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New Day
8th Grader's Imitation of Candidates; Judge Removed from Case; Hunt for Texas Man on the Run; Emotional Reunion after Terror Attack. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired June 17, 2016 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:30:21] DAVID GREGORY, CNN ANCHOR: It's time for "CNN Money Now." Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is in our Money Center.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Hi, David.
Sumner Redstone abruptly trying to overall Viacom's board. It's the latest move in the power struggle, the big struggle in his $40 billion media empire. He is, of course, 93 years old and said to be in poor health. He is moving to oust five directors, including his former protege, who now runs the company. You haven't heard the last of the drama there.
Smith & Wesson selling more guns than ever before. The gun maker reported a more than 22 percent increase in firearm sales. The latest numbers include sales through April, typical for gun manufacturers to see a big spike in sales after mass shootings. After the shooting in San Bernardino in December, Smith & Wesson's quarterly sales jumped, get this, more than 61 percent.
Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE) how that works. Thank you.
All right, now to the five things to know for your new day.
The terrorist who attacked a gay nightclub in Orlando Sunday texted with his wife during the rampage. We've also learned the gunman had serious behavioral issues throughout his past.
Well, the Senate will vote on four new gun control bills next week. One calls for a ban on firearm sales to people on terror watch lists. Another would close gun show loopholes, but none of those are expected to pass.
One year ago today, a gunman sat through a Bible study at the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston before opening fire, gunning down nine people. Events are planned throughout that city to honor the victims there.
Disneyworld planning to put up signs warning park goers of alligators near all waterways just two days after that toddler was killed by a gator.
There will be a game seven Sunday to decide the NBA championship. LeBron James scoring 41 points for the second game in a row, leading the Cavaliers to a 115-101 victory last night over Gold State. For more on the five things to you, you can go to newdaycnn.com for all of the latest.
David.
GREGORY: Wow, King James versus Steph Curry, Alisyn, what do you make of that for game seven?
CAMEROTA: Well, I have a lot to opine on about that because I actually do know both those names, which is unusual for me.
GREGORY: We'll be breaking it down in just a few minutes.
But first, a 14-year-old's middle school graduation speech is going viral. Here is 8th grader Jack Aiello saluting his school in the style of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and, of course, Donald Trump. Jeanne Moos has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He may not have the polish of a professional impersonator -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the bigger hands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't really like people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All our nukes are huge.
MOOS: But 14-year-old Jack Aiello gave a hugely popular graduation speech at his suburban Chicago middle school. It began in the voice and with the gestures of Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We are going to start winning in every front. We're going to win so much.
JACK AIELLO, 8TH GRADER: We will win and we will win and, believe me, we will win.
MOOS: Jack even pounced on how Trump pronounces -
AIELLO: China.
TRUMP: China.
China.
China.
China.
China. China.
China.
China.
China.
MOOS: Jack then detoured briefly to Ted Cruz.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: God bless the great state of Maine.
AIELLO: God bless the great school of (INAUDIBLE).
MOOS: In response to which Cruz tweeted, "OK, this kid is funny."
He then dabbled in cross gender impersonation.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm going to run a campaign of unity, a campaign of inclusivity.
AIELLO: They've given us the skills we need to get through sixth grade and from seventh grade and through eighth grade.
MOOS: Jack's dad says his son wants to be either president or a comedian.
MOOS (on camera): But Jack really went on a roll when he started talking about the school's cinnamon rolls in the voice of Bernie Sanders.
AIELLO: Let me start with the lunches. They are delicious. And some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever tasted. We need to make them free! What we need is a cinnamon roll revolution.
MOOS (voice-over): Just as long as they aren't communist rolls made in -
TRUMP: China.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos -
AIELLO: China.
MOOS: CNN -
TRUMP: Hey, by the way, I love China.
MOOS: New York.
AIELLO: I love China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Wow.
GREGORY: That kid is good. Who doesn't love - I love cinnamon rolls. Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls?
CAMEROTA: Cinnamon roll humor, that works all the time.
GREGORY: Oh, that's good.
CAMEROTA: He does - but that was an impeccable Bernie Sanders impersonation. That was, I think, his best.
GREGORY: What I like is that it's clearly - you either want to be president or you want to be a comedian. There's really not much in between.
CAMEROTA: I agree. That is what it has come to.
