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Marco Rubio Running for President; New Evidence in South Carolina Police Shooting. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 13, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hour two. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

I have to share this new audio with you, actually, two pieces of audio, revealing what officer Michael Slager said immediately after shooting Walter Scott and killing him in South Carolina.

This first piece of audio we're about to play for you, you will hear officer Slager speaking with another police officer. But you have to listen closely. It's tough to make out some of what they're saying.

Toward the end of the tape, as officer Slager mentions, his adrenaline is pumping after firing eight bullets at the unarmed 50-year-old African-American man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once they get here, it will be real quick. They're going to tell you, you are going to be off for a couple days and we will come back and interview you then.

They're not going to ask you any kind of questions right now. They are going to -- they will take your weapon. And we will go -- we will go from there. That's pretty much it.

The last one we had, they waited a couple days to interview, an official interview, like say what happened. Probably when you get home, it would probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts or what happened.

SLAGER: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once the adrenaline quits pumping.

SLAGER: It's pumping.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's the first audio. Now, we have got the second piece of audio. It's actually a private phone call officer Slager makes to someone we

believe to be his wife. Take a listen to this as he again mentions his claim Scott tried to take his Taser.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SLAGER: Hey. Hey, everything's OK. OK? I just shot somebody. Yes, everything's OK. He grabbed my Taser. Yes. Yes, he was running from me. I'm fine.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to North Charleston now to my colleague Nick Valencia.

We know, Nick, protests are actually about to begin right around where you are in North Charleston. What are people there most sad or frustrated or angry about today?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're upset that it took this tape for the conversation that they say they have been having for years, in order for that dialogue to start.

It took videotape for that conversation to -- essentially to matter. So people are very frustrated about that. You mentioned the demonstrations. You're absolutely right, Brooke. Two hours from now, we're expected to have a mass demonstration here at North Charleston City Hall.

We have already seen several protesters show up. A press conference for a similar issue related to officer Slager's work history was just held behind me, where we saw some demonstrators show up

The real man narrative, the present narrative today is people calling for prosecution against this second officer seen in the tape alongside officer Slager, officer Clarence Habersham. National Bar Association calling for him to be held accountable. They say they're critical of his actions. They say that he did not do enough to help Walter Scott and that he may have been complicit in a cover-up when he chose to document in his police report the version of events that officer Slager wrote on his police report.

So far, no formal charges have been filed. We have reached out to Clarence Habersham and his attorney. We have yet to hear back, but right now this community very much so grieving and still very upset, even more than a week later after 50-year-old Walter Scott was shot five times -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Nick Valencia, thank you very much.

Paul Ginsberg, forensic audio expert who's worked with the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, ATF, Homeland Security, with me here now, who has listened very, very closely here to that first piece of audio, and I'm sure actually both.

And so good to see you, sir. What did you hear? Because it's tough for me to really -- you hear officer Slager mention his adrenaline pumping. You hear almost this nervous laughter. What else did you hear?

PAUL GINSBERG, FORENSIC AUDIO EXPERT: Other than the nervous laughter, though, he seems like he's just ready to go out either for a drink or go home or do paperwork, whatever.

He's not hyperventilating, as I would expect somebody who's been in a deadly confrontation to be. He's talking to a colleague. And the colleague, I believe, is giving him bad information, in that he says we will interview you in a few days.

BALDWIN: He says, go home, jot down some notes, some thoughts, and they will talk to you in a couple days. I was actually talking to a member of law enforcement for years and years last hour. He said, no, typically, what happens is that afternoon they're talking to you.

(CROSSTALK)

GINSBERG: You want to examine the crime scene immediately, and you want to interview all the witnesses separately immediately.

BALDWIN: I think what also strikes me just from an audio forensic perspective is you have these two different pieces of audio. Are officers always aware of the fact that they're being recorded, be it what they may think is a private phone call with a wife or reacting in the field with another officer? Are you aware of that typically?

GINSBERG: They should be. The standard dash cam has two audio channels. One is from the transmitter that's worn by the officer.

BALDWIN: So, they're wearing something.

GINSBERG: Yes. It's a transmitter. He can turn that on or off.

And the other microphone is in the dashboard of the car, inside. So he should know if he's in his cruiser that he is being recorded, whether it's talking to his wife or talking to the colleague, the other officer.

[15:05:07] BALDWIN: Is there any piece of either of those audio clips that you think will be paid particular attention to by a prosecutor?

