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GOP Demanding Loyalty Pledge from Candidates; Reported Sighting a Hoax in Hunt for Cop Killers; What Does Second Video of Police Shooting Reveal?; Migrants Board Train in Budapest. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will he or won't he rule out a third-party bid?

[05:58:52] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That would certainly be the best path to victory.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Donald Trump is criticizing Jeb for speaking Spanish.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Pope Francis, when he comes to Washington, he's going to say mass en Espanol. Maybe Mr. Trump will want to deport the Holy Father when he shows up, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three suspected cop killers remain on the loose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not discounting anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're so unnerved.

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It is a sad fact that no one is safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A symbol of the horror of Europe's refugee crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just came here seeking a chance for a better life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: International community has proved itself incapable of preventing and stopping conflict.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Thursday, September 3, 6 a.m. in the East. Chris Cuomo is off today. John Berman is in. Great to have you.

So up first, the word of the day is loyalty. Republican Party leaders trying to get Donald Trump to pledge support to whomever the GOP nominee is and not run as a third-party candidate. Trump is meeting with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus today.

MICHAEL PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, Trump's feud with rival Jeb Bush getting personal. The frontrunner of the Republican Party tells Bush, who is bilingual, to speak English in the U.S.

CNN's Sara Murray is following all of this live for us in our Washington bureau -- Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

It's a big day. We're getting a big meeting between Donald Trump and Reince Priebus. Right after that, Donald Trump has scheduled a press conference at Trump Tower. The big question: whether we will finally settle this issue of whether Donald Trump will pledge his loyalty to the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Unbelievable.

MURRAY (voice-over): By day's end, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus could have an answer from Donald Trump. Will he or won't he rule out a third-party bid?

TRUMP: Did you vote for Trump? Did you vote for Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did.

MURRAY: In Nashville recently, Trump, a former Democrat, explaining why he preferred to run as a Republican.

TRUMP: That would certainly be the best path to victory. And we're going to make a decision very soon. And I think a lot of people are going to be very happy.

MURRAY: On Tuesday the party circulating a loyalty pledge to the GOP contenders. An apparent attempt to neutralize Trump's threat to run as an independent, which could jeopardize the GOP's attempt to retake the White House. It's a pledge Trump rebuffed during the first debate.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You're not going to make the pledge?

TRUMP: I will not make the pledge at this time.

BAIER: OK.

MURRAY: Now the RNC wants it in writing, asking Trump to sign an agreement stating he will not seek to run as an independent or accept the nomination for president of any other party if he fails to win the Republican nomination in 2016.

Trump's meeting comes on the heels of his controversial remarks in "Breitbart News," slamming Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish as he attacked Trump's political views a day earlier.

BUSH: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

MURRAY: Trump telling "Breitbart News," "He should really set the example by speaking English in the United States.

A Bush aide lashed back saying Trump was, quote, "trying to kill the party, attacking any American who is bilingual."

The war of words escalating as Trump's unfavorable numbers remain sky-high among Hispanics.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now back to this big meeting today between Reince Priebus and Donald Trump. Sources are telling CNN that all signs point to Trump signing this pledge, ruling out a third-party bid. But as we know, we can't ever make any promises when it comes to Donald Trump. He tends to be a little unpredictable.

Back to you, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Sara. And all signs point to a big news conference today in New York, which is what Donald Trump gets, a whole lot of cameras. We know he likes that.

Sara, stick around. I want to bring in senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny, as well.

Jeff, it's clear to me why the Republican Party wants this pledge and wants everyone to commit to staying in their party and not running as a third-party candidate. It's because of this. Look at this poll.

How would an independent Trump run impact the 2016 race? Well, Hillary Clinton, if she's the nominee, she would run away with it. The Republicans almost can't win with Trump running as a third party.

On the other hand from Trump's standpoint, Jeff, why not sign this pledge? It's unenforceable. In nine months from now, if he says, "You know what? I want to run as a third-party candidate," what can they do about it?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, you're absolutely right about that. It is entirely unenforceable.

There's another deadline looming here, and this is one of the reasons that Donald Trump is likely to do this today. It's the South Carolina primary. They have their own pledge, their own loyalty pledge. And, of course, that's on September 30. You have to sign it before then.

