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New Day

Walker's Immigration Flip; Scott Walker On A Woman's Choice; Report: Hillary Is Ready; Cleveland Blames 12-Year-Old For His Own Death; Buffett: Biggest Risk Is Not Being In Stocks;

Aired March 02, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just hours from speaking to a pro-Israel lobby group before tomorrow's controversial address to Congress.

Relations between the U.S. and Israel as strained as they have ever been as Netanyahu prepares to slam the Obama administration's nuclear talks with Iran just two weeks before Israelis head to the polls to decide whether Netanyahu should be re-elected.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The LAPD is investigating the fatal shooting of a homeless man that was caught on video. This happened Sunday what you're watching right now.

CNN has blurred the faces of the officers involved because we don't know who was involved this this shooting yet. Police say they tried to taser the man, but it did not work, and that he reached for an officer's gun and that's when police say they needed to fire three cops fired at him killing him.

The police say they're going to review all video of the incident, including officers' body cams as part of their investigation. We'll stay on it.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Got to show these images out of Florida, plane resting right on its nose after skidding 60 feet of the runway at Marco Island Airport. It is a private jet, took off at a nearby airport.

During landing the reverse thrusters and landing gear failed. Of the nine people on board, one was taken to the hospital. Fortunately no serious injuries were reported. The FAA is now investigating. Hopefully I didn't take years off your life on that one.

CAMEROTA: No, I blame winter.

PEREIRA: Yes, absolutely.

CUOMO: And now you've said that this is why you sold the jet.

CAMEROTA: Occasionally this happens so I just got rid of the private jet.

PEREIRA: What was it about the luxury yacht, again?

CAMEROTA: I still have that one.

CUOMO: Too slow, had to walk too far to get down to the main deck where the jet skis were. Let's get inside politics on NEW DAY with John King. How are you, my friend? Happy Monday.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Monday morning, be a little bit more gentle to your colleagues.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, John.

KING: I want to ride on the yacht, though, Alisyn. Busy Monday morning to go "Inside Politics" so let's go there, with me this morning to share their reporting and their insights, Jonathan Martin of the "New York Times," and CNN's Peter Hamby.

Let's go through a little Scott Walker then and now. Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor is the ascendant candidate at the moment among the 2016 Republican hopefuls, placed second in the CPAC straw poll over the weekend, leads the polls in Iowa.

I want you to listen. This is 2013, remember he's gearing up to run for reelection, what he thinks will be a very competitive reelection campaign in the state of Wisconsin.

And he's asked about the undocumented, the estimated 11 million here in the United States and he's asked if they should be able to get a pass to legal status or citizenship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you envision a world where with the right penalties and waiting periods and meet the requirements where those people could get citizenship?

GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: Sure. Yes. I think it makes sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Sure. I think it makes sense. That's October 2013 to the "Warsaw Daily Herald." Here he is on Fox News Sunday yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: My view has changed. I'm flat out saying it, candidates can say that, sometimes they don't --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you've changed from 2013.

WALKER: Absolutely. I look at the problems we've experienced over the last few years. I've talked to governors on the border and others out there. I've talked to people all across America and the concerns I have is that we need to secure the border. We ultimately need to put this place a system that works.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Now politicians should be allowed to change their position and to his credit he doesn't try to hide it. He says right there I've changed my mind.

But in 2013, he was with George W. Bush and John McCain and Barack Obama in saying, sure, it makes sense, give people a path to some status. Now he has the Republican mantra of border security first.

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: It's a lot of Republicans were at that place in the beginning of 2013, obviously Marco Rubio led the Senate immigration bill, this was after they got clobbered losing Hispanic in the presidential election three to one.

It's just one more example of Republicans bowing to the actual reality of Republican politics, which is that you really -- it's very difficult to be for path way to citizenship in the Republican primary. Jeb bush got booed for saying so at CPAC.

