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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Lamar Odom Found Unconscious At Brothel; Woman Stabbed At Jerusalem Bus Station; Highest Ratings For A Democratic Debate Garnered Last Night On CNN; 15.3 Million Watched CNN's Democratic Debate. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 14, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And the Kardashians decide the L.A. Lakers career that the two championships where did the wheels fall off?

[12:30:10] RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, I mean look I have covered Lamar for a long time, interviewed him quite often. I've gotten to know him outside of the cameras. And that's a long time, and that's what so sad about all of these is that anybody who worked with him can tell you had just such a lightness and joy about him.

Despite all of the things that went wrong in his life. After his L.A. Lakers career, he ended up going into drug and alcohol rehab and crack-cocaine addiction was reportedly at the center of his breakup with Khloe Kardashian.

But before that, this is a guy who has not been dealt a very good hand. His mother died of cancer when he was very young, and his grandmother ended up raising him, but she died of cancer. He had a 6- month-old son who died of sudden infant death syndrome. And his father was a heroin addict who was very much in and out of his life.

And Lamar once said he wondered if his own substance abuse wasn't some way paying for his father's demons. And yet and despite all of this, he managed to be a really sensitive person for the people around him, known as an incredible teammate, and maybe it's because he had gone through so much. But he is now, really in trouble, and a lot of the people in the NBA community reaching out trying to see if they can do anything to help.

BANFIELD: It is just such a compounding tragedy. Well, we certainly hope the best for him.

Rachel Nichols, thank you for that and our thanks to Kyung Lah as well in California. I do appreciate it.

We're working on another top story as well. And that is this, live pictures coming out of the Jerusalem main bus station where a 50-year- old woman was stubbed within the last hour. Her condition apparently moderate to serious. The stub -- the person behind the stabbing, and I will "the Israeli authorities neutralized."

A CNN producer saying there was a body on the ground. We're going to get to the bottom of this, but yet another attack in Israel.

Back after this.

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[12:36:22] BANFIELD: Our breaking news coming to us out of Jerusalem in the last three hours, two major attacks that have gone on there. And two attackers in the words of the local authorities neutralized. The one you're looking at right now just happened in the last 45 minutes it is that the Jerusalem main bus station apparently a woman being attacked there.

And this coming just about two-and-a-half hours after another man wielding a knife launched at police and authorities at the Damascus gate in Jerusalem at the entrance of the old city.

You can see if we zoom in, there is Jerusalem, and on the east side of Jerusalem, there is part of the old city actually that falls into the west bank. This has been a very active area, a country of Israel has been on high alert.

I want to go out to our Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman who is live right now in Jerusalem.

So can you update me on what happened at this most latest attack just within the last half hour?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are trying to make our way there at the moment, Ashleigh.

We understand that a man went to the bus station, and there he somewhere in the bus station, he stabbed a 50-year-old woman in her upper torso and then fled the scene. But of course, he was being chased by police and other standerby's.

And according to a statement we've received from the Israeli police he has been neutralize we understand he's in fact, shot dead. That's the second attack of the day

The first attack of course happened just outside -- well, it was not an attack, it was an attempted attack. In that instance a man wearing a green -- well it appeared to be a military style t-shirt and combat pants.

And strangely the Israeli police approached him (inaudible) he launched it and with a knife, and then ran away from that group of policemen. Another group encountered him and opened fired and shot him.

According to eye witnesses they shot well over a dozen rounds at him, he died soon there afterwards.

In the process however a tourist was slightly injured by some of the gunfire. He was treated at the scene, a local resident more seriously injured by the gunfire, now in the hospital, but they can tell you that these attacks happening so closely after one another has put the city on the edge with you hear a lot of police sirens going off as they respond to reports not always actually attacks happening but because nerves are so on edge, they seemed to be going all over the place with the sirens.

BANFIELD: And so Ben, they didn't -- the nerves being on edge, help me to understand this, because we have been watching as one after the other the after the other of the seemingly lone wolf attacks have been playing out all over the last few weeks.

And then comes the crackdown, I mean the residency permits are being revoked for a lot of people who live in the East Jerusalem, firearm laws are being eased for those who are in Israel. There are checkpoints, there are increased police presence. And it seems that the tension is mounting faster than we can even keep up with the count of the number of incidents.

And I'm not going to put you on the spot, because I'm having trouble counting the number of incidents. But are we headed toward a third Intifada here?

WEDEMAN: Well, let me clarify, the residency permits are not been revoked from people in the eastern part of the city, that's only applies to attackers.

[12:40:04] Are we in the third Intifada, it's really hard to say at this point, because keep in mind that in the last Intifada -- the second Intifada was very much an Intifada that was moved by Palestinian factions.

We're talking about individuals. It doesn't seem, and even the Israeli security officials, police, have yet to make any connection between these individual attackers and any of the groups.

It seems to be completely spontaneous, spurred on perhaps by mounting frustration and hopelessness as far as the political resolution to this conflict goes. The Israeli officials will pound home their belief that this is the result of incitement by Hamas and other groups by rather online radicalization. But it's hard to say, Intifada, the third Intifada went from 1987 to 1993, the second from 2000 to 2005.