And the South Carolina primary is a must-win, must-stop for any Republican presidential candidate. Of course, it comes after Iowa, New Hampshire and then South Carolina. So that's one of the reasons he's doing it today. I'm also told it's one of the reasons he wants to get this out of

the way before the next debate. As we know, our CNN debate is coming up in just two weeks. If he gets this off the table, it allows him to move on to other issues.

So John, a couple of the Republican campaigns I've talked to since this news broke last night say that they're actually a little bit more worried about this now, because they believe it's another sign that Donald Trump is taking this presidential campaign even more seriously than they thought he was before. So he may be even a bigger threat now here.

So this is going to be a fascinating few hours coming up and an interesting afternoon, as you said.

CAMEROTA: So true. Donald Trump has a press conference at 2 p.m. We also have Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina on our show. We'll ask them about all this.

And meanwhile, Donald Trump gave a somewhat controversial statement to "Breitbart" in an interview about Jeb Bush. You know that they've been sparring verbally. So here's the latest one.

He says, "I like Jeb. He's a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States."

As we know, Jeb Bush is bilingual. He sometimes speaks on the campaign trail in Spanish.

Sara, you know, this is something that conservatives have been saying for a long time, that English should be the official language of the United States. People, when you're in the -- America, you should speak English. But, you know, for candidates, it hasn't been politically correct to say that until Donald Trump. How do you think this plays?

[06:05:15] MURRAY: Well, I think there are a lot of Republican voters who will be happy to hear this coming from Donald Trump. But I think we've seen that in the way he's rallied support around his immigration policies and talking points like this.

But for a Republican Party that wants to improve its outreach to Hispanic voters and prove its outreach to women, making comments like this is not particularly helpful. I think it's all the more ironic, after saying this, to say Donald Trump is going to be in a meeting with Reince Priebus today. And almost no one has worked harder in the Republican Party than Reince Priebus in trying to improve his outreach to Hispanic voters.

I think a lot of other Republican candidates look at this and say, "Why are we talking about this? Why are we trying to have this fight about speaking English in America?" Well, I'm sure a number of them would agree that English should be the official language of the United States. I don't think that this is really a fight that they want to be picking. BERMAN: And Jeff, it's so interesting to me, because Jeb Bush

being bilingual is supposed to be one of his strengths. I mean, he speaks Spanish whenever he can on the stump. He did it during his announcement speech. And for Donald Trump to go right after him in an area which, again, is supposed to be his strength, is fascinating. The Bush campaign responded in their own tweet. They said, as Donald Trump tries to kill the party, attacking any American who is bilingual, Jeb is attracting new conservatives -- Jeff.

ZELENY: I mean, that's exactly right, but Donald Trump is appealing to the core base of the party. So a segment of the party, perhaps, you know, it's one in four voters or even more than that, who think it's absolutely right what he's saying.

Jeb Bush, of course, has a bigger picture in mind. So for a general election audience, his background is biography, the fact that he speaks Spanish is such a plus.

But in this moment, in this Republican primary campaign, it is being viewed as a negative for him. But if you watch how this race has been covered by Spanish language television, which is a key segment here, it is fascinating. I mean, Donald Trump says he's going to win Hispanics but the polls say something differently. Some 80 percent disapprove of Hispanic voters here.

So Jeb Bush is still going to try and take the long road, try and stay the course here and not be -- be baited into this. But not the kind of conversation that anyone in the Republican Party wanted to have at this point.

CAMEROTA: There you go. Look at these numbers. You still have an incredibly high unfavorable number, 82 percent, among Hispanic voters.

Sara, let's talk about the Democratic side of the race, because Joe Biden, the vice president, continues -- well, here you go, Jeb Bush at 43 -- continues to play a bit of a cat-and-mouse game in terms of whether or not he'll be getting into the race. He was at a community college in Florida yesterday. And he said he was astonished by all the press there that was so interested in community colleges. Maybe we have that sound. Listen to this from the vice president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And by the way, it's amazing how good the school is. Look at all the press you've attracted. Their -- their interest in community colleges has impressed me greatly. And I hope that's what they're going to write about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Sara, when is he going to decide?

MURRAY: Well, look, they said that he's going to make a decision by the end of the summer. So you know, we still have a little bit more will he or won't he jump in the race?

And I mean, look, you saw Joe Biden on the stump yesterday. He seems perfectly happy to have that kind of attention, to have the cameras on him.

