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Trump Facing Foreign Policy Challenges with Iran & North Korea; U.S. Cities Grapple with Escalating Gun Violence; Police Using Doorbell Cameras to Solve Cases. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 02, 2020 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: But you also make this point that, you know, you look at the mixed messages that the Americans are sending, right? It's the pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, slapping on sanctions, yet President Trump saying. hey, Rouhani, I'd like to sit down with you. There's that which I thought was a great point. How does the U.S. stop this from escalating?

AARON DAVID MILLER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Again, I think the Iranians have tremendous advantages. They enjoy, demographic advantage, historic advantage, geographic advantage. And they're using Iraq and our mistakes in an effort to demonstrate that the adversary, our adversary, has a voice, too.

I think -- again, I wasn't that great a fan of the Iran nuclear deal. It was highly flawed. But it was functional. Unless the United States finds a way to get back into some sort of negotiations with the Iranians, I have a feeling that this is going to continue to happen. And it could happen in Afghanistan. And it's going to continue to happen in Iraq.

You can't overthrow this regime. Sanctions will not break it. The president, if he's serious about sitting down with Rouhani as a strategy, I think to reason gauge with Tehran.

BALDWIN: One last question. There was a piece in the "New York Times" by David Sanger writing that the timing this, with Iran and add to this North Korea, the actual actions, the threats from Kim Jong-Un, it shows both Iran and North Korea sense Trump's vulnerability, this impeachment trial in the Senate, his re-election.

This is how the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, puts it. Let me quote him. He says, "After three years of no international crises, Mr. Trump is facing one with Iran because he has rejected diplomacy and another with North Korea because he has asked too much of diplomacy."

Aaron David Miller, how can the president course correct at this point and maybe what is he doing right?

MILLER: Richard's point is right, I think. Part of the problem is the president has created this set of expectations which that are not tethered to reality. He claims that Kim agreed to denuclearize. Read the communique you reached or the communique, Mr. President. It talks about denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. That's a far cry from giving up your nukes.

Iran, he's now claiming that -- the president, now claiming that Iran is a different country as a consequence of American actions. Yes, we're breaking the Iranian economy, but, no, it's not going to be enough to bend the Iranians to his will.

I think the president needs to tether himself to a set of realities if he's serious about trying.

And it's hard. I don't care if it's a "D" or an "R," whatever the vote, these are really tough problems. You at least need a strategy for a planet earth, not for a galaxy far, far away. And we do not have one.

BALDWIN: Tether himself to reality and earth, so says Aaron David Miller.

Aaron, thank you very much.

MILLER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Always appreciate your insight.

MILLER: Happy New Year.

BALDWIN: Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you.

Coming up, cities across the country grappling with escalating gun violence. How police are changing their tactics to combat an epidemic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:27]

BALDWIN: The city of Chicago started the New Year with a dramatic drop in violent crime. And while violent crime rates are down across the country, many cities continue to see levels of extraordinary violence. And now law enforcement officials, with the backing of the government, hope a new initiative can help stop the violence.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is with me.

Omar, talk about initiative. It's called Operation Relentless Pursuit.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's an initiative from the Department of Justice specifically aimed at combating violent crime in seven cities, among them Baltimore, Detroit and others.

They're basically adding federal resources to the local resources already in place and trying to basically be a part of a change in narrative for some of these cities who, in some cases, their city name alone has become nearly synonymous with gun violence. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SINGING)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): While mass shootings at times leave the country in disbelief, in places like Baltimore and Chicago, gun violence is a grim part of life.

CHARLIE BECK, INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: What people think of as traditional policing has to be much smarter, has to be much more focused.

JIMENEZ: Former Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck is now the interim police superintendent in Chicago, a city that ended 2019 with a more than 10 percent drop in murders for the third year in a row and down more than 30 percent since a spike in 2016 that saw more killings that New York and L.A. combined.

JIMENEZ (on camera): What are some of the questions that you get about the city of Chicago, about crime in Chicago, and how do you answer those questions?

BECK: To be brutally honest, you know, it's still not safe enough. Five hundred homicides is -- even though that's a nice milestone, that's way too many.

JIMENEZ (voice over): But it's not just policing. Even hospitals are trying to break this deadly cycle, taking the time to sit with shooting victims and evaluate the direction of their lives.

CAROL REESE, VIOLENCE PREVENTION COORDINATOR, STROGER HOSPITAL: We use this unique opportunity to really drill down with people on not only their risk factors, but their hopes, their dreams, their emotional experience of being injured.

JIMENEZ (on camera): The goal is not to see them again?

REESE: The goal is not to see them again ever.

JIMENEZ (voice over): They're among the tactics being used in cities across the country, trying to change what has become, in some places, an unshakeable narrative.

Often among the highest murder rates of big U.S. cities, New Orleans has made progress, seeing its third consecutive drop in homicides last year.

But St. Louis, which had the highest murder rate of big U.S. cities in recent years, saw an increase in homicides compared to 2018.

