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Florida State University Quarterback Charged With Battery; Donald Trump In Damage Control; Nepal Earthquake Update. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 08, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:04] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Shocking surveillance video shows Florida State quarterback, De'Andre Johnson punching a woman in a Tallahassee bar. This video got him kicked off the team. So how does he explained what happened?

Jose Baez is the attorney representing De'Andre Johnson. Jose, thanks for being here this morning. So what is his explanation for what we see on that videotape?

JOSE BAEZ, ATTORNEY FOR DE'ANDRE JOHNSON: He has no explanation. De'Andre has been very apologetic for what happened. He believes he should have turned around and walked away despite what happened. He is extremely apologetic and ashamed, embarrassed about the whole situation.

This is a kid that has excellent parents who did not raise him this way. This is something he is very distraught over and hopefully the rest of his career and his future isn't completely destroyed over this.

CAMEROTA: You say he believes he should have walked away despite what happened. Did you tell the media or do you believe that he was provoked because of some sort of racial slur that was said?

BAEZ: No, absolutely not. In fact, things get twisted and turned around quite a bit when you make statements in the media. What I said, specifically, was that he was not the initial aggressor. I think the video clearly shows that.

That's an aspect for the legal case, not for the moral situation that De'Andre finds himself in. That's something he clearly recognizes. So, when -- so, when it's said that he says he was provoked, that is absolutely untrue.

CAMEROTA: You say he wasn't the initial aggressor, but what I see in watching the video, I mean, what's so striking about the video is what you first see are two people jockeying for position before this moment.

If you rewind the tape, before this moment, you see two people jockeys for position at a bar then you see some words exchanged and she makes what is a sort of half-hearted swing at him. He then hauls off and punches her in the face.

Jose, what's stunning is how quickly this escalates. How do you explain how he became so angry so quickly that he resorted to violence against a woman?

BAEZ: You don't. You don't make excuses for violence against women and that's not what De'Andre is doing here. He's been extremely apologetic not only to the young lady involved, but to everyone who he is embarrassed as a result of this incident.

He's apologized to the university, to Coach Fisher. Now his career is over with FSU. His scholarship has been taken away and that's, I guess, what we do to young adults who make mistakes is they make them pay for it. He's fully ready to pay for it.

[07:35:02] In fact, he's already voluntarily submitted himself to volunteer at a battered women's shelter. This is a kid who is taking the initiative to own up to his mistakes and come forward. So there is no excuse for this. If there's misinterpretation that is some way our message it's certainly not true.

CAMEROTA: Now what I'm getting at is that, you know, there's been a national dialogue about how on campuses now, college campuses, there seems to be some sort of wave of assaults or sexual assaults against women often at the hands of these celebrated college athletes. I'm not looking for excuses. I'm looking for an explanation. Did he think he was above the law? Does he have contempt for women? What set him off like that?

BAEZ: Well, no. He doesn't have any contempt for women. He was raised by a very strong woman and his mother has been the leader in coming forward and disciplining him and making sure that he owns up to this. He's been very respectful of that.

So does he think he is a celebrated athlete? No. He's not a star. He is a star recruit, but that doesn't make him a star on the team. In fact, he wasn't in line to be the starting quarterback this year.

There is nothing to indicate in the interaction I have had with De'Andre to make him think or to give me the impression that he feels self-entitled. So, to say it's not an accurate depiction of him.

This is a young man that worked hard no school to go to FSU, get his grades up. Enroll early to have the opportunity to compete for the starting position. He's done nothing in his entire life to show or forecast that this incident would happen.

He's extremely regretful that this happened. I don't know how much more a young adult can step up and say, look, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I should have walked away. I want to apologize to everyone involved. That's exactly what De'Andre is doing here.

CAMEROTA: And of course, he is also facing misdemeanor battery charges. Jose Baez, thanks so much for coming on NEW DAY and giving us what he is thinking today. We appreciate that. What is your take, tweet us please using #newdayCNN or post your comment on facebook.com/newday. We will look forward to reading those. Let's go over to Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump defiant, refusing to apologize for his comments about Mexican immigrants. In the end, is all press really good press? What does it mean for the Donald? Is he going up or is really going to down?

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[07:41:32]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they are rapists and some, I assume, are good people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Comments from Donald Trump igniting a fire storm around his presidential campaign and yet the billionaire real estate developer showing little if now remorse. Several companies doing business with Trump are abandoning ship.

