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Hillary Clinton Declares Presidential Candidacy for 2016. Hillary Clinton Making Road Trip to Iowa; Interview with Hillary Clinton Biographer Carl Bernstein; Actions of Second Police Officer Under Scrutiny; Suspect Beaten After Trying to Outrun Police. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired April 13, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marco Rubio, I think, is going to get a lot of attention today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Expected to hop in the presidential race tonight, Rubio's buzz is building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody should go to prison over this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am disturbed and troubled by what I see in the video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They beat the crap out of him and now they're trying to do everything that they can to avoid them being in trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, April 13th, 8:00 in the east. Hillary's in the race for president, so if you're driving to Iowa right now and a van just went by with a dead ringer for Hillary eating Cheetos up front, it's her. She's road-tripping there, hoping to do better in Iowa. Remember she finished third there in 2008, edged out by John Edwards. Obama, of course, was first.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You sure she's not eating Funyuns?

The Republican field also getting more crowded as Senator Marco Rubio prepares to declare his candidacy later today. We've got the race for the White House covered the way only CNN can, starting with senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar live from Washington. Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You guys are on a roll this morning, so funny. But, yes, this is, as you sort of showed there, a really down-to-earth start to her campaign. And she's really trying to attract, as she puts it, everyday Americans. But even as Hillary Clinton does this and she's launching her campaign, Republicans very quick to take aim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm getting ready for a lot of things. We're moving just so she can belong to a better school.

KEILAR: Hillary Clinton announcing her presidential campaign with a video of middle-class Americans.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm getting ready to do something, too. I'm running for president.

KEILAR: Clinton outlined her campaign message, a populist family based rationale for her candidacy.

CLINTON: Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion.

KEILAR: Her announcement quite different than her 2007 pitch.

CLINTON: I'm not just starting a campaign, though. I'm beginning a conversation.

KEILAR: This time --

CLINTON: I'm back!

KEILAR: She tries to convince voters she's not taking her dominance in the Democratic field for granted.

CLINTON: I'm hitting the road to earn your vote.

KEILAR: When she said hitting the road she was being literal. In Pennsylvania she stopped at a gas station. A man who met the new candidate provided CNN these photos. Clinton is on her way to Iowa.

CLINTON: Together, we will make history.

KEILAR: Where she lost big in 2008. Then it's on to another early state, New Hampshire, where she pulled out an unexpected win after this emotional appeal.

CLINTON: I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it.

KEILAR: Ultimately, of course, she lost.

CLINTON: Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it.

(APPLAUSE)

KEILAR: Republicans want to stop her from shattering that ceiling in 2016, Rand Paul's campaign launching this ad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton represents the worst of the Washington machine.

KEILAR: Jeb Bush, still undeclared, responding in advance of Clinton's video.

JEB BUSH, (R) FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: We must do better than the Obama-Clinton foreign policy.

KEILAR: But president Obama, who brings a loyal democratic constituency along with a potentially damaging foreign policy record, all but endorsed Clinton during his trip to Panama.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She was an outstanding secretary of state. She is my friend. I think she would be an excellent president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And now that she is running for president, Hillary Clinton is no longer on her family's -- the board of her family's foundation, the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. We learned, Alisyn, that she resigned from the board of the Clinton Foundation yesterday.

CAMEROTA: OK, that makes sense. Brianna, thanks so much for that.

Well, she traveled plenty by private jet, but overnight Hillary Clinton was on a road trip to Iowa looking to connect with voters who may or may not have warmed to her in 2008. Let's get right to senior Washington correspondent live in Iowa for us ahead of Clinton's arrival, Joe Johns. Joe, what's going on there?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Hillary Clinton is expected to be here on both Tuesday and Wednesday, the campaign calling this the first of many conversations about the economy. The campaign clearly trying to maintain control in order to allow the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the ability to interact with people on a personal level which is so difficult because of the entourage she brings, including the media and the Secret Service.

What we do know so far is that she's expected to do two small events in Iowa, including a stop at an educational roundtable at Kirkwood Community College, as well as a business roundtable at a fruit company, Capital Fruit Company, just outside of Des Moines. Nothing big, nothing flashy, one of the watch words, of course, is "humble," and that's what she's trying to be.