Later on that evening, he went to a fundraiser and didn't really sound like he gave very much away in terms of his attention or his intentions, and I think that's because he likes this attention. He likes people talking about the potential of Joe Biden jumping in the race.

But as you know, this is a very difficult decision to make. It's a very personal decision to make. And I think he realizes he has a relatively short timeframe to turn this over and decide whether to run.

BERMAN: You know, Alisyn, you called it a cat-and-mouse game. Well, yesterday, you know, Jeff Zeleny has been one of the cats. He's down there chasing Joe Biden, trying to get answers. Quickly, Jeff, in about ten seconds or left, did it feel like he was running when you were watching him yesterday?

ZELENY: In that speech it was very vice presidential, giving a speech as vice presidents do, but John, behind the scenes people are still gearing up for the potential of a run. If he decides to run, there will be machinery in place to do so. But that speech was pretty ordinary, except for the fact that all of us were there watching this. Otherwise ordinary vice president speech.

CAMEROTA: All right. Jeff, Sara, thanks so much.

And coming up later, we will speak with Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

BERMAN: And be sure to turn in -- tune in.

CAMEROTA: Or turn on.

BERMAN: Turn on your TV, do it all for the presidential debate. The Republican presidential debate hosted by CNN Wednesday, September 16, I believe, at 6 p.m. Eastern. This will be an event you cannot miss -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Our other top story, the search for three suspects in the shooting death of an Illinois police officer is expanding this morning. Overnight police thought they were closing in, ramping up their search in one area based on the tip that turned out to be a hoax. A painful turn as that community mourns the slain officer.

Rosa Flores is live in Fox Lake with more on the developments overnight -- Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, you know, that was a waste of resources and a drain of emotions. Probably more importantly than anything, think about this. [06:10:09] Just hours before that hoax call came in, there was a

very emotional vigil for this lieutenant. And there were dozens of law-enforcement officers there. I was there. I saw them either holding back tears or wiping tears off their faces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): Overnight police descending on this cornfield in Bolo, Illinois, just five miles south of Fox Lake, where Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz was gunned down by three suspects on Tuesday.

The manhunt ratcheting up at 9:30 p.m., with K-9 units and aerial support after local resident Kristin Kiefer told police two men tried to get into her car to flee the area, eventually running away into a cornfield.

DETECTIVE CHRISTOPHER COVELLI, LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Kiefer admitted that she had fabricated the entire story. She fabricated this story, because she was looking for attention from a family that she nannies for. She was aware that a police officer was killed in this area, and she indicated that's why she chose this area to fabricate her story.

FLORES: Kiefer now faces two charges of disorderly conduct, further complicating an already difficult investigation with few clues.

COVELLI: Tonight's response speaks a lot to that and how president law enforcement is in this area. We are very -- working very hard to restore the peace and calmness in the community again.

FLORES: The sea of a thousand people attending the lieutenant's vigil Wednesday night. A testament to the impact G.I. Joe, as he's known, had on this community for 30 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe was my best friend, my world, my hero. My world got a little bit smaller with his passing.

FLORES (on camera): Where do you think that she found her strength to speak in front of several thousand people?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could only think that the strength comes from knowing that Joe knows that people needed to hear something from her. So that they can find some strength from all of this. Nothing makes sense in the world right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Kiefer is waking up in jail this morning. Her bond hearing is set for 10 a.m. Eastern. As for the investigation, about 100 agents are in this region. They're combing through surveillance video, following every lead, and looking for clues.

CAMEROTA: Rosa, thanks so much for that. Now to San Antonio, Texas, where there is pressure to release a

second home video showing that fatal police shooting from a different angle. The sheriff says the unreleased video appears to show the suspect had a knife in his hand, but she could not say if the knife -- if a knife was found at the scene. CNN's Sara Sidner is live in San Antonio with all of the latest.

What do we know, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn, the Bear County sheriff saying that the videos that she has seen troubling -- and she has seen that second video that hasn't been released to the public -- saying that the video is troubling, because it shows the suspect had both of his hands up when he was shot and killed by her deputies.

However, she says she believes that, in that same video, you can see that the suspect has a knife in one of his hands. That video is going to be sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety so that they can zoom in, get a closer shot of that actual hand, and to get a very slowed-down version of the video so that you can see every single detail.

