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Tech Helps Police Keep Revelers Safe In Times Square; Trump First President To Face Impeachment & Re-election In Same Year; Texas Community Remembers Two Men Killed At Sunday Service; Dramatic Drop In Number Of Homicides In Chicago. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 31, 2019 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:38]

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RYAN NOBLES, CNN HOST: Start of the New Year and a new decade under way in New Zealand. People in Auckland rang in 2020 with a spectacular fanfare. Same is happening in other cities around the world. The Pacific island nations of Conga and Samoa were the first to mark the new decade. And something we rarely see, North Korea bringing in the New Year with fireworks.

Here in the United States, though, the countdown to 2020 is on. Major New Year's Eve security preps are under way in New York City's Times Square for tonight's ball drop.

CNN National Correspondent, Miguel Marquez, is in the middle of the action.

So many people there already. Miguel, we're still hours and hours away from the ball dropping, right?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Forget about that. People were lined up 10:00 a.m. yesterday waiting for what we're hearing right now, actually, the Korean pop group BTS. All of these people, thumbs up. BTS showed up for a sound check and the place went bananas. There are already thousands, tens of thousands of people here.

This is where the action will be. This is the reason everybody comes. Where it says 2020 is where the ball will drop.

Police putting on as big a show as BTS ever can as well. Thousands of police officers in uniform. Many of them here. You can see they have everything from bomb-sniffing dogs to radiation detectors. They will fly drones, if weather permits, and a team to detect rogue drones that may be flying. Everything they could possibly have.

I was waiting to see over here. I think this band, BTS, is starting to come out here. When they do, did, gets absolutely bananas. Incredible to see how many fans they have. Tens of millions of fans around the world and seems most are in Times Square right now. Look at all the phones up hoping to capture a little bit, a picture of them.

So what they're doing now, a sound check on one stage and now moving to another stage where they will either just look at the stage and do another sound check up on that one.

But look at the crowd. Check this out on this side. Look at the number of people taking pictures as this band just goes up.

Are you guys excited?

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MARQUEZ: So very enthusiastic. Very excited. And everybody, we hope has a plan for making it through this thing in good shape -- Ryan?

NOBLES: Nothing says 2020 more, Miguel, than sniffing out rogue drones in the skies.

MARQUEZ: Rogue drones.

NOBLES: Rogue drones.

All right. Miguel Marquez enjoying Times Square with revelers. Appreciate that.

Don't forget, ring in the New Year and the new decades with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen if you can't get to Times Square. "NEW YEAR'S EVE LIVE" begins at 8:00 right here on CNN.

President Trump says that he is kicking off the New Year by signing the first part of a new trade deal with China. This morning, the president announced a signing ceremony for phase one of the deal taking place at the White House on January 15th. Also he says he will travel to China to be in talks on phase two at a later date.

But a new trade deal is going to be just one aspect of a historic and unprecedented year for the president. In 2020, President Trump will become the first sitting president to face an impeachment trial and re-election in the same year, setting up a remarkable juxtaposition in the backdrop of the nation's capital.

CNN Political Analyst, Josh Dawsey, is a White House reporter for the "Washington Post."

Josh, thanks for being here.

President Trump's message to 2020 voters could sound something like this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have no choice but to vote for me, because your 401K, down the tubes. Everything's going to be sown the tubes. Whether you love me or hate me, you've got to vote for me.

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TRUMP: Here's the story. I don't like you. You don't like me. You have no choice but to vote for me. And you will do whatever you have to do. And they said, yes, sir, we will, will, we think you're going a great job.

The truth is you have no choice, because the people we're running against are crazy.

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TRUMP: They're crazy.

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[14:35:04]

NOBLES: So, Josh, that's an interesting political strategy, to say the very least. Maybe the lesser of two evils. You don't have to love me, just need to vote for me. Is this something that works?

JOSH DAWSEY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Remarkable juxtaposition as you said earlier is a president with very low approval ratings in the 40s or so but a super high opinion of the economy and folks think he's handling the economy and other issues well, around 60 percent. Historic unfavourability in many polls.

You have impeachment coming but also a large number of the country that thinks he's handling many issues, particularly the economy, well.

What the president is trying to do, say to voters, potentially voter, Independents and Trump supporters, listen, you may not like my tweets or tactics or some of the things I say and how I do them, but end of the day, you want some of the progress that you've seen in the past four years to continue and have to keep me to do that.

