Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Israeli Crowd Beats, Kills Innocent Bystander After Shooting Attack; Chicago Father Arrested After 6-Year-Old Kills 3-Year-Old; Interview with Rep. Michael Turner. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 19, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:02] CUOMO: After all he says chess requires only one arm. The kid who did it, you know, he was out on bail on kiddie porn charges when he attacked the library.

CAMEROTA: Wow. Just incredible story. Good for that man.

PEREIRA: Well done. Well done.

CAMEROTA: All right. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

Good morning, Carol.

PEREIRA: Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Bernie Sanders may have gotten all the buzz after last week's CNN Democratic debate, but he's apparently not getting much of the love despite all the social media chatter declaring him the unheralded champion of the showdown.

Democratic voters say Hillary Clinton won hands down. That's according to a new CNN-ORC poll, the first since the debate. More than 60 percent of Democrats say Clinton turned in the best performance. Still she didn't get much of a bump. She gained 3 percentage points among Democrats. Sanders in fact picked up five points but still languishes a distant second.

And what about Joe Biden? Will this be the day he announces whether or not he'll run? The polls show his window may be closing. A growing number of Democrats believe Joe Biden should not run for president.

Brianna Keilar is CNN's senior political correspondent. She joins us from Washington with more.

Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. It's really interesting to look at the head-to-head matchups in this latest poll. Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by five points. That is within the -- or not within the margin of error. That would be plus or three points. So statistically, she does beat him. But look at -- when you pair her up with Ben Carson, statistically she is tied with Ben Carson. So Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican field, but Ben Carson doing better in a general election matchup, assuming that the Democratic nominee would be Hillary Clinton.

What if it were to be Bernie Sanders? And it were to be Donald Trump on the Republican side? Check this out, 53 percent for Bernie Sanders, 44 percent for Trump. So Bernie Sanders performing even better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton. That's pretty curious, I think. And then far and away, even though -- far away and when you look at the issues and Democrats and Democratic leaning voters are asked, how do you think your potential nominees would do against each other?

They say, Hillary Clinton is the best when it comes to foreign policy, guns and health care. But look at this. When they're asked, are you satisfied with the Democratic field, only 1 out of 3 say they are very satisfied. At the same time, Carol, as you know, Joe Biden is weighing whether to run. And you have more Democrats in this poll who are saying, you know what? Maybe you shouldn't run, Joe Biden. In fact, more think he should not run than think he should.

COSTELLO: All right. Maybe Democrats are getting tired of the dance. I don't know.

KEILAR: I think maybe so.

COSTELLO: I think so. Brianna Keilar, reporting live this morning. Thank you.

So it is safe to say Bernie Sanders is in the race to stay. His poll numbers inched up. He's raised $26 million to Clinton's $29 million this quarter. And more importantly, Senator Sanders has captured the voters' imagination, thanks to "Saturday Night Live." Cue Larry David.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY DAVID, ACTOR: I'm the only candidate up here who's not a billionaire. I don't have a super PAC. I don't even have a backpack. I carry my stuff around loose in my arms like a professor. You know, between classes. I own one pair of underwear. That's it. Some of these billionaires, they got three, four pairs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: And so spot on. Let's bring in our political analysts, Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist and John Avlon is the editor- in-chief of the "Daily Beast." So Sanders loved -- good morning. Sanders loved that. At least he

seemed to. He laughed about it on the campaign trail yesterday. We'll have more on that later in the NEWSROOM. But first the issues. Actually I want to go back to Bernie Sanders for just a second. Does that help him, Maria?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it does. Especially when you hear reports that he actually loved it and he thought that the impression was spot on. I think it humanizes him. I think that it brings him down to earth. It injects a little bit of humor into sort of that homogeny, grumpy, old man persona that he has and that he carries very well. So I think it does in the eyes of voters. You know, these skits on "Saturday Night Live," they can be -- they can either work or not work so well. And I think this one works in his favor, frankly.

COSTELLO: On the other hand, Hillary Clinton, according to our most recent poll, dominates on the economy, health care, foreign policy, and race relations. So, John, are we hyping Sanders a bit too much?

JOHN AVLON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: I think Bernie is being hyped organically by the activist class in the Democratic Party which are really turning out for him. He's gotten enormous amount of energy behind his campaign for a devout Democratic socialist in 2015.

[09:05:05] But to your point, when you look at this poll and you sort of look under the hood, Hillary Clinton is beating him on almost every major issue that a president ultimately ends up being judged on.

And that's an argument about electability, about an ability to be commander-in-chief, that the Larry David impression doesn't do anything to help. And that's really the gap he's got to close if he's going to be serious. 29 percent is respectable but when you look at the issues, he is polling far behind Hillary Clinton as to who could be commander-in-chief.

