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Probe: Cincinnati Police Shooting "Entirely Preventable"; Dr. Ben Carson Speech in Ferguson, Reporter Q&A; Obama Addresses Troops on 9/11. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 11, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:30:00] JOE DETERS, HAMILTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR: It's an absolute tragedy that in the year 2015 that anyone would behave in this manner. It was senseless. And I met with the family just moments ago. It's just horrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here's the news today. The University of Cincinnati ordered an independent assessment of the case in the police department after the shooting. This is what we now know. They released the results. The conclusion is this, that Tensing's initial stop was appropriate but that he later made -- and I'm quoting -- "critical errors in judgment, used poor police tactics that resulted in a death that was entirely preventable." The university found the officer was what they called an outlier, meaning he wrote a disproportionate amount of tickets to African-Americans compared to other officers.

Jeff Toobin, when you hear all of that?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this report by a well respected private investigation firm, was really the first step to the criminal investigation that's going on because this was simply a private report commissioned by the university. The real question now is whether Tensing will be prosecuted for DuBose's death. It certainly seems like a manslaughter investigation is at least is highly justified, especially as you listen to the whole tape, as we did today. It was sort of a vaguely hostile interaction between a driver and a police officer, but it was obviously not a life-or=death situation. And the fact --

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: And the fact that it led to DuBose's death, as the prosecutor said, is a tragedy.

BALDWIN: Jeff Toobin, thank you so much.

Next here on CNN, we are counting five days until all of these faces share the stage together.

TOOBIN: You need a wide screen. (LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: We need a wide screen for this kind of picture. Get it ready for next Wednesday night. The big debate on CNN. We've released the lineup. Up next, we'll talk to a debate coach about how the candidates are preparing for the main event.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Also, Ben Carson in the middle of a feud with Donald Trump, getting ready to hold a news conference in Ferguson, Missouri. Here he was at a coffee shop this earlier morning. Will he take Trump on again directly? We'll be watching and waiting. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here we go. Dr. Ben Carson is speaking in Ferguson, Missouri. He's the number-two Republican in the race for this nomination. Let's dip in.

[14:35:53] DR. BEN CARSON, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & RETIRED NEUROSURGEON: And I started thinking about what my mother must have gone through, because she had to work two or three jobs at a time. She would leave the house at 5:00 in the morning and wouldn't get back home until midnight, and we were on our own. And she must have been so worried about what would happen to us.

But, in listening to everybody, the thing that really came through to me was the word respect. And how that is really the solution. Respect on both sides of the aisle. I heard, more than one time, how the thing that really inflamed the community was the fact that Michael Brown's body laid out on the street for four hours. I think a lot of people understood that he had done bad things. But his body didn't have to be disrespected.

I think, also, I heard that people must learn how to respect authority. You know, I grew up in an inner city and never had any problems with police, even though I know there were bad police out there because my mother made such a big deal out of how we had to respect authority.

And it's so important that we all begin to teach everybody, our young people, our police officers, teachers, our students, everybody, the importance of respecting other people. It's not just about us. It's about everybody around us. And if we can begin to understand that, I think a lot of our problems are resolved.

One of the things that has been very helpful here in Ferguson is that people have begun to dialogue. We need to start these dialogues before there's a problem. People need to develop relationships before there's a problem. And then it's much less likely that those problems will occur.

And let me open it up for questions.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson, keeping with your theme of respect, the Justice Department has looked at the situation here and also found that the police department did not have basic respect for the community, I think would be a fair argument. Do you agree with that? You said it's on both sides of the aisle. I don't think you meant partisan.

CARSON: No.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And I think the bottom line seems to be there's a feeling that the blacks in this community are policed different than everybody else.

CARSON: The question is, do I think that the blacks in this community are policed differently than everybody else? I don't know. What I do know is that it is very important that police are taught to be respectful of everyone. One lady was talking about the fact that, you know, she woke up or her son woke up and said, there are police out there, all over the place. There were 100 police out there. And there were, you know, armored vehicles out there and she went outside and a policeman was walking up the sidewalk and she said, what's going on? And he said, oh, nothing. That's not respectful. I mean, that's her neighborhood. You know, she has a right to know what's going on there. You know, we need to teach our police to be respectful.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But if you don't know whether race is a variable in all of this, what solutions could you offer when somebody from the community thinks that that is a significant part of the problem?

