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Two St. Louis Police Officers Shot in Ferguson, Missouri; Two Secret Service Agents Reportedly Crash Car into White House Barricade; Interview with Jen Psaki

Aired March 12, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, March 12, just before 8:00 in the East.

Two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri, during a night of protests. Those officers both in serious condition this morning.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: This shooting came hours after the Ferguson police chief announced he'd be stepping down in the wake of a report suggesting that his officers targeted minorities.

CNN's Sara Sidner spent months covering the conflicts in Ferguson and she's following the latest developments for us this morning. Sara, what do we know about what happened?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, so far they're looking for a suspect or suspects. They're not sure if there's more than one person. We know that several shots were fired according to witnesses. We also know that these two officers will recover, according to the St. Louis County police department.

Both of them shot, one in the shoulder, one who was shot in the face; they're in serious condition but they will survive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (voice-over): Breaking overnight, two police officers in St. Louis County shot outside the Ferguson police department. A night of protests in Ferguson winding down when shots rang out. Witnesses report hearing multiple shots and then seeing one officer down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bullets went right past my head. It was kind of traumatic. I'm still kind of in shock because of it.

SIDNER: The injuries are serious. One St. Louis County officer was shot in the shoulder, another officer, a Webster Groves officer, shot in the face.

JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: These police officers were standing there, and they were shot just because they were police officers. SIDNER: Earlier police drew their guns during a scuffle between

protestors, police making multiple arrests. Some protesters cheered at the resignation of Police Chief Tom Jackson. For others, it comes too little too late, demanding the entire Ferguson Police Department be disbanded.

MAYOR JAMES KNOWLES, FERGUSON, MISSOURI: The chief's resignation is effective March 19th, 2015.

SIDNER: His resignation comes on the heels of a scathing report from the Justice Department slamming Ferguson officials for widespread racial bias and targeting African-Americans, Jackson, now one of the six city officials gone after the DOJ's damming report. Some are calling for Mayor Knowles to be next. He says he won't budge. For now a nationwide search for a new chief of police is underway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: And in the next couple of hours we are expected to get more information. A press conference has been called. These two officers in the hospital are recovering. They are expected to survive. And again, police are still looking for a suspect, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sara, thanks for all of that. Let's bring in now Maria Chappelle-Nadal. She's a Missouri state senator. Part of her district includes Ferguson. And Jeff Roorda is with the St. Louis Police Officers Association. Thanks so much for being with us. Mr. Roorda, let me start with you. Do you have any more information about what happened? What are your police officers saying?

JEFF ROORDA, ST. LOUIS POLICE OFFICER ASSOCIATION: Well, as you just reported, the officers, while the injuries are serious, they're stable and expected to survive. But this is a grave, grave situation for law enforcement in St. Louis. And, frankly, I don't know what people expected to happen as we've perpetuated lies that have proliferated violence against policemen for the last seven months.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, what do you mean? What lies? What lies specifically are you talking about?

ROORDA: Well, first the old lie, that Michael Brown was gunned down in the street as he was attempting to peacefully surrender. We now know that was a lie. And now the new lie that Eric Holder's perpetuating, that this is all about traffic tickets. The call yesterday for Tom Jackson's resignation was answered, and I heard people say the protesters have finally gotten what they want. The agitators here didn't get what they want until last night when two police officers were shot.

CAMEROTA: Senator, go ahead.

MARIA CHAPPELLE-NADAL, (D) MISSOURI STATE SENATOR: Well, that's very interesting to hear from my good colleague Jeff Roorda. What I do have to say is that the people that I know who were on the streets peacefully protesting were absolutely dismayed and shocked by the fact that any individual would shoot -- ROORDA: They shouldn't have been. They were part of this, senator,

just like you were.

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: No, they were not.

ROORDA: They shouldn't be surprised. You're pouring kerosene on this fire.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, hold on.

ROORDA: You've been there aiding and abetting the agitators.

CAMEROTA: Senator.

ROORDA: No. For you to charge that, that is one of the reasons you are not elected today, sir.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, what do you mean?

ROORDA: Give me a break. Make it personal, senator.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, you're making it personal, Mr. Roorda, because you're saying they're inciting violence pouring kerosene on it. What do you mean?

