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New Day
Trump Doesn't Correct Man Who Calls Obama A Muslim; Why Didn't Police Evacuate School If Clock A "Threat?"; Last-Minute Drama In Kansas City; Comedians Take Digs At GOP Candidates. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired September 18, 2015 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton firing back against her Republican critics in an exclusive sit-down interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer calling their debate Wednesday night silly season, warning her rivals not to shut down the federal government over Planned Parenthood funding.
She also expressed confidence in her campaign strategy despite the fact that her numbers seemed to be plummeting in New Hampshire and Iowa.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A Minnesota man admits to being part of a plan to join ISIS. The 20-year-old is the third man in the plot to plead guilty. He said he wanted to join the terrorists in Syria to help his fellow Muslims. The suspect was busted at New York's JFK Airport last November. He faces now up to 15 years in prison.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A friend of the confessed Charleston church shooter is expected to be arraigned today. Joey Meek was arrested by the FBI Thursday. Officials said he let Roof stay with him for weeks leading up to the massacre in June. Meek is under investigation for making false statements to federal officials and allegedly concealing knowledge of the crime.
PEREIRA: It is said that dog is man's bestfriend. Two dogs missing for a week finally found, one of the dogs kept vigil over the other. That's Tilly the setter, stuck by the side of her basset hound friend, Phoebe, who was trapped in a cistern.
Someone finally noticed the dog was in the area and kept returning to this ravine. They followed Tilly and they led them right to Phoebe -- looking so sad.
CUOMO: You wouldn't hear that about cats. I love dogs. I wonder if Phoebe says, how in Rapunzel action, dropped tail down and let me get up.
PEREIRA: Back to the news.
CUOMO: Do you think the basset hound was saying help me out instead of looking at me.
CAMEROTA: We'll move on to show you what happened last night with Donald Trump. He was at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire and one of the audience members asked a disturbing question about Muslims. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslim. We know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need his birth certificate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question, when can we get rid of them?
TRUMP: We'll be looking at a lot of different things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about this, joining us to discuss is former George W. Bush political director and chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp and former spokesperson for President Bush's Spanish language media and co-founder of Cove Strategies, Mercedes Viana Schlapp. Great to see both of you.
Let's talk about this, Mercedes, what happened last night. I mean, how should Donald Trump have responded to that?
MERCEDES VIANA SCHLAPP, CO-FOUNDER, COVE STRATEGIES: Let me tell you there are two lessons in politics. One is words matter and listen carefully to the question especially since it was the first question out of the session there, out of the town hall.
So I think for Donald Trump, it was really just a mistake that, first of all, if he did, let's say, he did come out with a statement saying they only heard the part of the training camp. Just come out and say it, the fact that it was unclear.
What I heard in the question was very clear what he said, basically getting rid of all Muslims. I think it was really Donald Trump's opportunity to come out a little more stronger instead of making it a thing where the media is making it into an issue.
CAMEROTA: Matt, by the way, he did try his campaign tried to clarify. Even the response is muddled. They say here, all he heard was a question about training camps, which he said we have to look into. The media want to make this an issue about Obama. It's about him waging a war on Christianity?
MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know, it's an unplugged campaign with Donald Trump. And the first question right out of the bat, you could tell Trump it was the first time on the campaign where you could tell he was a little bit uncomfortable.
It was a strange time for him to get polite and docile. Usually he's very forceful with folks. This was an opportunity where he's not running for anything other than to be the leader of the free world and the whole world is watching.
When someone says we have a Muslim problem, it's important for a candidate to say we don't have a Muslim problem. We have a problem with radicalized terrorists, which is a huge problem. But you know, there is a distinction and it needs to be drawn.
CUOMO: We go to the benefit of his defense that he says he didn't hear it. The campaign put out a statement, making an awkward pin on the attack on Christians, which I don't exactly understand. That's their tactic.
[07:35:06] But context matters here. In 2011, Donald Trump injected himself in the political dialogue questioning whether the president was a citizen. Questioning where he was from.
MATT SCHLAPP: Right.
CUOMO: There's a poll that we have out here now that of just Republicans. Over 40 percent of those polled think that the president is a Muslim. Donald Trump was part of tending that fire that burned in that area of misdirection. The president has been clear about it. Citizenship is a nonissue. Is this a little bit of reaping what you have sewn, Mr. Schlapp?
MATT SCHLAPP: Yes. Well, you know, Chris, I do think he looked uncomfortable. He clearly looked to the back of the room. Whether he was looking to his staff saying, like we knew this question. Yes, what is he going to say about that? He was the one raising questions about where the president was born.
It was hard for him to go there. The one thing I will say, Chris, about your question, he did get right back on message. We have a massive problem overseas with this persecution of Christians and of Jews, of people being burned alive, being drowned, stuff like that.
(CROSSTALK)
MATT SCHLAPP: I agree. It's something we can all agree on.