GINSBERG: I think they will look at his demeanor in both of them, as well as the fact that he knows, he should know he is being recorded, so that if he said, I shot someone to his wife and then he says he was trying to get my Taser, they may argue that that was being said intentionally, in effect, reading it into the microphone and to be recorded. We don't know.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. We don't know. We don't know a lot about this case. Paul Ginsberg, thank you very much.

GINSBERG: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Just ahead here, a 73-year-old reserve deputy says he accidentally shot his gun instead of a Taser when he killed the suspect here on the ground. See what happens during this entire standoff.

Also, a tale of two presidential hopefuls today just a day after Hillary Clinton made it official. A short time from now, it's Marco Rubio's turn. The Republican Florida senator just a couple hours away from his announcement in Miami. But how awkward would it be for Rubio facing off against his mentor, Jeb Bush, who's also expected to throw his hat in the ring?

Also ahead, new video surfaces of one of the most brazen jewelry heists in Europe's history when the thieves are still on the run here. We will see everything from the break-in to the getaway.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:10:46] BALDWIN: All right. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio says he's uniquely qualified to talk about America's future. And checking my clock, in less than three hours, we're expecting him to make his White House bid official. Rubio shared the news with top donors this morning. He also promoted the big announcement with this video on Twitter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: We're excited about the announcement tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time live, so you can watch or on MarcoRubio.com.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK, Dana Bash, you're live with us in Miami.

And, Dana, I know you have got the skinny on what's expected to come of this big message, the big fancy video in three hours from now. But can we talk about that Twitter video for a second? What was that?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What, you didn't think that was fancy, you didn't think that was fancy, doing this?

BALDWIN: Uh, uh, no.

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: You know what, he's just -- he's among the people and he's of the people, Brooke. That's clearly what this is.

No, look, that was odd. I didn't really get that. They also put out another video. There's just no other way to say it. Right? They put out another video a couple of days ago that was kind of like his greatest hits of all of his speeches.

So, you know, they're definitely trying to kind of get into the conversation, as most of the conversation to their chagrin -- much to their chagrin, has been about Hillary Clinton. So they're trying to do so, and I think, in his 12-minute speech, which I'm told is going to be, well, relatively short, 12 minutes, tonight, he will be able too much that much more eloquently, let's say.

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

What about just the Tea Party? This is the group that really helped catapult Marco Rubio and actually some others who we could be seeing on -- throwing their hats in the ring, so to speak, but they're not exactly -- it seems they're not so impressed anymore with him.

BASH: It is very interesting, because, as you said, three, counting Marco Rubio now, by the end of the night, three freshmen Republican senators who all came in on a Tea Party wave within the past five years.

And when it comes to Rand Paul and certainly when it comes to Ted Cruz, they still very much identify with that kind of Tea Party ideology.

Marco Rubio, truth be told, when he was here in Florida before he got that there was this Tea Party movement going on, he was pretty establishment. He was the speaker of the Statehouse here in Florida, and he was, as we have been talking about all day, a protege of Jeb Bush. The name Bush doesn't get much more establishment when you're talking about the Republican Party.

So I think that this is probably more his comfort zone. And when he's going to speak tonight, I'm told, he's going to talk about the kind of thing we have heard him speak about really over the past decade, the American dream, his Cuban -- or Cuban roots, his Cuban-American heritage, the fact that they came here, his family came here seeking refuge from Castro, and that the American government has to continue to be the place where you can sort of put its thumb on tyranny and help people around the world who need that kind of help, very much an interventionist, sort of hawkish kind of message.

And, in fact, I just got a glimpse at his new logo. And over the dot for I isn't a dot. It's the map of America.

BALDWIN: Oh, there you go.

Dana Bash on the Rubio watch in Miami, thank you so much for the heads-up.

We're watching, less than three hours from now.

Meantime, Hillary Clinton has also returned to the campaign trail, but no big rallies for her. Call it a soft launch, this online video with a lot of so-called regular folks. She released this video announcement eight years ago as well. But that video had a much, much different look. Here's a sampling from back then, back in 2007, and flash forward to now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: All of us have to be part of the solution. Let's talk about how to bring the right end to the war in Iraq and to restore respect for America around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's spring, so we're starting to get the gardens ready. My tomatoes are legendary here in my own neighborhood.

CLINTON: How to end the deficits that threaten Social Security and Medicare, and let's definitely talk about how every American can have quality, affordable health care.

[15:15:10] I'm getting ready to do something too. I'm running for president. Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So it was eight years ago. It was looking to the camera, talk specifics. Today, it's everyday people and broad themes like defending the middle class.

