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Immigration Battle; Tensions in Ferguson

Aired November 20, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And we continue along, top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

We begin with breaking news on a story that has so much of the nation really just on edge over what this Ferguson grand jury will do. How will they decide? They are deciding now if officer Darren Wilson should be indicted for shooting and killing that unarmed teenager Michael Brown back on August 9.

Now multiple agencies across the country have been put on alert for the weekend.

Let's go to Ferguson, to our correspondent there, Stephanie Elam.

And when we talk about this, you know, heads-up for law enforcement, Stephanie, do we know what are -- what are law enforcement specifically being told?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we know is that there's this alert, Brooke, for any activity because we know that we have seen protests all over the country. The protests haven't just happened here in the Saint Louis area.

So, the idea is to be vigilant, to protect important buildings, federal buildings, all of those being included in this. And this is something that we have kind of expected to see happen here. We already know that we have a state of emergency here in Missouri, Governor Nixon declaring that earlier this week.

We know the National Guard is supposed to arrive at some point this week. And if then things get out of control the National Guard will take over security. But this is all ramping up for what everyone is waiting to hear what is going to happen to Darren Wilson, whether or not he will be indicted.

And the protesters that I have been speaking to, Brooke, saying that they do not believe he will be indicted, and they are prepared to protest and to demonstrate in light of that.

BALDWIN: We know law enforcement, as you're saying, they will give the -- they will get the 48 hours' heads-up when the grand jury has reached this decision. Many are hoping for peaceful protests, including Michael Brown's own family, right, Stephanie? They are lending their voice. They are calling for calm as well.

ELAM: They have said this over and over again that they would like for there to be calm, to show your feeling about this to protest, to demonstrate, but to keep the violence away, that they do not want that.

When you talk to protesters, many of the ones that I have spoken with have said the same thing. The concern has been that something small, as it was put to me by one protester, will trigger police to then overreact. That's their concern on that side.

One more note about that 48 hours that you mentioned.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ELAM: We do know that law enforcement is supposed to get a 48-hour advance notice. We also know that schools in the area will also get advance notice before this decision is made public.

One can only assume then that people will know that this ruling is impending and so it will be interesting to see what happens here. It will be driving rain this thing as things stand right now.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow.

ELAM: And in the 50s. I have been here before. The rain does not stop the protesters from coming out and many saying that this is so much bigger than just the issue of Mike Brown. It's the relationship between police and people of color, especially young men of color, that they want to -- their voices to be heard.

And even after the decision is out there, they still will feel the need to keep this drumbeat going, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will continue to listen to them. We will listen to both sides and watch and wait to see what happens right where you are in Ferguson, Missouri.

Stephanie Elam, thank you so much.

And while police there are getting ready for the announcement, whatever it is, from the grand jury, you know, the protesters are preparing as well, not just with signs, also with cameras, as a member of the group Copwatch told me just last hour. You see these teeny- tiny cameras. This group is equipping demonstrators in Ferguson with these little recording devices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB CRAWFORD, COPWATCH: At this point, we have given out 210 body cameras and a lot of handheld cameras. But now that this is happening and it's been pretty effective, we're now getting larger donors. So, we have received $20,000 and we have a 1,000-camera initiative in which we will be training people throughout the next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We know the videos have already played a pretty pivotal part in what's happening in Ferguson, despite efforts by a couple of officers to stop those cameras from rolling.

CNN's Sara Sidner explains that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name, sir?

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The video shows a confrontation between a Ferguson police officer and a citizen back in 2013, an example of what has helped fuel the mistrust among some residents in Ferguson, Missouri, over how some police have reacted to public's right to record.

Details in this police report appear to match what happened in the video. The officer says he told the citizen he could record audio, but not video. The officer making the report happens to be Darren Wilson, the same officer who shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown, sparking months of protests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, I'm not taking a picture. I'm recording this incident, sir. Do I not have the right to record?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you don't.