COSTELLO: OK. So another part of the poll, Maria, both Clinton and Sanders beat Trump but they run even with Ben Carson. Why is that?

CARDONA: That is a very good question, Carol. I think, first of all, let's remember that, head to head general election polls this early on really don't mean anything. Let's remember that in 2012, at this same point in the game, Mitt Romney was beating Barack Obama. And we all know how that turned out.

I think in terms of the Carson versus Trump, it probably has something to do with that Carson continues to speak to the anger, the frustration, to those voters who are being mobilized by the outsiders who are just sick of politicians on the Republican side. Yet he doesn't have this arrogant, in-your-face, you know, insulting every minute of the day, you know, whole swaths of voters, even though his policies are just as scary to American voters.

So again, I would focus on the fact that general election matchups at this point in the game really don't mean a whole lot, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, John, could it have anything to do with the African- American vote?

AVLON: Well, I mean, the African-American vote is 12 percent of the total population. I'm not sure that's decisive. And I don't know that, you know, Ben Carson is a lot of things, but angry, he certainly doesn't come across. He's a very mellow guy.

CARDONA: Right.

AVLON: I think he's a validator for a lot of conservatives. I think the fact that he seems to be doing better in the polls does speak to a lot of Trump's toxicity when you look at a general election matchup. But I mean, you know, in all these polls, the crucial caveat is we are a long way from the first vote in the first caucus on primary being taken. So, you know, reality check here, people.

COSTELLO: Yes.

AVLON: There's a lot to sift out and there's a lot of noise in the polls.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I get it. I hear you. So --

CARDONA: Carol, can I just add one thing about Bernie Sanders? I think that what he really does for the Democratic Party, which is terrific is -- and John mentioned this, he mobilizes and he injects energy into the whole debate, into the whole election, and he is having people pay attention.

Now clearly that hasn't really transferred to support or to votes for him, but I think for the Democratic Party as a whole, it is fantastic, what he is adding to the conversation, especially as compared to what you're getting on the Republican side.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

AVLON: Yes. OK.

COSTELLO: Maria Cardona, John Avlon, I have to leave it there. Thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: When it comes to the Republican race for president, Donald Trump is standing strong on controversial comments he made about 9/11. The Republican frontrunner insists he's not blaming former President George W. Bush for the attack, but he does say 9/11 would not have happened on his watch because he's so tough on immigration.

Listen to what he told "FOX News Sunday."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I would have been much different. I must tell you, somebody said, well, it wouldn't have been any different. Well, it would have been. I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I'm extremely tough on people coming into this country. I believe that if I were running things, I doubt those families would have -- I doubt that those people would have been in the country. So there is a good chance that those people would not have been in our country. With that being said, I'm not blaming George Bush, but I don't want Jeb Bush to say, my brother kept us safe because September 11th was one of the worst days in the history of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Needless to say that did not make Jeb Bush very happy.

Let's bring in CNN's Athena Jones, she's live in Dallas this morning. Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It's been interesting to watch this feud play out. We'll have to see how long these two keep it up. But right now, it looks as though both of these candidates think that this feud is benefitting them. Jeb Bush gets to show donors and supporters that he has the fire in the belly to fight for this nomination, and show them that he's not low energy, as Trump has been saying for months.

Meanwhile, Trump gets to poke at Jeb Bush, which seems to be one of his favorite past times, and he also gets to link him to the past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I'm not blaming George Bush, but I don't want Jeb Bush to say, my brother kept us safe.

JONES (voice-over): The feud between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush is heating up.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For him, it looks as though it's -- he's an actor playing a role of a candidate for president.

JONES: From the Sunday shows to social media, with Bush defending his brother's handling of the September 11th attacks.

BUSH: He united the country, he organized our country, and he kept us safe.

JONES: Bush said by repeatedly bringing up 9/11, Trump shows he's not, quote, "a serious person," and that he has grave concerns about Trump being in charge of nuclear weapons.

[09:10:05] BUSH: Across the spectrum of foreign policy, Mr. Trump talks about things that -- as though he's still on "The Apprentice."

JONES: Trump said he was just taking issue with Jeb saying during the CNN debate that his brother kept America safe.

TRUMP: The World Trade Center came down. So when he said we were safe, that's not safe. We lost 3,000 people. JONES: The latest chapter in this battle of GOP contenders began

Friday, when Trump told Bloomberg Television --

TRUMP: When you talk about George Bush, say what you want, but the World Trade Center came down during his time. If you look --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold on, you can't blame George Bush for that.

TRUMP: He was president, OK.

JONES: Bush quickly fired back on Twitter, calling the GOP frontrunner pathetic. Now his campaign is mocking Trump in a new video using his own words.

