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Trump Steps Up Attacks On Bill Clinton; Pro-Bush Super PAC Attacks Rubio In Ad; George Pataki Ends Presidential Bid; Why Did "Affluenza" Mom Help Her Son Flee?; Pastor Remembers Grandmother Killed By Police. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 30, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: The historic flooding leaving communities under water, forcing evacuations in Missouri this morning. The governor activating the National Guard and declaring a state of emergency.

These devastating floods have already claimed more than a dozen lives. The Mississippi River is expected to crest at its highest level tomorrow, surpassing the great flood of 1993. More than 18 million people under flood warnings in 13 states. Another round of heavy rain will keep the threat alive for several days.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: At least 26 people have been killed and 45 others wounded in a suicide bombing in Pakistan. That blast happened in the town of Mardon. The bomber reportedly blew himself up on a motorbike.

Faction of the Pakistani-Taliban has claimed responsibility. This attack is one of the deadliest since last December's massacre of 150 students and teachers in Peshmar.

ROMANS: A Christmas miracle in China, five days after a mine collapsed in Eastern China, rescuers have now made contact with eight trapped miners. They are still alive, 720 feet below the surface.

Now rescuers drilling a relief hole in order to deliver food and provisions. At least one person has died. Nine others missing, 11 made it out alive. The mine collapse was so violent it registered as a seismic event.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: All right, forget about screaming for ice cream, this baby that you're about to meet is going bonkers for bacon. Take a look at little Easton, reacting to his very first taste of the crispy, greasy goodness.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It's genetic, folks. It is simply an imperative. Bacon is a moral imperative.

ROMANS: He's going to chase that high for the rest of his life.

PEREIRA: So says the bacon addict Christine Romans. I hear that screams of joy from her having a little bacon in the morning.

ROMANS: I'm trying to cut back. Berman, I can never really get Berman to do --

BERMAN: It's 4:00 in the morning when you're ordering it.

PEREIRA: Which is the perfect time for bacon.

BERMAN: It is safe to say that any war between Donald Trump and Bill Clinton is officially gone. This morning Donald Trump once again brought up the former president's affair on the campaign trail last night or his past discretions.

So far, the Clintons showing no evidence that the Republican frontrunner is getting under their skin. Why does Donald Trump continue to push the issue?

Here to discuss this morning, Tea Party activist, Trump supporter, and chief political correspondent for USA Radio Network, Scottie Nell Hughes, and former George W. Bush political director and chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp.

Matt, let me ask you because to a certain extent you've been running campaigns again the Clintons for a lot of years. Is there fertile ground for Donald Trump when he brings this up?

MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I actually think it's a strange case where it helps both candidates. It helps Donald Trump to be taking on Hillary Clinton. It's no surprise that Republicans don't like Hillary Clinton. They really don't like Bill Clinton because he did such an effective job of beating them two times.

It also helps Hillary Clinton within the Democratic contest because anybody on the Democratic side who's being vilified by Donald Trump is just going to do even better with those voters. It's an interesting case where it helps both.

BERMAN: Scottie, you know, it is interesting because Donald Trump, among other things last night said his own personal life is fair game now also. You were on the ground. You've been on the ground in the states where there are voters that have different interests say Iowa where the strong Evangelical voting base. I don't know how much they know about Donald Trump's past.

[07:35:02]SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TEA PARTY ACTIVIST: Well, that's the thing. Everybody knows it. It just take a quick Google search and you'll find out as Donald Trump's life has been in the public eye for the last 20 years.

But there is a major difference between Bill Clinton and Donald Trump's personal relationships. Bill Clinton did it while he was on the taxpayer dollar. He did it in the governor's office. It happened in the White House.

You know, Donald Trump did it in his own private time as he was in a private corporation. That is a big difference and I think that is what separates it.

BERMAN: What is interesting is even as you describe that there and even if you agree with your depiction, it's not Hillary Clinton. It's bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton is the one running for president, right, Scottie?

HUGHES: Absolutely. That's the one thing people are not talking about, the idea she always stood by her man which in some cases is honorable, but she never took up for the repeated cases, the women that were underneath Bill Clinton as governor and president that were basically a version of assaulted or involved in these relationships.

She never showed ANY sympathy for them. In fact, she came out and attacked those women instead of maybe standing up for them and having sympathy for what they went through, being accosted by her husband.

