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At This Hour

Virginia Governor To Visit Reporters' TV Station; Potential Biden Run Looms Large at DNC Meeting; Trump Reveals Tax Plans; Tropical Storm Erika Slams Caribbean, Heads for Florida. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired August 28, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Poppy Harlow. Carol Costello is back in the chair Monday morning.

AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan begins right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Grieving staff after two of their own gunned down on live TV.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And Tropical Storm Erika packing a major punch in the Caribbean. A new forecast is just in. Is Florida in her path?

BERMAN: And it has been 10 years since this, the levees breaking, parts of New Orleans under water. Ahead this hour, a closer look at the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Hello, I'm John Berman.

BOLDUAN: And I'm Kate Bolduan.

Happening right now, the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, is heading to the TV station that's been rocked by the on-air murders of two of their beloved journalists, Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Parker's family members are also said to be on hand for this meeting with the governor.

BERMAN: There have been so many difficult moments there but also moments of such strength since Parker and Ward were shot dead on live TV.

Really one of the people who has help guide that station and that community through these days, WDBJ general manager, Jeff Marks, joins us now.

Jeff, thank you so much for being with us.

You have the governor on the way set to arrive at any minute. What do you expect to hear from him? And I suppose on the flip side, what is your message to him?

JEFFREY MARKS, GENERAL MANAGER, WDBJ: Well, the governor is eloquent. I expect him to make private remarks to our team about the loss and where we go from here. I can't really predict what he's going to say, but we are appreciative of the fact that he's going to visit.

What was the second part of your question?

BERMAN: What's your message to him at this point?

MARKS: Well, I don't have one worked up, but I would say can we pay some attention to mental health? Now, that's not to suggest he hasn't. We had a state Senator nearly killed by his son who was having mental health issues, and if that's indeed what was going on here with the gunman, what do we need to do to make sure that mental health services are available to everyone and reach everyone? May not have worked in this case, but if that was the case, let's at least keep the debate going.

BOLDUAN: Jeff, I see you are wearing the pin that so many from your station are wearing. It's there to represent the ma maroon and teal to represent Alison and Adam. Where do you go from here? After everything you have been through and quite honestly you're still in the eye of the storm, where do you go from here?

MARKS: Well, I talked with key people in the newsroom today and said, we are known as a pretty aggressive newsroom. We pursue, and that needs to be what we do from here on to honor Alison and Adam and to fulfill our commitment to the community. We've been walking around a little bit shell shocked, frankly. We've been getting the shows on the air, we've been reporting the news, we've been covering it, but I think we maybe have lacked a little bit of personality. When I say personality I mean who we are, and we can recharge ourselves today. We're getting a lot of help from our sister stations in south bend and Wichita and Springfield, and they're giving us a lot of assistance to get us and keep us on track as we go forward.

People are still very sad, but I am so impressed with their level of professionalism while they are taking time to grieve. They're in their pitching story ideas, shooting great video, and doing what we need to do to get on the air.

BERMAN: Jeff, I got to say from the outside looking in, it doesn't look out here that you've lacked anything. You certainly haven't lacked courage over the last few days at that station, so I understand the need to be self critical and look forward but it's been amazing to watch what you have been doing. There is new information -- go ahead.

MARKS: I didn't mean to be self critical. What I meant to say is any organization like this, whether it's a magazine in Paris or whatever, it hurts, and it hurts a lot, and I just want to make sure we have our vigor and our excitement about what we're covering back, and this is the team to do it.

BERMAN: There's information coming out late yesterday and today about what was in the killer's car that was found on the highway after he shot himself in the head, and among the things in there were wigs, license plates, indications that maybe he had some plan of getting away from all of this. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that.

[11:05:16] MARKS: If I were a reporter on the story, I would be drawing conclusions for that, and from that maybe covering aspects of it and asking people about it. We are so unfocused on that. Yes, we have reporters working on that angle, but I am so unfocused on the killer and what he was going to do. I do thank God for the idea that if he had other plans, they weren't executed, but we really are focused on other things right now.

BOLDUAN: That is absolutely understandable, and it really kind of lays bare the difficult position your reporters are in, reporting the story and being absolutely, unfortunately, part of it.

Jeff, it's great to have you on again. Thank you always for your time and we look forward to hearing what the governor has to say to you guys privately and to the newsroom. Thanks so much.

MARKS: Thanks.

