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Sandra Bland Death Investigation; Trump Escalates War of Words with Lindsey Graham; Interview with Sen. Daines. Aired 7:00-7:30a ET.

Aired July 22, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That turned violent. Bland committed suicide in her jail. Family is not buying it. Could there be something more sinister at play? CNN's Ed Lavandera is live in Hempstead, Texas. Ed, what do we know.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Well, the case of Sandra Bland is already shrouded in a great deal of mistrust. Many who do not believe the official line that Sandra Bland committed suicide. This video that's been released late last night is not helping the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step out of the car.

Newly released dashcam video of 28-year-old Sandra Bland's arrest is raising new questions about what really took place just three days before she was found dead in this Texas jail cell. For starters, the 52-minute video of the traffic stop and her arrest appear to have several discrepancies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't touch me.

LAVANDERA: Watch as the white vehicle driving on the left suddenly vanishes from the road. And this brief moment where a tow truck driver walks away from the dashcam's view then quickly reappears at the truck's door, immediately following a scene repeats. All the while, the audio is playing uninterrupted.

It's not clear whether the video was edited or if an equipment issue is to blame. All of this casting doubt that the video reflects a continuous account of the heated encounter with Texas state trooper, Brian Encina.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to drag you out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you are - so you said, you're going to drag me out of my own car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car. I would like you up. Get out, now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For failure to signal? You're doing all this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get over there.

LAVANDERA: A bystander captured images of the trooper holding Bland to the ground. But dashcam video caught what she was saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you are a real man now, you're going to slam me knock my head on the ground. I got epilepsy, you moron.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.

LAVANDERA: Authorities say Bland later committed suicide in her cell. This is a look inside where she spent her final hours. The Texas Department of Public Safety said, Trooper Encina failed to comply with the department standards for professionalism. He's been pulled off patrol duty as state officials investigate. Police say, they are looking into Bland's death as a murder.

And Alisyn, this morning, we reached out last night to a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety about the glitches and differences in the videotape that we noticed. We are told the Texas Department of public safety will be looking at that and try to offer some sort of clarification and explanation for what is wrong with the video at some point today.

CAMEROTA: All right. Ed, let us know as soon as you get that explanation. Thank you.

Well, on to politics. Donald Trump escalating the war of words with fellow GOP candidate Lindsey Graham. Trump gave out the senator's personal cell phone number at hundreds of listeners at a rally in Graham's home state of South Carolina. So now what?

CNN's Senior Washington Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, live with the latest. That was the real number, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was, Alisyn. It definitely was. It used to be the number. But look, the republican presidential race seems like a free for all, or a playground brawl. Donald Trump is off the campaign trail but still at the center of the conversation whether some republicans like it or not.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's been a very interesting three weeks, I will tell you.

ZELENY: That's a Donald Trump size understatement.

TRUMP: They didn't like the way, that you know, I'm a little - I'm a little loud. I'm a little too strong. They don't like it.

ZELENY: After rocketing to the top of the GOP field, Trump is now trying to stay there. He's fighting Republicans who fear he will hurt the parties chances to win back the White House.

TRUMP: Every time I turn around, I have - I have some guy that is hitting me.

ZELENY: This morning, a new Quinnipiac Poll shows concerns of Republican leaders could be justified. In three key election battlegrounds, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, nearly 6-10 voters hold unfavorable views of Trump. But for now, his rhetoric is resonating with republican primary voters. The war of words seemed to start when Lindsey Graham said this to CNN.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: He's becoming a jackass.

TRUMP: And then I watched this idiot Lindsey Graham on television on television today. And he calls me a jackass. He was a jackass.

ZELENY: Trump retaliated by giving out Graham's personal cell number.

TRUMP: He gave me the number and I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don't know if it's right. Let's try it. 202...

ZELENY: Jeb Bush said he respect Trump's supporters. But gently urged them to take a second look.

JEB BUSH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What am I supposed to call the guy too? It was Donald? I mean, whatever his name is, I'm going to call him Mr. Trump. If we embrace this language, of decisiveness and ugliness, we will never win.

ZELENY: And there are new signs Trump is starting getting the scrutiny of a front-runner. Opposing campaigns are pouring through, his old statements including many from CNN like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you identify more as a democrat or republican?

TRUMP: Well, you'd be shocked if I said that in many cases I probably identify more as a democrat. And it just seems that the economy does better under the democrats than the Republicans.

