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New Day
CNN Hero Collette Carroll; Shaun King Defends Race; Trump Supporters on His Style and Military Strategy. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired August 21, 2015 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:32:08] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here's your Friday edition of the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY. At number one, very concerning, North and South Korea on the brink of war. North Korea's state run media reporting Kim Jong-un has ordered front line troops into a wartime state after both sides exchanged fire.
A new Quinnipiac poll showing Donald Trump now leading former Florida Governor Jeb Bush among Republicans in Bush's home state. Trump is heading to Alabama today for what is expected to be the biggest rally of his campaign.
A new CNN/ORC poll shows President Obama's approval rating taking a hit. Forty-seven percent now approve of how the president is handling his job. That's down from 49 percent last month.
Concerning in downtown Los Angeles, a high-rise there hit by an underground blast. At least five people were injured. CNN has learned a generator on the ground floor may have been to blame.
An historic graduation day for two Army women. Today, Captain Kristen Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver will be the first female soldiers to graduate from the elite Ranger school in Fort Benning, Georgia. Ladies, we salute you.
For more on the five things to know, be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the latest.
Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A senior citizen takes on inmates at one of the world's most notorious state prisons. You know it as San Quentin. Collette Carroll is this week's CNN Hero. Now, remember, if you know something who you think is deserving, like the woman you're about to meet, go to cnnheros.com and tell us about them. But first, watch Collette's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLETTE CARROLL, CNN HERO: What I do doesn't give a lot of people the warm fuzzies.
Good morning, guys. The reality is, any life is worth helping.
Today we're going to be doing relationships.
I run a pre and post release program at San Quentin State Prison where the men in our program learn to understand what they did, why they did it, where they need to go and how to stay the course.
So we're going to start with healthy relationships, right?
It is a minimum of 24 months of hard work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People that want to change the way we've chosen to change.
CARROLL: Supportive people, yes?
They start to care about themselves. They start to care about the people they hurt. And then we move forward with life skills and setting them up to succeed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driving away from San Quentin. That's amazing. OK.
Hi.
CARROLL: Hi. Welcome home!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome home.
CARROLL: When they get out, we follow them with support and assistance in reentering society.
The hard work paid off, my friend.
If they come out and they're successful, society is safer. If they stayed in touch with us, we've actually had nobody go back to prison. And I like to think that it will continue that way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:38:38] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Listen to this next story. Shaun King, a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter movement, is speaking out for the first time regarding allegations that he lied about his race.
PEREIRA: He wrote a very thoughtful and comprehensive online post. Shaun King, who identifies and has long identified as biracial, writes, quote, "I've been told for most of my life that the white man on my birth certificate is not my biological father and that my actual biological father is a light-skinned black man. My mother was a young woman in a bad relationship and I have no judgment."
We want to bring in Michaela Angela Davis. She's a cultural critic and writer. There has been so much noise about this and I know that so many people
of color are having a visceral reaction to the fact that this young man even has to defend his ethnicity. He continues on in this online letter, "for my entire life, I've held the card of my complicated family history very close do my chest. I preferred to keep it that way and deeply resent that I have been forced to authenticate so many intimate details of my life to prove who I really am."
MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURAL CRITIC, WRITER: Yes.
PEREIRA: What are your thoughts, Michaela?
DAVIS: Well, first, it's heartbreaking. I cried when I read his statement. And I look at him and I see my brother, I see my cousin, I see my Uncle Blitzi (ph), I see my family. And it is - you know, race in America, it's complicated. And there's a lot of pain. And there's a lot of - he had to tell his family's secrets because - I mean, consider the source that bullied him into this story. And -
[08:40:06] CAMEROTA: Because - and let's talk about that.
DAVIS: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Because I don't know that we've been clear about that. So there were some conservative websites that said that he was white.
DAVIS: Yes.
CAMEROTA: That he was white and he was passing as black.