BERMAN: This is where it gets dicey, Matt, isn't it? This is where it gets complicated I think for political strategist because you're talking about a marriage, the marriage between Bill and Hillary Clinton, which a lot of people think what happens inside a marriage should stay inside a marriage and shouldn't be political. This is where Hillary Clinton has been able to engender some sympathy over time, Matt.

SCHLAPP: Hillary Clinton is given a wide berth here by people. She loves her husband, but clearly her husband has done some things that are just horrible. We'll hear all about it.

Let me tell you one thing, Donald Trump has proven in politics that he will go places and talk about things in a very clear manner that other politicians tend to shy away.

The rules of politics tell you, boy, avoid certain areas because you could get stuck. Donald Trump goes there. He's going to go there with Bill Clinton.

He seems to get away with it because people appreciate his candor. Let me tell you, if you start talking about Bill Clinton and his moral decisions and his life, there's a lot of material.

BERMAN: As you say, it may help Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary at the same time it helps Donald Trump.

SCHLAPP: That's right.

BERMAN: Let's stay on the Republican race for a second, Scottie, because there's something else interesting happening just now, which is a new ad from Jeb Bush's "Right To Rise" super PAC directly targeting Marco Rubio talking about his voting record in the Senate. Let's listen quickly.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You get the idea. It goes on like this for a little bit, Scottie. Chris Christie also in the campaign trail going after Marco Rubio in his voting record. It's interesting I imagine from where you're sitting right now, Scottie.

You're a Donald Trump supporter. You tend to support people outside the establishment here. You're seeing now a lot of the establishment candidates go after each other.

HUGHES: Exactly. It's fun to watch, but this is basically, what you're seeing is the division between Chris Christie and Marco Rubio and where Jeb will put his power house of money because that's all he's got behind.

If you look at this ad, here's one interesting part of it, is that yes, it could be damaging to Senator Rubio's campaign. However, I find it funny that they left out the two things that conservatives are most upset about with Senator Rubio, which is the absentee on the Iran vote as well as the Omni bus from last week.

The Jeb Bush campaign doesn't even mention this within the ad, which just shows how off-target they've been and why Jeb went from being the frontrunner to the absolute bottom, if they can't even get this ad right.

BERMAN: Matt, you know, any potential to bruise Marco Rubio here?

SCHLAPP: I have to say I agree with Scottie on this. It's not about missing votes. There are thousands of votes. It's about being absent when something that's critical to the country's future is taking place on the floor of the Senate.

When you're a senator or a congressman and you're not there for that vote, you're allowing your adversaries and opponents to characterize what you would have done and what your priorities are.

When you have Ted Cruz voting for something and Marco Rubio absent for that very same vote, it creates a political problem for Marco Rubio. It's not deadly. He's can explain it, but he's going to have to explain it.

BERMAN: Look, no candidate wants to have a million dollars up against him in the weeks leading up to Iowa. That's definitely happening right now. Quickly, I want both your takes on something that happened overnight. George Pataki suspended his campaign. He is dropping out of the race.

A lot of people are going, so what, George Pataki, he was an asterisk in the polls. But he was a three-term governor of New York, Matt. It's significant that a three-term governor of a Democratic state can't register at all in a Republican primary.

SCHLAPP: It tells you two things about what's going on with the Republican electorate. If you put three terms in front of any candidate, they are probably not going to be popular this year or next year.

If you talk about somebody who governed in a purple state or, in this case, a blue state, they might be out of tone with where the Republican electorate is. [07:40:03]The Republican electorate is ready to nominate somebody who will stand very boldly and very proudly for conservative principles, which is why you see such an upheaval on how this process going.

BERMAN: Scottie, a parting message for George Pataki?

HUGHES: I know a lot of candidates right now are running, trying to figure out how they'll get the 84 votes that he left behind.

SCHLAPP: No, it's 79 votes, I think.

BERMAN: All right, guys --

HUGHES: It's 79. OK. I'm a little bit less conservative.

BERMAN: I think anyone who gets in the presidential race and run deserves some respect. George Pataki, we appreciate your effort in this race. Scottie Nell Hughes, Matt Schlapp, great to have you with us. Good morning. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, she helps her son become a fugitive. Now the mother of the so-called affluenza teen could face a decade behind bars. What drove her to do it? A psychiatrist will help us dig deeper, next.

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ROMANS: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Ethan Couch and his mother, Tanya, expected to return to the U.S. today, within hours. They were captured in Mexico on Monday after nearly three weeks on the run.