[14:40:02]

And Baltimore ended the year with the second most homicides they've had on record, just under 350.

Cities like New York and Los Angeles didn't even hit that mark and they have more than five times the people.

BERNARD C. "JACK" YOUNG, (D), BALTIMORE MAYOR: We can talk all day about what to do after someone is killed, but we must also have a hard conversation about why the perpetrators of violence have no regards for human life.

JIMENEZ: Baltimore is now one of seven cities within the Department of Justice's Operation Relentless Pursuit, an initiative aimed at combating violent crime.

And in Washington, Congress approved millions for federal research into gun violence for the first time ever over 20 years. Federal and city efforts meant to go hand in hand at the dawn of a new decade.

BECK: I know it seems difficult when you're -- when you're in the middle of this, but I have nothing but the most positive belief in the outcome of what we're doing here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: And as you know, Brooke, Chicago has been a frequent punching bag for President Trump. But city leadership here tell me they feel they have all the pieces in place to set Chicago up to be, as they say, the safest big city in the country moving forward.

They're just among the cities hoping to take advantage of this New Year and new decade as a chance to again change what has become an all too violent reality -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Jimenez Omar, thank you so much for that.

Now to veteran and law enforcement perspective here. Charles Ramsey, former commissioner for the Philadelphia Police Department and a CNN law enforcement analyst.

Commissioner Ramsey, always a pleasure to have you on. Happy New Year. Thank you.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Happy New Year to you.

BALDWIN: Listening to Chief Beck, in Chicago, says we have to rethink traditional policing, be, quote, "smarter and more focused." Much of these falls on police. But it also falls on the communities. You tell me what the communities need to do and why is it so important for others to partner with police?

RAMSEY: You know, one of the problems that you see in many cities is a lack of a coordinated effort to deal with crime and disorder. Most of it falls on the shoulder of police and a lot should be on the shoulders of police.

But certainly, the community playing a role, when you look at clearance rates, the lack of cooperation that we get in many of these communities, all that feeds into a cycle of violence.

I heard now so much from elected officials and others that it needs to be treated as a public health issue. I don't disagree. But how do you operationalize that? What do you want people to do so you can hold them accountable?

There's a strong mental health component in all this as well. I mean, not just the victim, the guy that got shot, but look at what happens in the surrounding neighborhood when people have to put their kids to bed at night to the sound of gunshots. All this stuff coordinates and comes together.

But there has to be a comprehensive strategy that -- and you have to be relentless. You have to continue to do it because there's no end to this. It's going to continue. And all we'll do is talk about the same thing year in and year out.

I am glad to see Chicago going down, being a native Chicagoan and 30- year veteran of the Chicago P.D.

BALDWIN: I was about to say. Yes, given those facts about yourself, what do you see and, saying this is cyclical, what do you see as Chief Beck's biggest hurdle?

RAMSEY: First of all, they've got a good person running the department, Charley Beck. He's one of the best in the business.

But whoever gets the job after him has to pick up where he leaves off and continue to drive crime down. I mean, 500 is way too much for the city of Chicago. Any number over zero, you could argue, is way too much.

BALDWIN: Sure.

RAMSEY: But Chicago historically has had a hard time getting violent crime down. You have deeply entrenched gangs, all kinds of just gun violence taking place. Everybody has to be on the same page.

And in some cities, quite frankly, that's not the case. You have prosecutors, many of them now, so-called progressive prosecutors, who treat gun arrests very lightly.

Well, these are the people that are either going to be victims or the ones that are offenders. Today's victim, in some cases, is yesterday's offender and vice versa.

You have to be able to deal with the entire spectrum of crime and disorder in these neighbors if you want to be effective.

I'm all for alternatives to incarceration but some of these guys need to be in jail and they need to be in jail for a long time because they're violent and not going to stop.

BALDWIN: You hit on your point about prosecutors.

The last question is: What is your message to these communities? And not the criminals themselves but those around them?

RAMSEY: Well, don't give up. You've got to continue to work at it. But at the same time, you've got to hold everybody accountable, elected officials, police, members of the public health community. Everybody has to be held accountable for playing their part in dealing with crime and disorder issues.

[14:45:00]

There's no one group or one person that's going to make all the difference in the world. We'll it not to have the cycle until we make up our minds that we're going to end it and do something with the people that are-- it's not as easy as saying find them jobs. I mean, some people don't have the technical skills, the social skills.

I mean, we've got to work at finding something for folks to do. And then you've got a criminal element that, for them, their jobs is armed robbery, their job is drug trafficking. You've got to deal with those folks, too.

BALDWIN: It's the holistic approach. I hear you on --

RAMSEY: It is.

BALDWIN: -- a lot falls not only on police but a lot falls on the communities as well.

Charles Ramsey, thank you as always with your incredible insight. Good to have you on.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Just ahead here, a rash of brazen crimes and their aftermath caught on video, thanks to doorbell cameras. How police are using this new tool to solve cases.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:17]

BALDWIN: A murder confession and a kidnapping. Sounds like dramatic TV plots but the real-life scenes are playing out at front doors across the country with footage captured on the little doorbell cameras.