[08:05:00] This is sort of reminiscent of her run for the Senate in New York in the early days around 2000. Still, people here in Iowa are looking forward to hearing what Hillary Clinton has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just by being here and connected with the people, because that's what Iowa is about, is all the connections everybody has with each other. We're small town people, so be here and connect with people and just tell them what you're about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: As expected these events will not be open to the public, and the understanding is that the media access will be limited to these events. The campaign says there will be some other meetings with community leaders, activists, and so on. But right now Hillary Clinton is trying to keep it small. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Joe, thank you very much. We also know a third Republican who is also a freshman U.S. senator is going to reach to his roots as he declares his own bid for the White House. Florida Senator Marco Rubio will make an announcement tonight, we're told, from Miami's Freedom Tower. That's where the government once processed Cuban immigrants fleeing the Castro regime. No coincidence there that that's the site he picked for this. Let's bring in CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash live from Miami. Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. You know, the obvious question as Marco Rubio officially gets into the race today is how is he different from all of the other about a dozen Republicans ultimately who we expect to be candidates for the Republican nomination? Well, one is what you just mentioned, and that is something we are told he's going to play big tonight, his roots, the fact that his family were Cuban refugees, and the fact that he believes that he can tell the story, the American story of the new American century is what actually the tag line of his campaign is, in a different kind of way, to be hopeful, to be optimistic. That's one way that they obviously think is positive.

On the negative side, Marco Rubio, he swept in to Washington on the Tea Party wave back in 2010. And you know, he's only a first term senator. But one thing he did that really angered his own Republican base was he signed on to immigration reform. Not just signed on, but Alisyn, he was very much a part of negotiating that bipartisan compromise. At the time it was after 2012, Mitt Romney had done horribly with Latinos, and so he thought, you know, this is the way we need to expand the Republican Party. But there was a lot of backlash, and that's still something that he's dealing with and he will be dealing with as he goes out to try to get many of those very Republican voters to support him for presidential bid, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, it will be interesting to see what he focuses on later this evening. Thanks so much for that, Dana.

Well, Democrats close to Hillary Clinton have started calling her the most unknown famous person in the world. Is that true?

CUOMO: I don't even understand the question.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: But we will talk to somebody who can break it down for us. Joining us now the author of "A Woman in Charge, The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," CNN political commentator and journalist Carl Bernstein. It's great to have you, Carl. So the most famous unknown woman in the world, what sense do you make of that?

CARL BERNSTEIN, AUTHOR, "A WOMAN IN CHARGE": That somebody wrote some copy to be kind of fancy. I think what it relates to is the fact that we're looking at a woman who is huge in our culture in the way no one has been in the last 20, 25 years and yet we don't know what makes her tick. We don't know her internally. We know the persona that is projected. We know the huge argument around her.

And I started thinking this morning, we've never seen political spectacle on a scale such as this one. Imagine this, we've spent now three days, and it will be a couple more, on the Hillary Clinton rollout. It's like a huge political soap opera the Clintons that's been going on and on and on. So we have to judge it in a different way culturally, and her, than we have otherwise. She's taken the oxygen out of the other candidates, out of the Republican race, and we're all focused, as we will be, to a large extent for 19 months on Hillary Clinton. Every move we're going to analyze.

CAMEROTA: Look, if many one knows her it's you. If anyone from outside her circle knows her, you wrote the book "A Woman in Charge." I's a character study basically. You spoke to so many of her confidants and insiders. And is there a there there? I mean, I think that the question is, is she so guarded, the reason people think that she's an unknown famous person is because she's been so generally scripted and guarded. So what will we see inside there?

BERNSTEIN: First of all, there really is a there there. And it's an extraordinary there. She has had an amazing life. She's done amazing things. She's been a terrific secretary of state in terms of being an ambassador about the United States. You can argue about the policies and we will have that argument. Her husband was the president. She was a first lady, a senator. This is a life on a scale, once again, that we haven't seen.