The teen's mother, she now faces significant jail time for helping her son flee the country. What motivated her to help her child evade police?

[07:45:09]I want to bring in Dr. Jodi Gold. She is a psychiatrist and author of "Screen Smart Parenting." Jodi, this case, and its twists and turns for parents and for people who believe in raising children with accountability, it's just sort of mind boggling.

Everyone loves their child unconditionally, but what is this? What is in the mindset of this mother?

DR. JODI GOLD, PSYCHIATRIST: This is an example of absolutely terrible parenting. This mother was completely amesh with her child. I don't think it started now. I think it started when he was much younger, but she seemed to not have any sense of where she started, where she ended and he started.

It seems to be that she was dependent on him and she also adultified him. It sounds like from a young child. She called him her protector. She treated him like an adult.

And obviously this led to incredibly poor parenting and she used very poor judgment. It's almost hard to imagine the kind of judgment she used in encouraging him to flee. ROMANS: Sometimes when people have a newborn baby, for example, there's almost this oneness of the mother and the baby. In this case it is almost as if she and this kid are one identity.

GOLD: Absolutely. So it's very normal when you have a baby that there's a oneness, it's very natural. With each year as your child gets older, your child develops his own sense of self and there's more measured independence until the mother has her own sense of self and the child has his own sense of self.

But in this case, it seems like she is almost lost within him. I know that he was about 9 when she got divorced for the first time and it seems, which is often the case, he may have taken on the role of almost being her partner instead of her son.

ROMANS: In this deposition after he killed these four people and terribly wounded two others in one of the depositions, the mother said on video she was asked when was the last time you reprimanded your child or told the child no?

She could not remember a time that she had reprimanded or put any kind of restrictions on the child. And in fact, the sheriff remarkably says talking about how this mother even sort of threw a going away party for the two of them before they went to Mexico. Listen to what the sheriff said.

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DEE ANDERSON, TARRANT COUNTY SHERIFF: What we suspected all along had happened, that they planned to disappear. That they even had something that was almost akin to a going away party before they left town.

Our suspicion that his mother was assisting him and helping him has proven true, we believe. We followed those leads and eventually led to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they were taken into custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Healthy parenting revolves around accountability and teaching lessons. I'm not seeing that here.

GOLD: No, not at all. This is an extreme example of parenting for entitlement. If you look at this child's history, this child from a young age could do sort of no wrong.

The parents -- when you're parenting a wealthy child, as in in child, it's really important that there's consequences for actions that you teach good citizenship and that was never the case.

The message that they sent to this child was that you're above the law, you're unique. My understanding is when he was 13 he drove to school. He was allowed to drive.

When the school confronted the family about it, they pulled him out of the school. They felt that he didn't -- he could live on his own. There was no consequences for his actions and it's not an excuse at all. I want to clear about that.

ROMANS: Right.

GOLD: But certainly this child grew up in a family where there were no consequences. You see what happens. It's the responsibility of parents for there to be consequences for actions to teach empathy, to teach how to give back.

This did not happen in this case clearly, to the point even where he broke the law, the mother was involved with helping him sort of flee the law, which is, you know, hard to imagine.

ROMANS: So much has been made of this affluenza term. Even the psychiatrist who testified in court using the word affluenza, he later told us that he regretted using that term.

In the old days those were called spoiled rotten brats. Affluenza wasn't the catch phrase, he regretted using it, but even people who have money and people don't have money raise spoiled rotten brats.

What happens now? What happens now to her? Do you think there can be a change in behavior for this mother and child and their relationship with each other?

GOLD: That's hard to say at this point. What I do think is it sends a message to people watching this, how important there it is for there to be consequences and to think about the idea of raising spoiled wealthy brats.

I'm not sure what's going to happen. I don't think that she's responsible for his actions. She's certainly responsible for being -- her and the father are responsible for being poor parents.

It is something to think about. We are such an affluent country and there is such a discussion about parenting. It is really important to think about how to raise thoughtful, kind, empathetic kids and it is not always so easy.

[07:50:03]ROMANS: I used to say helicopter parenting and then there was fighter jet parenting where parents are managing everything and now everyone is their best friend. It is interesting to really take a look at that in our society.

Dr. Jodi Gold, thank you so much. It's really interesting analysis. Nice to see you. What's your take? Tweet us @newday or post your comment on facebook.com/newday -- John.