[08:34:50] All right, meanwhile, here's a story that we had been covering a lot and it was getting a lot of attention last week. We want to give you an update now. The judge in the Stanford rape case slammed for giving a convicted rapist just six months in jail. Well, now he's under fire again. We'll discuss that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: There has been a lot of fallout for a California judge who was under fire for giving that convicted rapist, you'll remember, a six month jail sentence. This case involves a former Stanford swimmer who raped an unconscious woman.
Joining us now with updates is CNN's senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jeffrey Toobin, and Stanford University law professor and the friend of the Stanford rape victim, Michele Landis Dauber.
Great to have both of you in studio with us.
Jeffrey, let's start by updating the viewers who may have lost track of what's happened in this case, what has transpired since this shocking sentence was given out. So let me just show people on screen here. Some jurors had refused to serve on this Judge Persky's trials after this. Persky was removed from another sexual assault case. There is a petition, as you know, to remove Persky. It has now more than one million supporters. And, of course, there are plans for a recall campaign against Persky, getting him off the bench.
So, this is unusual for all of this to happen at this time.
[08:40:00] JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's very unusual. To me, the most unusual part of it, although it's all very unusual, is that you have the prosecution moving to recuse a judge in a case because of bias. In my experience - I mean I'm not saying it's never happened before, but I've never heard of it, where the prosecution, which, remember, has to appear regularly in front of a judge who has a criminal docket, says the judge is too bias to hear a case. It's just an indication of how - what an extraordinary a situation this is.
GREGORY: Why, despite, Michelle, your deep concerns about the outcome of this case, why do you think this kind of action should be taken against the judge? What did he do wrong in his role?
MICHELE LANDIS DAUBER, STANFORD UNIVERSITY LAW PROFESSOR: Well, we feel strongly that the judge misapplied the law in a very serious way when he concluded that this was an unusual case and that the interest of justice required probation. One of the offenses for which Turner was convicted is presumptively ineligible for probation. And the judge really bent over backwards in order to award probation. And when did he that, he really undermined confidence in the whole legal system and -
GREGORY: But this is within the judge's discretion, is it not? So you may be, you know, opposed to the outcome, but is it not a worrisome step to start taking on the role of the judge in this way?
DAUBER: Well, no, it's not a worrisome step. First of all, in California, under the California constitution, the judges are elected. So Mr. Persky is an elected judge and a recall is a part of our constitutional process in California. Second of all, it is within - it was not entirely within his digression as he applied it. It is not entirely the case, as you're saying, that this was just discretionary. Two of the felonies for which Mr. Turner was convicted do have a discretionary ground of probation. The third one, as I was saying a minute ago, does not. And there we think he misapplied the law.
TOOBIN: What makes the situation unusual is that usually when a judge misapplies the law in the view of one party, that party can appeal.
CAMEROTA: Right.
TOOBIN: But the government can't appeal criminal sentences. So there's not the usual remedy here.
My only concern about this situation is, look, I' as horrified by this sentence as anyone, but judges do unpopular things. And sometimes we want them to do unpopular things. They are supposed to be somewhat insulated from politics. You're right, that there is - there is an election process. But, you know, in communities, let's say, that don't like same sex marriage, where you have judges saying, we want - you know, the law requires same sex marriage, I'm just a little concerned about what happens when, you know, judges become sort of like politicians, who can be recalled. Are you concerned about that?
DAUBER: Well, it seems to me, Jeff, that your argument is really with the California constitution rather than with me. There certainly are people who think that judges should not be elected.
TOOBIN: Right.
DAUBER: I think that's a completely legitimate position. Judge Persky is an elected official and, in this case, we feel that - and - and actually the prosecution agrees with us that he has evidenced bias and that his judgement is such that he cannot - actually, the prosecution gave an amazing statement. They said they don't trust him to - to be fair.
CAMEROTA: And - DAUBER: They don't trust him to be impartial.
CAMEROTA: If future jurors don't trust him and are asking not to be on his cases, then can he continue to serve on the bench?
TOOBIN: Well, that's the question. That's a hard thing. You know, I, you know, much as I admire the work that we do as journalists, our attention fades, and our attention will fade from this case, and I think jurors who don't follow the news very carefully probably will not have a problem with Judge Persky, will not remember that he's the one who was involved in this case, if he stays on the bench. And it does seem very much an open question, whether your efforts will succeed, because he may yet get thrown out.