We're talking about years, we're only weeks into this current outpouring of violence. And what we have seen in the past, there have been similar -- last year there was tensions, there was clashes around the old city.

And in 2014, we saw a lot of clashes within Jerusalem itself, within Intifada, no. But what we're seeing is outbursts of violence that are becoming more and more frequent, the calm periods between them shorter and shorter. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: And many of those start-off to those previous to Intifadas were with those disco bombings, and restaurant bombing, suicide bombings, and that -- this does feel very, very different as you're alluding to this lone wolf attacks.

Ben Wedeman, keep an eye on it for us if you would please we're going to continue following this here on CNN.

And then, there's this, Donald Trump back on the Tweeter machine. Tweeting this out about the Democratic debate, "The debate last night proved that Hillary is running against the B team. She won't be so lucky when it comes to me."

Yes. The tweets continue. And this is in a long line of tweets throughout the debate last night.

We'll going to dig in to that in a moment.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:46:50] HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to win. I think being the first woman president would be quite the same.

BERNIE SANDERS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People already pour a political revolution.

The American people are sick and tired of hearing your damn e-mails.

CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

JIM WEBB, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bernie, I don't think the revolution going to come.

LINCOLN CHAFEE, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we need some that has with the best and ethical standards as our next president.

MARTIN O'MALLEY, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We passed a state version of the DREAM Act.

A lot of the xenophobes, the immigrant haters like some that we've heard like, Donald Trump, that carnival barker, tried to mischaracterize it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It looks as electrifying in the summary as it did last night and it's not just me saying that apparently it's 15.3 million of you saying that because the numbers are in and its official. This is the most watched CNN Democratic debate. A highest Democratic debate in history, there you go 15.3 million people watching. Those are the numbers. Some of the biggest flashpoints that all of those millions of people we saw in last night Democratic debate were over social issues. Issues like marijuana and criminal justice reform. In one such moment that we wanted to highlight for you was the exchange between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over guns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America. Everybody else has to be accountable, but not the gun manufacturers. And we need to stand up and say: Enough of that. We're not going to let it continue.

COOPER: We're going to bring you all in on this. But, Senator Sanders, you have to give a response.

SANDERS: As a senator from a rural state, what I can tell Secretary Clinton, that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what I would hope all of us want, and that is keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have those guns and end this horrible violence that we are seeing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, on marijuana, Hillary Clinton says that she never smoked it, but she would not put people in jail who did so, Bernie Sanders said that he would probably vote for anything that would allow it. So that's kind of interesting perspective.

I want to talk not just about that, but about other issues as well, from both perspectives. Conservative Radio Host Ben Ferguson and former Obama Green Jobs Adviser Van Jones, our CNN political commentators and they're with me life.

Before I get to issues on gun controls and everything else, I want to ask you about this latest Breaking News. I hate it even calling it Breaking News, but Donald does has a lot of Tweeting. He Tweeted last night during the debate. And he just Tweeted this out.

"The debate last night proved that Hillary is running against the B team. She won't be so lucky when it comes to me." Exclamation point.

He uses those a lot guys. I want to start with you Ben. Does it matter, is it relevant that Donald Trump not only was Tweeting last night but that Tweeted that about Hillary today and said on "Good Morning America" that he thinks she was effectively "She came out the winner".

Did you think matter to the Democrat?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know if matters too much in the Democratic primary. But the reality is last night none of these people are going to beat Hillary Clinton. And they're the B team. They had opportunities to go after her instead they had more of discussion that a debate.

[12:50:03] And there was one part tonight when I was looking at the T.V. going, did any of these guys realize that they're far behind Hillary Clinton. If you really want a debater then you have to do it to make people notice you.

But ultimately last night she came out stronger, and the others came out weaker. I wouldn't be surprise if some of them have to drop out soon because if you're Democratic donor, Hillary Clinton is the obvious front-runner. The only person that might have a chance at her would be Joe Biden., and he is not even in it.

BANFIELD: All right. So Van Jones, there is these two school have saw, number one people were praising the Democrats for having, you know, a measured debate on the issues without screaming and yelling and calling each other's hair out or their looks or anything like that. But, you know, Ben makes a really good point, if you want to get ahead and you want traction. You want to stay in the race. You've got to make some noise.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I see it somewhat differently. I think last night class won. And not just means issues around economic. I mean, class meaning dignity that you can have a dignified debate and it can be entertaining, and you get 15 million people to the watch with the name calling.

So class one last night more than anything else. But, you know, I also think that Bernie Sanders raised a ton of money last night online. I think that, you know, people are so used to the nonsense with the Republicans. This is actually a very important time in American history, people wanted to hear a real discussion, 15 million people can't be wrong. I think that you got see now they've introduced themselves, some should drop out. This thing will get hotter before it gets resolve. But I'm glad last night was classy.

BANFIELD: 15.3 million.

JONES: Big audience.

BANFIELD: Yeah, that's a big audience.

JONES: Big audience.