But you are so right, we were talking during the break, if it was John McCain or Mitt Romney or sort of a perceived establishment figure, they would be getting drilled by this, but Walker has goodwill and credit with the Republican base. It seems like this is something he knows he might get a pass on.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": But for now, though, he's going to have the scarlet A for amnesty branded on him and he's going to have it brand on him by folks to his right, Ted Cruz comes to mind in Iowa and he's also going to be held to account by folks like Jeb Bush, who are going to say you were where I was a couple of years ago until it was convenient for you politically to change.

So he's going to get it from both sides on this. So let's see what kind of reception he gets after a bunch of direct mail and TV spots have rained down on his head over this.

KING: And when people starting to go onto other issues because that's again go back to that campaign. This is back in the campaign, again, it didn't turn out to be as close as he thought, but he was running against a Democratic candidate.

Everyone thought it would be a 50/50 race. Scott Walker ended up winning a bit comfortably, but listen to him here, listen to his tone on what's he's talking about -- Scott Walker says he's personally anti-abortion but --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: I support legislation to increase safety and to provide more information for a woman considering her options. The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor. Reasonable people can disagree on this issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor. Reasonable people can disagree on this issue. Again, in the interview on Fox News Sunday yesterday he says when he is from a policy standpoint what you might describe as pro-choice he says he's doing it only because the courts require him to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: We acted on the grounds that we have legally to be able to act under the Supreme Court's decision. We'll act that way at the federal level if we were at a position as well, but ultimately it's a life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But ultimately it's her choice.

WALKER: Legally that's what it is under the guidelines provided from the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Is it me or does it sounds like during the reelection campaign his tone is a lot softer?

HAMBY: I remember during that -- that when that ad ran it was within the last couple weeks when he was running against Democrat Mary Burke he thought the race would be closer.

I was told at that time that Walker was, you know, Burke was in his head. He thought this race was going to be very really close. He was sort of micromanage the campaign even writing his own ad scripts.

This was him. That campaign spot was him sort of being a little afraid, cautious, taking that softer tone. Again, now that he wins back to Republican politics.

KING: He is trying to say in this campaign I fight with the unions, I stand with you. I'm the next Ronald Reagan. If he has a few of these position shifts might he not be the next Ronald Reagan? Might he be to the base the next Mitt Romney?

MARTIN: I would not go that far, John. There's no question that he's going to have some fodder out there that is going to be available to his opponents to challenge him. The question to me that you raised earlier is how much goodwill does this guy have?

There comes to a certain point where because of his credentials on those fights against labor that the base is kind of tunes out some of this stuff. They don't want to hear it.

KING: They give him the grace.

MARTIN: Yes. He's not John McCain. He's not Bush. He's one of us and so he does get some of that grace. The real question looming here is how many of these they'll compile up before some questions do begin to loom.

KING: You can be sure it's not just the Democrats now that he is rising in the polls. All of the Republicans if they haven't already done this research they're working on it as we speak. MARTIN: Literally right now.

KING: Let's shift to the Democrats. The "Wall Street Journal" has a story that says the Hillary Clinton campaign is telling donors to look for a roll out sometime in April. She's running, we've just been waiting for the official word.

There's been a lot of debate. Let's look at her calendar. She's busy in the month of March, speech this week, foundation event for the Clinton Foundation, U.N. empowerment principals, Irish-American hall of fame, always a big event, the American Camp Association Conference.

I know, Peter Hamby, you're on the board I think of the American Camp Association. So she is busy giving some speeches. The question has been when does she say I'm a candidate for president?

There has been in the donor community the people say we need the signal so we can get out and raise all this money. Do we believe this it's going to be April as opposed to whatever?

HAMBY: I mean, if you talk to people around Clinton and there are not just layers of them there are generations of them, they have long been sort of hinting April at least for the last few months.

There are people who want her to delay because they don't want her to take the slings and arrows of being an official candidate, but she does have to start raising money, official capacity and also signal to outside groups who need to, you know, get to their donors that they need to start raising money.

What this story was to me also was a symptom of what I was just saying of a greater malady, which is that, you know, this is donors or advisors or whoever getting, you know, too far over their skis, you know, no matter how many, you know --

KING: They feel the need to say something and there's not a campaign out there telling them what to say.

