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CNN Poll: Americans Divided On Obama Legacy; Trump Announces Upcoming Spending Push; Pastor Survives Tornado Inside Church; Chicago Mayor Cuts Vacation Short After Police Shooting. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 29, 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: Breaking news, affluenza teen, Ethan Couch was nabbed in Mexico with his mother after weeks on the run. He is now expected to be turned over to the U.S. Marshal Service.

The mother and son vanishing earlier this month right after a video clip surfaced on social media appearing to show Couch at a party playing beer pong. He was two years into a ten-year probation sentence for killing four people in a 2013 drunk driving crash.

DON LEMON, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: It is a messy morning commute in the northeast. You're looking at live pictures now. This is I-95, just outside of Boston. That area is getting its first real taste of winter with snow and freezing rain.

And then there's also Chicago. Chicago O'Hare International Airport suffering as well. Lots of delays. There have been at least 43 weather-related deaths in the past week.

The storm system spawned tornadoes in Texas and record flooding in Missouri. Again, check with your carrier. There's lots of delays when it comes to the airport.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of delays and cancellations.

To Chicago now, the police officer charged with the murder of 17-year- old Laquan McDonald will be in court later this morning for his arraignment. Jason Van Dyke is expected to plead not guilty.

Meantime, the father of a 19-year-old shot and killed Saturday by Chicago police have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city. Mayor Rahm Emanuel cutting his vacation short to Cuba to deal with all of this. He's expected back in Chicago today.

PEREIRA: All right. New CNN polling out this morning, painting a clearer picture of how voters feel about government. It's not pretty -- Don.

LEMON: It is not.

PEREIRA: About three in four Americans say they're not satisfied with how the United States is being governed. What is the impact as the president's legacy starts to take shape? Here now is CNN political reporter, Sara Murray, good morning, and CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson. Ladies, good to have you here.

Let's start with sort of an umbrella conversation, Nia, about the public opinion of Obama's tenure and how he's governed the country. How is that actually going to influence the 2016 race?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I think it will be a really big factor come 2016 and when this race gets under way. I think you are going to have Republicans really run as the anti-Obama. You saw that, of course, in 2008 with Obama running as the anti-Bush and really resonating with voters.

I think you'll see the same thing on the Republican side. As for the Democratic side, a tough race, whoever emerges, it looks like Hillary Clinton is the favorite right now.

Whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee, they're going to have to walk a tight rope between on the one hand embracing Obama and therefore his coalition, but also in some ways trying to separate themselves.

Clinton, for instance, has said she would be Obama plus. What part of Obama she would be and what would the plus be, she's going to have to kind of figure that out if she emerges as a nominee.

LEMON: Yes, she'll have to make it not seem that she's not running for a third Obama term, correct? It's a delicate dance there.

Sara, let's talk about the Republicans now. You were at a Trump rally in New Hampshire just last night announcing his campaign is essentially entering a new stage where he's going to start spending more money. Do you think this will shake up the Republican side heading into the primaries now?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I think that's a great question. Donald Trump has been hinting at, maybe threatening his rivals saying that he will spend money. We know he's very rich. He has a lot of money to spend.

So far he's really held off on that. That's the kind of thing that could potentially make a difference. You kind of wonder if Trump's on TV all the time anyway, will buying more ads, spending money in that fashion work?

The place he could be spending money is on the ground in a ground game. We know he's now sharing a voter file with the RNC. In places like Iowa, New Hampshire, you see the wintry weather that's happening right now.

You need to convince voters to come out in Iowa, especially, stand around and caucus. That takes a lot of work on the ground. You really need to solidify that effort if you want to be sure that you're going to win.

LEMON: Is it about ad spending or about getting out and meeting people, caucusing on the ground?

MURRAY: I think that depends on who you ask. We've seen a lot of people spend a lot of money on ads so far. Jeb Bush is a great example of this. It really hasn't moved his numbers.

For someone like Donald Trump, you wonder, would traditional ads be that helpful? But there are other ways that you can target voters. You can do direct mail. That's one of those things where the voter files really help.

They give you a sense of what issue these particular households care about so that you can ensure that you talk to them about the one thing they care about and making sure that that drives them to the polling booth.

[07:35:04]PEREIRA: Trump in his usual style found some targets last night at that rally, taking aim at Chris Christie, taking aim at the "New Hampshire Union Ledger," Nia. The paper that's been in a bit tiff with him, equating Trump to biff from "Back To The Future." Listen from sound last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Put yourself in a common sense mode. You are with your cabinet, you're with them all the time. They're closing the biggest bridge in the United States, the most traveled on bridge, one of them in the world and most traveled on in the United States. You're doing that and you're not telling the governor. Does anybody believe that? Honestly -- no. Is there 1 percent chance?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: So really bringing up bridgegate again for Christie. How much do you think this will hurt him overall, Nia?

