Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Source: Federal Agent's Gun Used in Pier Murder; Hillary Clinton: 'I Feel Good about Where We Are in Iowa'; Cosby Admits Buying Drugs to Give to Women for Sex; Why Didn't Cosby Face Charges a Decade Ago? Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 08, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R), WISCONSIN: He was released in general society to create a murder. Does that make any sense to you?

[07:00:03] SIMON: At a Senate hearing, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, berated an immigration enforcement official over why Sanchez wasn't handed over to federal authorities.

JOHNSON: Tell me specifically, what is preventing us, when we have people in this country illegally, and they have had seven prior felony convictions, why aren't we able to deport those individuals?

PHILIP MILLER, ICE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: In that particular place, our detainer was not honored. San Francisco Sheriff's Department did not honor the detainer that we lodged.

SIMON: San Francisco, with its so-called sanctuary law, doesn't comply with detainers to keep undocumented immigrants in custody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: And there appears to be a growing consensus that changes need to be made. Both of California senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both saying that perhaps there needs to be new legislation to prevent something like this from happening again.

Dianne Feinstein herself, a former mayor of San Francisco, calling on the current mayor, Ed Lee, to start complying with federal immigration authorities. Chris, this shooting happening exactly one week ago today.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Dan. I'll take it here. Thank you so much for that.

Hillary Clinton coming out swinging in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with CNN. It's her first sit-down of the 2016 campaign. Clinton defiantly refuting claims that she's not trustworthy and says she's happy with her campaign. But what about that socialist Democrat starting to make some noise in the race?

CNN's Brianna Keilar live in Cedar Rapids with the second part of her interview. Hi, again, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Michaela.

Hillary Clinton is still the front-runner here, but Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. And while the Hillary Clinton campaign clearly has an eye on its rear-view mirror, keeping an eye on Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton played it cool yesterday, saying what she's focused on is turning supporters into volunteers and caucus goers here in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: You're here in Iowa for a couple of events. You're the front-runner in this state, but we're also seeing Bernie Sanders attract a lot of attention. He has had big crowds here, 10,000 people in Wisconsin last week, 7,500 people in Maine last night.

Why is it, do you think, that someone who is a self-described Democratic socialist is really attracting this organic interest that your campaign seems to be struggling a little bit with?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, I always thought this would be a competitive race. So I am happy to have a chance to get out and run my campaign as I see fit and let other candidates do exactly the same.

I feel very good about where we are in Iowa. We are signing up thousands of volunteers, people committed to caucus for us. We have a committed supporter in every one of the 1,600 precincts. And one of the things that I learned last time is it's organize, organize, organize. And you've got to get people committed. And then they will follow through and then you bring more people.

So I feel very good about where my campaign is. It will be three months and a few days that we've been at this. I think I've learned a lot from listening to people in Iowa. And it's actually affected what I say and what I talk about on the campaign trail.

So I couldn't be happier about my campaign.

KEILAR: Senator Sanders has talked about how, if he's president, he would raise taxes. In fact, he said to CNN's Jake Tapper, he would raise them substantially higher than they are today, on big corporations, on wealthy Americans.

Would you?

CLINTON: I will be laying out my own economic policies. Again, everybody has to run his or her own campaign. And I'm going to be telling the American people what I propose and how I think it will work; and then we'll let voters make up their minds.

KEILAR: Are -- is raising taxes on the table?

CLINTON: I'm going to put out my policies, and I'll let other people speak to their policies, because I think we have to both grow the economy faster and fairer; so we have to do what will actually work in the short term, the medium term and the long term. I will be making a speech about my economic proposals on Monday. And then I look forward to the debate about them.

KEILAR: I'm wondering if you can address a vulnerability that we've seen you dealing with recently. We see in our recent poll that nearly six in 10 Americans say they don't believe that you're honest and trustworthy.

Do you understand why they feel that way?

CLINTON: Well, I think when you are subjected to the kind of constant barrage of attacks that are largely fomented by and coming from the right and...

KEILAR: But do you bear any responsibility for that?