[08:10:00] And yet, in private she is winning. She is fun. She is sharp. She kicks her shoes off. Then there's the other side of her, what George Stephanopoulos once referred to as her Jesuitical line in public. I think the term "Jesuitical" was an interesting one because it's both about the higher purpose perhaps that she might think she's serving and some of the --

CUOMO: And George is a master of grand theology.

BERNSTEIN: Exactly. And some of the obfuscation that we've seen, the secrecy, et cetera.

But when you begin to look at the scale of all this again, and you look at the enemies, and you look at what the pursuit of the Clintons has been, and then you begin to think why is it she doesn't want us to know "x," "y" or "z"? Where is that thread going to go when we pull it out? Has any other politician of our time been subjected to this kind of scrutiny? And the answer is, no. No one has been.

CUOMO: Let's go one layer more into that, Carl. We'll set it up with another George and Hillary moment. They were doing a town hall once at ABC News and Hillary -- they were sitting down. Hillary -- they started to come out early, but Hillary stood up and forced George to stand up. And she created this stature thing, and she looked over and she said, that's an interesting question. You remember that, George, don't you? And everybody was like, whoa, she's coming at George, reminding him of not being a journalist, being part of the administration. She gets very defensive. But you argue there's good reason for her to be defensive. She doesn't get the benefit of that very often. Explain.

BERNSTEIN: Well, again, I think she's subject to a kind of scrutiny and enemies committed to her and her husband's destruction. It's real. The vast right-wing conspiracy, you can understand her positing that formulation given who was after her and them. And at the same time her and their actions contributed to that pursuit.

And that's going to be ongoing. And that's what we're going to see through this. Look, the Republican Party, I wrote in the book, in 2000, when she ran for the Senate, the Republican Party existed to defeat and obliterate Clintonism for all time. And yet Clintonism is back. And it goes on.

And it stands for something. It's not the term of derision. It's about a progressive kind of politics. It's about economic justice, as she said, and a way of getting there. It's a vision of America as she and Bill Clinton have developed over the years. This is serious business, she's a serious woman. And the real issue that she is going to try and make this election about are the things she talked about yesterday, was the Republicans.

CAMEROTA: Republicans, as you know, have depicted herb as somebody who believes the truth is kind of a moving target, and you wrote about that in your book about her relationship with the truth. Let me read a little excerpt from it. "Since her Arkansas years Hillary Rodham Clinton has always had a difficult relationship with the truth. It is an understatement by now that she has been known to apprehend truths about herself and the events of her life that others do not exactly share." What do you mean?

BERNSTEIN: Well, I think if you go to the incident on the tarmac when she said, I think, came under fire. I think that's indicative of it. There is a lot of obfuscation. There is a lot of opaqueness. There is a lot of forgetting, whether it's purposeful or not. I think some of it is.

And it's -- I keep coming back, though, to the equation that needs to be looked at. If you read this biography and you understand her life, you understand her family, how she grew up, her father, a misanthrope, abusive towards her mother, you understand her marriage and what she has been called upon to do to save her husband's career, which she has done time after time after time, then you begin to understand the obfuscation, and its purpose, and where it comes from. It's very interesting.

The three most important things in Hillary Clinton's life are religion, which she does not wear on her sleeve, has been since she's a teenager, a Wesleyan Methodist who believes in John Wesley's social message of social change combined with the acts of Christ, the idea of Christ's teachings, the basis for social change, family, and service. She really believes that. Now she'll be attacked for some of that, her notion of service. But she believes it. So she's not the person that she's caricatured to be.

CAMEROTA: Interesting stuff. Carl Bernstein. Thanks so much for sharing all that with us.

BERNSTEIN: It will be an interesting 19 months.

CAMEROTA: Sure is. Thanks so much.

Let's get over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a look at some other news now. The actions of the second police officer at the scene of the fatal shooting of Walter Scott is coming under scrutiny. Should that officer be prosecuted for an attempted cover up? The National Bar Association believes he should be.

[08:15:00] CNN's Nick Valencia joins us live from North Charleston, South Carolina, where Walter Scott was laid to rest over the weekend. A very somber weekend there, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very somber weekend indeed. Michaela, good morning.

