifestyle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA DRAYER, CNN HEALTH CONTRIBUTOR: Here's my guide to fighting fat without giving up taste.

A broth-based soup, when eaten before a meal, is proven to help you eat fewer calories. That's because when water is paired with food, digestion is slowed down, which helps your stomach stay fuller longer. Remember, broth-based is best. Cream-based soups often have more fat and calories.

A spinach salad can also have big benefits for your waistline. Spinach, like other green plants, is a source of compounds called thylakoids, which may help curb the urge to snack according to studies. A couple of easy ways to get the levy green into your diet is by adding spinach to a smoothie or by pureeing it into a soup.

Flaxseed can also help you eat less. The fiber in flaxseed keeps you feeling satisfied without contributing any calories. Research has also revealed that the fiber in flaxseed helps to suppress appetite. How do you eat it? Sprinkle it on top of yogurt or add a tablespoon of ground flaxseed to your cereal or a smoothie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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