He wants to talk about the stock market, unemployment below 4 percent. Job numbers good throughout much of his presidency and talk less about the bombastic fights and feuds that show people, turn people off, frankly.

NOBLES: Yes. President Trump has had difficulty with suburban women and Independent voters, but you say the administration's actually going to make that a focus in 2020. What is their strategy there?

DAWSEY: The administration knows that, or the campaign at least, knows that if they don't make that a focus they won't win. They know they need to shore up numbers in a lot of areas.

You can imagine they'll be a number of surrogates out for the president, Ivanka Trump, several advisers expect to see her on the campaign trial, and the vice president, the second lady.

Different campaign officials may be less toxic in some of those areas and the president to be out touting his record and what he's done in the White House, even trying to avoid some of his more pugilistic side that turns folks off.

NOBLES: In your 2020 preview, you wrote, in a briefing with reporters in mid-December, campaign manager, Brad Parscale, and senior official, Jared Kushner, said those who disapproved of Trump still voted for him and many don't want to publicly admit that, but ultimately will. Is this the key to President Trump's victory?

DAWSEY: A joke even some president's advisers make. What does it mean to approve of Donald Trump? End of 2016, beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College, approval rating down and still won.

A lot of people say we don't love the president, what he's doing but love him enough to pick him over a Democrat.

Particularly Democrats, they see as far left on the spectrum opposes many of the things they believe in. That's what the president's campaign, the argument the president's campaign will try to make.

A lot of folks may not approve of everything the president does but elections are about alternatives. Two choices and essentially have to pick one or the other. The president hopes to cast his opponent in unflattering and negative terms voters come along to picking him anyway.

NOBLES: And wise political strategists say voters vote in their own self-interest. President Trump trying to convince me, may not like me but I've helped your own self-interest. That's his bottom-line argument. We'll see if it's effective come November.

Josh Dawsey, from "The Washington Post," thanks for joining us.

DAWSEY: Thank you. Happy New Year.

NOBLES: A congregation in Texas comes together to heal and finds hope in God after a deadly shooting during Sunday service.

Plus, new information on the victims and the investigation when we come back.

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NOBLES: A Texas community racked by grief after a deadly shooting at a local church coming together for a night of worship and remembrance. A candlelight vigil held Monday outside of the West Freeway Church of Christ.

The pastor asking those in attendance to pray for the two men who were killed, one of them his best friend. Richard white, on the left of your screen. The other victim, a deacon, Tony Wallace. Both men died at a local hospital.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in White Settlement, Texas.

These two men also members of the church's security team. What more can you tell us?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ryan, I was outside that vigil last night. The community that way almost as a way to protect the congregation. They were inside having a private service in that same sanctuary where the shooting had happened just a little more than 24 hours earlier.

The congregation wanted to finish their Sunday service that had been cut short by somebody who had attempted to shake their faith, and that they were not going to let that shooter, 43-year-old Keith Kinnunen, take them away from what they felt was so important. So they got together. They mourned.

The rest of this Fort Worth area community came outside and held that vigil so they could have their privacy and that private grief at the time.

Of course, that investigation is still going into, really, what the motive for the shooting was. Why that 43-year-old came in, opened fire on those church members. It played out on the church's live stream at the time. The entire shooting taking place just over six seconds.

A church member, head of the volunteer security, Jack Wilson, he actually fired a shot that took that shooter down in that time. The family of Richard White saying that, of course, they were both, he and Tony Wallace, on that church security team as well, Ryan.

[14:45:10]

It's something unfortunately is quite common here in this area for the churches to have those security teams. It became legal to bring the handguns into places of worship, of course, here in the state of Texas, after that 2017 massacre at the Sutherland Springs Church. It's something that, of course, they never wanted to happen but they were ready if it did.

NOBLES: So CNN has learned, Dianne, the shooter was treated for depression and other mental health issues, that as pastor of the West Freeway Church of Christ revealed, he knew the man behind the deadly attack. What is he saying?

GALLAGHER: Yes. Senior minister, Britt Farmer, saying he ministered him to the past, given him food. He's been to the church in the past to accept food and counseling.

And again, they didn't know why he did this. They were not going to, though, let them stop them or prevent them from moving forward. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRITT FARMER, SENIOR PASTOR, WEST FREEWAY CHURCH OF CHRIST: We will not be swayed by evil speech or even acts. And we will stay strong in the midst of the adversity that we know came on us, because we know that God is with us. And he went before us in an act of violence himself. We will not give up. Nor expect us to be silent.