CARSON: Well, it is a significant part of the problem. That's my very point. My point is we need to make sure that respect is offered in both directions. Not only must we teach our young people and everybody, for that matter, to respect authority, because I don't think you're ever going to find a situation even if you have rotten egg policemen if you don't respect them, that they are still going to say, oh, I'm just going to shoot you. It's just not going to happen. So -- but by the same token, we must teach police to extend the respect to anybody in the community. That's your fellow American, a fellow human being. And if you treat them the right way, you're very unlikely, again, unless you're dealing with somebody who is completely mentally unstable, to have a big problem if you treat them with respect.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson, since Michael Brown's death, a number of states have passed various laws regarding body cameras, use of force, police database. As president, would you support anything on a federal level that could be applied nationally that may ease tensions between police and citizens?

[14:40:00] CARSON: OK. Would I advocate for federal programs for body cameras or other suggestions? You know, I'm not really in favor of a lot more federal programs, to be honest with you. I certainly would not have a problem with block granting to states funding for things like body cams and things of that nature. I would fund it at a lower level than it would take at the federal level because it doesn't cost as much when you take some of the bureaucracy out of it. And also, for anything that I block granted, I would tell the states that if they are able to accomplish what they need to do with 80 percent of that, they can use the rest of it for whatever they want. We need to incentivize efficiently within our states. But I really believe that a lot of these issues are going to be handled much better at a local level than they are at a federal level.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Speaking of respect, there are a lot of respectful names on this list but I don't see any of the Black Lives Matter protesters on this list. Do you have any (INAUDIBLE) part of that Black Lives Matter movement?

CARSON: I have made it clear -- the question is, do I have any plans to meet with Black Lives Matter -- that I'm very happy to meet with Black Lives Matter. You know, my beef with Black Lives Matter movement has been, I think they need to add a word and that word is all. All Black Lives Matter, including the ones that are eradicated by apportions, including the ones that are eradicated on the streets every day by violence. And we need to be looking at all of the factors that have kept the black community in a very dependent position for decades and there's a lot of progress that could be made.

You know, there's a trillion dollars of assets in the black community. There's only about 10 countries in the world that have a trillion dollar annual budget. I mean, it's an enormous amount of resources. We need to be talking about how you turn those resources over in your own community to create even more and reach back and pull other people up.

We need to be talking about the education system because education is the great divide. And I don't care where a person comes from, they get a good education and they write their own ticket. Those sorts of things need to be talked about. We need to be talking about the drugs and the drug dealers and the effect that they have on the community. We need to be talking about out-of-wedlock births and what that does to a woman's educational possibilities and what it does to a child that makes them four times more likely to end up on welfare or in the penal system.

Until we begin to address these issues, we're not going to get anywhere. And as an overall society, we need to address the fact that we only have 330 million people. China has over a billion. India has over a billion. We have to compete with them on the global scale. We can't afford to be losing our people.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson, this is in a line of respect and on another topic. I know you say you don't want to get into a gladiator battle. He has said that this is -- that you weren't always a big man of faith and also said in his words that you were heavy into the world of abortion. Would you respond to both of those things that it seems that he is going after the heart of your faith and your religion?

CARSON: Well, the question is, do I want to respond to Donald Trump's charges. The answer is no. I really don't. Because what I have discovered is that the media loves to stoke up controversy. And have people fighting each other like gladiators and I think that's exactly the wrong thing to do. I've made it clear that I was not attacking him. It was interpreted that way by the media and I think he took the bait. But I'm not taking the bait. I'm not going there.

Next question?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson, there are municipal courts that are ticketing people getting caught up in a cycle of debt and warrants. Do you think that should be reformed? Did that come up in the meeting?