HENDERSON: You know, I mean, the thing about Chris Christie, he's running a very different campaign than Donald Trump. He's been on the ground there. He's very much in New Hampshire doing those traditional town halls and house parties and really resonating with voters there.

You see Donald Trump really making the move now to try to crush Chris Christie's momentum there. We'll see if it works. The thing about this attack, it's not new. Everyone, this is baked into the cake.

Whatever you know about Chris Christie, you know that there was this bridgegate episode that he seems to not have any knowledge of and hasn't been tied to directly. His aides, of course, have.

It's not probably the best attack. I think what we see from Donald Trump often is he'll do these trial balloon attacks and see if they work. So I think that's in some ways what he's doing there.

It's not quite clear to me yet if this will be the thing that he's going to be able to nail to Chris Christie and really impact him negatively. LEMON: The thing he's hoping that's going to stick when it comes to Hillary Clinton is, he wants to take away, as he said, the woman's card, right?

As Michaela said, is this really a card in the Clinton campaign responded, it says, "Though Donald Trump has pushed around nearly all of his fellow Republicans, Hillary Clinton won't be bullied or distracted by attacks he throws at her and former President Clinton, Donald Trump's words are demeaning and his policies just as destructive."

So do you think he'll continue to attack? Because last night you were at that rally, he didn't continue, Sara, with his attacks on Hillary Clinton or the former president.

MURRAY: Donald Trump has this interesting strategy, right, where he's so much more bombastic when he does call-in interviews, when he's on Twitter than when he is on the stump in front of voters.

He sort of puts these attacks out in the harshest possible way in interviews and then he walks it back when he's actually campaigning. It's unclear why he thinks it will play different in front of crowd of voters.

But I don't think that there's any sign that he is going to pull back from this. I think this is his way of sending a signal to the Clinton campaign, look, when you're running against Donald Trump, nothing is off the table.

If you are Hillary Clinton and her people, yes, there is baggage that comes along with Bill Clinton. There will be a number of voters who look at that and say why should Hillary Clinton be punished because her husband made mistakes?

PEREIRA: Sara Murray, Nia-Malika Henderson, always great to have you. Thank you so much.

Meanwhile at home, what is your take, give us a tweet @newday. Also on Facebook, facebook.com/newday.

ROMANS: Incredible video of what remains of a Garland, Texas church obliterated by a powerful EF4 tornado. We'll talk to the pastor of the church who was inside at time and survived. He'll join us live, next.

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[07:42:35]

PEREIRA: Communities across Texas are picking up the pieces in the wake of several deadly tornadoes that tore through that state. Each day we are learning more and more harrowing survival stories.

Look at this. This is what remains of the Ellis County Church destroyed by a powerful EF-4 tornado. Only the frame of the church is left standing. Inside that church, the pastor survived unscathed. He joins me now. Pastor Kevin Taylor of Harvest of Praise Ministry joins us now live.

I think there's a whole lot of people giving praise to their God above for the fact that you're sitting here with us this morning. How are you, first of all?

KEVIN TAYLOR, PASTOR, HARVEST OF PRAISE MINISTRY: I'm doing wonderful, as you said, I'm still giving God praise, thanking Him for bringing us out alive.

PEREIRA: I have to tell you looking at that aerial view, we are shocked that anyone was able to survive that. Is it something for you to look at it now, given what you went through?

TAYLOR: Yes. You know, when you ride around and you go back and look at it, I'm in awe of what God allowed me to through and come out of it. With the testimony to say that God is keeping us in the storm even when he allows to go through our storms.

PEREIRA: What a beautiful metaphor. Let us talk about what happened on Saturday. So you were with your wife, your wife was in the truck. You popped into the church for just a minute and literally that's when the storm hit?

TAYLOR: Yes. We had just made it in from vacation, got something to eat and someone needed something from the church. So I went there to retrieve those items for that particular person.

And in that quick minute, everything changed. She was sitting in the truck and when I went in and turned the alarm off, to turn around and hear a noise, I noticed that the doors of the church were imploding inward. I'm thinking this is not supposed to happen.

PEREIRA: No.

TAYLOR: I began to yell at her, stay in the truck. Stay in the truck. I was standing in front of the glass. My instincts kicked in, told me to get from in front of the glass. When I turned to run that's when everything just went dark.

PEREIRA: So you must have known -- you knew there was inclement weather, stuff going on in the atmosphere. You weren't concerned that it was something else. You were able to snap some of these pictures inside. Where did you end up finding shelter inside that church?

[07:45:01]TAYLOR: In the front foyer of the church I turned and ran and was trying to make it down a hallway that's on the north side of the building. I had a table down there, a pretty hefty table.