CLINTON: Well, I -- you know, I can only tell you that I was elected twice in New York against the same kind of onslaught. I was confirmed and served as secretary of state. And I think it's understandable that, when questions are raised, people maybe are thinking about them and wondering about them.

[07:05:05] But I have every confidence that during the course of this campaign people are going to know who will fight for them, who will be there when they need them, and that's the kind of person I am. And that's what I will do, not only in a campaign but as president.

KEILAR: Trusting someone to fight for them and trusting someone, these are -- these are two different things.

Do you see any role that you've had in the sentiment that we've seen, where people are questioning whether you're trustworthy?

CLINTON: I can only tell you, Brianna, that this has been a theme that has been used against me and my husband for many, many years. And at the end of the day, I think voters sort it all out. I have great confidence. I trust the American voter. So I trust the American voter 100 percent, because I think, you know, the American voter will weigh these kinds of accusations.

I mean, you know, people write books filled with unsubstantiated attacks against us. And even admit they have no evidence. But of course, it's your job to cover it. So of course, that's going to raise questions in people's minds.

But during the course of this campaign, just as in my two prior campaigns and in my other years of service, I have a lot of confidence that the American people can sort it all out.

KEILAR: Would you vote for someone that you don't trust?

CLINTON: Well, they -- people should and do trust me. And I have every confidence that that will be the outcome of this election.

I cannot decide what the attacks on me will be, no matter how unfounded. And I'm well aware of the fact that it's your job to raise those, and we'll do our best to respond to them. But I think what people talk to me about -- and that's all I can go on -- is the literally thousands of people that I've seen in the course of this campaign. They want to know what I'm going to do for the economy, what I'm going to do for education, what I'm going to do for health care. And they trust me to have a plan and to be committed to carrying out that plan, and they should, because I will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: This was Hillary Clinton's first nationally televised interview since saying she would run for president. We are expecting that there will be more of them in the weeks to come as she unveils some of her policy proposals. And that begins on Monday when she talks about the economy.

And also, Alisyn and Chris, I asked Hillary Clinton about the controversies that have been weighing on her about her e-mails while she was secretary of state, about the Clinton Foundation. And I also asked her what she thought about a possibility of another Clinton/Bush face-off. And we'll hear what she says about that next hour.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. We will. We look forward to hearing her answers on that. Great interview; great questions. Brianna, we'll check back in with you.

Joining us this morning to talk about all of Hillary Clinton's answers are CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN political commentator Carl Bernstein. Carl wrote a book, of course, about Hillary Clinton in 2008 titled "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Great to have you here, Carl.

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

CAMEROTA: Let me remind our viewers of her upside-down numbers on trustworthiness, since that's what Brianna talked to her about. In the recent CNN poll, it said -- it asked respondents "Is Hillary Clinton honest and trustworthy?" Forty -- only 42 percent said yes; 57 percent said no.

Carl, did you think it was fair in that interview that she blamed the GOP for those numbers?

BERNSTEIN: I think she's half right. I think Hillary Clinton, as I say in "A Woman in Charge" -- and happily, I think at this point, it's the definitive biography and it's because it reflects the complexity of the woman and her situation. And her situation is that she has had a difficult relationship to the truth, as the book says in its closing pages, since the Arkansas years. But there are reasons for this, quote, "difficult relationship to the truth," which have to do, partly, with these attacks.

She is at the heart of the cultural warfare in this country over the last 30 years. The demographics today reflect that she is on the right side of this cultural warfare. And on the issues that she keeps going back to, she has an awful lot of support, as do the Democrats.

CAMEROTA: But meaning -- what you're saying is that, because she has been under attack for a long time, she has started to fudge her answers?

BERNSTEIN: Look, I think -- first of all, I think we've got to look at what politicians do generally in terms of fudging. It's endemic in the profession. But she has become a kind of specialist at it.

How has -- why has she become a kind of specialist? It has to do, I think, partly with the peculiarities of the Clinton situation. It has partly to do with the history of Bill Clinton and women, in which she's had to defend him. And it's been very difficult to do with the whole truth and all the truth and nothing but the truth. She's been in a difficult position.

I think if you read the book, if you really understand her life, her great strengths and her weaknesses, you begin to understand the complexity.