PEREIRA: And they - not just passing but deceiving people and being deceptive about his ethnicity and had lied his way into receiving a scholarship at Morehouse and from Oprah.
CAMEROTA: Right.
DAVIS: So - so the intent was to discredit him, to discredit the movement. That - there's a tradition of that. They did it in the civil rights movement with (INAUDIBLE). You - there's all - Rayer Bustins (ph), who was, you know, gay, and they teased him out. So I think that this is in the tradition to discredit people in the movement.
However, what is so moving about this is how personal it is and how he had to share his story because of this sort of bullying and to help the movement because he could have held onto it, right? This could have been - you know, there was a documentary called little white lies about this girl that grew up and no one talked about it. This was even more complicated than that. However, you know, we were talking off camera, Michaela, that it's complicated to others. This is - I know this story.
PEREIRA: So do I.
DAVIS: I've seen it. My father doesn't know who his father is.
PEREIRA: Right. DAVIS: And it just - it is - it just happened to be that his mother was light skinned black, so he didn't have to do the same thing that Shaun did. However, they have been brutalized. They have been marginalized. He's had racial attacks on him because of his race. So he has that trauma. And now having to defend it. Right, so there's that.
CAMEROTA: So do help the rest of us understand it.
DAVIS: OK.
CAMEROTA: So I accept that people's families are complicated -
DAVIS: Yes.
CAMEROTA: But help the rest of us understand it because particularly in light of what happened to Rachel Dolezal, where she - the whole story where she - she had white parents.
DAVIS: Right.
CAMEROTA: She was by most accounts a white woman who was passing as black to be the head of the Spokane NAACP. So here again, this is what people thought was happening.
DAVIS: Right.
CAMEROTA: They thought - when they saw his mom, who's a white woman, they thought, oh, here is a white guy who is trying to pass to be head of the Black Lives Matter. So they - they wanted to know more, OK.
DAVIS: Right.
CAMEROTA: So they went digging. And they found a white man's name on his birth certificate. So they were like, aha, the smoking gun. He's white.
DAVIS: Right.
CAMEROTA: And then he had - felt that he had to explain his very complicated, racial history.
DAVIS: Again, consider the source. Who "they" are? How "they" need to understand, right? So all of this - all of this shape shifting that we have to do is to make these white conservatives understand an identity that they have no interest in - they have no interest in knowing who we are. They just want to discredit him, right, and they don't have an intel - a racial intellect wide enough to understand that black people look like this, that black people look like Shaun. That you can have a black - a white mother and still be black. But -
CAMEROTA: And you actually -
DAVIS: And this has nothing to do with Rachel Dolezal. Let's be -
PEREIRA: This feels very different than Rachel Dolezal. DAVIS: Let's be very, very clear. And I understand how "they" make the connection. "We" are not making that connection.
CAMEROTA: So you never doubted that he - that - you never thought that he was a Rachel Dolezal posing as something other than who he was?
DAVIS: Absolutely not. There was no - absolutely not. And - and this is part - the part, when he said he deeply resents it, I mean, I deeply resented having to define what blackness is because of one crazy lady. And I - and I say Rachel was crazy because her story was full of lots of weird pieces. There's nothing weird or made up in his story. It is so intimate.
PEREIRA: He's - he's had to actually defend so much of this. And that's the part. His wife has written a letter corroborating everything, the fact that he was in -
DAVIS: He's having to put out facts.
PEREIRA: He's having to put out facts. Police officers and neighbors and other people have come to sort of defend this. Here's the bottom line, why is this even happening? Why does it matter?
DAVIS: Because - you know why it's happening, because America is - this is the first generation that is really getting at the core of what this structural - this thing that we call white supremacy and structural racism is. We're getting at how we don't know about our history. How we don't know how to identify someone's nose, someone's mouth, someone - we all knew he was black. Everybody know that's cousin pookie (ph) -
PEREIRA: Right. Right.
DAVIS: You know, but - but people on the outside, again, let's be clear, this is to damage Black Lives Matter.