I wanted to make it to the table to shield myself. Something and hit me and knock me to the ground which I later discovered was debris. I didn't make it that far.

However, God is still good. I'm here to tell the story that God will keep you if you keep your mind on him. PEREIRA: Did you get battered and bruised? Are you a little beat up this morning?

TAYLOR: I walked out with not a scratch anywhere on me.

PEREIRA: My goodness.

TAYLOR: My wife had a few cuts.

PEREIRA: Let's talk about your wife because your wife was in the truck. You were able to shout to her to stay in the truck. That would have been frightening as well if the tornado is coming right at the church, she must have been worried about debris.

TAYLOR: She was because bricks were falling. The church walls itself was falling on top of the truck. The windshield of the truck were blowing out. The door came open and pushed backward to the front of the truck where she was. And all she could do was take shelter on the floor of the truck.

PEREIRA: My goodness.

TAYLOR: She got a few cuts on her hand, nothing major, just scratches. Both of us, I in particular, I didn't get anything out of it so I'm grateful.

PEREIRA: But then the two of you were in separate locations under debris. How did you get out and figure out that your wife was OK?

TAYLOR: Well, fortunately enough when it all stopped, I wasn't pinned in. I was just covered up.

PEREIRA: OK.

TAYLOR: So I stood up and began to get all the debris and dirt off of me and began to shout for her. For a moment, she didn't answer for about a minute or two.

PEREIRA: Your heart must have stopped.

TAYLOR: She came back and shouted -- yes, I thought the tornado has taken her. Finally, she shouted out, Kevin, I'm OK. That gave me time to get out of the panic mode I was about to go in.

PEREIRA: Nobody would have faulted you for that.

TAYLOR: Yes, right. You know, I stood up to see the damage. I really didn't even see the full extent of the damage that night because it was so dark. It wasn't until Sunday morning when we went back and met there for prayer, let the body of believers that look at what happened.

I was able to look at it and say, wow. And even yesterday, I drove around the backside a couple streets over and it hit me again the magnitude of the damage that had happened there and that we made it out alive. PEREIRA: We know you've got parishioners of about 200 people or so looking to find a place to have their service this weekend. I'm sure you'll find another gymnasium or facility. You are working that out right now.

Really quickly, though, you have a lot of people in your community that are grieving and really struggling with the fact they've lost lives of loved ones, lost property, homes, buildings, businesses. What's your message for them?

TAYLOR: My message will be right now that God will get us through this. We have a great mayor, Mayor Tate. We have a wonderful city council in Glenn Heights. They're working overnight trying to bring things back together.

But this is a lesson that we all Americans need to learn, never take it for granted. We've got to get back to God, get back to understanding what God wants from us. And God has his way of getting everybody's attention.

Somebody asked me, you know, is this a remark towards the church? No, this is a remark towards everybody that God is getting our attention.

PEREIRA: He certainly got our attention, so did you, sir. My goodness. We're glad to see you well. Please pass along our best to your wife and your church who are working to see if you can rebuild that church soon with the help of your insurance. We appreciate you joining us today on NEW DAY.

TAYLOR: Thank you so much.

PEREIRA: Don, over to you.

LEMON: Thank you. I think they'll be successful at that. Michaela, thank you very much.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cutting his vacation to Cuba short after the latest deadly police shooting in his city. Can he turn the tide and fix the embattled police department there? We're going to examine that, next.

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[07:52:38]

LEMON: Welcome back now. Lots to talk about here. The latest Chicago police shooting forcing the city's mayor to cut short a family vacation to Cuba. All eyes are on Rahm Emanuel to see how he handles his embattled police department and the growing calls for his resignation.

Here to discuss the Washington bureau chief for the "Chicago Sun Times," Lynn Sweet, and CNN political commentator, the op-ed columnist for the "New York Times," Mr. Charles Blow. Good morning both of you.

Lynn, I want to start with you. The Legrier families says the wrongful death suit that the officer shot their son, didn't provide any medical attention. What will this revelation do you think do to the city of Chicago?

LYNN SWEET, BUREAU CHIEF, "CHICAGO SUN TIMES": This is just part of a bigger story of why these shootings happen, Don, and the turmoil that the city is in now because of the lack of trust of police and just the crisis that Mayor Emanuel is facing when he comes from Cuba today if he gets in weather permitting.

LEMON: He is rushing back from Cuba. He's been there since mid- December. Is this too little too late? Are people viewing it as too little too late?

SWEET: Well, it is the worst crisis of his career when he left because of the Laquan McDonald shooting, that was the shooting that so many people may know of the 17-year-old who was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer charged with murder.