[07:10:09] Look, she's the most famous woman in the world. She's sui generis, as it were. We've never had a candidate in our history. All over the world this morning, people are having the discussion we are having at their breakfast tables. It's remarkable, this phenomenon.

So we have to look at this election in a little bit different terms and her in a little bit different terms than anybody else.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And if they're like me, Carl, they're Googling "sui generis" and finding out that it means unique.

BERNSTEIN: I really blew that one.

CUOMO: No, you're smart. That's why we have you here.

BERNSTEIN: I never took Latin; I'm a dropout.

CUOMO: Nia, one of the reason this is a big deal, this interview, is because she did one. Hillary Clinton says, "I'm not after ratings; I'm after votes."

What is your take on whether or not avoiding the media winds up resonating with voters as a way to be more about them? Do you think those two go together?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think now, the Clinton campaign certainly thinks that people are on vacation, that people aren't tuning in. I talked to folks last night. They very much see this as a campaign that's a work in progress. They are looking at it as a long game. They feel like it's July of 2015, not July of 2016.

But I did talk to some donors about this. And they feel like this strategy of essentially kind of ducking at least the national press at this level hasn't been good for the campaign, and we'll see this ramp up, I think, going forward, of them doing more and more interviews. I think that interview certainly showed strength and weaknesses of --

of Hillary Clinton as a candidate. She seemed a bit defensive when Brianna Keilar brought up the issues about her trustworthiness. I mean, it's difficult to not be defensive if someone essentially says that people don't trust you. So in some ways, that was a very human reaction.

I thought her strengths were some of the political points she's tried to score there when she talked about Republicans and their policies toward immigrants, illegal immigrants...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Do you think she's teeing that up as a centerpiece?

HENDERSON: What's that? Do I think she'll take it up as a centerpiece? Yes, I do think so. I think that contrast is going to be so significant, particularly in the general election. And also, I think she thinks she has a strength with Latinos in the primary, as well. A strength over Bernie Sanders, over her other challengers.

And we'll see her in the coming days meet with folks on the Hill, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. So that's something that's sort of, this sort of place of privilege in terms of her standing with African- American voters and Latino voters. I think that's something she wants to exploit over Bernie Sanders, who's got some work to do there.

CAMEROTA: And to point out, Carl, that she didn't even say the name "Bernie Sanders." She wouldn't even utter his name. Do you think that he'll give her a run for the money?

BERNSTEIN: Yes. I think that anyone who galvanizes the opposition within the party to Hillary Clinton is going to get some traction. She's still the overwhelming favorite, but her strategy, right now, is to win New Hampshire and Iowa. That's what she needs to do.

Then, she can move on and, you know, you get into the general election and the themes that she is hitting on, they play into her strengths and into the Democrats' strengths.

So the strategy is there. We've just heard very wisely by our correspondent that she wants to get out there in a way that she's visible and at the same time, do the limbo with the press.

The press, through this whole campaign, is going to be her tormenter. She knows it. The Democrats know it. There are a lot of reporters out there that really want to trip her up that do not like her, actually. But, they also see a great story, which she is. And they're going to continue to challenge her.

So she has to stay on message, but one of the problems that we see in this interview yesterday is that she's not spontaneous. And Bill Clinton is spontaneous. And in private, she's wonderfully spontaneous.

CAMEROTA: She needs to access that and channel that. BERNSTEIN: And -- and you see a little of it in there, but she's

really on talking points. And it's a problem, I think. But that's partly theatrics, but it also goes to how a candidate is perceived.

CAMEROTA: Carl, Nia, thank you so much.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

CUOMO: We'll have more of the interview. We're going to have more of the reactions from the field for the opposition to Hillary Clinton right now and others on the left.

What does Donald Trump have to say for himself? One guarantee is a lot. He's going to sit down with Anderson Cooper on "AC 360" tonight, 8 Eastern, of course, only on CNN.

CAMEROTA: And for all of your political news, make sure you go to CNNPolitics.com -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Now another big story: the fallout from Bill Cosby following those revelations that he testified that he bought sedatives to give women that he wanted to sleep with. These revelations causing more to sever ties with the comedian.