SIDNER: But the ACLU says he does, provided he doesn't physically interfere with the officer's ability to do his job.

JEFFREY MITTMAN, ACLU OF MISSOURI: You have an absolute right to make a document, a recording of interactions with a government official. For a police officer to tell someone they don't have that right is absolutely improper.

MUSTAFA HUSSEIN, ARGUS STREAMING NEWS: We have been told by the Saint Louis State Police Department to turn off all our cameras. We will not be turning off our cameras.

SIDNER: That was August 13. The voice you hear is Mustafa Hussein, who was live-streaming when tensions exploded over the killing of Brown. It's one of several incidents where police told people, including journalists, to stop recording.

The ACLU says the actions show officers don't understand First Amendment rights. The police officers association says officers are trained in that, but on the job things are far more complicated.

GABE CROCKER, SAINT LOUIS COUNTY POLICE ASSOCIATION: It involves state law and constitutional law and laws of use of force in police work. These are complicated topics and just a quick video on YouTube is not enough to indict an officer.

SIDNER: Police say the public should also consider these image, police pausing during a protest to have a civil conversation about how to get along.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He spit at me. Come on, man. You know what I'm saying? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't condone that. I'll tell you right here,

when I'm here, I expect every one of these officers to be professional.

SIDNER: Still, the ACLU says it's more than just about tactics. It's about the law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring your gun down.

SIDNER: And it's now suing over First Amendment rights on behalf of the man who took this video, Mustafa Hussein, who now runs online news Web site Argus Streaming News.

HUSSEIN: The protesters were begging anybody with a camera, please don't leave. Please stay. And that really rattled me inside and that continued to motivate me to stay out here and continue to film.

SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, Ferguson, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: In just couple of hours, President Obama will make an announcement that at least one Republican says could lead to violence, could lead to anarchy if this is the president's go-it-alone executive action on immigration.

It's a controversial move that could shield more than three million undocumented immigrants from deportation. So let's just put this into perspective.

You might have heard the number of undocumented immigrants coming to the states is rising. That's actually wrong. You see the graph here. According to Pew, that number has leveled off. And where do these undocumented immigrants settle? You can see the pie chart mostly and then the red piece there, the red chunk, California, 25 percent, followed by Texas, Florida, New York.

But the soon-to-be expected majority leader in the Senate says, listen, this isn't about the people. This is about politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: It seems to be what a political party thinks would make for good politics.

It seems to be about what a president thinks would be good for his legacy. Those are not the motivations that should be driving such sweeping action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, let's point out the president, because we do know for years he has been saying he didn't want to act on immigration without Congress. Remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States of America.

Congress passes the law. The executive branch's job is to enforce and implement those laws.

I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: With me now from Philadelphia, Michael Smerconish, host of CNN's "SMERCONISH."

Michael, let's just begin with, look, we know the president talks tonight 8:00. Republicans don't like what they believe he will say. They are threatening noncooperation and that's across the spectrum here. Do they have a specific plan as far as how they think they will make the president pay a price for this?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Nothing stops the Republicans who control the House of Representatives from passing something on their own right now.

I mean, if they really want to take control of this from a substantive point of view, then they could pass their own bill. The Senate has already done so.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Toss that out.

SMERCONISH: I think that what has really happened is that the president has taken their feet from fire, because let's assume, Brooke, instead that he signed an executive order and it had some kind of a delay period and said, OK, you have 60 days. If you don't do something, then this takes effect.

If he signs something that has immediacy, I think he's taken their feet out of the fire and now they will argue about process, but not about substance.

BALDWIN: It's interesting. I saw a note from you saying that because of all of this, it appears the Republican Party is winning, right, because they keep shouting out and pointing out lawlessness and illegality and therefore they don't have to talk about solutions.

