Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Interview with Rick Santorum; Parents of American Student Killed in Nice Speak Out. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 20, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:12] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The conventions matter, but there's a lot of other news in the world as well. We do have a big break in the Baton Rouge ambush investigation. The murderer who shot six police officers, killing three, just last Sunday was on three medications used for treating PTSD, Ativan, Valium and Lunesta. This according to a source close to the investigation.

One of those prescriptions refilled in just the last few weeks. The killer was a former marine, you'll remember, who spent time in Iraq. He was discharged in 2010.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Another community in mourning. A Kansas City police captain shot and killed in the line of duty. Forty-six- year-old Captain Robert Melton was gunned down while chasing suspects. He went to the scene after reports of a drive-by shooting. Melton, a veteran, national guardsman, he served in Afghanistan. He's the 32nd police officer killed in the line of duty this year.

CUOMO: More sad news of the entertainment variety. Iconic film and television director Garry Marshall has died. Marshall created hit shows "Laverne and Shirley", "Happy Days." Of course, those were in the '70s. He also directed blockbusters films "Pretty Woman" and "The Princess Diaries."

Marshall's publicist says he died of complications from pneumonia at a Burbank Hospital after suffering a stroke. Marshall was 81 years old.

CAMEROTA: Oh, that's too bad. We all know all of his work. It had such a lasting impression on the country.

CUOMO: "Princess Bride" is without question the main cultural touchstone for me to this day.

CAMEROTA: Inconceivable.

CUOMO: Inconceivable.

CAMEROTA: All right. We've heard Hillary Clinton mentioned many times, in fact slammed, at the Republican National Convention. In fact, sometimes more than we've heard about what Donald Trump has to offer. So what impact will that have in the fall?

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum will join us next with his thoughts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:39:09] CUOMO: It is day three of the Republican National Convention. Tonight's theme, make America first again. So what does that mean? What are we going to see?

Well, we'll probably see more Hillary Clinton bashing, but will there be any attended change in tone?

Let's discuss with former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum.

Senator, good to have you with us.

RICK SANTORUM (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Good to be here.

CUOMO: So, Ron Brownstein, you know him. He reminded me of something that's apropos.

Donald Trump Jr. had a theme to his endorsement of his father. It was, he's a blue-collar billionaire. It reminded Ron and then reminded me when -- you know, when he said it, you have a great speech to great effect in Troy, Michigan, about then-Senator Obama when you said, "What a snob. Everybody should go to college.

[06:40:01] What a snob."

And that resonated beyond its words. Ron made the suggestion that I agree with, which is I wonder if this was an extension of that play, that political play of saying my father is no snob.

SANTORUM: His whole campaign has been focused on blue-collar America. Everyone says, oh, it's about angry white people. No, it's about angry people who feel like the economy is not working for them, this whole idea.

It's really what we saw in the U.K. This whole idea of globalization, trade at any expense, of increasing GDP numbers or increasing profits of Wall Street, that that's really the goal of economic policy.

What Trump is saying, no, the goal it isn't about corporate profits, it's about making sure that every American has the opportunity to rise. And that's what's resonating.

I can tell you, I was in Monessen, Pennsylvania, which is Mon Valley, the steel valley of Pittsburgh a few weeks ago when Trump gave his trade speech. And the most remarkable thing as I'm in this big aluminum recycling center, and I walk in and all these people are coming up to me because I used to represent Pennsylvania. But they're all Democrats who fought against me.

I mean, the grandson of a former Democratic congressman from there, a whole slew of Democratic mayors from up and down this valley that I used to get 20 percent of the vote in these communities. They're at this rally. They're coming to me saying, we like this message. We like this message. You know, we got to look out for our jobs.

That is what is not -- I don't think is translating at this point, at least in the paparazzi here that are talking about this race.

CUOMO: What do you say to the bind that many Republicans, almost half your party, finds itself in, which is they don't buy into this guy. They buy into the message you just said. They like that message, but they don't believe that Donald Trump can get it done. They don't believe he's qualified to get it done, and they're balancing that with their outward disgust of Hillary Clinton.

What do you say to them? Do you think that's saying, I can't vote for Clinton is enough to get Trump the presidency?

SANTORUM: Look, I keep coming back to say it's a binary choice. I mean, we like to say you have another option. You don't have another option. You're either going to get Donald Trump or you're going to get Hillary Clinton.

I come back to a variety of different issues. One is that issue, which is the Republican Party has changed. A lot of the people in this party in leadership don't recognize that. They have refused to accept it. Most of them are the funders.