Is this the new populist Hillary Clinton? Let's talk about Hillary's new launch with Kathie Obradovich, political columnist for "The Des Moines Register," and Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN senior political reporter.

Ladies, welcome to both of you.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here.

KATHIE OBRADOVICH, "THE DES MOINES REGISTER": Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hi.

Kathie, let me just begin with you since you're there on the ground in the state of Iowa, where Hillary Clinton is headed in her van from New York in, I suppose, less than 24 hours from now. But when I think of Iowa, I think of the caucuses, I think of 2008. I think of, it was sort of a shocker. It was like this first domino to fall in the caucuses. It was Barack Obama, then John Edwards, then Hillary Clinton. What has changed since then?

OBRADOVICH: Well, you know, it's a different cycle, and it's a different Hillary Clinton, and it's a very different field. Hillary Clinton right now is the prohibitive front-runner.

She's almost the expected nominee. And she was in 2007 as well, but what happened to her was Barack Obama, who came in, ran a very savvy Iowa campaign and launched himself to the White House. This time, Hillary Clinton does not face the same sort of strong field that she did in 2007.

But she faces an Iowa problem, which is how to run a campaign here and how to do it in a way that doesn't make her look like the inevitable nominee or the expected nominee, but someone who's really going to compete and work for every vote, as she said in her video.

BALDWIN: OK, so perhaps still an Iowa problem, but what about a perk, Nia?

Let me turn to you to just ask you about. You wrote about this. This is a big deal, that this is the first time she's really embracing, hey, I would be making history here. I would be the first female president.

HENDERSON: That's right.

And if you look at that video featuring a lot of women there, black women, white women, Latinas as well, her Web site the same thing, a lot of pictures of women. Women dominate the sort of visuals on that Web site. So, yes, I think she's embracing it in a way that she didn't in 2008.

Remember, in that race, Obama would have -- did make history. So in that way, she didn't really have the upper hand in that argument. But now she does. And in many ways, you're going to see, I think, on the Republican side people notice that she's trying to be the sole woman in this campaign.

You might see somebody like Carly Fiorina jump in to challenge her on that field. But I think you're going to see -- the Democratic Party had often been known as the mommy party. Right? It was sort of a derisive thing, the mommy party vs. the daddy party. I think you see from Democrats now, but a lot of these issues, whether it's the economics, the middle-class economics, and sort of wrapped them in the language, talk about women, talk about families, talk about children.

And in that way, they hope to keep that gender gap that really led to so many good things for Obama.

BALDWIN: So on that note, Kathie, talking about women and talking about families, but also trying to have this new populist message, let's be real, we're talking about the Clintons here. We know Bill Clinton is about to be the front of "Town & Country" magazine. Here she's planning on sitting down with the people at diners in Iowa.

How will that message fly?

OBRADOVICH: Well, I think it depends on how she approaches the campaign in Iowa.

I think this small start, as they're talking about, it's a good approach for that, where she's not going to jet in, do a huge stadium speech, and jet out again. She actually is going to spend two days in the state. She's going to sit down with small groups and talk to people and not just talk to them, but listen to them.

It gives her an opportunity to start getting out on the campaign trail without having to define her entire campaign and herself in one, you know, lose it -- win it or lose it speech. She has an opportunity to do it slower. And I think that that speaks a lot to the strengths of campaigning, both in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the retail campaigns are really important.

BALDWIN: Final question to you, Nia, and that being you hear a lot from the Republicans saying, is she the anointed one, in pointing out that she really may not have a mega-challenger. Can that help or hurt her?

HENDERSON: Yes, I think if you're Hillary Clinton, you talk to folks in her camp say they would like to have a challenger because she's rusty out on the stump. And to have someone to spar with would probably sharpen her.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They would like that?

HENDERSON: I think they would like it. But then if you talk to political scientists and if you look at what happens to these candidates in primary elections, they get banged up a lot.

[15:20:00] And they also have to pivot and maybe go too far to the right,, as we saw with Mitt Romney. So I'm not convinced when I talk to folks in Hillary's camp that, that they would like very much of a challenger, maybe someone like Martin O'Malley, maybe somebody like Bernie Sanders.

Thank I don't think they want anyone certainly as strong as Barack Obama was in 2008, who came with his own coalition of folks.

BALDWIN: Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you very much.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And, Kathie Obradovich, I have a feeling we will be talking to you quite a bit in the future there in Des Moines, Iowa. Thank you very, very much.