ROORDA: Senator Chappelle-Nadal, for instance, is in a unique position to quell some of this and to be a leader and to call for peace. And that's what we ought to have happening.

CAMEROTA: Senator, your response.

ROORDA: And I have done nothing but call for peace. In fact, the people who I have been talking to for the last 24 hours are absolutely dismayed about what happened. They are sorry for the families and the officers who have been shot. Of anyone, you should have known how I have supported police officers throughout my entire career.

But let's get back to the fact. This is about building bridges. We could go on and we can bicker and we can fight, or we can build a stronger Ferguson. And that is the focus that we should all have right now. To call Eric Holder a liar, to call agitators as peaceful protesters, they are not. In fact, we have consistently told agitators from your side as well, get out of this gate to get out of it because this is not right for St. Louis. In fact, Ferguson has been an embarrassment as well as you have. And what we're trying to do is make Missouri strong.

ROORDA: What did you tweet to the governor, senator?

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: -- by people like you. And you know what, and you deserve that statement, too, Jeff.

ROORDA: Are you calling me a racist, senator?

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Yes, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Senator, specifically, what is it that Mr. Roorda said that was so incendiary?

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: First of all, he doesn't even represent Ferguson police officers. He represents police officers that are in St. Louis City.

(CROSSTALK)

ROORDA: I represent St. Louis County police officers. I represent St. Louis County police officers and one of my friends of 20 years was shot last night, so don't tell me who I represent, senator.

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Absolutely not.

ROORDA: Don't tell me who I represent.

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: You're not a police officer today. The reason why you're not a police officer today is because you lied on a report. Why don't you tell the public that?

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Senator, hold on. Hold on. I --

ROORDA: Your personal attacks and --

CAMEROTA: Senator, hold on. I do want to try to avoid -- hold on. I want to avoid the ad hominem attacks because what we're really talking about is what's going on in Ferguson.

Now, Mr. Roorda, you say that the protesters are all agitators and that they have been pouring kerosene on the fire. However, it was the department of -- just a second. It was the Department of Justice's findings that came out and further incited the unrest there.

Some of the findings, let me just report to you, what they found. Let's just start with jay walking. Sounds innocent enough but the report found that 95 percent of all of the manner of walking in roadway charges are filed against African-Americans. Let's go on. They found that there were all sorts of offensive --

ROORDA: Who were doing -- who were doing exactly what Michael Brown was doing, walking right down the middle of the street just --

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: And he deserved to be killed for that? You do not deserve to be killed for walking down the street, period.

ROORDA: No, he deserved to be -- he got killed because --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, hold on, senator. Mr. Roorda, the point is that justice was doled out differently to blacks and whites. Whites, I'm sure, jay walked in Ferguson occasionally, but they aren't the ones who were arrested. It further found out that there were all sorts of offensive e-mails sent. I don't have to go through them and read them to you. But the point is that's what's incited the most recent unrest. Do you agree with the Department of Justice with their findings?

ROORDA: Yes. They replaced an old lie with a new lie. We now know what happened in the street between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. And now we're going to pretend that traffic tickets and court profiteering, which was wrong, and these emails that were sent by three employees, which were wrong, now somehow justifies the violence towards police.

And this isn't new. You guys should have reported on this. Police officers have been shot at frequently in August and in November and now last night. Let's stop pretending that something is happening in Ferguson other than what's really happening, which is -- which is organized attempts to kill and injure police officers.

CAMEROTA: OK. Senator, was this an organized attempt, even by opportunists, to use this protest as cover to try to shoot and kill these police officers?

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: First of all, I don't remember opportunists. I only know peaceful protesters. And so everyone has stated again and again we do not support attacking police officers, nor do we support attacking peaceful protesters.

What Jeff represents is current day Jim Crow. Let's just face it. He ignores the facts. We know that African-American males have been targeted systematically again and again. We also know in the last three years revenue in Ferguson has increased exponentially. In fact, police officers have joked around talking about pregnant women and crime stoppers and terminating pregnancies. Are you kidding me? Do you not support life? I support life. And to even demean the African-American community -- you know, this community is treated worse than people who are on the Mexican border. That's a shame.