They have refused to accept the Republican Party is no longer the white suburban corporate, you know, folks that go to the club. That's not the Republican Party anymore. The Republican Party is a party that is increasingly blue collar, those suburbs that I used to win and Republicans, we don't win those suburbs anymore. They become Democratic suburbs.

And the areas, the blue collar, the coal fields, the steel mills, the Scrantons, the Pittsburghs, the Clevelands, those places are turning to Republicans because the Democratic policies have failed. They have failed the working people. The party of working folks, that isn't the party.

Hillary Clinton is a Wall Street globalist. Donald Trump, who's the blue-collar guy. If that doesn't scare the living daylights out of the Democratic Party, I don't know what will. I think Republicans have not embraced that yet. I'm disappointed in that.

But Trump doesn't care. He's going to continue to focus on that.

CUOMO: Let's talk about one who does, because I -- one of the reasons we work so hard to get to Senator Ron today, because we know you're in demand, we appreciate you being here. You know Mike Pence.

SANTORUM: I do.

CUOMO: Mike Pence does not line up as a Trump guy on paper, but this message is governor pence's message. What should people expect to hear tonight?

SANTORUM: I think you're going to hear a very convicted guy. Mike is as serious, faithful conservative, but he's someone -- when I met with Mike when I was thinking about running again, I sat down with him, I said, what are you going to do, Mike?

He four years ago thought about running for president. We had long conversations about that. I said, Mike, what are you going to do?

He said, I love what I'm doing here. The first thing he brought up to me was he put in universal vocational education. He says it's the most popular thing I've done here in Indiana. He said, we have local boards that work with the schools to design programs so we can have jobs for our kids.

The idea that everybody has to go to college in order to get a good job and looking down our nose at people who work with their hands, we don't do that in Indiana anymore. He was so proud of that. It was like his signature accomplishment.

I think you're going to probably -- hopefully you'll hear that tonight. That's the kind of message that says, look, Republicans are the party of people who want to have earned success, who understand the importance of that. It's not party we're going to give you this, we're going to give you that, we're going to promise you this, we're going to give you free college, as if that is the ticket to success when most Americans, you know this, 74 percent of Americans who are aged 25 and older don't have a college degree.

[06:45:07] And no party, neither political party, until Donald Trump, has been -- on the national stage, has been talking about that. Hopefully, we'll hear some of that from Mike tonight.

CUOMO: Senator, thank you for being with us.

SANTORUM: My pleasure.

CUOMO: Clearly, you're not done with politics yet. I don't care what you say, the message lives in you too deeply. We'll be talking again.

Thank you for being with us here on NEW DAY.

Now, up next, the parents of an American student killed in Nice have broken their silence. They want to talk about losing their son in that terror attack, what it means to them, what they believe it should mean to you, next on NEW DAY. We'll be talking to the parents of Nicholas Leslie. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We're learning more about the victims of last week's terror attack in Nice, France, when a truck plowed through a crowd following Bastille Day festivities. One of the 84 victims was 20-year-old UC- Berkeley student Nicholas Leslie. He went to France for our study abroad program.

Nicholas' parents are speaking out for the very first time since losing their son. Conrad and Paola Leslie join us from Nice.

Mr. and Mrs. Leslie, thank you very much for joining us. We know this is the first time you're speaking and how hard this is for you. Let's just start at the beginning, Mr. Leslie. Can you tell us about

what Nick was doing there in Nice and what his experience was thus far in Paris?

[06:50:01] CONRAD LESLIE, FATHER OF NICHOLAS LESLIE: Correct. It was just wonderful. He was a bright kid. He was UC-Berkeley. And he joined a special -- he was admitted into the school of business. He was doing a special innovation academy here where kids from Berkeley, Stanford, and some other universities get an opportunity to develop an idea.

So, he was working on an innovative project to measure athletes', you know, muscle strain and having an app that would allow coaches to substitute their players. So, it was there joined by a bunch of kids from the school, and he's having the time of his life. He was really enjoying every single moment of his time here.

CAMEROTA: We can imagine.

And Mrs. Leslie, tell us what happened last week when you got the word that there had been this terrible terrorist attack and how you started trying to son.

PAOLA LESLIE, MOTHER OF NICHOLAS LESLIE: You know, at the beginning we were hoping that he was still missing because some friends of him, they told us they saw him running away from the truck. So, we were hoping maybe he was somewhere hiding or, I don't know, at the hospital. He couldn't be identified.