SMERCONISH: Exactly right, although I think it's a short-term gain because, as you look at the shifting demographics in this country -- and Neil Newhouse, who was Mitt Romney's pollster in 2012 makes this point -- because of the changing demographics of the country, the Republican Party in presidential years needs to reach an escalating number of white voters. They need to get to 64 percent of the white vote in 2016, where in the

last cycle they only obtained 58. It's untenable. Unless they climb aboard and grow the tent of their own party, they will be a party that controls Congress, but never the White House.

BALDWIN: But when you poll Americans -- and we know that Americans do want reform in the immigration system. There's this poll out, this "Wall Street Journal"/NBC, showing 48 percent disapprove of taking executive action to make reforms reality.

They are agreeing with al to of the Republicans on this. And here we are. This is like the final quarter in this game. Is there anything that the president can say tonight to perhaps change that 48 percent? Change their minds?

SMERCONISH: It's interesting. That "Wall Street Journal" poll comports with what I heard on the radio because for two full hours today I talked about this very issue.

And caller after caller said, we want there to be some type of a path towards immigration reform. We don't like the way he's going about it. But by the same token, if you ask a follow-up and you say, well, do you blame him or do you blame a recalcitrant Congress for that, many will blame the president, but an equal number at least will say he has no choice because he can't deal with this House of Representatives.

BALDWIN: Interesting. OK. So we wait and we see what the president says tonight. We watch for the fallout and then a whole new Congress next year and then potentially whole new president come 2016. And they can just do away with the law altogether.

Michael Smerconish, thank you so much. And just a reminder.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: We tune in to you each and Saturday 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

And please don't miss a second of this important presidential address tonight prime time. That speech, 8:00 Eastern, we will be watching.

Right now, police are holding a news conference on the shooting inside a Florida State library. This gunman opens fire, hundreds huddled between the bookshelves. What do we know about the shooter, what's happened? We will take threw.

Plus, new video surfaces showing Bill Cosby responding to rape allegations, and sitting beside him, his wife. We will talk about her as well.

And folks in Buffalo, New York, still trapped in their homes, shovel, shovel, shovel, round two of this monstrous storm slamming the area. We will talk to someone in the thick of it all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Just a really scary scene in Florida this morning. This gunman opens fire inside a college library packed with hundreds of students cramming for exams. Let me show you what it looked like as fear spread. This was actually last night inside of Florida State's library.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wait. Are you serious? Oh, my God, are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do I do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We can tell you now that three students were hurt. One is in critical condition. Police ordered the gunman to drop his weapon. He didn't do it. So police shot and they killed him.

Joining me now is our national reporter, Nick Valencia, live in Tallahassee, Florida.

Let's talk about the news that just has come out of that news conference. You have been listening. We now know who the gunman is. Let's begin with that.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, lots of breaking details just coming into us in the last 10 minutes, including the confirmed name of that suspected gunman, Tallahassee Police Department saying that Myron De'Shawn May was the shooter that was shot and killed by police last night just after midnight.

They said that he's a 2005 graduate of Florida State University and he went on to pursue his higher education at Texas Tech and from there went on there to practice law. That police chief also went on the say that Myron May recently returned to Florida in the last couple of weeks, last three weeks. We don't know why he came back here.

Also unclear at this point is the motive. They didn't go into that at all. The press conference so far, that press conference still ongoing. But they did mention, Brooke, a written journal where he expressed fears of being targeted. They went on to say that he acted alone.

Now, when I spoke to students, they were well aware of the rumor that the possible gunman was an alumni of this university and many that I spoke to before this information was confirmed were shocked at the suspicion of perhaps that gunman being an alumni.

We do know that is confirmed. So many people that I have spoken to still visibly upset, still visibly angry at this happening at the university. We hear it a lot, Brooke. We hear about these school shootings. And when I speak to students here, they say we hear about this, but we never expected it to happen to us -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Of course they are upset, understandably so.

Nick Valencia, thank you so much from Tallahassee.

Two other big stories we're keeping our close eye on this afternoon, the Bill Cosby rape allegations. You have TV shows and pilots, they are getting canceled, as his image keeps taking hit after hit after hit. Should the iconic comedian address the claims?