A day after a vigil was held at the location where Walter Scott was killed, people in this community and beyond continuing to question the conduct of the other officer seen in that tape. Did they do enough to help Walter Scott? Are they complicit in a cover-up?

Those are questions critics have. No formal charges have been leveled against anyone else other than Officer Slager.

Yesterday, when I spoke to the mayor one-on-one, he did not know if the other officer seen in that tape were still on the streets. Just a moment ago, I also spoke to a spokesperson for the South Carolina law enforcement division, he did not know either.

Getting back to the conversation with the mayor, I asked him if he could talk to Officer Slager what he would ask him. He had some pretty choice words for that officer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH SUMMEY, MAYOR OF NORTH CHARLESTON: There's a lady that's eight months pregnant, seeing a future bright spot, you know, in their lives, he basically in a 2.7 second time destroy the life of two families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Nearly a week after he was arrested, Officer Slager remains in jail, being held without bond -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ACHOR: All right, Nick, thank you very much. We'll check back with you as that investigation continues.

So, the United States is expanding its role in Saudi Arabia's mission in Yemen. Here's what we know: the U.S. is now vetting military targets for airstrikes and also searching ships for Iranian arms headed to Houthi rebels. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in Saudi airstrikes, airstrikes Iran is loudly condemning as genocide. The Obama administration is concerned those casualties could turn the people of Yemen against the mission, which is supposed to be all about clearing out the rebels.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. also stepping up airstrikes on ISIS, hitting targets in Iraq's Anbar province. Meanwhile, ISIS releasing video that shows fighters destroying the ancient Nimrud archaeological site near Mosul. They're seen breaking down walls with sledge hammers, knocking over artifacts and blowing up buildings.

PEREIRA: Need a little levity after seeing that. "Saturday Night Live" providing it. They're getting a jump-start on Hillary Clinton's presidential announcement. The brilliant Kate McKinnon impersonating Hillary with a little help from former President Bill Clinton while she's shooting a campaign video on her cell phone. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary would make a great president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I would make an even greater first dude.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Bill. That's nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary isn't it crazy that phones can take videos now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, if they could have done that in the '90s, I'd be in jail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great, Bill, I love jokes about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: So great. I loved it when she lets her hair down and gets unbuttoned. She's wearing the exact same pantsuit.

PEREIRA: It's so good. She's so good. Kate McKinnon is really funny.

CUOMO: We just heard Carl Bernstein, right, got such insight on all things political let alone on Hillary. But it is a testament to her and how big a figure she is. No Bill in that video yesterday. No discussion of Bill from her people. The man is one of the most popular presidents in American history.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: And she's standing on her own feet early on.

CAMEROTA: We need to talk to Paul Begala and Ana Navarro about that.

PEREIRA: What a good idea.

CAMEROTA: Let's book them minutes from now, actually.

CUOMO: Paul, who? Oh, Begala.

CAMEROTA: Bill Clinton and President Obama, they all should play a role in Hillary Clinton's presidential run. How big a role as we've been discussing? And will it help or hurt the campaign?

CUOMO: Plus, the FBI is now launching a civil rights probe into this. We all watched it. And we all wonder how this could have been in any way justified. The victim's lawyer and girlfriend join us to tell their side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:28] CUOMO: The FBI is now launching a civil rights investigation after the beating of a suspect in California that was caught on video shot by a California news helicopter. Deputies are seen kicking and punching Francis Pusok repeatedly after he tried to outrun police first by car and then on horseback. It was a three-hour ordeal. But the end is what we're focused on.

Ten San Bernardino deputies now on administrative leave.

Joining us this morning are Sharon Brunner. She's an attorney for Mr. Pusok. And Jolene Bindner, his girlfriend of 13 years.

Ladies, thank you for joining us.

Jolene, how is your boyfriend this morning? We know he went to the hospital. What's his situation?

JOLENE BINDNER, GIRLFRIEND OF MAN BEATEN BY POLICE: When I spoke to him, he said that he felt weak in the legs. His head is still hurting, bothering him. And he's got a lot of bruises and bumps and scrapes, and that's what I got to see yesterday when I visited him.