CARSON: That particular issue didn't come up that certain people may be getting more tickets, more warrants, et cetera. Does that need to be studied? Of course it does. You know, when we talk about liberty and justice for all, that's exactly what it means. We don't treat anybody, especially, we don't persecute anybody specially and when we find evidence of that happening, we use our intellect and our goodwill to remedy the situation. So -- but let's do it on the basis of evidence. This is one of the wonderful things in medicine. We make decisions based on medicine, not on emotion or ideology. So bring on the evidence and let's remedy it.

[14:45:42] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson, you said earlier that (INAUDIBLE) is part of the problem. What specific steps would you take and are you satisfied with President Obama's handling of racism?

CARSON: Am I satisfied with President Obama's handling of racial issues? And what additional steps would I take to ameliorate the situation of racial conflict in this country? I have no comment about President Obama's handling of the issue. But I think what has to be done is that we need to begin to emphasize relationships. When people know each other, superficial issues become less important. Anybody here who has a close friend of a different race knows that. It just doesn't matter anymore when you know somebody. And we need to foster relationships. We need to get business, industry, academia, Wall Street, churches, community groups involved in investing in the people around them. That's the kind of thing that will allow people to rise. Throwing money at a problem is not an effective way of doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How do you enforce those relationships?

CARSON: Well, as president, you have the bully pulpit and a number of organizations that can include the private sector. I do not believe it's the responsibility of the government to solve all of the social problems, to take care of all of the ills in our society. The reason that we flourish as a nation early on is because our communities, which were in many cases separated from anybody by 50, 100 or even 100s of miles were able to thrive. Why were they able to thrive? Because people took care of each other. If it was harvest time and a farmer fell out of a tree, everybody else pitched in and harvested his crops for him. If somebody got killed, everybody else took care of their family. It wasn't a big government program. It was people caring about each other. I've been a guest speaker at multiple programs around the country that are initiated in the private sector that have had enormous results in terms of bringing people out of poverty, in terms of putting people on the trajectory for success in our society. And the government helping to coordinate and synergize those programs is going to be much more helpful than what we have done over the great many decades, which is basically find a way to keep people in a dependent situation, and that's not America.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Carson, one of the criticisms of President Obama when he came into this job (INAUDIBLE). What prepares you in your background to (INAUDIBLE)?

CARSON: OK. The question being, people criticize President Obama for not having executive experience and the kinds of things that are necessary for the job of president. And they say the same thing about me. How would I counter that argument? Thank you for asking that question.

(LAUGHTER)

She's not a plant.

(LAUGHTER)

[14:50:00] You know, I -- in addition to a very arduous and successful career in medicine where I had to take a division of pediatric neurosurgery that wasn't even on the map when I became the director, and through very hard work and innovation, by the time we reached 2008, it was ranked by the world report as the number-one neurosurgery pediatric division in the United States, that was hard work, but it can be done. But in addition to that, I spent 18 years on the board of directors of Kellogg and 16 years on the board of directors of Costco. I was a chairman of the board of a biotech company. My wife and I started a national scholarship program. Nine of 10 nonprofits failed. Ours not only did not fail, but is active in all 50 states and has won national awards, only given to one organization per year. So obviously, in order to do all of those things, you have to be able to do more than just medicine. And I find it amusing that these people say, well, he's an idiot doctor. He only knows how to do neurosurgery.

(LAUGHTER)

Any other questions?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) issues surrounding the hearings on the nuclear waste disposal (INAUDIBLE)?

CARSON: No. That has not -- that comes up when I go to Nevada. I don't hear much about it in this state.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why did you come here?

CARSON: Why did I come here? Because --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There's so much of what you've said in the past is to de-emphasize the issues of race and so forth and that has been a matter. Why would you come here?

CARSON: The question is, why did I come here? So much of what I've said in the past de-emphasizes race. Because we need to de- emphasize race and we feed to emphasize respect. We need to emphasize respect for everybody in our society. And we need to emphasize fairness and justice for all. And I can't think of a better place than Ferguson to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What do you think you could learn about Ferguson, which you hadn't known?