DAUBER: He may resign. I mean -
TOOBIN: He may - he may resign.
DAUBER: We have several members of the U.S. House of Representatives, many members of the California Assembly calling for his resignation, jurors who will not serve in his courtroom, prosecutors who are disqualifying him, a million people signing petitions and a recall effort that is underway. So it may be the case that he may resign.
GREGORY: Michele, you know the victim in this case very well. She has had a tremendous impact on the wider debate about sexual assault in this country. How is she doing? How is she responding to the attention she's gotten?
DAUBER: Well, fortunately, she's anonymous.
GREGORY: Yes, but I mean the attention to her words, her statement, and the issues.
DAUBER: Well, she's angry that Mr. Turner has not yet apologized or taken responsibility, which is another reason that we think Judge Persky has misapplied the law in that he did not show any remorse. She's disappointed that the judge didn't recognize that and didn't grant a sentence consistent with the fact that he showed no remorse. And she is happy that her words are having such an impact around the world.
CAMEROTA: Professor, Jeffrey, thank you very much for all of the updates from this case.
GREGORY: Thanks. Good to have you here.
[08:44:52] Coming up, the hunt is on for a man wanted for murdering his wife. John Walsh joins us next with a preview of the season premiere of his show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GREGORY: This Sunday, "The Hunt" return to CNN. It's premier episode is not a question of who done it, but rather a question of, where'd he go? Let's take a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He seemed very panicked, wild-eyed. We put him in the back of the car, tried to keep him warm, tried to figure things out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any idea how you got here in the ditch?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, I was going 50 miles an hour. I was going see my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an accident, and I love her with all my heart. I'd give my life right now in one second to have her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was an accident?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gun just went off.
PAUL LASCO, SERGEANT, LIBERTY COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE, LIBERTY, TEXAS: He kept repeating to himself that the gun just went off. I think he even mentioned, I watched her die or something along those lines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love her so much. I love her so much. I can't believe it. But there's a divine reason for this. She was ready. She was ready. But I'm not ready for her to go. I love her with all my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is her full name, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tammy Marie Meyers (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Host of "The Hunt" John Walsh joins us now.
Hi, John.
JOHN WALSH, HOST, "THE HUNT": How are you?
[08:50:00] CAMEROTA: I'm well. Great to see you.
WALSH: Great to see you.
CAMEROTA: William Greer, what do we need to know about this guy?
WALSH: A real dirt bag. Domestic abuser. Long history of that and wanted for murdering his wife.
CAMEROTA: Drunk, high, pulled over there, not wear pants.
WALSH: Right.
CAMEROTA: How does a guy like that walk away from this? WALSH: Well, I guess that they didn't feel they had enough evidence
because they didn't have a body, so they cut him loose. And then, later on, his own children, who were visiting him at the time, two little boys who were terrified by what went on, told their mother Fisher was - I mean William Greer was divorced and he got visitation of his sons. And ten days later, his two little boys told their mother that daddy killed his new wife while we were there one night. We could hear the gun go off. We could hear the shot. Now cops started to take it seriously.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.
WALSH: Yes.
CAMEROTA: So the kids were basically witnesses, and still then the guy was gone at that point?
WALSH: He was gone - he was gone at that point. And then I did him on "America's Most Wanted" I think four times. And I don't know if your fans know that you used to work for me. You were one of my best field reporters.
CAMEROTA: Thank you. I loved working at "America's Most Wanted."
WALSH: Cut your teeth at "AMW."
CAMEROTA: I talk about it all the time. It was such a great show.
WALSH: You were - you were - you were terrific. And, but, anyway, every time we profiled Greer, we were 15 minutes behind him.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.
WALSH: He had this famous hat that he always wore. So we got the hat. He left the hat. He left some fake ID in an apartment one time. Three different women that he had moved in with had called right after he took off and said, my God, we are so lucky, we think that this is the guy, and it was the guy. So now he's going to be the top of the show, because I, you know me, I never give up. I'm going to catch this guy.
CAMEROTA: Absolutely you're going to catch this guy. We saw it all the time. It doesn't matter how long they're gone, you can still catch them. And, you know, we always talked when we were at "America's Most Wanted" together about what police work is like God's work. I mean what they do and the sacrifices that the cops made. But in this case it does seem like the cops dropped the ball?