Next, it is like real life "Ocean's Eleven," this massive heist, millions of dollars in jewels poof, gone. Surveillance video capturing these professional burglars in action and the clever disguise they used to pull it all off. Twice, by the way. Twice. We will show you.

Plus, could a police officer mistakenly fire his gun when he meant to pull out and fire his Taser? A 73-year-old sheriffs deputy, this reserve deputy in Oklahoma says that's exactly what happened. This time a police body camera was rolling on the whole thing. We will show you what happened straight ahead. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:20] BALDWIN: All right. This is just nuts, what they pulled off.

The hunt is on for this group of a thieves who carried out this brazen jewelry heist, an act that apparently was caught on camera. We have got this newly released surveillance video for you. And take a close look, because you see them, and then they're gone.

First obtained by the British newspaper "The Daily Mirror," you can the suspects carrying bags and containers out of this vault in London's Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. And then you see the getaway car. At one point in time, the paper even uses pet names to identify six of the bandits seen in the footage. The loot, by the way, get ready for this, likely worth more than $100 million.

CNN's Phil Black has more on the heist that played out like a Hollywood blockbuster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brooke, this security video reveals a lot. It shows the planning was elaborate and thorough, the execution totally professional. It confirms the crew was there working for days, and they were long gone before anyone realized what happened.

For further insight into what this video reveals, we went to experts on both sides of the law, a former bank robber and a former British detective. And they agree, this was an impressive job.

JIM DIXIE, FORMER DETECTIVE: I think there's a good chance police may find some forensics in the vault area, because they were in there for days, rather than hours or minutes. And when you're in that sort of environment, you are going to sweat because of the stress of it all.

NOEL "RAZOR" SMITH, FORMER BANK ROBBER: If you will notice, they're wearing white surgical-type masks over their ski masks. And that's basically to avoid DNA being left -- the slightest little bit of DNA will be picked up -- and also because the police, forensics have now not got facial mapping. I had it in a case of mine 15 years ago.

DIXIE: The lock on the security gate is -- how can I describe it? I would say it's Mickey Mouse. This is so well-organized and so well- planned, it's highly likely they either had a key or they forced it somehow, and, once they're in, if they get challenged, they obviously had a strategy.

SMITH: I think they're a very professional team. They have gone in there and done what they had to do, but they're not (INAUDIBLE) that's quite obvious. They know the camera is there. You can tell that by the way they keep their heads down as they come through.

DIXIE: I have little doubt that, you know, a hue and cry has gone out into the criminal underworld and someone may know who these people are.

And either the police will pay for that information, or they will get the information and it may well be, once they identify at least one member of the gang, they will be out to turn that person. By that, I mean turn him into an informant.

SMITH: This is the kind of job you dream about. This is the job, as a criminal, from a criminal's perspective, this is what they call the big one. This is the one you retire from. So, having got away with it like this, I fancy they won't be seen again.

BLACK: Brooke, the video doesn't show what happened underground. Police say that these thieves climbed down the elevator shaft.

From there, they used a high-powered drill to cut through a very thick wall leading to the vault and then getting to work on the safe deposit boxes inside.

They're now trying to work out what was in those boxes, what was taken. What follows from here for the investigation is slow, grinding detective work, because whoever did this has a big head start -- Brooke.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Phil, thank you.

Larry Lawton, let me bring you in, former jewel thief and author of "Gangster Redemption."

You're an ex-con. You were one of the biggest jewel robbers in the U.S. You spent more than a decade in federal prison, although I should point out you're now a motivational speaker and talking about young people avoiding a life of crime and incarceration. But you're the perfect person to talk to about this.

When you hear all these details, how big, how complicated was this job in London?

LARRY LAWTON, AUTHOR, "GANGSTER REDEMPTION": Well, obviously, it was complicated, but I really believe it was an inside job.

BALDWIN: You do?

LAWTON: Or they had to have inside information. Absolutely, Brooke.

Think about it. If they're casing a place that long on the street, there's cameras on the streets. They would have to really -- and, also, the first thing a robber does, Brooke, is have to know where or how much money or what they're going after. They're not going to go into safe deposit boxes that they don't know that there's a lot of money or diamonds or something very valuable in. So how did they know that?

BALDWIN: So, you mention casing on the street, but, to your point, I mean, here they're apparently -- like, they disabled the elevator on the second floor, dropped down the shaft, have some kind of device where they're able to go through six feet of concrete.

They knew what they were doing. How much prep work does that require?

LAWTON: A lot.