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC ANCHOR: Who do you talk to for military advice right now?

TRUMP: Well, I watch the shows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's one of the ways that he bones up on our national security.

JONES: And fundraising off the dustup, sending this appeal to supporters, arguing that under Trump's logic, FDR should be blamed for Pearl Harbor. This as Trump insisted he could have prevented 9/11 because his tough stance on immigration would have kept the hijackers out.

TRUMP: There is a good chance that those people would not have been in our country.

JONES: Meanwhile, Ben Carson made an unusual claim, saying President Bush could have used oil as leverage against Arab states to find Osama bin Laden sooner.

BEN CARSON (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think they would have known where he was.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: And Carson is also defending George W. Bush, saying it's ridiculous to suggest he's responsible for 9/11. Huckabee is echoing Carson, saying that the blame lies with Islamic jihadists -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Athena Jones reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, another deadly weekend in Israel. The latest on this escalating crisis, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:04] COSTELLO: Anger, fear and panic reaching a boiling point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I want to warn you, the graphic you're about to see -- or the video you're about to see is graphic. This is new cell phone video aired by Israeli media. It shows the crowd beating a man lying in a pool of his own blood. That man, an Eritrean migrant, immigrant, allegedly seeking asylum, was actually one of the victims in the latest deadly attack to rock the region, a shooting spree at an Israeli bus station. Security video show the panic of people running from the attack. And in the chaos, a security guard mistook the man, that migrant, as a second gunman and shot him. That's when the mob, overcome with anger, jumped in. The man later died, along with a 17-year-old Israeli soldier who was targeted by the real attacker and shot at close range.

CNN 's Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem with more for you. Hi Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. We're getting more information about what happened and starting to sort out what are two separate stories that unfolded within moments of each other inside the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva. And this attack, adding to the fear, the anxiety and the tension. Up until now, Beersheva is a city that hadn't seen the attack -- an attack in this recent wave.

So here's what happened. Police say an Arab Bedouin went into the central bus station, shot an Israeli soldier at point-blank range, took his M-16, and then started spraying fire in the bus station, sending 11 people in the hospital. Police say they shot and killed the attacker. But this is where the second story begins. Police say a security guard who looked at another man there, an innocent bystander, and thought he was another suspect -- this Eritrean migrant, African migrant, and shot him. Then as we see in this video, and we're hearing from police, a crowd gathered around the Eritrean migrant, an innocent bystander, and started beating, kicking, and screaming at him. He later died at the hospital.

So, Carol, today, there is shock at both events here, first the attack and then the killing of an innocent bystander.

COSTELLO: So what more is being done to prevent things like this from happening?

LIEBERMANN: Well, there are very severe security restrictions in place in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. And that has been the focus of the security restrictions, because it has been Jerusalem and the West Bank that have seen the tension and most of these attacks. What was surprising about last night's attack is it was in Israel in a city that hadn't seen any of these attacks yet.

So Israel focusing on Jerusalem, where we're seeing a number of checks for Palestinians, ID checks, car checks, asking Palestinians to raise their shirts, raise their pant legs, to see they're not carrying any weapons. And in the latest example, installing barriers between a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem and a Jewish neighborhood. Israeli police say it's to prevent Palestinians from throwing Molotov cocktails at Jewish homes. Palestinians say all of this is Israeli using too much force, and force that incites these attacks.

Carol, no surprise there perhaps that the Israelis blame the Palestinians for incitement. And Palestinians blame the Israelis for incitement. COSTELLO: Oren Liebermann, reporting live for us. Thank you.

Checking otheretop stories for you this morning at 19 minutes past. An al Qaeda-linked group confirms one of its senior members were killed in an air strike. The Pentagon says the terror leader was killed in Southwest Syria on Thursday. He was the fifth senior member of the group killed in the last four months.

A Southwest Airlines flight to San Francisco had to return to Los Angeles after a fight broke out in the cabin. An airline spokeswoman says the altercation escalated rapidly between two passengers who were not traveling together. Once the plane was safely back at the gate in Los Angeles, police removed one of the passengers and put everyone else on another flight.

A mountain biker is lucky to walk away after a bone-crushing fall at the RedBull mountain biking event. Oh my gosh, this happened in Utah. He'd just made a jump when his first wheel missed the landing and sent him hurtling off the cliff.

[09:20:03] Despite getting a little banged up, the rider got back on his bike and actually finished the event. That's one strong, tough man.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a game of cops and robbers between two young boys turns deadly. Now their father is behind bars. The latest out of Chicago, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A tragic shooting in Chicago and now a Chicago man is behind bars, charged with child endangerment, after his young son found a loaded handgun in the house and accidentally killed his younger brother.