BERMAN: We did just hear from Jeff Marks, there is new information on the killer, getting a look now at what was in his apartment and also possibly in his mind as he plotted and carried out these awful murders.

BOLDUAN: The scene -- here is the video. The scene is startling and eerie to say the very least. His refrigerator covered with photographs of only himself. The rest of his apartment barely decorated at all. And in his car according to a warrant from the police, packed with disguises, a to-do list, and ammunition.

Justice reporter, Evan Perez, is reporting this angle of the story.

Evan, what more are investigators learning at this point about this killer?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Kate, that video is really -- it's kind of stark. It shows what kind of narcissist this guy was really. He had himself -- pictures of only himself. There's no family pictures we can see. Only himself, all over that refrigerator. And according to the latest information we've gotten from law enforcement, they do believe that he was planning to get away. As you know, he was stopped or pulled over, attempted to pull over on i-66 as he was driving towards the Washington D.C., area. It appears this is where he was planning to go, and then what else we don't know. Among the things that you referenced that were found in his car according to the search warrant, we have a list of it, a Glock pistol he had bought in July from the gun store in Roanoke, white iPhone, handwritten letter, 17 stamped letters that apparently he was planning to send, three license plates a to-do list, a wig, all of which indicates this was not going to end unless the police stopped him, and that's what they did.

BOLDUAN: Evan Perez. Evan is on it for us. Thank you so much.

So much to be learned, but as Jeff Marks said, right now, they are very focused on grieving, recovering and moving forward.

Other big news this morning, a busy day ahead in the race for the White House. Very soon, Hillary Clinton will be speaking at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Minneapolis. There's a picture of the room filling up as they prepare. Other Democratic candidates, they're slated to speak as well. But it is one absent Democrat that may be casting a shadow over the entire gathering.

BERMAN: Republicans are calling it the 800-pound Biden in the room. That is a lot of Biden.

(LAUGHTER)

The vice president in deep deliberations and discussions about a potential 2016 bid.

CNN's Joe Johns is live on the ground with new details.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Eight Democratic candidates expected to speak here in Minneapolis today starting with Lincoln Chafee. They're going in alphabetical order. After that, comes Hillary Clinton around noon eastern time.

As you said, one person who is not going to be here is the vice president, Joe Biden. He's not a candidate, though he's thinking about it, but some of his most fervent supporters are making their presence felt. They've been holding briefings in the same hotel where the DNC is going on asking super delegates and members of the DNC to keep their powder dry, keep an open mind. That it's not yet the time to anoint a front-runner. These are small meetings, 15 to 30 people, but a lot of excite am among the Draft Biden effort to keep people, you know, holding the line until the time Joe Biden decides he is going to get into the race or not.

John and Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Joe, at the very same time, Hillary Clinton slated to speak in a very short amount of time and this comes at a time when a lot of Democrats are starting to privately and publicly raise a lot of alarm and concern over the issue of her private e-mail usage. Are you expecting her to address that in these meetings?

[11:10:00] JOHNS: It's interesting. Talking around here at the DNC to people, there are a lot of Democrats who say that is an overblown issue, as you know, and that it's Republicans who have been making hay over it. Nonetheless, there is a possibility at least that we'll hear from Hillary Clinton after her speech, one more opportunity to sit down, throw her a few questions, and see what she's saying. Earlier this week, in Iowa, I was there, in fact, and it was pretty clear that she was taking a more contrite approach to the whole e-mail scandal explaining to people that in her view this is the type of thing that, you know, people have a problem with, and she understands their reasons for that. A markedly different tone from the previously more combative approach Hillary Clinton has taken -- John and Kate?

BERMAN: It will be interesting to see if that's the beginning of something greater or a one off. Joe Johns for us in Minneapolis.

BOLDUAN: Battling politics and traffic behind him.

BERMAN: All at once.

(LAUGHER)

Thanks, Joe.

JOHNS: That's for sure. Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: He calls himself the king of the tax code. Up next, Donald Trump says -- who Donald Trump says should pay more and who should get relief?

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, Florida on alert after Tropical Storm Erika pounds the Caribbean. The path of destruction and a brand new forecast just released. That's ahead.