PEREIRA: Michaela Angela Davis, always a pleasure to have you here.
DAVIS: Oh, me too.
PEREIRA: Great conversations. You can get in on the conversation with us on social media. You know the #newdaycnn or go onto Facebook.
CAMEROTA: All right, meanwhile, new polls show that voters think Donald Trump is the strongest on several issues, including foreign policy. But why? We're bringing back our panel of Trump supporters to get some insight.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[08:48:42] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that I will be a great sleeper on the military because people wouldn't think it's my strength, but I think it would be one of my strengths. I want to build up our military. I want to have such an incredible military that nobody's going to play games with us, nobody's going to mess with us and hopefully we won't ever have to use our military. I would build up our military so strong, so powerful, that nobody will mess with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: Impressed? The growing number of Americans, certainly in the GOP, are. Donald Trump continues to outdistance his rivals in polls.
Let's bring back our panel of Trump supporters. We have Terra Grant, Jessie Lopez and Pax Hart.
So we are doing this because we believe that Donald Trump does reflect a populous movement, at least within the GOP. So we're trying to see what resonates and why. And we very much thank you for doing that.
I want to play you another piece of sound now from the interview with Mr. Trump and get your take on his response. It involves the pope. Il papa. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: So here's the moment. You meet the pope, Pope Francis comes. He has a translator there and he says, oh, Mr. Trump, this is very nice. Then he says, you know, I want to tell him something. The translator says to you, the pope believes that capitalism can be a real avenue to greed. It can be really toxic and corrupt. And he's shaking his finger at you when he says it. What do you say in response to the pope?
TRUMP: I'd say ISIS wants to get you. Do you know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican?
[08:50:01] You have heard that. You know, that's a dream of theirs to go into Italy - you do know that.
CUOMO: He talks to you about capitalism -- you scare the pope.
TRUMP: No, no -- I'm going to have to scare the pope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: Donald Trump scares pope. Should that be the headline there, Jessie? How do you feel about that?
JESSIE LOPEZ, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No. I think that he's probably correct. ISIS is out to get everybody that's a Christian.
CUOMO: What's his bigger point that he's making, Pax, about capitalism and why the pope should respect the way America is able to defend itself?
PAX HART, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, I think when anybody starts the rhetoric of bashing the free market, they neglect to point out that most of the advances, most of the life-saving advances in medicine, technology, energy were propelled by profit. CUOMO: Terra, let me ask you something. Is there anything that could
come out of the Donald Trump's mouth that you would find offensive?
TERRA GRANT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I don't necessarily find it offensive.
CUOMO: I know. That's what I'm saying. Is there anything that he could say that a Trump supporter would find offensive?
GRANT: I don't - no. But, you know what, we live in 2015 where everyone is offended by everything. And I'm not offended. I'm not easily offended. I'm sure there are people out there that you say this and they go here and you say this and -- you know, I mean, anyone can make an issue out of anything, of course. But I just -- Yes, I'm sure there are things that I would disagree with Donald Trump on. But could he offend me? No.
CUOMO: Do you believe, Jessie, that you people who like Donald Trump give him a pass when it comes to the words that he uses, how he deals with his rivals, how he explains himself, simply because you believe that he just represents a good alternative?
LOPEZ: I believe that the pass that we give him is because of the way he comes across in a realistic manner, representing the people's feelings, representing how we feel about what has not been done, representing about the military, for example, the military strength.
CUOMO: Is that position enough for you, that he says I'm going to build the military so much that nobody will mess with us?
LOPEZ: There's military people that are getting fired in the middle of their careers when they've signed a contract and then now they're being fired. There's people that were fired while they were fighting in Afghanistan, receive a pink slip --
CUOMO: And you believe he'll change that?
LOPEZ: Yes, he will. He will be there for the military, make our military great again and support our veterans that are still -- some of them are living in the street.