Now, those details are troubling to the attorney that the family has hired. The attorney of Gilbert Flores, who was killed by deputies who says, why can't they just release that video to the public?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HENRY, FLORES FAMILY ATTORNEY: If you've got a video, you need to send forensics to look at a video to see if there's something in your hand or not in your hand. That's certainly an interesting scientific concept, because we all have eyes, and we should be able to all see it and see that second video.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now we did talk to a source who did see the video, see that second video, saying that actually, the suspect was acting wildly aggressive towards the police and was basically charging them with a knife at one point. But the ultimate point here is whether or not the officers were in imminent danger when they shot and killed the suspect -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Sara, thank you so much.

There is a dramatic scene unfolding right now in Hungary. A train full of thousands of migrants has just left the city station in Budapest after refugees forced their way onto this train. This is breaking right now.

CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is live on that train at this moment. Arwa, describe the scene.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just take a look at how crowded this train is. We're stopped at a station that's about maybe 20, 30 miles outside of Budapest.

These are families around us right now that have all fled the war in Syria, making this horrific journey with their children. They're not entirely 100 percent sure where this train is going to end up. Some people have told them that it's a town that's on the Hungarian- Austria border. Others have told them that they might be going to one of the locations, that -- these camps are in. They don't know.

[06:15:23] They got on the train, uncertain of where they were going, but just wanted to cling to small little hope that maybe it would get them all the way to Germany, because they just couldn't take it. They couldn't take staying in the Budapest train station any more.

There is a police presence outside at this location that we're stopped in is creating quite a bit of unease amongst those who are here.

When we first rolled up here and they saw the police force, there was a little bit of panic where they thought that they would be forcibly removed from the train. Everyone agreed that, if that were to happen, they would not.

It's a very uncertain situation. And it's quite frightening for the parents. They're saying right now, no one get off the train. No one get off the train.

But quite frightening for the parents, because if they do try to forcibly remove these people, there's a lot of children among them, especially small, little children.

So people got on this train, because they saw that the station was open. They assumed that maybe they would be going to Germany. Some of them did receive word that no -- that no people would be crossing international borders, but they have to cling to that little hope, because they have no other choice but to just try to get out of Hungary.

CAMEROTA: Arwa, you're reporting and your live shot there just brings home to us the uncertainty and unease on that train car. We see a lot of men around you. Are there also women and children on that train?

DAMON: Sure. Let me introduce you to some of these families. This little girl, she's 8. Her name is Nideen (ph). And earlier she was reciting the ABC's, the alphabet, to her newfound friend, Barninth (ph), who is just two-and-a-half years old. She's over here sleeping in her mother's lap. They're from Syria. They're from Damascus.

And her mom has really been struggling to provide a little bit of dignity for her daughter. Her most important thing in all of this has been to keep her daughter clean. And now she has her dressed in her favorite little Hello Kitty clothing.

We also have another family here who is from Syria, who also fled the warfare. All of these people who we were speaking to throughout the entire journey said that they left because they thought that, if they left these children back home, they would end up dead there.

All of them who are around us right now live on various different frontlines that is the war in Syria. From different parts, they -- some of them traveling together, a lot of them meeting throughout this entire journey. And some of them making the trip with relatives.

Reme (ph), who I was speaking about earlier, she's traveling with her uncle. Her parents are in Turkey, but the family could only afford for one person to make this trip, so they chose and had her be the one to go with her uncle to try to give her, at least, a chance.

CAMEROTA: Arwa, we could just never see a more stark illustration of the crisis than what you're showing us. Please check back in with us over the next two hours and let us know what happens with that train and where it's headed. Thank you so much for that reporting.

We also want to show you this look and this heartbreaking image. This has sparked a major outcry around the world. It's of a little Syrian migrant boy being cradled in the arms of a Turkish police officer after his body washed up on the beach. His family identified him as 3-year-old Aylan. He drowned after his boat sank off the coast of Turkey along with his brother and mother. The family was reportedly trying to reach Canada.

BERMAN: That is tragic to see. The history in this world and a continent of ships not being able to get to port, of trains not being able to get into countries right now. It's not a good history and needs to be addressed.

PEREIRA: It's important to understand, too, these are refugees fleeing homelands that are war-torn. You know? Not just people trying to change their lives, they're fleeing danger.

CAMEROTA: Seeing that 8-year-old, seeing those kids so distressed on the train, it just really brings it home.