[07:05:00] ZELENY: Now, it's those old views that is could come back to haunt Trump. We are used to hearing him say a lot other the years. But many republican primary voters are just beginning about the political side of Trump for the first time. They may be surprised to know this republican front runner want to spoke to favorably donated money to democrats. Chris?

CUOMO: The big question now Jeff is, what is the GOP going to do about it? Trump is their boy, on their team. He is leading in the polls. Let's bring in Mel Martinez, former chairman of the RNC and former Senator of course from Florida. Senator, food to have you with us. Good to see you.

MEL MARTINEZ, FORMER SENATOR, FLORIDA: Chris, good morning. CUOMO: So is Donald Trump the problem for the GOP or the

solution?

MARTINEZ: Well, he's certainly getting all the attention at the moment. Here is the challenge to Donald Trump. Just heard the comments about the fact he leaned more as a democrat than a republican, Donald Trump should, today, say he will support the nominee of our party.

I mean, if he is running for the president of the United States, commit that as a republican, he will support the nominee of our party. It's time for him to do that.

CUOMO: He says two things. He says they are all bums, that's why he's running in the first place. That seems to be the fuel for the fire behind him. You can't just talk about the men, you have to talk about the mood. He says you guys are out to get him in the party because you know he is right.

MARTINEZ: I'm not out to get him. I support Jeb Bush because I think he is the most competent and qualified in a very good, broad feel of people. He gives us the best chance to win against Hillary Clinton. What I don't want Trump to do is continue down a path to make it more likely Hillary Clinton will be the next Clinton.

Eight years of Obama followed by four years of Hillary Clinton, most of those people going to the Trump rallies do not want to see that happen. The best chance for it not to happen is for Trump to support the nominee of our party. I think Jeb Bush gives us the best chance to win a year from now in November.

CUOMO: He's getting whooped by Donald Trump. Look at the polls. I want you to make sense of them, senator, for us. You have, you know, Clinton/Bush, 50/44. Jeb Bush. Clinton with Trump, he takes the wind out of Jeb Bush's sales, down to 30 percent. Trump 20 percent, Clinton 46. He puts a dent in Clinton, but he is really taking it out of Bush. Isn't that a sign there's a significant part of the GOP faithful that says Trump is our man, an outsider, a renegade. He will fix it.

MARTINEZ: Well, sure, there's something on the other side as well when you look at Bernie Sanders. I think, after the financial crisis, after all we have been through as a country in the last decade, I think there's that feeling of wanting to throw out all the rascals. The fact of the matter is the polls are going to shift. People are going to look at the serious decision of electing the next president.

Whether it's a problem with ISIS, Iran, how to get our economy back to where people can aspire again to reach the American dream. I was able to do and others have done. For that aspirational hope, you need someone with a vision, someone that is going to inspire the country. That's why I think Donald Trump is not going to make it in the end.

CUOMO: I hear you. I get that's what you hope will happen. I have to tell you, it's not happening right now, senator. When you talk about inspiring, that has to be the narrative that you put to Donald Trump, for whatever people want to criticize the man for, your base is responding to this guy. That's what's driving the polls. You know, a little bit, you are making his case for him. You are saying seeing, they want me to go. They want it the same old way they have always done it. Is there a risk to ignoring the will of the people?

MARTINEZ: For sure. You have to respect people. I mean, I think you have to recognize that there is something out there that excites people. They want to see a change. They want to see something different. I think a lot of that frankly is frustration about, you know, seven years now of President Obama's leadership. I think there's a lot of frustration with the numbers of the party. They want to see a complete new day.

This quick rhetoric, when further examined will come to realize that Donald Trump has been all over the map. Most of those people will not support his pro-choice one day and pro-life the next. He's on both sides, depending on what the convenience is.

[07:10:00] So I wouldn't think that was a little more scrutiny, more time, and frankly, Chris, I don't know all these polls are as reliable as they should be. Is it a general audience, democrats, republicans independent? And so I think there's a little of all that in the polls and the audiences. At the end of the day, when people make the judgment about who they want to be the next president, I don't think they are selecting Donald Trump.

CUOMO: If you were the chairman of the RNC, what would you do? There is insider talk that the party wants to get rid of Trump and they are trying to figure out how. What can you do?

MARTINEZ: Well, first of all the Des Moines register got it right. They said he has to stop his campaign now. Divisive in name calling et cetera. They have a good point. I think I'd be saying, OK, everyone running for the nomination of our party ought to make a determination. We could have a third party candidacy including Donald Trump.