BERMAN: All right, thanks. Anger growing in Chicago after a grandmother was accidentally gunned down by police. Now calls growing louder for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. Up next we're going to speak to a pastor who knew the grandmother killed, Bettie Jones. What does he think should happen? That's next.

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BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Outrage growing stronger in Chicago over a series of deadly police shootings. The latest, a weekend shooting that left a teenager and 55-year-old grandmother, Bettie Jones, dead. She was accidentally shot at the scene of a domestic dispute.

Joining me now from Chicago is Reverend Marshall Hatch, the pastor of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church that Bettie Jones attended.

Pastor, thanks so much for being with us under these circumstances. Bettie Jones, 55 years old, a grandmother, just tell me about her.

REVEREND MARSHALL HATCH, CO-CHAIR, THE LEADERS NETWORK: Well, she of course must be seen in context of her family. A very strong family and like all families, they, you know, have been sharing their faith with each other. She has family members that attended our church.

She's attended our church and tragically they just had had a profound discussion on Christmas, she and her oldest daughter, on how they were going to come to church and renew their faith just would have been this past Sunday and tragically that Sunday never came for her.

[07:55:12]But I think most of her family members feel good about the fact she was in a good spiritual place. But of course we feel very bad about what happened to Bettie Jones who was simply being a good neighbor.

She really was going to the door to let the police in because her neighbor lived on a second floor was having problems with his son and called down and asked her to let the police in because the bell was not working and tragically she becomes the victim of a police shooting.

BERMAN: Obviously this happens in the context of so much concern, so much anxiety, so much anger over what's been happening in Chicago between the community and between the police. So in that context, what was your reaction when you heard that Bettie Jones had been killed?

HATCH: To tell you the truth, I was mystified, John, because having had all of the scrutiny on the Chicago Police Department, we have the Department of Justice in town.

I could not understand how the police could have apparently behaved so recklessly that an innocent person would lose their lives simply trying to aid the police.

I think it points to the deep problem that we have on how police behave in certain communities. You know, we -- to have an innocent person in a line of fire given what we know about the Laquan McDonald case and other cases.

Where people really feel that their excessive force was used unnecessarily, to have this happen in the middle of all of that, I was really incredulous to tell you the truth.

BERMAN: Let's bring people up to speed on exactly what happened here. A case they hadn't heard, the teenager, the kid who was killed was Quintonio Legrier.

It was his father who called 911 because he was concerned. Apparently the son was coming after him with a bat, with a metal bat. Let's listen to what the father who called 911 told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO LEGRIER, FATHER OF QUINTONIO LEGRIER: I called the police department because I wanted someone to try to help him with whatever he was going through because I was not trained. But I never once thought that once he entered that staircase that his life would be ended by someone who didn't know what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Someone who didn't know what to do. Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut his vacation in Cuba, back in Chicago holding a news conference. He's going to say that the police will refocus their training, to try to figure out how to deal better with mental health issues if that is in fact what was involved right here.

HATCH: Yes, I mean, we have of course many layers to the problem. The point is this was a family in distress that was calling for help. Obviously they did not expect son to end up dead.

But in the case of Bettie Jones this was a person who was simply trying to assist the police, to open the door for the police. And when you go to that house, apparently there is a bullet hole in the door while the door was closed.

The indication is that perhaps there was shots fired before there was any confrontation with the young man who was coming down the vestibule.

So, you know, there are just a lot of questions that need to be asked and answered on how policing is done in our community. The problem is now we have this tremendous crisis of confidence in the administration and in the conduct of police.

In the case of Laquan McDonald, we had police who collaborated with falsified reports on the scene, whose reports did not fit what we all saw in the video.

And so now every time we have these kind of crises the level of confidence and the conduct of the police, the report that we're seeing, the way that these incidents are investigated, that is going to be a continual political problem for us in the city and for the mayor.

BERMAN: Yes.

HATCH: I've challenged the mayor and others have challenged him that we need a full airing of this case of Laquan McDonald, which is really the overlay of all of this crisis to find out what happened in the case of that young man who was a ward of the state and were there political implications or maybe even obstruction of justice. BERMAN: Obviously more than just a political problem, something that needs to be discussed. Trust that needs to be reestablished. Not just in Chicago but certainly around the country as well. Pastor Marshall Hatch, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate your time this morning.

HATCH: Thank you so much. Thank you, John.

BERMAN: We are following a lot of news so let's get right to it --