So let's look at the brand of Trump. Is it in jeopardy? What can be done to revive his image? Joining us is the chairman of "Fifteen Minutes Public Relations," the one and only, Howard Bragman. Good to have you here.

So it's interesting. Let's put up the board of the list of companies that are cutting ties with Trump. I'm really curious what this does to the Trump brand. Interestingly, he told "Forbes" just yesterday that he thinks eventually all these brands will come right back to him. Do you think that's the case?

HOWARD BRAGMAN, CHAIRMAN, "FIFTEEN MINUTES PUBLIC RELATIONS": I think he hasn't done as much damage as he's going to do. I think we are going to have to wait until his campaign is over before we know how much damage is done. What I'm seeing happen is this, in politics, particularly primary politics, you want to divide and conquer.

You want to be outrageous, aggregate your people. I think on one sense for him, at least in his mind, it's working, he has 10 percent or 11 percent of the vote, coming in second in some of the key primary states.

But, when you are on TV, when you are an all American brand, you want to do the opposite. You want to collect everybody. You don't want to offend everybody. I think he's going to surprisingly have a tough road to come back to the middle.

CUOMO: Do you think this is calculated by Trump? Do you think he's trying to do this or do you think he can't help himself but do this?

BRAGMAN: I think Donald Trump looks in the mirror and says I'm a genius every morning. I think he is the classic guy who believes all press is good press. Any day that they mention him is a good day. They are talking about him and I don't think this guy has a lick of sense when it comes to what's really going on in the world.

CAMEROTA: But isn't there something to that? Isn't there something to that that his name recognition grows and grows? And his brand, for that what is, brash, unfiltered, it's in play.

BRAGMAN: Yes, in a certain sense. And being brash and unfiltered is one thing. Being racist is another. He is really crossed the line this time. It's very hard to see him coming back without being apologetic. I don't think this is a guy who likes to apologize.

PEREIRA: You have encountered that fella in the bar when you were in the circuit, the negative attention fella. If he insulted you enough, it might actually get --

BRAGMAN: I might get all the chicks, but I'll get the wine.

PEREIRA: If he were to listen to someone like you, a PR guy that can rewrite a sinking ship, if they were to listen, what would you say in terms of sort of writing and centering this presidential bid in terms of how the public is portraying and seeing Donald Trump?

BRAGMAN: First of all, focus on his brands and not run for president. It was a lot more interesting a few years ago when he was on the sidelines as kind of a cheerleader in a provocateur. It protected his brands a lot more.

Once he said he's running for president, it really changes the rules, the level of scrutiny and how people judge you. I was out to dinner with a New York realtor last night and I heard some backlash.

[07:45:05] He said people don't want to see Trump buildings either for rentals or to buy anymore. You are talking a blue state here in New York. That's the kind of damage that's being done.

PEREIRA: Speaking of damage and PR campaigns that are wondering what's going on, we have to talk about Bill Cosby. We heard to more networks are pulling reruns of the Cosby show off the air. More brands severing ties with him.

BRAGMAN: Disney took down the image.

PEREIRA: It's sort of the bleeding continues. Is there a way to right this? Is there a way to resuscitate the image of Bill Cosby?

BRAGMAN: You know, as I always tell people, I can be the best spin doctor in the world and sometimes the patient is terminal. You can be the best medical doctor in the world and sometimes the patient isn't going to make it.

PEREIRA: Do you think this is terminal situation?

BRAGMAN: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Whoopi doesn't think so.

BRAGMAM: We have known Whoopi a very long time. I think she is probably heartbroken inside about this. She's known him a long time. Listen --

CUOMO: No one to suffer fools or people she believes does the wrong thing to women, either. How do you reconcile the two?

BRAGMAN: I haven't had that specific discussion with her. I just know that, at least initially, I was willing to give Mr. Cosby the benefit of the doubt. When somewhere between three dozen plus women come forward by his own admission that he's bought these drugs so that he can use them to assault women. It's just reached the tipping point. This is only the explanation point.

CUOMO: Does he come out? Does he come out? Does he deal with it, finally?

CAMEROTA: Does he ever speak? Is there a scenario by which he speaks?