CUOMO: What did you think when you saw this video?

BINDNER: Immediately I was angry at first, and it wasn't until I saw it on the news, where it really sank in and it hit me on what had happened and that's when I broke down.

CUOMO: What's the case that you're going to make her? The FBI is doing its investigation. That's nice for you. But that's not the main thrust of what you're going to try to do.

What is your goal?

SHARON BRUNNER, ATTORNEY FOR MAN BEATEN BY POLICE: Our goal in this case is to actually bring about reform, police accountability, and obviously protect our client, his family, and seek to have some kind of accountability for these police officers who initiated, and administered, this brutal beating of my client.

CUOMO: Now, right or wrong, they're coming after your client. They're saying that they were familiar with him. He's got this history.

I mean, what they decide to describe, Jolene, I'll direct this to you because you know him best, the -- the representative says I can't say they knew him but they were familiar with him on a prior domestic call. Pusok made threats to kill a deputy sheriff and, in fact, shot a puppy in part of his family. This is damning character blow type of information.

Is that true? And do does it matter to you if it's true?

BINDNER: You know what? That's exactly what it is. It's damning character and that's the reason why they keep making it their focus, as far as, you know, presenting Francis as a bad person.

No, that wasn't the case. I did address the prior and his past, and it was the one time that I would like to address it because I want my main focus to be on what had happened with the deputies.

BRUNNER: And, Chris, I think that's important.

[08:25:01] This is just another attempt to deflect from the police and what they did and their accountability. And it's simply to twist the truth again, and make my client look like somebody who deserved this. And that is not the case. No one deserves this.

CUOMO: Totally understood and the point of the question is not character assassination, it's to lay out what the authorities are making a motive for their approach to this situation. That's why when you heard the authorities talking about it, they said, well, it seems excessive. Not the word that would come to mind, right, would be brutal, violent, mean-spirited.

Why did they say excessive? Because they were looking at it in terms of who is this man, three hours trying to get him. He's gone after police before, they say. And in any way does that justify their actions, because of how they were dealing with someone they saw as a great risk, Attorney?

BRUNNER: Well, these are all allegations. And I think it's important to note that this alleged threat to this police officer, a death threat, no charges were ever filed. No conviction ever had.

So, we have to look at what is actually happening here. What are they trying to spin this story for? Because they don't want us to really look at their actions.

They are trying to minimize their actions. They're trying to diminish what they did. And the reality is, is that the better question here is to ask, why my client actually ran? Because there is a prior history with these police officers. There is a past that will be more fully developed as this case goes on.

CUOMO: Oh, that's interesting.

Jolene, your attorney is suggesting that the reason he ran wasn't to beat the charge or suggest he had a prior but he had reason to be afraid of what would happen if they got him. Is that true?

BINDNER: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Why? What motivates -- if it was an identity theft case whether or not you believe he's guilty or not, what would be the suspicion he had that would make him fearful of being taken into custody?

BINDNER: Well, I'll leave that as she had answered it that it will come to light when it's appropriate. As far as it being an identity theft case, that has nothing -- no relation to Francis at all.

BRUNNER: Our facts and our beliefs at this time is that they were executing a search warrant on another house that had nothing to do with my client. And my client happened to be in the area. At the site of police officers and given the fact that he had been beaten in the past he had fear and that's why he fled.

CUOMO: All right. So that helps us understand a little bit more. Again, it's not about character assassination here. It's about understanding the facts of the situation. There's no question that no matter who your boyfriend and your client is, the police are the professionals in this situation, makes you wonder if they even knew that this video was capturing what they did.

Thank you for giving us your side of the situation. We will be staying on this case as it goes forward, so check in with us whenever you have information that is relevant.

Thank you to both of you.

BRUNNER: Thank you so much.

BINDNER: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Mick?

PEREIRA: All right, Chris.

Hillary Clinton working to not repeat her 2008 campaign mistakes. One challenge remains the same: how to utilize former President Clinton? How Hillary avoid making one of her biggest assets a major liability.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)