And snow, lots and lots of snow, record amounts still falling in parts of Buffalo, New York. People are trapped. More snow could be on the way. Whew. We will take you there live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Severe weather conditions in Buffalo, New York, and surrounding areas have reached a critical point, nearly seven feet of snow, seven suffocating the city, the weight of that snow beginning to collapse some roofs.

Emergency crews raced to evacuate a nursing home just outside of Buffalo, ceiling there just crushed because of all of the snow, the weight of it, officials telling CNN showing signs of buckling.

Let's go to CNN's Alexandra Field. She's in Buffalo for us.

And let's just start with the nursing home. Tell me what we know about those evacuations. How are they going? Is everyone safe?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, look, scary situation out there.

What we're hearing is that people saw the walls starting to crack. They noticed the ceiling starting to bow; 150 people had to be taken out there was. Good news is that no one hurt, no one was injured. But they did have to get out of there. They are worried that that roof is compromised.

And here's why. Take a look at what we're looking at here. We're talking about several feet of snow piled up on things. That's a car that you're looking at. It's a car in the middle of the road that was abandoned. That's another car right next to it completely buried in snow.

So, you see this snow piling up. That is what causes these roofs to being to bow or collapse. This is a big issue for firefighters around here. Another big issue, look at the road we're on right now, pretty much impassable because you have got these cars that were abandoned in the middle of it.

You got that oversize load there, that rig there that you're looking which has been pulling forward, backing up. He's stuck right there. On the other side of the rig, that's where the firehouse is. And that's why these first-responders have had so much difficulty. They can't get the trucks out. We know that. They do have SUVs. They have got ATVs, which we have seen them bring out of here at certain points. But, sometimes, the ATVs, that doesn't even cut it. So, then we have seen firefighters hopping on the back of snowmobiles trying race to help people who really need this help.

And if you look at this, you see how much cleanup work they still have to do. And at this point, it feels pretty impossible to start to even think about getting ahead of that. But the roofs, Brooke, those are the really big deals here. This is the key concern because once that snow piles up, that's when it gets heavy and that's when it gets really dangerous.

BALDWIN: And then of course flooding down the road, but we even won't go there.

But that picture, that live picture perfectly exemplifies the issue, because you're standing on this road not far from the firehouse. The truck behind you, as you point out, is stuck. We talk so much about these emergency responders, right, taking people on stretchers to the hospital on foot, because they can't even get there, they are trying to use these snowmobiles.

How are they holding up? How is the energy? How is morale?

FIELD: Look, we were with some of the first-responders who were in that firehouse just up the road there a little while ago.

And they say they have got about 20 people who work in this volunteer fire department. A lot of them, they can't even get here. So, the guys who can get here, they are doing the best they can. The guys who can't get here, they're being told, hey, help out in your neighborhood. That's where you are needed anyway. Those are the people who are really counting on you right now.

You if you look down this road, you are going to see a lot of people getting on these snowmobiles trying to get out of here, getting on the ATVs. Frankly, a lot of people, of course, they can't get to their cars. They can't drive down these roads.

So, we are seeing people just finally heading out of their houses, they're walking, a lot of them are pulling sleds, loading them up with groceries. We talked to one dad who said that he walked five miles to get to the grocery store, had to pick up some things because has got a baby at home. So, people just doing the best they can with this, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's what we're hearing from a city councilman going to the store, walking his way to get formula for his little one.

Alexandra Field, thank you to you and your crew. Stay warm, if you can. We will take you back to Buffalo a little later.

We're also though following new developments in those rape allegations against Bill Cosby, today, a video surfacing of the comedian being asked about these accusations. Don't miss his reaction. Meantime, he's sitting next to his wife, Camille. That's coming up. Also, is it time for America's favorite dad to publicly address these

troubling allegations? What does he say? How does he say it? We will ask all those questions coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)