Boris Sanchez joins us with the very latest -- Boris.

[07:15:07] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

That 2005 deposition, the strongest evidence so far for more than two dozen women who claim the 77-year-old comedian drugged and raped them. And the fallout continues for Cosby.

Though he's denied all those allegations, many are turning away from him. Disney removing a statue at their Hollywood Studios theme park and not commenting on that decision. Also two networks, Bounce TV and Centric, pulling reruns of "The Cosby Show."

Not everyone is distancing themselves from Cosby, though. Former "Cosby Show" co-star Raven Symone on "The View" yesterday saying she needs to see more evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAVEN SYMONE, CO-HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": I don't really like to talk about it that much, because he's the reason why I'm on this panel in the first place. He gave me my first job. But at the same time, you know, you need the proof. And then I'll be able to give my judgment here or there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Again, Cosby has denied those accusations. His attorney has said that they have released no authorized statement, and Chris, his publicist says they are not planning to release one, either.

CUOMO: All right, Boris. Thank you very much. We'll stay on this story. Because it keeps on -- every time there's a new development, we've got to have a new round of coverage.

Also have for you this morning news about Greece. It is applying for yet another bailout from Europe. The country, as you know, is facing serious economic problems and a Sunday deadline to resolve its debt crisis. If it doesn't make it, the country could face bankruptcy and expulsion from the euro system. The crisis also going outside Greece, hitting the markets hard. China at a seven-week low. Half of publicly-traded companies suspended trading there.

CAMEROTA: A stunning revelation from Defense Secretary Ash Carter about the war against ISIS. He says the U.S. has only trained 60 Syrian rebel fighters. That number falls well short of the goal of up to 5,000 per year. The low numbers being blamed on a strict vetting process.

PEREIRA: Talk about getting an "atta girl." A big call after the big win for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. President Obama taking time out of his presidential duties to call and congratulate the World Cup champs straight from the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Carli, what have you been eating?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's right here. Hold on.

CARLI LLOYD, TEAM CAPTAIN, TEAM USA: Hi, Mr. President.

OBAMA: I want -- I want to do what you're doing.

LLOYD: You can come out and run on the field with me, if you want.

OBAMA: Yes. I'll be there for about 30 seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: They're probably wishing the conference call quality was better so they could have heard better.

A parade for the World Cup champs will be held Friday in New York City. Congratulations, once again. That victory sure is sweet.

CAMEROTA: What has she been eating? I'd like to know the answer to that. That was a good question.

CUOMO: Just what all the great ones do. She was on the biggest stage, you know, the biggest time to be your best. And that's -- that's what makes a champion.

You know, of course he should call them. You know, you -- we were joking about it when it was going on. I think it's getting played, because it's a little bit of a surprise to people. But you know, there was a big amount of hype around the men's World Cup final. And of course, that is a bigger event globally. But in the U.S., this team is much better... PEREIRA: Oh, goodness.

CUOMO: ... than the men's national team. I mean, it just is. If they don't make it to the finals, it's disappointment.

PEREIRA: Yes, it really is.

CUOMO: If the men's team makes it to the tournament, it's like seen as a success.

CAMEROTA: Well, they were great. It was a great U.S. moment.

CUOMO: All right. So a new linking phrase in the new round of coverage required in Cosby is because of the phrase "Cosby and Quaaludes." If his testimony had gone public years ago, then what would have happened in terms of prosecutions? We're going to talk to someone who is a former prosecutor who is looking at making a case and said he couldn't. Would it be different now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:22:20] CUOMO: Bill Cosby has a tarnished image, and it is taking another body blow this week with word that he admitted in a 2005 deposition that he acquired sedatives to give a woman he wanted to sleep with.

But Cosby will likely never face charges, since the statute of limitations on the alleged sex assaults has expired. But that doesn't mean that nobody tried.

Now Bruce Castor is a former [SIC] commissioner for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, of course, and the former Montgomery County district attorney. He tried to charge Cosby a decade ago, and he was not able to make the case.

Now we should note, he's running, again, for district attorney. And in the spirit of political discourse, we will test you on the proposition of what happened then and what might happen now.