CAMEROTA: Now, senator, I do want to ask you about the protests last night, because the police chief resigned. That's something that the protesters had been calling for months. So that should have been a victory for them. Why did the protests in that case turn violent?

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Well, again, for the people who I communicate with, which are hundreds of people, they were quite satisfied. Now there are some out there who say, including myself, that the chief of police should have resigned long, long time ago. And so because there is so much anger and frustration in this community, we have found ways, including using the legislative process, to figure out how are we going to build bridges. That's what's important at this point. We want to have a strong Missouri. In order to do that, everyone has to come to the table. We have to speak honestly and you know what.

And you know what, frankly, I'm actually thankful to Jeff Roorda, because in the past we have been friends. But he and I need to come together and we need to sit at the table --

ROORDA: That's true.

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: -- and we need to move forward because as Ferguson becomes the embarrassment of the nation, this is injuring our entire state. And we don't need that right now.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Today I'm talking to students about the situation. And we need to move on, but we need to be clear about the injuries that have occurred systematically for decades.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, is that possible? Can you come together and somehow try -- what would you try to resolve if you were sitting at the same table?

ROORDA: First of all, I would gladly take up Senator Chappelle- Nadal's offer to sit down. I've sat down with Senator Nasheed and talked about these matters several times. I think there is a way forward.

But I think -- I think this is all a misstep, this concentration on some of these distractions. We really need to get to the core issue, which is why are kids like Michael Brown living in such a hopeless situation that they think that they have no future and that they make mistakes like this? Let's give them a future. That's what we need to be working together on is giving some hope to kids like Mike Brown who were living in despair and thought that they had nothing to lose.

CAMEROTA: Senator, do you think that the protesters will be satisfied or not until the Ferguson police department is shut down? Is that what they're calling for?

ROORDA: Many people do want to disband the police department. I have called for that. Senator Nasheed has called for that. And what we need right now is an approach where people can trust police officers.

Every day I am talking to many of our police officers in our state capital and on the streets on how to build bridges, and there are people who, including rank and file in St. Louis city, who agreed with me. It has taken years to build trust among communities that look like the one that I represent, and because of this one incident, because of Ferguson, it has destroyed really good quality relationships that the community has had with police officers.

At the end of the day everyone wants to have safety. They want to be in their neighborhoods and be able to go to their neighbor's home and not be approached by any strangers and not be confronted with any kind of disturbance.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Roorda, can the Ferguson police department and the mayor survive?

ROORDA: First of all, on the senator's last point, we agree. We want people to live safely. We want cops to be safe out there, and that's not happening for either side right now.

Ferguson cannot survive. Their police department is going to be disbanded. Cities like Albuquerque and Seattle and New Orleans can barely survive the weight of these federal court orders. A 53-man department can't survive. The interesting point is they'll end up under the control and patrol of the St. Louis County Police Department which is where Tom Jackson came from. So some of this is just a case of people not knowing what they want.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Jeff Roorda, Senator Marie Chappelle-Nadal, we look forward to hearing if you two and both your sides can come together and form solutions, and of course we will check back in with you during this entire process. Thanks for being on NEW DAY. Let's get over to Chris.

CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Thank you so much.

ROORDA: Thank you.

CUOMO: I'll tell you, Alisyn, if people want to know what the two different sides are of the debate that's going on in Ferguson and many places, that was the best sense that they'll get of it.

We have another scandal to talk about this morning, the Secret Service. This one may set a new standard for stupid. Two senior agents suspected of crashing a government car into a White House barricade after a night of partying. CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is live from the White House. I wish I had part of this wrong, but are those really the facts?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are, Chris, and as you know, this is the agency that is in charge of protecting the president. And these agents were high level. One had the number two spot of the president's own safety detail.

Now, the incident unfolded last Wednesday evening when these two agents allegedly went drinking at a bar. It was a retirement party of a colleague. Then then got in their government car and had an altercation here at the White House grounds and ended up driving through a security barricade.