CUOMO: What if he says I won't do it?

MARTINEZ: Well, if he says he won't, he won't.

CUOMO: You can't get rid of Trump that way.

MARTINEZ: Well, no. I realize that. It's not about getting rid of Donald Trump. People will do that in time. It's allowing him to be Trump long enough to recognize he will not be the person that is going to win for us against Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: How worried are you about the first debate with Donald Trump out there going, you know, is hot on fire, you know, on everybody that he can. What do you think that can do to Jeb Bush?

MARTINEZ: Well, look, it's not just about Jeb Bush, it's the other nine that will be on the stage with him. The fact of the matter is, it's not going to be pretty. It could be ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump showed a different side to him. When you have the glare of the lights you have better judgment. It's going to be important not only for this debate, for people to be clear what their beliefs are, how to move the country forward and talk about the issues.

When I hear a clip of Donald Trump, it's calling names or saying something that might be funny to some. Demeaning a group of people. This is about bringing people together, how to get our party to be a majority party again. We are not going to do that with divisive language. I hope in that debate, all the candidates will look to the future, how they sell their ideas to the American people in a way that is going to get people to believe in them, that believe in our party and what we can do to turn our country around, economically, aspirational or standing up in the world to the thugs and dictators in the world.

CUOMO: Mel Martinez, former senator, former head of the RNC, thank you very much for your sober and optimistic outlook.

MARTINEZ: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Michaela.

PEREIRA: Another story, the Chattanooga gunman what killed five service members last week become radicalized. A question as investigators reveal the 24-year-old has an interest in a once prominent recruiter for Al Qaeda. His web searches are under scrutiny. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live in Chattanooga with the very latest for us this morning, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, investigators have uncovered new details about Abdulazeez and the signs really do seem to be increasingly pointing to a potential motive of terrorism. The FBI has found Internet searches on his Smartphone where he does research in the days before the shooting, questioning whether someone could use martyrdom to atone for their sins like drinking. In his writings also date back to 2013, investigators have also found references to Anwar, he is the American born Yemenis, declared Al Qaeda leader who had recent attacks on the "Charlie Hebdo" and the Boston marathon.

Investigators are focusing on this 42-78 hour window that led up to the shooting. They are putting together a time line, interviewing anyone that could have come into contact with him. All this comes as we are learning Abdulazeez's uncle has been detained. He's been questioned and held where he lives in Jordan by authorities. This does not say he is guilty or involved, but it adds another layer to this complex investigation.

CAMEROTA: OK. Sunlen, thanks so much for that background.

We do have some breaking news right now, a fire raging at a large warehouse in New Jersey. You can see how big it is there. This is building in North Brunswick. A parking lot full of cars. It's used by Toyota for repairs and storage. The blaze breaking out overnight creating major traffic problems, affecting service on local rail lines. No injuries reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

CUOMO: A handgun fired from a drone. It can be done. This morning, video to prove it. Take a look.

[07:15:00] But the footage shows why it's going viral online. It's the creation of an 18-year-old student in Connecticut. His dad said his son made it for a college class. No one was harmed, but authorities are investigating if laws were broken. It is raising an obvious question about the use of drones and what the potential is there. This is something we are going to talk about a lot. Take a look and think about it.

PEREIRA: There's always a way to use it.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. I don't like showing it. I know that's bad for journalists. I don't like planting the idea.

CUOMO: If we are showing it, it is already out there.

PEREIRA: All right, ahead, they recruit America's bravest each and every day. After five murders in Chattanooga, calls for recruiters nationwide. A smart strategy or big mistake? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: After the deadly attacks on two military facilities in Tennessee, congress moving quickly on legislation to protect recruiting centers. Two lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow recruiters to carry guns. Joining me now is the co-author of a bill, the republican senator from Montana, Steve Daines. Thank you for being here.

SEN. STEVE DAINES, R-MONTANA: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Why do you think this is the answer to allow more people at the recruitment centers to have guns.

[07:20:00] DAINES: Well, let's remember what happened last week in Chattanooga was not a random act of violence. They were targeted because they were in uniform for the military. We must ensure all we can to protect and defend the members of our service. Think about this they served in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were able to defend themselves over in Iraq and Afghanistan on foreign soil. Yet, on their home soil, they don't have all the resources necessary to defend themselves. We must do all we can to ensure our service members are safe.