BRAGMAN: He's kind of in a quandary now because if he says yes, it's true. There are two defamation suits that are going to cost a lot of money. Maybe more, if he acknowledges it. If he lies, there's a contradiction between what he said in the press and what he said on the stand. Don't expect him to say anything.

PEREIRA: Howard Bragman, we appreciate you walking us through all this. Good to see you.

BRAGMAN: Thanks a lot.

PEREIRA: Well, Hillary Clinton speaking out at last. In a CNN exclusive interview, she talks about the controversies that are marking her campaign somewhat. Does she think people can get past her deleted e-mails? Find out what she says. That's next.

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[07:50:57]

CUOMO: On Monday, Nepal suffered yet another aftershock of the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck on April 25th. Now for more than two months since, CNN has been following this story.

Now Dr. Sanjay Gupta was there on the ground in Kathmandu soon after the disaster not only reporting on the trouble, but doing something about it, performing lifesaving brain surgery on a girl. Sanjay joins us this morning with an update on the patient he operated on. Good morning, my friend.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. It's such a privilege to be able to do that kind of reporting. This girl that we reported on was an eight-year-old girl at that time that I was asked to perform an operation on. The understanding was she had a blood clot on the brain that need to be removed because that can cause swelling in the brain. What has been flagged for us now, Chris, is in fact that the patient that I operated on may not have been this eight-year-old girl, but rather a 14-year-old girl in that same hospital during that mediate aftermath of the earthquake.

You know, we haven't independently verified this, Chris. But I wanted to provide this update and be very transparent. These facts are very important to us and we want to be 100 percent accurate in this. This is what we are hearing.

We are trying to independently verify exactly which child it was. They got the operation. At that time, there were many children, many people in the hospital. But we are working to verify that. But it was really important that I speak today and offer this clarification as you know it right now.

CUOMO: Understood. You're no stranger to chaos. You've been in the worst the world has to offer. What do you say as an explanation to the viewers of how something like this can happen?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's tough to say. When you think about reporting these types of stories, it is a chaotic situation. You land in a country and you're trying to figure out exactly what's going on in the first few hours after you get there.

In this situation we went immediately to this big city hospital that was unlike anything I'd ever seen. You have a hospital lobby area that's turned into this massive triage area. We're talking to doctors. Sometimes there's a little bit of a language barrier as well.

I'm told there are six children that need operations on their brain. We're looking at their scans. I'm just trying to paint a little bit of a picture for you. Frankly, again, we want to get these things 100 percent right.

It's important to the viewers. It's important to the families who are there undergoing this, suffering the aftermath of the earthquake. When you report on these types of things you take lots of different pieces of information and consolidate it and in the end you tell the story.

In the end, there was a girl who needed the operation. The operation was performed. Both girls, the eight-year-old and the 14-year-old girls are doing well, they're back with their families. I wanted to make sure we could clarify exactly what happened.

CUOMO: Understood. And it's good to learn as her condition as well. My colleague and my friend, Sanjay. CNN has released the following statement, journalism is not brain surgery, but brain surgery is brain surgery. We are so proud that Sanjay was one of the few reporters in Nepal that cover the earthquake.

While there, he was asked to help save a young victim's life. As we reported, he assisted the surgeons at the Bir Hospital by performing a craniotomy on a young victim.

So reporting has suggested it was not the young girl we at the time of our own reporting in the midst of crisis believed her to be. We will try to verify that as always.

[07:55:01] Regardless, Sanjay spent a week in Nepal, helped save a young life in the operating room. And we could not be prouder of him. He has our full and unequivocal support -- Mich.

PEREIRA: All right, disturbing details emerging in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman, ahead, details on the gun used and why that suspect's videotaped confession may not stick.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An undocumented Mexican immigrant pleading not guilty to murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very well could be a completely accidental discharge of a firearm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gun that was used in this case, actually traced back to a federal agent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm still in a state of oh my god.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Quaalude is a medication that causes memory difficulty and severe intoxication.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In America, you actually were innocent until proven guilty.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I trust the American voter 100 percent.

KEILAR: The issue of your e-mail practices while you were secretary of state.

CLINTON: Let's take a deep breath here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, July 8th, 8:00 in the east. Up first, developments in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman, CNN learns the undocumented who allegedly killed Kate Steinle pulled the trigger using a federal agent's gun.