Now, at that time, and this is an important point, a uniformed officer, they wanted to conduct a sobriety tests on these agents, possibly even make arrests. But that's when a supervisor stepped in and he let these two agents go. Now, since the Secret Service says these two agents have been re-positioned into non-operational positions. And the Department of Homeland Security has launched an investigation.

Now reaction coming in already from Capitol Hill. The chairs of the House Oversight Committee, they say in a statement, quote, "The fact that this event included senior level agents is not only embarrassing but exhibits a clear lack of judgment in a potentially dangerous situation."

Now, the administration officials tell us that the president has been informed of this and he is in support of a full investigation into this.

But, of course, Michaela, as you know, this is a long line, a long string of scandals with the Secret Service, especially as they are trying to cover to recover from their tarnished image -- Michaela. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Don't they have Uber in D.C.? Seems

like a simple solution.

SERFATY: Good question. Yes.

PEREIRA: All right. Sunlen, thanks so much for that.

We turn overseas. The besieged city of Tikrit back in the hands of an Iraqi government. A top commander telling CNN soldiers have taken been 75 percent of the strategic city from ISIS. Hundreds of other terrorists remain in the region continuing to hold out. That Iraqi city was captured by ISIS last year.

CAMEROTA: The search for 11 missing military personnel will resume today once the heavy fog lifts. The seven marines and four soldiers are presumed dead after their black hawk helicopter crashed off the Florida panhandle, a large piece of the chopper washing up on shore. Military officials also reporting some remains have been found.

CUOMO: New photos emerging of Osama bin Laden have been shown. Bin Laden is seen walking around a small house made of mud and stone. He took refuge in that place after 9/11 before being driven out by U.S. forces. The pictures are coming out from the trial of a former bin Laden lieutenant.

CAMEROTA: Secretary of State John Kerry urging lawmakers to give the president war powers to strike against Islamic jihadists. But did he do enough to make his case?

CUOMO: And were two Secret Service agents let off the hook after allegedly driving drunk? This morning, they're still on the job. Why, ahead.

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CUOMO: After Secretary of State John Kerry, now he was on the Hill yesterday fighting for the authorization of use of military force, he's also got the Iran letter that may be muddying up any negotiations with Iran, and, of course, there's a lot of e-mail discussion going on that circles around the State Department.

Let's talk about these pressing issues with Jen Psaki, the State Department's spokeswoman.

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: Good morning.

CUOMO: Jen, good to have you with us. Let's take this one at a time.

The Iran letter, the 47 senators and many other Republicans say this should help the situation, this letter. Others say it is treason. Where do you come down on it?

PSAKI: Well, Chris, I have to say -- I think we're on the side of this is an unprecedented, outrageous act by 47 senators who are trying to impact and interrupt the negotiations. There's a long history, 200 years, hundreds of years back to when members of Congress were riding horse and buggies to get to work where executives were negotiating deals with executives. And this is a clear effort to impact the negotiations.

CUOMO: Their main pushback will be -- you cut us out of this process, even though the White House and the State Department runs the negotiations, you cut us out. This is too dangerous, they're too bad, Iran. We have to get in. We're desperate because you won't let us in.

Is it your fault?

PSAKI: Chris, nothing could be farther from the truth. There has been more briefings. The number I heard was more than 30 for members of Congress to have discussions, to keep them updated.

They absolutely have a role. They'll have a role if there's a deal and at the point some time from now where we need to roll back and pull back sanctions. But they've been consulted, they have an important voice here. That's the appropriate place to have this discussion.

CUOMO: They say this deal stinks. They're going to get a nuclear weapon. The only question is, when? So, your premise for negotiation is going nowhere.

PSAKI: Well, Chris, first of all, there's no deal yet, so I don't know what deal they're referring to. And the primary objective of any deal is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. That is our goal here.

The alternative, the status quo, is that they would keep taking steps forward without the JPOA. If we had not pursued a comprehensive agreement Iran would be taking steps forward. Is that what members of Congress prefer and what they want?

CUOMO: Let me ask you something about one of the tactics that may have been employed in this letter. There's a line in there that says any agreement that's made would just be between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei.

Do you think that the senators know that it wouldn't be just the president and that the ayatollah would not sign on? And if they do know that, why do you think they put it that way?