CAMEROTA: Now, the reason they couldn't carry guns, up till now, your legislation that you are proposing, is from this directive, 5210 from the Department of Defense saying the D.O.D. policy was to limit and control the carrying of firearms by D.O.D. military and civilian personnel. Why was this in place to begin with? DAINES: Well, we have to remember, times have changed in this

country. Post 9/11, we are a nation that is in a battle with radical Islam. We have a Jihadist that took this action in Chattanooga. It's important to allow the members of the U.S. military to defend themselves. They have all the tools necessary to ensure they are secure and safe.

CAMEROTA: Senator, not everyone agrees with you, obviously. Not everyone thinks more guns at recruitment centers are the answer. One place is at the point of purchase. We know, from this gunman, that he is believed to have had mental health issues, yet he was able to buy three different weapons, one of them online, on the Internet. Do you believe there should be more legislation stopping the sale of guns online?

DAINES: Well, I don't believe those who are mentally ill or those who are criminals should be allowed to purchase a firearm. Let's remember, we need to ensure that the good guys out there can defend themselves. It's been said the fastest way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to give a good guy a gun. Let's make sure the good guys, the marines, the navy, the army, let's make sure they are able to defend and protect themselves so they are safe.

CAMEROTA: Sure. That's what your legislation does. Why not also propose legislation to stop the purchase from someone with a mental health history or via the Internet?

DAINES: I think we all agree, we do not want to have criminals, those who have broken the law and mentally ill to purchase firearms. We need to remember, ensure those who are protecting our country need to be kept safe and give them the options they need so moms and dads who have children serving until the military do not have to worry they can defend themselves from something that happened in Chattanooga.

CAMEROTA: There's a report out this morning, from "The Washington Post" that there was someone with a gun inside that recruitment center. There was a commanding officer with his own personal firearm. It is believed that he was able to shoot at the gunman until the autopsy, as we understand it is done or further investigation, they won't be able to tell whose bullet killed the gunman.

I think the point is, in the heat of the moment, it's sometimes hard, even for trained professionals to fire the right shot. So, that doesn't always stop someone in their tracks.

DAINES: Yes. What we are trying to do, though, is make sure our men and women who serve in the military have all the tools necessary to defend themselves. Remember, this was a gun-free zone. These are very, very soft targets. Somebody that premeditated an attack knows they are going to go into a gun-free zone. Let's ensure the men and women who serve in the military have the tools they need to protect and defend themselves. Let's keep our military safe.

CAMEROTA: Senator, on a very different note, we are asking the senators who come on today about presidential politics. How closely are you following the election and what are your thoughts on what's going on can Donald Trump and the other GOP contenders?

DAINES: I will tell you, I am not running for president of the United States. I think...

CAMEROTA: You're the only one.

DAINES: Right. Breaking news, I am not running. It's very interesting. We have a lot of great folks running for president. It's a very, very important election. Several of my peers in the U.S. senate are running as well. We are keeping a close eye on it. The voters are just starting to engage and watch what's going on. Getting a chance to see what the candidates stand for. It's part of the process in America.

CAMEROTA: When you say it will sort itself out, is that code for Donald Trump?

DAINES: I don't know what's going to happen with Mr. Trump. I know we have a lot of great candidates running. There's good, spirited debates. That's healthy in the process.

CAMEROTA: Senator Steve Daines, thank you for taking time for "New Day."

DAINES: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: What is your take on all the topics we discussed, including arming military servicemen and women. Tweet us using the #NewDayCNN or post your comments facebook.com/newday. I will read those soon. Let's go to Chris?

[07:25:00] CUOMO: My take is that, every time you make a republican talk about Trump, they are not happy right now. Donald Trump is in the top of the polls of the GOP. He wants the nomination. A few years ago, he said he identified with the democrats. Wait until you hear why. John King will explain this and more about Mr. Trump on Inside Politics. Time to take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Time to go inside politics on "New Day" with John King. John, we all know the name that is on all the GOP lips. I'm sure you heard Mel Martinez. They have no answer for him in the GOP.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, they don't. If you asked him about the weather in California this morning, he was going to say Donald Trump should promise to be a republican and support the republican nominee. We'll pick up with your conversation with Mel Martinez when we go with Inside Politics this morning.

The republican establishment, when Trump announced, said, passing fancy, some people called him a carnival barker, they said this won't last, this will flame out, he is a joke. Now, he is leading.