MARTIN: Exactly.

HAMBY: Totally. It's wonderful. No matter how many, you know, disciplined advisors they bring in, you know, Robee Mook will be their campaign manager. Great guy, very discipline, like a real professional, but they're still going to have to deal with donors with loose lips and advisors and friends of the candidate.

MARTIN: She'll say something in April, the question is, is it going to be a full blown campaign announcement or is it going to be a nod to that in April? By the way --

HAMBY: How would she only do a nod like she's been exploring for a long time.

MARTIN: By the way, the viewers should know April isn't some random nice spring month, April also is the first month of the second quarter so she can get the maximum period of fundraising ability. KING: You have that three-month period. When you file in three months it looks like a boom. I don't know she worries about. I don't know why anybody worries about that, but it is one of the old rules of politics. You time your things to be in touch with the campaign finance. Peter, Jonathan, thanks on a Monday morning.

Alisyn, as we get back to you, one of the other stories we'll keep our eye on all this week is they have to get back into the Department of Homeland Security funding fight. They extended it for one week.

And one of the big questions is, are people going to go after Speaker John Boehner? There's also grumbling about Mitch McConnell. We'll keep an eye on all of that one, one week ahead.

CAMEROTA: I think they're JUST trying torture you personally by extending it one week at a time. To keep you on --

KING: Reporting is fun, it's not torture.

CAMEROTA: That's great. Thanks, John King. Great to see you.

Well, the city of Cleveland is triggering outrage with its response to a lawsuit by the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer. Why they say the boy is to blame for his own death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: The city of Cleveland sparking outrage. Officials say a 12- year-old boy who was gunned down by police caused his own death. You will recall in November Tamir Rice was fatally shot holding a pellet gun, which officers mistook for a real firearm.

Disturbing video shows the shooting occurred within 2 seconds of police arriving on scene. Tamir Rice's grandmother, Mildretta Warner Davis joins us this morning at her side attorney for the Rice family, Walter Madison. Good morning to the two of you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

PEREIRA: Mr. Mildretta, I want to begin with you and first of all, ask how you are doing and how the family is doing.

MILDRETTA WARNER DAVIS, TAMIR RICE'S GRANDMOTHER: We're doing as well as expected.

PEREIRA: I want to ask you -- tell us a little bit about your grandson, Tamir. We see the picture of him. He was a 12-year-old who had quite a smile and I have a sense that he might have taken that from you.

DAVIS: Yes. He was a wonderful child. I loved Tamir. He would come over and we would play, we would go to the park. We would do a lot of things together, but he was just an average child.

PEREIRA: I can imagine that that park is not somewhere that holds fond memories for you anymore.

DAVIS: No. No.

PEREIRA: Ms. Mildretta, what do you make of the city of Cleveland saying that Tamir is the cause of his own death? What do you make of that?

This is the statement, "Injuries were directly and proximately caused by the failure of Tamir to exercise due care to avoid injury." A 12- year-old child essentially responsible for his own death, what do you make of that?

DAVIS: I am very disappointed that they are blaming Tamir for his own death instead of them taking responsibility for killing him.

PEREIRA: What would you like them to do?

DAVIS: I would like for them to hold up to their responsibility.

PEREIRA: Does it make sense to you that he caused his own death, Ms. Mildretta?

DAVIS: No, no, he did not cause his own death. He was just a kid out there playing. To me, if he was any threat to anyone out there, one of them kids would have went out there and told their parents.

PEREIRA: Did your granddaughter see what all was happening before that, before the shooting?

DAVIS: No. She was in the restroom.

PEREIRA: She was in the restroom. Walter, let's talk about that because we see this video, I think we played it over and over here, we've seen it. I think it's been shocking to so many people to see how this all played out.

He is seen wandering and then when police finally arrive on scene in a matter of seconds they open fire. There was -- it seems to us at first blush that it wasn't a reasonable amount of time to then place the blame on the child for causing his death.

WALTER MADISON, ATTORNEY FOR THE RICE FAMILY: Well, it's just outright outrageous and the discussion assumes that this person should have been a police officer in the first place.