BERMAN: Explosions, fighter jets, a military show of force. South Korea stages a huge drill as tensions between the North and the South are at an all-time high.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:00] BERMAN: So imagine Donald Trump, arms splayed on the front of the ship yelling, "I'm the king of the tax code!" Well, you don't have to imagine it anymore. It happened. At least the second part. He's revealing --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: The king of the tax code part. He's revealing new notions about his tax plans, including the idea of raising some.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION (voice-over): Nobody knows the tax code better than I do, OK. I know it better. I'm the king of the tax code, and I'm going to come out with a plan, a simplification, getting rid of some of the deductions, which are ridiculous and complicated. And I want to get rid of H&R Block. I want to put them out of business. And hedge fund guys have to pay up. Now, I'm going to lower taxes but these hedge fund guys are making a lot of money. I have friends that laugh about how little they pay, and it's not fair to the middle class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: All right. So here is a little bit of the detail that Trump is offering up about what he wants to do with taxes. Tax the rich more, tax the middle class less, lower corporate taxes and cut government spending and stop raising the debt ceiling. But like other issues, Trump's outspoken positions in the past don't

necessarily fit with his outspoken positions of present. But does it really matter when you look at the polls?

Let's discuss. CNN political commentator, Margaret Hoover is here; and CNN senior political analyst and editor of the "National Journal," Ron Brownstein.

Margaret, you're saying part of it is great. Part of it you said, not so great.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Tax code simplification, check. Closing corporate loopholes and incentivizing businesses to bring come back to the United States, check.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: Raise taxes on hedge fund managers to end the debt and deficit, fundamentally unserious. Everybody knows when you look at the budget, entitlement are driving our debt and deficits. There are not enough rich people in the United States or enough billionaires in the entire world to tax them enough to make a significant debt in this country's $18 trillion debt as Trump days.

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump is also the king of the tax code, so you might not understand it the way --

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: Clearly, I do. And my criticisms don't matter at all. This is what we're saying. Who doesn't want to put H&R Block out of business? Part of what he says really resonates. But it isn't serious. The part about how you're really going to fix the debt and deficit isn't serious. You can't tax the rich enough.

BERMAN: Of all the things on earth to criticize Donald Trump for being unserious about, the idea of raising taxes on the very rich and I think he's talking about carried interest -- we don't know because he didn't get specific.

BOLDUAN: That's also the problem.

BERMAN: People are talking about it, Ron Brownstein. People have discussed changing taxes so you would tax the rich more, tax hedge fund people more. There are people within the Republican Party though --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Hang on. There are people in the Republican Party who say that's Donald Trump saying he wants to raise taxes, and that's an anathema to us. Will Trump take a hit as a Republican for saying he wants to raise taxes on some?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN LEGAL POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's of a piece of what we're seeing from Donald Trump on everything else. What we're getting from Donald Trump is a 21st-century version of blue collar conservative populism, similar to what we saw in the 1990s with Ross Perot or Pat Buchanan, very skeptical to foreign trade, hostile toward immigration, and tough on elites. In that context, for Trump to talk about raising taxes on Wall Street and cutting taxes on Main Street, fits -- it's a jest that he has a unified theory of the case.

John, if you look at the poll that came out yesterday from Quinnipiac that had him at number one in the republican race, it suggests there's an audience that's listening. His vote among non-college Republicans was double his vote among college Republicans. He's targeting a group of voters and they seem to be hearing what he's saying.

BOLDUAN: Also happening, and I think it's an important thing to discuss, is Donald Trump though his campaign says he's only showing up and not soliciting donations. He's attending fund-raisers. Not just fund-raisers. Fund-raisers for super PACs and for the group that can keep their donor group secret and they can offer up unlimited donations.

HOOVER: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: This is a man who his thing was transparency, transparency, transparency.

HOOVER: And I don't owe anything to anybody because I'm going to fund this myself and so I don't need anybody's money --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Can he have both?

HOOVER: Look, I don't know if hypocrisy even catches up or matters for this guy. If you're showing up at a fund-raiser that is raising money for your effort, and by the way, this is outside money. These are unlimited contributions, half of them transparent, half of them not, this is hypocrisy. It doesn't seem to matter, but this is hypocrisy. He is going to depend on other people to help get -- it also shows he's serious for the long haul and he's not going to spend only his own money.

[11:20:00] BERMAN: Ron, I have talked to people covering the campaign who say the big unknown isn't what he's going to raise it's what he's willing to spend. How much is he willing to spend? I don't think people inside the campaign know that right now because if he's as rich as he says he is and if he wants to spend any portion of that money, that could make a huge difference.