Then Rahm Emanuel goes to Cuba. These are these two killings we're talking about today, a 55-year-old grandmother, an innocent bystander and a 19-year-old college student.

So it comes back to a worsening crisis if you can imagine it. The city hall is expected to maybe announce some more measures today to try and deal with police behavior and use of force.

But a lot of this comes -- I don't know you ask is it too little too late? I know it is late. I don't know if it's too little but they are probably --

LEMON: It is late. Before I get to Charles, I want to ask you. You have some inside details on the Cuba trip? What can you tell us?

SWEET: Cuba, we're steel dealing with a new era of tourism with Cuba since the thaw a year ago between the U.S. and Cuba. When Rahm went there, city hall was pretty secretive about the trip including the length of it.

But when the shootings happened Rahm Emanuel tried to get back. There are no regular scheduled airline service as if you can just fly from Miami to Chicago or Washington or New York so he was in effect stranded there, delayed there. He couldn't come back immediately.

[07:55:05]LEMON: I want to turn to you now. This comes as we've been talking about the deaths of black people for a year, two years now on CNN. It's been happening a lot longer than this, but now we're providing more context.

What does this mean to that picture now? What happened in Chicago? What the mayor is dealing with? What the families are dealing with?

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. Like Lynn said it is part of a bigger picture, right? In terms of what the families and what the people, what citizens are dealing with particularly in northern and western urban centers the places to which black people migrated during the first and second waves of the great migration. You saw in the beginning people kind of looked at the south and said this is horrible the way that they are treating in the south, but they didn't have that many black people to deal with themselves so they could have a kind of holier than -- kind of attitude about it.

When people started to show up in their neighborhoods they had to put their money where their mouth was and they did not respond in a way that was really effective and in fact they started to use police forces in much the same way that people in the south had used them.

Which was to control and confine these new arriving black populations and that legacy, decades, old legacy is what is showing up on video. It is just that we didn't have video of it before.

LEMON: Yes. See this is very personal to you. You spent the one year anniversary with Tamir's mom. You stood at the place he was shot. Why is it so personal to you?

BLOW: Because I can't understand and I can't make sense of it, and I have black children, right. You know, even if you believe, if you accept the person calls 911 and says I believe it is a kid and I believe that the gun is not fake, and doesn't say to the kid, just put that down, son.

Even if you accept that the officers would race to that scene across a park filled with children, putting themselves in danger, putting the rest of those children in danger up to the person who they believe has the gun.

Even if you accept that they believe they are about to be shot and shoot him, help me to understand what would make you not render aid to that child once you realize that it is a child?

When his sister runs out of that recreation center and she is screaming you shot my little brother and you still don't supply aid to that child when his older brother shows up, yelling and screaming that you shot his little brother, and you still -- you tackle the sister, put her in the back of the police car.

You threaten to arrest the brother. When the mother shows up a minute later. You threaten to arrest her and no one supplies aid to that child. And I'm putting myself in the body of the child. What do you mean? You shot me. I don't know why you shot me.

And now you won't let the people who love me comfort me. And the only person who came to that child's aid was an FBI agent who had medical training who was on the scene, and he showed up.

And even when they showed up and the mother showed up about the same time as the EMS, they still would not let her comfort that child. She made her ride in the front seat of that ambulance. She did not see that child until early in the morning. He died a few hours of that.

LEMON: The issue with this -- obviously there is an issue with race. But the overriding issue I think it is training among police officers.

BLOW: It is not only that.

LEMON: It is not. No, but the overriding issue is that because how to deal with people of color, how to deal with children, how to deal with someone supplying aid to the medical attention, how to deal with people who may have mental issues at this the case in Chicago.

BLOW: There is training, but there is also just a culture that exists. The system is basically working the way it was invented to work and the way it's been tweaked to work, right.

If you do not have enough empathy after that child is shot to give aid to him, what makes me believe you had any empathy with humanity when you showed up on the scene?

Are you trying to telling me that you are filled with empathy with humanity when you showed up and shot him and it drained out of your toe nails the moment after he was shot and on the ground, and you refused to supply him any aid until the EMS showed up? That is unbelievable. It is strange credulity.

LEMON: Yes, I can that you're very passionate about this. We thank you for coming in and giving a voice to the family as well because you are close to the family. And Lynn Sweet, thank you so much for coming in this morning as well.

Both of these stories are resonating in Ohio and in Illinois as well and around the country. Thanks to both of you. We're following a lot of news. Let's get to it right here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The so-called affluenza teen and his mother are now in custody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were found near the popular resort town of Puerto Vallarta.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a mother that needs to be held accountable for her actions as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's almost December 30th and this is the first snow fall they are seeing in the north east.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up to a foot of snow in the forecast for part of New England.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it can't get any worse from last year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was awful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two suspected terrorists in --