Thank you for joining us, Mr. Castor. Were you surprised by the admissions made in this civil deposition that Cosby gave?

BRUCE CASTOR, MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMISSIONER: First, Chris, I am a current commissioner, not a former commissioner.

CUOMO: You're a current commissioner, and you're running again for district attorney.

CASTOR: Right. I served two terms as district attorney, two terms as commissioner. And I got tired of the whole big government thing. I'd rather go back to being what I was trained to be, which was a prosecutor.

The revelations in the deposition didn't surprise me at all, because that was all part of the design back then, when we reached the conclusion that we were not going to be able to have enough evidence to charge Cosby.

I could have done nothing; and I decided, instead, to make a high- profile statement that we would not be prosecuting him. I would be the only one who had jurisdiction. That therefore eliminated the Fifth Amendment from consideration. He could not then claim that he could avoid being deposed under oath by virtue of self-incrimination possibility, because he couldn't be incriminated, because he couldn't be prosecuted.

So I knew the day would come when he'd be under oath and asked these questions. And I hoped that that would be able so that Andrea Constand's lawyers would be able to pin him down and get a good recovery for her.

CUOMO: And yet, if you knew then what you know now from the deposition, do you think you could have made the case?

CASTOR: Probably not. Under Pennsylvania law, the statements of a suspect are not admissible until such time as you can independently prove that a crime was committed. It's what we call the corpus delecti rule.

So what I would have had to do, if he had made that statement to our detectives, for example, I would have had to take everything exclusive of what he said and add it all up. And if there was enough that it showed that a crime was probably committed, then I could use his statements against him, arrest and prosecute him.

So it's one of those catch-22 situations. It's designed to keep people from confessing to crimes they didn't do, because they want to be out of the weather in prison.

So the basic problem always remained that -- that we didn't have any forensics or anything to tell us what had happened because of the delay of a year between when the event occurred and when Andrea Constand came to the police.

CUOMO: So what sounds like common sense doesn't necessarily make legal sense for prosecution. A woman comes forward and says, "He gave me something. I don't remember what happened, but I know that he assaulted me."

And then the guy says, "Yes, I acquired drugs that I wanted to give women who I wanted to have sex with." It seems like those two things go together. You're saying not necessarily.

CASTOR: Not necessarily. When you use the word "assault," Chris, I mean, I know you know that's a term of art. That's -- a lot of things are made into that word. If -- if the woman tells us things that we can then say add up to a legal assault, then that would be enough to be able to use his statements against him. But, we didn't have that.

What we had is she knew something wasn't right but couldn't pin down exactly what it was. She knew that he had given her something, and it was a theory that he had given her drugs and taken advantage of her. And it was one of those theories where we were trying to prove the facts necessary to sustain that theory.

I can't say with 100 percent certainty that if I had this information I wouldn't have been able to make a case, but based on my recollection from ten years ago, I think that we did not have probable cause to believe that a crime occurred in the first place; in other words, evidence that would sustain getting the case to the jury. So if I had his statements, they still wouldn't have been admissible under the corpus delecti rule.

CUOMO: Doesn't mean you thought he was innocent? Isn't it true that your -- investigators came back to you. You didn't question Cosby directly, because then you would have would up being a witness in your own prosecution. That's uncomfortable. But your investigators didn't believe him, isn't that true?

CASTOR: That's correct. And I worked in that office for 23 years, so these were my most seasoned people, so I believed their assessment when they thought that he was being evasive.

You know, I mean, you yourself were in law enforcement. You know you get a gut instinct about these things. And my people and I thought that he was guilty. And it was one of those things that I decided that the best approach, when we didn't have enough evidence to arrest, was to try to get a half a loaf by making the civil case as good as possible. And it appears as though that worked.

CUOMO: Mr. Castor, Mr. Commissioner, thank you very much for joining us on the show. Good luck on the election ahead. I appreciate your perspective on this. Thank you, sir -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

Here is another story everyone is talking about. Florida State's quarterback thrown off the team after being caught on camera punching a woman at a bar. Deandre Johnson's lawyer joins us next with what his client says led up to the incident.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)