However, taking the situation as it is, there's 1.7 seconds and there's no indication that this officer or these officers even gave the child the opportunity to comply.

And he shot and, you know, and then the behavior -- you know, we can't look into the minds of people, but we can judge what they're thinking by their behavior.

PEREIRA: How concerned, Walter, are you about the overall practices of the Cleveland Police Department because they know there was a federal investigation that was conducted prior to Tamir's death. The Justice Department pointed to excessive use of force by the Cleveland police officers, failure to follow proper police procedures to prevent crossing the line.

Obviously there was concern on a federal level. Did you and other people in the community have their own concerns?

MADISON: Well, there is there's grave concern in the community and there has been that concern for a number of years. Unfortunately, it takes situations such as the death of a 12-year-old child for the world to now turn their attention and the federal government to the division of police in the city of Cleveland.

It's unacceptable, it is reaching epidemic proportions across the country and now the nation is focusing on Cleveland to see what they will do to try to rectify this police brutality.

PEREIRA: It's horrifying to so many that a 12-year-old would be the face -- the current face of that situation about the ongoing discussion about police actions in our community across America.

Ms. Mildretta, I'm curious, are you getting support from your community, from your church? Is the family feeling as though they're rallied around?

DAVIS: Yes.

MADISON: The support has been tremendous. You know, you can't ask for more and as you just mentioned, a 12-year-old is now the face of this -- this issue and I think that the situation has just reduced itself to just that. It's that -- it's that far out of hand that now 12-year-old children are the victims of police brutality and excessive force.

PEREIRA: Well, we know that there is still an ongoing criminal investigation. We also know there's a civil suit against the city of Cleveland. We understand that there are still hopes for your family that you will receive a measure of justice for your grandson.

Ms. Mildretta Warner-Davis, Walter Madison, thanks so much for joining us here on NEW DAY, our best to the family.

MADISON: Thank you.

DAVIS: Thank you.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Michaela, here's a little bit of a special treat, the Oracle of Omaha is offering sage advice that he says will pay off overtime. We have Warren Buffet's biggest stock tips for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: It's time for CNN Money, Your Money. Chief business correspondent, Christine Romans is in our money center. Christine, stocks at a record high. You have tips from the Oracle of Omaha.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. Stocks might feel risky, but what's riskier, not investing at all. That's what the world's third richest man, Warren Buffet said.

Here's his advice, "Think the long view, don't panic in every headline, keep your fees low, very important, and invest in quality companies you understand."

Buffet has consistently done better than the market. The S&P 500 has returned 9.9 percent annually over the past 50 years. Buffet has average even better, almost 22 percent a year. He says the gains could keep coming.

According to him, America's best days lie ahead. Remember, you can't enjoy it if you're not invested. A little advice for the 45 percent of Americans who are not in the market at all, 45 percent are not in the stock market, interesting, right?

CUOMO: Forty five percent aren't in.

ROMANS: They're not.

CUOMO: Surprise me every day, Christine. It's always good to hear from the Oracle, too.

All right, so we're dealing with this big situation now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is here, visiting Washington, but not visiting President Obama. We will take a look at what is apparently a deepening divide and what does it really mean for you ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tension may be at its worst right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's clear the president and the prime minister don't have a relationship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If anybody should bear the blame for this, I would start looking at the speaker.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: People are scared to death the president is running the country right off the cliff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are now failing at this most basic test.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John Boehner has turned this most prestigious venue into a political setting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They came out with a gun and shot him five times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They always shoot to kill. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That man is dead now!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, march 2nd, just before 8:00 in the east. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington getting ready to address Congress about the nuclear threat posed by Iran and to rally against any deal with Iran as being pushed for by President Obama. The stakes are high at home and abroad.

CAMEROTA: The tension could not be higher, the prime minister taking a big political risk by coming here. The White House did not invite him and Israelis will decide in two weeks whether to re-elect him. CNN in-depth coverage of this developing story begins with CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. What's the latest?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the White House is offering an icy welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.