PSAKI: Well, I can't speak for why they put things the way they did in the letter, Chris. There were some inaccuracies in the letter, and again, there's some clear misunderstanding of how international negotiations happen.

But the president of the United States represents the country and it's not just the United States, it's five countries. It's France, it's Germany, it's Russia, it's China, the E.U. We're all a part of these negotiations.

So, it's not a deal with just Iran, it's a multi-lateral deal to try to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, because that's in the national interests of the United States and the global community.

CUOMO: Do you think that was a political tactic, pairing the president of the United States with Ayatollah Khamenei?

PSAKI: Well, I can't speak to what their intentions were. I think nothing could be farther from the truth. It's a pretty laughable comparison.

CUOMO: All right. So, we get to the e-mails. Forget about Hillary for a second and her e-mails, this report that came out from the OIG, an investigation that was being done before any of this, has some really bad sounding numbers in it, Jen -- 61,000 recorded e-mails out of more than a billion sent.

Are you guys doing what you're supposed to do there in the State Department in collecting e-mails?

PSAKI: Well, Chris, first what the report is a reference to is the smart program of archiving and keeping track of records. That's only one component.

Also, this is a constantly evolving process. I think we can all agree that the use of e-mail has increased dramatically over the last five, 10 years, even more for government officials. Even when we came into the State Department, when the secretary came in, we put new policies in place that were consistent with the national standards. We're continuing to update what we do, how we archive e-mails. The secretary's e-mails are archived through an automatic process, as are many senior staff.

But this is something that's been evolving over time, not just at the State Department but across the government and across, you know, many companies and agencies in the United States.

CUOMO: But these numbers are uncharacteristically bad. This doesn't read like progress, it reads like a problem, because it's about self- reporting and discretion and it's not just about -- I'm not talking about Hillary again, I'm talking about that's the way they say --

PSAKI: Sure.

CUOMO: -- in the OIG report that the whole State Department is set up and they're supposed to be collecting anything that goes to the organization, functions, decisions, processes, procedures, trans -- it sounds like everything and yet, they're saving almost nothing.

Is this why we see the problem with Hillary's e-mails, because everybody there is doing it wrong?

PSAKI: Chris, first of all, we will naturally respond to, as we always do, any I.G. report with our response, with our recommendations, with what we are going to do to implement steps. We've already taken steps as I've just outlined over the past two years. This isn't an easy question, because e-mail and the use of e- mail and how it should be archived is a process that's been evolving over the last several years. CUOMO: OK. So, right now, you have to spend a lot of manpower,

energy, effort going through Hillary's e-mails to see if there's anything in there that's classified or shouldn't have been in there. You --

PSAKI: Well, that's not what the review is for. The review is to make them public. There's no reason -- she's been clear she didn't use this e-mail for classified purposes. Obviously, we'll be reviewing it to see what can be released publicly using FOIA standards. But the redactions are like things that are what's in our national security interest, but also trade secrets. Personal emails, clearly, we're not going to release an e-mail about yoga practices, if that's in there. So, it's reviewed for a range of purposes.

CUOMO: Right. You know nobody is interested in yoga practices. But the suggestion --

PSAKI: Some might be.

CUOMO: The suggestion has been, why don't you ask for her server so that the unknown gets taken out of the equation? You can say, we have everything, we're going through everything.

PSAKI: Well, Chris, there's ample past precedent of past secretaries submitting and going through and determining themselves with their teams what is government responsive and what is not, and that is what the process was done here. In terms of Secretary Clinton's personal e-mails, that's a question best directed to Secretary Clinton.

But as I mentioned, there are also new processes put in place having nothing to do with this but in an effort to better archive e-mails, better track the secretary's e-mails that was put in place for Secretary Kerry and will be precedent moving forward.

CUOMO: Jen Psaki, I know you're on a tight schedule. Thank you very much for joining us this morning.

PSAKI: Thank you, Chris. Have a good day.

CUOMO: You too.

Mick?

PEREIRA: All right. Back to our breaking news: two police officers shot during protests in Ferguson. We're going to bring you an update on their condition and just who police are looking for.

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