BERMAN: All right. Some other news. The manhunt widens for three suspected killers of an Illinois police officer. There's been a warning from the country's top law enforcement officials that no one is safe. What is behind the rise in gun violence? How to stop it? That's next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:23:35] LYNCH: The increase in shootings we have seen around the country in recent months are all particularly troubling. We have seen violence strike at all segments of our community. It is a sad fact now that no one is safe. This violence against all of us, regardless of what uniform any of us wear, has to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's attorney general Loretta Lynch, speaking out about gun violence in the U.S. Lynch pledging support for police officers and her comments coming as a massive manhunt continues for three men suspected of killing a veteran police lieutenant in Illinois.

We want to bring in former Navy SEAL and former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam.

Jonathan, thanks so much for being here.

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Glad to be here.

CAMEROTA: So this manhunt continues this morning, as we speak, for these three suspects. All we know in the public is that there are two white, one black, because the police officer who was killed called that in. So to us it seems like a needle in a haystack, but you as a law enforcement person, see more clues than we do.

GILLIAM: Well, I see some clues, and I see motives that they could be looking at. And I'm sure law enforcement is looking at these things.

But, you know, when this officer, this veteran officer rolled up on that location, it looked to me from the video that there's warehouses and a railroad track. So I think, first and foremost, you have to determine why or try to determine why were they there to begin with.

CAMEROTA: And at that hour, because it was so early. Why would three people be in this warehouse area at 7:52 when the first call comes in?

GILLIAM: Right.

[06:25:06] CAMEROTA: But what do you think is behind that?

GILLIAM: Well, that depends. Were they just transients moving around, and did they overtake this officer, take his gun and shoot him with his own gun? I haven't yet heard that yet, the results of that ballistic test.

If that's the case, maybe they had warrants. Maybe they were fleeing because they had drugs on them. And that just was an unfortunate circumstance.

But if they were there for a reason, and they're armed themselves, it gives a whole new picture that law enforcement can start digging into. And unfortunately, when you don't have DNA or fingerprints, you have cameras, you have sources, and you have motives. And those are the things that they have to start digging into.

CAMEROTA: And you think that, if they were there for a reason in this warehouse area at that time, it's because they might be smugglers of some kind?

GILLIAM: Could be trafficking guns. They could have had a shipment of drugs coming in. They could have had -- you know, all times of days and all kinds of different people. You'd be very surprised who we end up arresting in the bureau or in -- just in law enforcement in general that are trafficking guns and drugs.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about this incident out of San Antonio, Texas, where two police officers were responding to a domestic disturbance, and they ended up shooting and killing the suspect.

We've all seen this video, and it looks to our, you know, inexperienced eyes as though he had his hands up. You've gone over this very full. And we slow-mo'd it here for the viewers, and we've spot-shadowed it. Let's remove the banner so you can see it more clearly. You see something different through your law enforcement lens...

GILLIAM: Right.

CAMEROTA: ... when you watch this. What do you see?

GILLIAM: I see imminent threat already. I mean...

CAMEROTA: How?

GILLIAM: Because this individual has what appears to be a knife. I mean, going on what the information that we have that a child was cut, that there was a domestic disturbance, and that he was wielding a knife, he walks out. He switches hands at least once with whatever the object is that he has. And then turns around towards police.

What we have to realize is the imminent threat doesn't mean that this individual is charging a cop. If he has a weapon that's deadly, within 21 feet with a knife, I can strike somebody and mortally wound them and kill them with a knife. Knife attacks, by the statistics, are more dangerous than a gunshot. So that individual, as he comes out of the house, he is an imminent threat holding that weapon. Officers can have shot him at any time.

CAMEROTA: It's such an interesting perspective, Jonathan, because we see his hands going up, which means no longer a threat, I mean, to the public.

GILLIAM: We don't know what he's behind that pole, though. If he has that knife in his hand, he can lunge with that knife. So what we have to remember in the public is that imminent threat does not mean aggressive force. It means imminent threat. It means do they have the weapon and ability to injure you the point that you're either, you know, mortally wounded where you die, or you just have serious bodily injury where you could die. An officer can take deadly force at that point.

CAMEROTA: Always great to get your perspective. Jonathan Gilliam, thanks so much...

GILLIAM: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: ... for being on NEW DAY. Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn.

A Kentucky clerk is facing a judge at a contempt hearing today after refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, despite Supreme Court orders to do so. You've got to wait to hear who's defending her. That's ahead.

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