CUOMO: Pax, he says that I'm going to take the oil. That's the way to get ISIS. Now you know that that is not a majority opinion that's held by a military commander. He says I'm going to use money that we get from the oil and I'm going to use it give it to the wounded warriors because they don't get enough. But he also says, but I'm going to have to use troops in order to get the oil, in essence almost definitely creating more wounded warriors. Do you see that as an inconsistency?
HART: What I see Donald doing, and I think we've seen it the whole time, you know, he's a business leader, he's built a business empire. The way you do that successfully is you surround yourself with the best of the best people and I have absolutely no doubt that he's going to do that with the military.
CUOMO: You sound like him right now. I just asked you a question and you are completely ignoring it. Do you believe that putting people in harm's way -- it has to cost blood and treasure to surround that oil if you went with that strategy. Saying I'm going to give money to the wounded warriors because they deserve it, it's great, but at the same time you're making a decision to create more wounded warriors. Do you see that as an inconsistency?
HART: I see it more of a danger to not take our position as a superpower and to let what's going on in the Middle East completely unravel.
CUOMO: Worth the risk, Jessie is nodding his head yes. You know, not too long ago, people of your background, military veterans and the rest of America did not want us going anywhere near that place with boots on the ground. You believe --
LOPEZ: And Donald didn't either.
CUOMO: But now he does. But now he does.
LOPEZ: Now he does. Just like the veterans --
GRANT: How about we get away from foreign dependency on oil --
CUOMO: Hold on a second. Terra, you're making a good point. You're saying instead of going over there and taking that oil, you're saying find your own oil here.
GRANT: Absolutely. Why can't we depend on our oil? Let's get away from foreign dependency on oil, therefore we're not putting our troops on the ground -
HART: I think that's a separate issue from -
(CROSSTALK)
LOPEZ: We're not going to depend on the oil from the Middle East. What Trump is saying is we're going to take the oil and the monetary gains that ISIS is doing in the Middle East -
GRANT: I say leave them the hell alone - I say let's stay right here in the United States.
LOPEZ: The veterans in the military are talking about right now and the generals -- there's been generals, admirals from the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps all over fired because they don't agree because the administration wants to do.
GRANT: Let's build our military, absolutely. Let's build our military up. Let's get the respect back as America. And let's do so through the military. I love the military. Donald Trump loves the military. He loves being a patriot. He is a patriot of the United States. But that does not mean that we have to take our men and women in the service and put them on the ground to take a bunch of oil when we can utilize the oil that we have right here in the United States.
[08:55:02] CUOMO: Final point. HART: The reason that he proposed taking oil -- and who knows if that will work -- it's to cut off their funding. That was his goal. And he made that pretty clear.
CUOMO: And in the most recent poll he is leading as a Republican who inspires confidence that he can handle ISIS. He gets the highest numbers. Pax, Jessie, Terra, thank you for your perspective as Trump supporters. Appreciate it.
GRANT: Thank you.
CUOMO: As always, guess what's coming up on a Friday? "The Good Stuff!" Stick around for it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEREIRA: Talk about an upgrade today.
CAMEROTA: Who are these people?
CUOMO: Time for "The Good Stuff." This is Isabella Veronica Cuomo, my 12-year-old, and this is her good friend Grayson Banker (ph). They were just at a concert at another morning show. But they're here now.
Anyway, here's "The Good Stuff." Five-year-old Hailey Dawson, born with a very rare disorder that didn't allow all of her fingers on her left hand to develop. That's sad. But listen, she had a dream and her parents hated that she couldn't live it, so they contacted the University of Nevada Las Vegas and engineering students made Hailey a special prosthetic hand themed after her favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles.
It gets gooder [SIC]. Hailey threw out the first pitch at Monday night's Orioles game with her new hand.
PEREIRA: So proud of you, Hailey. Way to go.
CAMEROTA: That was better than any pitch I've ever thrown.
PEREIRA: I love it.
CUOMO: "Good Stuff."