I have some video, but I have to warn you, it is disturbing to watch.

First, in Texas. Police say this man murdered his own pregnant sister and confessed to it all on a doorbell camera.

Over in Las Vegas, a horrifying assault. A woman pounds on a door screaming for help and is beaten and pushed into a car.

CNN correspondent, Ed Lavandera, is live in Dallas, and CNN legal analyst, Joey Jackson, is here with me in New York.

Ed, in the Las Vegas case, police say they just made an arrest.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They did. Police there in Las Vegas announcing they arrested a 23-year-old man by the name of Darnell Rogers, accused of kidnapping and domestic battery. Apparently, knew the victim in this case.

But all of this unfolded in the early morning hours of New Year's Day. Police were released that doorbell footage and were able to find the suspect and victim about 24 hours later because of the help coming from the people who had been watching this video in news reports.

All of this not terribly unique in the sense that many people are used to these doorbell camera videos posted. A lot of people, especially around the holidays share these videos, especially with people stealing packages off of porches and that sort of thing.

This is getting stepped up in terms how law enforcement is using this. One of the services, the ring cameras, has partnered with more than 400 law enforcement agencies across the country to be able to request the videos in a quicker fashion from the homeowners.

And of course, it raises privacy concerns from civil liberties groups who are concerned about the direction this is going.

BALDWIN: I know. I know.

Thank you very much, Ed.

Joey, other issues of -- pluses and minuses. The Big Brother issue and also crimes caught on camera. Confessions caught on camera. Think about it playing out in a courtroom, are these videos admissible? Are prosecutors basically like, hey, this is all you need to see?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Listen, technology agency, as we know, Brooke, a blessing and a curse. Right? Seeing it more in prosecutions as relates to getting in the courtroom but before you get to the courtroom you have to find the person apparently responsible. They're using this technology to do that.

BALDWIN: Yes.

JACKSON: If you see something, say something. Members of the community sharing it with law enforcement. They're going and finding people and bring them into court.

What it boils down to is expectations of privacy. When we're outside, walking around, milling about in the public in public places, we don't have an expectation of privacy. As a result, we're seemed shocked in terms of camera, caught on camera, anything else, it's freely admissible in court.

This is not something that's a police interrogation or Big Brother trying to get you. It's the fact that people attempting to protect themselves, Brooke, are putting out cameras, protecting their domicile.

In the event something is caught that's amiss, it comes to court, makes it problematic for the defense but helpful for the prosecution. BALDWIN: To your point, these are private cameras often on private

property. Not like a crime is committed on a street camera in a public place. That's one thing. These are those it doorbell cameras and let's say you're at your home. I'm wondering, is that an argument for the defense to say toss it out?

JACKSON: You would think the defense could argue that. People like me can go into court and say --

BALDWIN: People like you --

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: -- it's a step too far. It should not be admissible at all. You're violating privacy concerns.

It's in front of a home. People are attempting to not get anyone in a place where the person would not be expected to be filmed. They are looking in the front of their homes, on their porches. Right? On their doorways. On their driveways, et cetera. These, again, are public places. They may be private property inasmuch as they're owned by individuals. But the fact is, that you're caught in a public sphere.

As a result of that, it's easier for prosecutors to do this. And we've seen in cases people made confessions and they've done it on this tape. That comes into court and could be very damning for the prosecution, certainly very problematic from a defense perfective.

BALDWIN: OK, Joey, do you have one of those doorbell cameras?

JACKSON: I do not. Even the Amazon thing, I'm kind of saying, wait a second. Alexa!

BALDWIN: Yes. My 4-year-old nephew talks to Alexa. This is a whole other world.

JACKSON: Yes, it is.

BALDWIN: I didn't grow up in.

Joey, thank you.

JACKSON: Of course. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Joey Jackson there.

[14:54:50]

One day ahead of lawmakers returning to Capitol Hill, new reporting that President Trump gave, quote, "clear direction" to hold the aid to Ukraine. Those new details. So stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Alex Trebek IS opening up about his battle with pancreatic cancer. The 79-year-old, Trebek, and his wife, Jean, sat down with ABC News as the "Jeopardy!" host prepares to undergo another round of chemotherapy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You've spoken about your husband's illness before. What's the toughest part for both of you?

JEAN TREBEK, WIFE OF ALEX TREBEK: For me, it's when I see him in pain and I can't help him. And when he doesn't eat right. When he has too much diet soda -- and --

(CROSSTALK)

ALEX TREBEK, "JEOPARDY!" HOST: Back off, Michael.

UNIDENTIFIED ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I'm not saying anything.

TREBEK: I'm 79. If you get to be 79 and be in as good of shape and I - oh, wait a minute. I'm not in great shape. Darn.

(LAUGHTER)

TREBEK: Blew that one, Trebek!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:00:06]

BALDWIN: Trebek also said that he knows he might not have a lot of time left, but he added, prayers and support has helped him really feel so much better since his diagnosis.