CAMEROTA: Mercedes, do you think that given his debate performance in everything that happened during the debate and now this, are we seeing a turning point in this Republican campaign?
MERCEDES VIANA SCHLAPP: Well, I think that the Trump momentum may have -- at least it's put on pause for now. I don't see his numbers necessarily going up. I think those that are the loyal Trump supporters who really connect with him, especially on the issue of immigration, I think they'll stick with him.
I don't see those numbers necessarily going up at all. When you were able to silence Donald Trump in a debate for 37 minutes, that's a long time, and again, he's going to get back into his game.
He'll be calling into the show before you know it. He will still be out there from a media standpoint, spinning his message, saying what he's thinking but at the same time, I think from the grass roots perspective, I don't feel that the Republican Party is going to just go and back Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Look, there's no question that the debate -- this isn't some CNN plug. The debate changed the race. Carly Fiorina --
MATT SCHLAPP: That's right.
CUOMO: She's up now. She's getting buzz and just as we spoke on the show after the debate and before, the level of play in that debate was high. People brought a lot of ammunition.
MERCEDES VIANA SCHLAPP: That's right.
CUOMO: They have plans. They have contrast in culture of republicanism, about who they want to be as a party and how they see situations around the world that I think was shell shocking for Donald Trump.
That he was not expecting so many to come with so much at once. This is his moment. Can he change as a candidate? Can he grow? That will be the test of his numbers going up or down.
MATT SCHLAPP: You know, Chris, I don't know if you agree, but the audacity of Hillary Clinton to go in and say that the Republican debate was somehow kind of silly little exercise. These debates are incredibly important.
I think CNN did a fantastic job and so did your moderators and I have a chance to tell Dana about yesterday. They did a great job. This is democracy. It is disgusting I think for the other party, the other major party to not be having debates.
Hillary Clinton is hiding behind some shroud. By the way, she's doing herself a disservice and she's doing the country a disservice.
CAMEROTA: Good news. There's a Democratic debate come up and we will be covering it in just a couple of weeks, October 12 --
CUOMO: The 13th.
CAMEROTA: October 13th.
MATT SCHLAPP: I'm dubious.
CAMEROTA: All right, you're on the record. We'll see if you stand corrected. You're on the record.
PEREIRA: Did you say you're heading out early to Vegas and stay later.
CUOMO: Got to prepare. Got to prepare.
PEREIRA: This is a story that's been dominating social media headlines. Remember that Texas teenager arrested after he brought a homemade clock to school. That teen is getting a whole lot of support. There are some that believe the police did the right thing. We'll speak with the local police chief, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:47:48]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMED MOHAMED, STUDENT ARRESTED FOR CLOCK: Thank you to all my supporters on Twitter, Facebook, all social media. Thank you for helping me. I wouldn't have got this far if not for you guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: That was 14-year-old Ahmed Mohammed thanking supporters for standing by him after police mistook his home made clock for a bomb and arrested him. His father now says that his son is not going to return to his high school because of this ordeal.
Did police overreact or do they do the right thing? Joining us now is Irving, Texas Police Chief Larry Boyd. Chief, thank you so much for joining us.
I think so many of us want to understand a little bit more about what happened here and I think you're the best person to answer this. First of all, we understand your department received a call from the school saying there was a bomb threat.
Once on site they were able to determine that this device was not a bomb yet -- yet he was still arrested and handcuffed. Why?
LARRY BOYD, IRVING, TEXAS POLICE CHIEF: Right. Fairly quickly, the officers that responded to this call, school resource officers were already at the school, assigned to that school, determined that it wasn't a bomb. So what they were investigating was whether or not he brought a device to school with the intention of creating alarm.
So that is against the law to put a device together, a hoax bomb, if you will, to cause people to be frightened or scared or call law enforcement. That's what they were investigating.
PEREIRA: But he brought it to, what I understand, is his engineering teacher to show him, because this kid is known as a tinker, creator, inventor, he fixes phones and different devices around the home and at school. He was showing it to the engineering teacher who said, that's cool but don't show anybody. The only reason he was found out because it dinged in class. It doesn't seem to me that alarm was his intent.
BOYD: Right. You know, I talked about this in the press conference. There are factors and details to this, for whatever reason weren't shared at the time the officers were there initially. As we pursued this investigation further, we didn't file any charges on him.
We dropped those charges because we were able to find out those facts that you were talking about, that he did talk to people earlier and he presented it as you just described.
[07:45:04] Those were the kinds of things, once we were able to get all that information that allowed to us get to the point where we could settle the matter.
PEREIRA: But forever we'll see this image of this 14-year-old, really, really bright kid in handcuffs. That causes a lot of consternation, sir. You can understand.
BOYD: Sure.
PEREIRA: He was interrogated for an hour and a half without his parents, without any sort of representative. Is that procedure?