But then, you know, hours have passed, the days. And when we arrived here, we took the plane the day after. We arrived here and they told us the news that he didn't make it. So, you know, I don't know anymore what to say.

CAMEROTA: I'm so sorry. We can hear your heartbreak, and we feel it along with you. The idea that you went through those hours and those days of not knowing where he was and holding out hope.

And then, Mr. Leslie, you travelled to Nice to try to find him, hoping that he was among the missing. Then what happened when you got there?

C. LESLIE: Correct.

P. LESLIE: Yes.

C. LESLIE: Well, you know, we really thought he was going to be here. We brought other clothes. We thought he was just a missing person in the hospital they couldn't identify. We really thought he was going to be here. And we were supported so much.

You know, the U.S. embassy had sent two representatives. The Italian consulate, since Nicholas was dual citizenship, U.S. and Italy, was here. The professors from Berkeley and program managers for the program that he was involved.

Most important, the students that we met that were his classmates in this program were here. And they greeted us. They supported us. They did everything. They went out hospital to hospital looking for him.

You know, they even got arrested by posting posters of him, missing persons. They stood by us. They forfeited some of their classes just to support us.

We were just so overwhelmed by the love and support that we got from his friends from the university, from the U.S. embassy, from the Italian embassy, and from all his friends and loved ones.

CAMEROTA: Gosh, that is the silver lining. You know, to hear about how loved nick was and how wonderful his friends are, which of course is a real testament to the kind of kid that he was. But I know -- I can imagine the heartbreak of thinking that you were going to find your son and to bring him home alive and then to get there and get the news, how long was it until you heard, once you had landed in Nice, what really had happened to him?

C. LESLIE: Well, unfortunately, it was a little sadder than that. We did a layover. We flew immediately, as soon as we had an opportunity. U.C.-Berkeley arranged for our travel. Within three hours, we had a ticket. We were in the airplane in Italy.

As soon as we landed in Paris, we switched on our phones thinking that we're going to get good news. Instead, we had a voicemail, and it said we had some news on your son, and unfortunately they said it was bad news. So we heard in Paris, and it was really shocking.

The U.S. embassy knew about it, but they told my -- Paola's brother, and they were waiting for us to arrive. Unfortunately, we heard in Paris, you can just imagine, we heard it inside the airplane. It was a very difficult trip to Nice.

CAMEROTA: Oh, gosh. We're so, so sorry. We can only imagine what that news would be like.

I also understand that since you've been in Nice, you've also learned some things about what happened with that truck and that terrorist before the attack. Can you share some of the things you've learned?

C. LESLIE: Absolutely. I don't want to jump to conclusions, you know, because the investigation is still under way. The FBI is studying it. The Interpol is working on it.

But from what we understand, and it's like raw information in the news s that the truck was parked illegally, just adjacent to the area where there were like 36,000 people.

[06:55:02] It was just -- you know, France was in a state of emergency. From what we understand, and it has to be verified, that the truck was there. We just don't understand how it was allowed, you know? We talked to the driver, and he said, I used to drive a truck and they won't even allow small little vehicles the size of a Jeep Cherokee, you know, panel trucks to be closed to that area in Promenade des Anglais. We just don't understand how that happened. Furthermore, how he got

in or how he could possibly drive for almost a mile, just killing all these wonderful lives. Not only our son, but there were other people that died.

We met the other American family. They lost their 11-year-old boy. You walk down and you see the flowers of all these kids. It was like a senseless -- you know, we were short for words, you know?

The only thing that keeps us going is that we had 20 incredible years with our son. He was a very special boy. We loved him very much.

He wasn't only our son but he was our friend. You know, we spent quality time. He was loved by everybody. The way I look at it, it's like, you know, eating a gourmet plate of food.

You know, sure, we wanted more, but you get a small plate of something really good. And we enjoyed it. We had it, and it's not like we went to an all you can eat buffet, you can have 50 years with somebody. But I would rather have 20 years with Nicholas that were quality than 50 years, you know, that might have been not with Nicholas.

CAMEROTA: Well, we hear your love, and that is a beautiful, beautiful sentiment and a beautiful testament to your son. We can tell what wonderful parents you are. Thank you for sharing the story of him with us, and we hope that the information that you've learned can somehow be given to authorities and prevent something like this again.

Thank you, both, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie, for being with us.

C. LESLIE: Thank you, Alisyn.

P. LESLIE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: NEW DAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)