WALSH: I think that they didn't buy the story. There wasn't enough evidence at the time. I wish they'd have taken him seriously because he'd be in jail right now. But he's out there. And my fear is that a guy like that, you know, leopards never change their spots. He had a long history of domestic abuse. He finally crossed that line. Cops say he killed his wife. So who knows what he's capable of doing. But we need to catch him before he hurts somebody else.
CAMEROTA: You're going to get him, John. I know it works. It works all the time.
WALSH: It works great.
CAMEROTA: Great to see you. Thanks so much for being here.
WALSH: Great to see you.
CAMEROTA: Make sure to watch the premiere of "The Hunt" right here on CNN, this Sunday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
Back to you.
GREGORY: All right, Alisyn.
Coming up on NEW DAY, a story you're not going to want to miss. An emotional reunion for a survivor of the Orlando nightclub massacre and the police officer who went beyond the call of duty to save him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:56:55] CAMEROTA: In these days after the Orlando terror attack, one of the survivors has been reunited with the police officer who helped save his life. Our Anderson Cooper tells us how one of Orlando's finest went beyond the call of duty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OFFICER OMAR DELGADO, EATONVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: I need a big hug from you, man.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It was an emotional reunion for survivor Angel Colon and Officer Omar Delgado.
DELGADO: I'm so glad you're alive, man.
COOPER: The first time the two have seen each other since their encounter last weekend at Pulse Nightclub, what we now know was the worst mass shooting on U.S. soil.
DELGADO: When I arrived, just all the chaos, the people running, screaming, crying, yelling.
COOPER: Officer Delgado entered the club, along with the other officers, shortly after he arrived on scene. Inside, the gunman was hold up elsewhere in the club.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
COOPER: Gunshots were ringing out and Officer Delgado's instinct to protect kicked in.
DELGADO: Seconds later that we hear more gunshots.
COOPER (on camera): You could actually hear them from outside?
DELGADO: From outside, yes. And we didn't know what happened, but we - I followed them. It was three of us. We just jetted right inside.
COOPER (voice-over): Officer Delgado was able to help remove some of the wounded amidst the darkness and disco lights.
DELGADO: There were a lot of bodies all over on the floor. Somebody yelled out, this person is moving. Another person I saw was moving, so I went and another officer grabbed him. And I just don't recall if that was Angel or not, because we pulled like, you know, three or four people out.
ANGEL COLON, SURVIVOR: When he was dragging me out, I could just look up and tell him, please hurry, please hurry.
COOPER: The gunman had shot a woman next to Angel, then he shot Angel in the hand and hip. Angel pretended to be dead as the gunman kept firing.
COLON: When I first saw him I was, you know, I was face down, laying down on the floor. I could only move my arms and my head up. So I just saw him, his size, his glasses. So I'm like, just help me, please.
COOPER: A nine year veteran of the Eatonville Police Department, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw that night, 49 innocent people dead, dozens of others injured. But knowing he saved some lives brings some comfort in the midst of tragedy.
COOPER (on camera): What was it like to actually see him today?
DELGADO: It was a feeling that you just can't describe, you can't put into words, knowing that you helped save someone.
COOPER (voice-over): Anderson Cooper, CNN, Orlando.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, the bravery that went there that night, the police and of the survivors. It - it's been an intense week.
GREGORY: Yes. Being down there had to be so powerful seeing this first-hand.
CAMEROTA: It was. And, you know, the message that we kept hearing and we heard it again today on the show is that they just believe that love is the answer. Reach out to people, anyone in pain, you know? We - don't react in anger. Reach out and love people. They think that that - that's the answer. And the idea that so soon after a tragedy that that's what the people of Orlando feel, I think it means that the rest of us should feel way as well.
GREGORY: I think as much hate as there is in events like this, and as much despair as there is, there is the sense of perseverance and resiliency. That's what I think is so sustaining. And so when we - we think about the victims and we think of how much has been lost, we think about that, about kindness, about love and about what they stood for.
[09:00:03] CAMEROTA: We try.
It's been great to have you here today.
GREGORY: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: I know it's been an intense day, but you've done a great job.
GREGORY: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: It's been great to be with you.
GREGORY: Nice to be with you, as always. Thank you.
CAMEROTA: You too, David.
All right, that does it for NEW DAY. NEWSROOM begins right now.