BROWNSTEIN: Right, and we don't know. We don't know what his liquid assets are like and we don't know how much money he can easily reach to spend. We know that Jeb Bush has $100 million in the bank in his super PAC. The other candidates are hoping they will annihilate each other and someone else will step forward through the wreckage. It's not clear exactly how that's going to unfold, and, you know, you have a situation where right now from the Bush point of view, Trump is going after them. On the other hand, they would probably prefer that Donald Trump win Iowa than Ted Cruz or Scott Walker and emerge as the conservative alternative. So it's a very complex kind of juggling game for all of the candidates, especially in a field this big, to decide who goes after who, when.

BOLDUAN: It seems they're might be at least some kind of strategy change from the Bush perspective on how they're going to attack him. Again I like to end each of these segments saying we'll see because it changes every day. Donald Trump is speaking again tonight.

Margaret, Ron, great to see you. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: State of emergency. The governor of Florida putting that state on high alert after Tropical Storm Erika slams the Caribbean. There's a new forecast, new models of the path of this tropical storm. We're going to bring it to you ahead.

BERMAN: Those just out.

Also a vigil for the two journalists killed on live TV, and along with it, a plea from Alison Parker's fiance. He says let's have respectful dialogue when it comes to gun control. Let's have it now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:11] BOLDUAN: Tropical Storm Erika is headed towards Florida after wreaking havoc on Dominica, the island well east of the Dominican Republic. Take a look at some of the videos that are coming in from there.

BERMAN: Wow.

BOLDUAN: A rushing river of mud through the city streets -- just look at that -- as people are trying to find shelter wherever they can.

BERMAN: A house collapsed, unable to withstand the force of the rain and the floods. Just look at that. At least 12 people are dead on that island and more than 20 missing. That looks just awful, and I imagine there could be more information still to come from there.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers is at the "Weather Center."

Chad, tell us about this storm and where it's going.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's going over the south coast right now of the Dominican Republic. That country was Dominica. That was a couple days ago. Almost a foot of rain in 12 hours. A very mountainous country, big hot springs up the mountain, gorgeous, a beautiful, beautiful place. It was ravaged by all of that rainfall. So where does it go from here? Eventually we know it's going over the D.R. and over Haiti. That's a given. But after that even the hurricane center will tell you, we're not sure. We're not even sure if it will be 50 or 20 or maybe bigger because there's so much land involved here. If that gulps in a bunch of dry air off the mountains of Haiti or off the higher elevations of Cuba, it could kill itself. If it gets a little farther off into land, it could be a more dangerous storm. Right now though the forecast is not for it to ever become a hurricane because of the land that's in the way.

Here is what the latest model tells us, somewhere here across parts of Florida, now even up here maybe in parts of the Jacksonville. That said, that's the middle. We have to go all the way out here or all the way out here. It could be in the Bahamas. It could be all the way out here to the dry Tortugas. That's how wide the spread is right now for what the storm is doing. Even yesterday, yesterday it didn't hit the U.S. at all on the models. Today it is. That's how things are changes. What we do know, here is Haiti. Here is the Dominican Republic and here is Cuba right through there. There's going to be a lot of rainfall. There's going to be more flooding rainfall here again just like we saw there in Dominica. Ready for that and probably not the best day to get out there on your first cruise ship. If you do make sure you put the patches behind your ears because the ocean will be rocking for the next couple days. There it is. There's Erika as it makes its approach to south Florida. Could be the keys, could be Bahamas, could be all the way out west of Key West. What the good news is with this, if this storm can stay at 50 and be more than that, Florida needs the rain. Maybe not Tampa, but a lot of Florida needs heavy rainfall and they will get it from this. Don't need the flooding or the wind but we can certainly use the rain.

BERMAN: This storm a mercurial tropical storm as it moves closer to Florida. So keep your eye on the forecast.

Chad Myers, thank you so much.

MYERS: Thanks.

BERMAN: We are waiting for word, a statement from the governor of Florida, Rick Scott. He's expected to speak any second on this situation. Quite a state of emergency this morning. They are concerned this storm is headed to the coast bringing possible flooding. We'll bring you the statement when it happens.

Meanwhile, swallowed by a sinkhole. We have incredible video of passengers waiting for their bus when a hole just opens in the ground. Look at that.

BOLDUAN: But first, we also have this, calls from the loved ones of the murdered journalist, Alison Parker. They're calling for a real dialogue now over who should and should not have access to guns.

Up next, a mother who knows their pain. She lost her son at the hands of a disturbed gunman. She's joining us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)