BOYD: So there are a lot of things that are out there. Of course, I have children. I have a grandchild. I wouldn't want those images out there. We certainly, the police department, did not put those images of him out in social media. It's been said that he was interrogated. I know that word is used a lot. They did have to talk to him.
PEREIRA: But why not call his parents?
BOYD: It did not last for an hour and a half. When they initially got there it was a combined effort between the principal talking to him or the vice principal and the officers. They were initially trying to figure out what's going on here.
PEREIRA: Fair.
BOYD: And then I certainly understand. I get it, as a parent, I get the fact that I would want to be there and I understand that.
PEREIRA: Yes, I mean, parents get called for much lesser offenses. You and I both know, probably having caused our parents to come to our schools at some point during the course of our childhood. Here's the question.
Now, you've seen the result. We've seen MIT reach out this this boy, NASA scientists, Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, The White House even. There are those that believe that you and your department, your mayor, for example, has supported how you handled this. I want to ask you, do you regret how this all went down?
BOYD: So you described a lot of things that have occurred since then. I have received a lot of feedback as you might imagine, not all of which I can share on your show. One thing is clear to me, regardless of what we did, no matter what decision was made, there would have been people who agreed with it and people who disagreed with it.
PEREIRA: That's true.
BOYD: The officers made the best decision they thought they could make at that time based on the information they had. Of course, we will review this. Of course we want to go back and look at this and all the decision points and all the alternatives and make sure we give the officers the best guidance we possibly can. This won't be the last controversial decision they have to make. There are two objectives.
PEREIRA: Really quickly, sir.
BOYD: The first objective is the safety of the school and the second is how do we best deal with this student at this time? We want to make sure we have that taken care of and did that in the best way you can.
PEREIRA: Now I understand that you have to look at process and procedures. But we hope this won't scar a 14-year-old kid for life. Chief, thanks so much for joining us and talking about this.
We know this is one that's getting your attention at home, folks. You can tweet about it using #newdaycnn or jump on to Facebook and share your thoughts there -- Chris.
CUOMO: All right, Mich, thank you very much, important conversation.
You're welcome, Fallon, Colbert and Conan. CNN's three-hour debate gave the late-night hosts plenty of material. We have the best punch lines coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:52:29]
CUOMO: Were you watching? No? Lucky for you, we're telling you about the thrill of last night in Kansas City, Peyton Manning and the Broncos taking on the Chiefs. Coy Wire has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report."
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: The question all week has been what's wrong with Peyton Manning. He'd only thrown one touchdown pass in his three previous games combined. He hasn't looked sharp since mid-season last year.
But before we get to Manning, Chief safety, Eric Berry's first regular season home game since overcoming his battle with lymphoma. What a comeback.
Speaking of comeback, under a minute left, Manning hits Sanders over the middle, game tying touchdown. Peyton finishes with three touchdowns, 30 seconds left. And Jamaal Charles fumbles. He fumbled twice last year. He fumbled twice in in game.
Now a little feel good for your Friday, former president and first lady, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. Check it out at the Blue Jays game last night. It's so good to see them at the game looking great. And great to see President Carter not letting his battle with cancer keep his spirits down. At 90 he's still got it.
CAMEROTA: Meanwhile the Republican debate provided some good old material for late night's host, from Jeb's admission to smoking weed to comparing the Donald to a circus peanut. In case you were sleeping, here is what you've missed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's what everyone is talking about the Republican debate on CNN. Jeb Bush admitted to smoking marijuana 40 years ago. Meanwhile Ben Carson admitted to smoking 40 minutes before the debate.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I never attacked him on his looks and believe me there is plenty of subject matter right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good dig by a man who looks like a microwave circus peanut.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rand Paul said if elected his Secret Service code name would be justice never sleeps. Not to be confused with Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is code name is justice sleeps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some pretty nasty moments between the candidates during last night's debate, Jeb Bush wanted Donald Trump to apologize to his wife but Trump refused. Trump said if I apologized to wives I wouldn't be on my third one. OK?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[07:55:11] CAMEROTA: They're all pretty great.
PEREIRA: I can't pick a winner.
CAMEROTA: I can't either. There is a lot of material. We knew that going in.
CUOMO: Microwaved circus peanut, not any peanut.
PEREIRA: There will be more laughs ahead I'm sure.
And Donald Trump is taking some heat for not correcting a man who said President Obama is Muslim. Why didn't he correct him? We're going to discuss it ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Problem in the country. It's called Muslim --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Trumpism.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not give my foreign policy based on watching the shows.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is just a silly season.
CAMEROTA: Another government shutdown looming in Washington.
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Its heart beating. It's legs kicking.
CLINTON: Planned Parenthood has served to provide healthcare, necessary healthcare for millions of women.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a case of considerable interests to our country.
CAMEROTA: A military hearing for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl resuming this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of our main concerns has been transparency.