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GALLAGHER: We did speak with Kinnunen's sister, Ryan, who said her brother was on the street for some time now and Sunday was actually the anniversary of their youngest brother's suicide, which she said hit her brother very hard through life.

NOBLES: This church made a special effort to reach out to those in need. This, perhaps, a person in that position in very, very -- you know, just inspiring. They won't back away from that mission despite everything's that's happened.

Dianne Gallagher, live from White Settlement. Dianne, thanks for that report.

From churches to the street, a city fighting back against gun violence, but do families feel safe?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't let your kids out to play because you never know when a drive-by shooting or a shooting is going to take place.

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[14:51:41]

NOBLES: The city of Chicago is wrapping up 2019 on a very encouraging note. After an unprecedented surge in murders, a dramatic drop in the number of homicides. City leaders and law enforcement saying this marks the third year in a row.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Chicago with more news that is surely welcomed by the residents.

Omar, what can you tell us about what contributed to such a dramatic drop in violent crime?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN REPORTER: Ryan, there are a few different factors when it comes to the mayor's office or the police office trying to say, one, they worked with the community more, put more job training programs, basically worked with that, again, community, in trying to at the very least approach this in a very layered manner.

Now, when you look at these declines in violent crime over what we've seen is a third year in a row, it's an encouraging end to the year. But city leadership is first to admit there's still a long way to go. When you talk how far they've come, 2016, we saw the peak. Now in this, over 30 percent decline from that peak.

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JIMENEZ (voice over): Within the numbers are stories that have become all too familiar in a place like Chicago.

KEITH FLOWERS, SON WAS SHOT AND KILLED IN CHICAGO: Thanksgiving was the hardest, because that was his favorite holiday. He loved eating his grandma's cooking, man.

JIMENEZ: Keith Flowers' son, Demetrius, was among the seven killed and more than 50 wounded over a single August weekend.

JIMENEZ (on camera): It's not just about the numbers going down, but it's about feeling safer. Do you feel safer?

FLOWERS: You can't let your kids out to play because you never know when a drive-by shooting or a shooting is going to take place.

So, no, we don't feel safer. I don't feel safer

JIMENEZ (voice over): But, citywide, the numbers also tell a story. In 2016, homicides spiked, topping 750 killings in this single American city. Since then, things have improved. Deaths still in the hundreds but, in 2019, finishing more than 30 percent lower than that spike with double-digit declines in homicides for a third year in a row.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot points to factors like job training and support services as making a difference.

LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO MAYOR: We abandoned the kind of law enforcement first and only strategy and really focused on not only aligning all city departments in the fight for public safety but also embracing our partners in the community.

JIMENEZ: They're strategies that even extend to emergency rooms.

DR. FARAN BOKHARI, CHAIRMAN OF TRAUMA AND BURN SURGERY, COOK COUNTY HEALTH: In those years that was -- that were really bad, 2016 and '17, it was as though it was summer all throughout the year and you never stopped. What we are trying to do is do outreach with a lot of these kids so that we can have an effect at the front end. I think we are also doing everything we can to improve our medical capacities.

JIMENEZ: And for Flowers, representative of the countless families permanently scarred by gun violence in Chicago, he's grateful the numbers are down. But for him and many others, there's still a long way to go before he can feel safe, before he can feel normal.

JIMENEZ (on camera): What should a normal day look like for you?

FLORES: To see the police outside their cars walking the beats again.

A normal day would look like having your kids being able to play in the park.

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[14:55:08]

JIMENEZ: And now, as a full 2020 lies ahead, the city is hoping to continue this downward trend.

Just a few moments ago, we sat down with the interim police superintendent here in Chicago, who notes the 500-homicide milestone but says even that number is way too many.

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CHARLIE BECK, INTERIM POLICE SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: I want those normal days. All of the things that were the most successful in my prior life were community-based.

You know, my firm belief, one of the things I believe in, as a tentative of policing, the more police are involved in the community, the more you want to know who they are as residents. To have a face, a beat cop that residents recognize, that is the face of Chicago Police Department to neighborhoods, is really important.

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JIMENEZ: And they're trying to leave even further behind the 2016, where Chicago saw more homicides than both New York and Los Angeles combined -- Ryan?

NOBLES: Omar Jimenez, live from Chicago. Omar, thank you.

The Democratic presidential candidates squaring off over ethics.

Plus, a surprising statement from Joe Biden. He says he's willing to name a Republican running mate. But, of course, there's a catch.

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