BANFIELD: That point matters too. I want to bring in Brian Stelter to join our conversation gentlemen if I can, he is our Senior Media Correspondent, he's been crunching those number, and I have been told, and you will have to clarify this, that is a higher number than the session premier of "Walking Dead."

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that right. Actually the "Walking Dead" is back in few days ago, that's one of the biggest shows on T.V. But as we've now seen the debates this season are actually bigger. They are essentially the biggest show on T.V.

Now, I thought that was only true the Republicans, we thought that Donald Trump was causing a huge amount of fuel for the Republican raise and he has been, the raise were even higher for the Republican debates 23 to 25 million. But you have 15 million viewers watching a Trump list debate. I've got to tell you Ashleigh, I thought the reigns of 8 million, but I didn't want to omit that because I thought it's too high.

BANFIELD: So everybody is expecting?

STELTER: Expectations were pretty low. You know, I was expectation were in the range of 2 to 8 million.

BANFIELD: Two to eight?

STELTER: For example back in 2003, 2007 at this time in the election cycle in past Democratic debates. We were seeing 2 or 3 or 4 million viewers watching the primary debates with the Democrats. Now in 2007, there was a bigger audience, why? Because it was Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the same stage, again 4 or 5 million viewers.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

STELTER: Then in January, people started actually voting in Iowa, New Hampshire reign, started rising, but the record for Democratic debate until last night was 10.7 million viewers.

BANFIELD: 10 only (ph).

STELTER: So we are talking about 5 million more than...

BANFIELD: You have to...

STELTER: Even though it's only October. I think what shows it's not just Donald Trump that's getting Americans interested in politics right now, it's this campaign on both side of the aisle. And that's good news if you care about politics.

BANFIELD: And it's not just the carnival barking, because some people would have said that gaps or even - Ben I want you to jump in on that that, you know, last night Martin O'Malley called that Donald Trump a carnival barker, many people have said that him before and worse and, you know, moderate. But does it now, is now obvious that it doesn't require foolishness to actually be interesting?

FERGUSON: Well, I don't think Donald Trump and many viewers were I can think he's being f being foolish. I think you look at Bernie Sanders is a great example of the Democratic side.

BANFIELD: If you I'm sorry Ben. You're going to -- yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with you when you call a woman her face something that's not fit for office that is foolish.

FERGUSON: I'm not saying or saying that Donald Trump has said and I criticize him for those comments right here on CNN. But I'm saying when he's talking issues that there are a lot of people that connect with him the same way that I think yu look at Bernie Sanders has inspired many to notice the Democratic debates. He's a very different candidate than Hillary Clinton is. The same way that Donald Trump is very different candidate than others like Jeb Bush.

I think that's why you saw so many watched. I'm not saying that Donald Trump does not outlander (ph) thing. Of course he does, and that's part of the X-factor of him, but he also has been very blunt about politics. And people like that the same way that Bernie Sanders has been very blunt as being, you know, a socialist with his ideas and saying that we need free college. People are connecting with that and I think they even look at Bernie as an outsider, in many ways they look at Donald Trump the same way.

STELTER: What we are seeing the Trump halo effect I think, Bernie Sanders is a lot curiosity...

FERGUSON: Yeah.

STELTER: ... about Bernie.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

STELTER: People seeing Trump are the first two GOP debate. They wanted to find out what kind of guy is Bernie Sanders is going to be on the stage, so the halo effect of Trump making us all to GOP debate that helps the Democrat.

FERGUSON: I totally agree.

BANFIELD: You cannot deny. Van, maybe jump in on us if you would. You can't deny that the other guys who we talk about yesterday were introduced to the 15.3 million people.

FERGUSON: Its a very, very big deal for them.

[12:55:01] BANFIELD: It's a big deal for team. But the other guys get what they needed out of those 15.3 million, did they brand themselves or are they gone after last night?

JONES: Well, look, I think that O'Malley probably missed it main opportunity. He was fine, but he did not turn in the kind of performance that I was predicting to get people a reason to switch from Hillary Clinton or switch from Bernie to him, and so I think he might be a great secretary of the finance or the treasury or HUD, but he gave no are real reason for anybody to abandon him. Hillary Clinton turned in a performance, and probably our best ever with a debate. She was like Beyonce, flawless, Bernie Sanders stole the show with his moment. The rest of them basically are also in.

BANFIELD: And she did that without a win to machine. Van Jones, thank you for that. Nice to have you on, appreciated. Ben Ferguson, always good to see you, thank you.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

BANFIELD: And Brian Stelter, thanks for scrambling so quickly with that numbers.

STELTER: Thank you. Thanks.

BANFIELD: And making air with that. I appreciate it.

Thank you all for joining us. I'm going to turn the helm over to Wolf Blitzer who's got something big coming up. Presidential candidate Donald Trump's daughter, Wolf's going to have sneak peak of what Ivanka thinks about her dad lead in the polls and that's is great because she has not been so public in this very public run for office. Full interview is going to air at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

Also coming up you're going to hear from presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee, he's going to speak with Wolf, and it all starts right after this break.

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