CARSON: That's -- that is a very subtle question. What new things did I learn that I didn't know before? I think I knew all of the things that I just talked about. But it has a much deeper impact when you actually talk to the people themselves. It's very much like a few weeks ago when I was in Arizona with my wife at the border. I had heard all kinds of things about the border. But until I actually witnessed it myself, the impact didn't hit me in terms of the fact that we don't have any border security. It's zero. And that the federal government does nothing to help protect our people from influx.

And I had heard such things before but I didn't really realize it. I guess it really hit home for me when I saw the expanses of fence. This was the kind of fence that, as a kid, would barely slow us down. In one area, they cut a hole across it and then they put up barbed wire across it like that is supposed to stop somebody. So the cameramen, who was with us, they wanted to shoot us from the Mexican side, and they went through it right there. And they were not athletic people. And they had all of their equipment and they were able to film us from the other side. It made a big impression on me.

And by the same token, listening to the people here today, listening to the people who were there, who witnessed the riot, the people who tried to stop rioters from destroying people's livelihood, and listening to the people who were demonized because of the way they looked, it makes an impression. It helps you to understand more about the fabric of our nation and why we're going to have to heal it, because our strength is in our unity and we cannot allow ourselves to be destroyed by the purveyors of hatred.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said we (INAUDIBLE) and race is a significant part of the problem. So can you reconcile those two statements?

[14:55:05] BALDWIN: All right. We are going to post-game what Ben Carson has said, a couple of headlines in a moment.

But I have to take you to Ft. Meade, Maryland, to the president of the United States, here on this 14th anniversary of 9/11, speaking with our troops.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today is a solemn day. I started my day commemorating 9/11 and all of the people who were killed on that day. And, you know, I had an opportunity as president to meet with many of the survivors, the family members of those who were killed. And on this particular day, we are constantly reminded of their loss. We want to let them know that we do not forget those who were fallen. We are inspired by the survivors, many of whom still have the scars, both seen and unseen on that terrible, terrible day.

And it's also a good time to remember who have served and sacrificed since 9/11. You know, we have veterans now from every state in the union who have served oftentimes in multiple tours, both in Iraq and Afghanistan and although we have made enormous strides in degrading the core al Qaeda, including bin Laden himself that has helped direct the plot on 9/11. We are well aware of the fact that those threats still exist out there.

And here at Ft. Meade we do some of the most important work in helping to coordinate our efforts to make sure that we are bringing to bear all elements of American power against those who would try to do us harm here in the homeland or overseas or would threaten our allies. Despite the progress we have made in Afghanistan, it's still critically important that we have thousands of trainers and advisers who are supporting the Afghan military efforts there. Our combat role is complete. But we still have to make sure that they are getting the kind of help and assistance that they need.

The emergence of ISIL in Iraq and Syria means we have to be present and we are pounding them every single day. Our airmen are doing extraordinary work with the support of all of the other service branches and we are providing training and assistance and support to the Iraqi security forces on the ground as they continue to push back ISIL from territory that they had taken. But both in Iraq and in Syria, in Afghanistan, in North Africa, what we're very clear about is we have significant threats coming from terrorist organizations and the terrorist ideology.

We also have the traditional threats that our military has to be prepared for, from, you know, a new Pacific region, where historically we have underwritten the security and prosperity of a region that came back after World War II, and where we have tremendous alliances to Europe and our role as the cornerstone of NATO. And so we are going to continually have to, you know, work at every level to make sure that our men and women are provided the resources they need to succeed, the equipment, the training and, in this new era, that's not just a matter of tanks and rifles. As everyone is aware, especially here at Ft. Meade, cybersecurity is opening up a whole new era in which we have to watch out for our adversaries.

So on 9/11, I thought it was particularly important for me to be able to address you directly and to say thank you on behalf of the American people. When I look out in this audience and think about all of the members of the armed services and all around the world who served, this represents America. You've got people of every race, religion, faith, every region of the country. But what we share is a common creed, a commitment to freedom, a commitment to a rule of law, a common belief that America is an indispensible force for good around the world and that our military --