Evelyn Holmes of affiliate WLS explains how the child was able to get to the weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVELYN HOLMES, WLS REPORTER (voice-over): A grieving family walks out of court after a judge calls this case the ultimate tragedy. A 6- year-old accidentally shoots his 3-year-old brother to death.

[09:25:00] eIan Santiago was killed with a loaded gun his father Michael Santiago kept wrapped in pajama pants on the top of the family's refrigerator.

ISRAEL LASALLE, GRANDFATHER OF EIAN SANTIAGO: You know how kids are. They get into everything. That is not a safe place that you can put a gun, where a kid can't reach it. You know, or can't find it.

HOLMES: Eian's grandfather had no idea Santiago kept a loaded gun in the house until Israel LaSalle heard the shot. LaSalle was watching Eian and his brother while Santiago was at work and the boys' mother was at the store. The shooting happened about LaSalle sent his 6-year-old grandson

downstairs to get something in the kitchen.

LASALLE: I look out and he was running up the stairs and tells me somebody that shot his brother. And I told him, well, who's going to shoot your brother? There's nobody down there. But at the same time, I was running down the stairs with him. And I seen him laying on the floor in the kitchen and I went and got him.

HOLMES: Eian died at the hospital. His father, Michael Santiago, is charged with felony child endangerment. Prosecutors say Santiago was a former gang member who bought the gun on the street to protect himself from another gang member. Santiago did not have FOI card or a concealed carry license.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to blame him, but in reality there's just a little negligence. Negligence in the sense he was not being careful. Take the gun, hide it somewhere. I mean, deeply hide it, where that child would not find it.

HOLMES: Israel LaSalle doesn't want to blame Santiago other, nor does LaSalle think the 25-year-old father should be charged with a crime. But LaSalle says a loaded gun should never have been within his grandchildren's reach.

LASALLE: It's stupidity, to keep something dangerous in the house where your family could get hurt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Evelyn Holmes from our affiliate, WLS, thanks for that report. We'll take a closer look at the legal aspects of this case in our next hour.

(MUSIC)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. A showdown is brewing on Capitol Hill. In a matter of days. Hilary Clinton will make a high-profile appearance and testify before a House Benghazi Committee. Lawmakers are expected to grill Clinton about the 2012 attack in Libya that killed four Americans.

The Republican congressman in charge of that committee, Trey Gowdy, is sending a firm message to members of his own party when it comes to talking about Clinton: Shut up. Listen to what he told CBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE SELECT CMTE. ON BENGHAZI: I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends, shut up talking about things you don't know anything about. And unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it, and what new facts we have found. We have found new facts, John, that have absolutely nothing to do with her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Congressman Gowdy says Clinton is one of many witnesses and that his focus will be on e-mails sent by Ambassador Chris Stevens, one of the victims in the attack, asking for more security.

As for Hillary Clinton, she says she will do her best to answer questions from lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've already testified about Benghazi. I testified to the best of my ability before the Senate and the House. I don't know that I have very much to add. I will do my best to answer their questions, but I don't really know what their objective is right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The Benghazi attack is one of the many hot-button issues lawmakers are expected to tackle this week now that Congress is back in session. Cue the partisan bickering over the budget. First things first, lawmakers have about two weeks to raise the debt ceiling. On one side, you have the White House, which says it won't negotiate over the increase and wants Congress to raise the borrowing limit. On the other side, Congress.

Keep in mind lawmakers also need to pass a new government funding plan, which expires in December. One of the areas bound to come up, of course, the defense budget. My next guest is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and warns cuts to the defense budget could have devastating consequences to the country's national security.

Republican Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio joins me right now. Thank you, Congressman, for coming in. Appreciate it.

REP. MICHAEL TURNER (R), OHIO: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: So you wrote a letter to the House leadership urging lawmakers to stop kicking the can down the road when it comes to defense spending. Is that possible? Because probably not many Americans think it is.

TURNER: Certainly, we are somewhat having a showdown there on Capitol Hill in that, as the president is asking for the debt limit to be raised, he's not in agreement as to what we should be spending. So if you don't know what you're going to be spending, it's hard to agree what the debt limit should be.

But the president just last week made an announcement that he's going to keep troops in Afghanistan. But as we look to next year for 2016, he's not yet agreed to sign the National Defense Authorization Act that would fund the troops in 2016. Now, the men and women in uniform need to know they're going to have the equipment and funding necessary. We have a bipartisan bill headed toward his desk that he's saying he's going to veto. But yet he has committed that troops will be staying in Afghanistan.

COSTELLO: As you well know, Congress is in complete chaos right now, with the speaker situation and all that. So how can there be any agreement between the parties while that's still going on?

[09:30:02] TURNER: Well, there can be agreement. The White House hasn't even appointed negotiators with a Congress, as the president said he's not even negotiate.