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Minnesota Police Officer Shoots and Kills Black Man during Traffic Stop; Interview with Family Members of Man Shot by Minnesota Police Officer; Trump Defends Use of Six-Pointed Star in Tweet; Interview with Senator Rob Portman of Ohio. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]: ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman Lujan, thank you so much for being on NEW DAY.

REP. BEN RAY LUJAN, (D) NEW MEXICO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Anger and frustration boiling over after back-to-back police shootings. So let's get right to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to you NEW DAY. It is Thursday, July 7th. It's 8:00 in the east. And we do begin with breaking news. There are these back-to-back deadly shootings that have both been caught on camera, or at least the aftermath of them. This time a Minnesota officer opening fire and killing a black man during a traffic stop.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The man's girlfriend streaming the aftermath live on Facebook. Millions have already watched this disturbing scene that's minutes long. The families of course are heartbroken. The communities are outraged and demanding answers.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN national correspondent Ryan Young live with breaking details. Ryan, what do we know now?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, just a disturbing video. After you watch this a few times it hits you almost every time. First the woman, Diamond, who is in the video describing exactly what happens. And as she realized what's going on and the fact that she may lose her fiance, you can just hear her emotions tear apart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REYNOLDS: Stay with me.

YOUNG: Diamond Reynolds capturing the moments after her boyfriend was shot by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop.

REYNOLDS: We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back and the police -- he is covered. He killed my boyfriend.

YOUNG: Philando Castile's white shirt soaked in blood and in distress. They were pulled over allegedly for a broken tail light around 9:00 p.m. outside of St. Paul.

REYNOLDS: He is licensed to carry. He was trying to get out his I.D. and his wallet.

YOUNG: Reynolds live streaming from inside the car with her four- year-old daughter in the back seat.

REYNOLDS: He let the officer know that he was -- he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet. And the officer just shot him in his arm.

YOUNG: The officer, still pointing the gun inside the car, explains why he opened fire.

REYNOLDS: We're waiting for back up. I will sir, no worries. I will. He just shot his arm off. We got pulled over on Larpenteur.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told him not to reach for it.

REYNOLDS: Please don't tell me this, Lord, please, Jesus, don't tell me that he is gone. Please don't tell me that he is gone. Please, officer, don't tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was getting his license and registration, sir.

YOUNG: Multiple officers at the scene, order Reynolds out of the car, handcuffing her. Her cell phone falls to the ground as she continues pleading with police.

REYNOLDS: Please don't tell me she is gone. Please, Jesus, no. Please, no. Please, no. Don't let him be gone, Lord.

YOUNG: Eyewitnesses capturing this video of officers trying to revive Castile before he is taken to the hospital where he died. Reynolds then put in the backseat of a police car, continues talking to the camera.

REYNOLDS: I can't believe they just did this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK. I'm right here with you.

REYNOLDS: Please pray for us, Jesus. Please. I ask everybody on Facebook, everybody that's watching, everybody, please pray for us.

YOUNG: Reynolds says her boyfriend worked as a cafeteria school at St. Paul School and had no criminal record. Crowds gathering at the scene of the shooting and at the governor's mansion demanding answers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: One of the things you can notice when you watch the video, is you can hear a small voice in the background at one point, "I'm here for you." That's actually Diamond's four-year-old daughter in the background trying to offer support to her mother, obviously, as she is going through this emotional state. We do know there was no body camera on that officer. So we won't --

not have video of the seconds leading up to the shooting. A lot of questions about this. We know this is the first shooting in the 30 year history of that police department. But a lot of people want answers, and they want answers fast concerning what exactly happened, and then how this unfolded on that video which is so tough, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I mean, Ryan, of all of the heartbreaking moments, that little voice, saying I'm -- it's OK, I'm here with you, mommy, is possibly the most. So yes, we do want answers.

YOUNG: A four-year-old.

CAMEROTA: A four-year-old, right, that four-year-old little girl. We'll be talking about this and asking lawmakers about it. Thank you, Ryan, for that.

Minutes ago, we spoke exclusively with the mother and uncle of Philando Castile. This is their first TV interview, and you can hear them still trying to process what happened here. His mother told us that Philando and his sister had just spoken just yesterday about the concerns they had about carrying their legal guns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[08:05:00] VALERIE CASTILE, MOTHER OF PHILANDO CASTILE: Earlier, I'll say about 2:00, he came to my house in order to go and get his hair done. And he came back, and we chitchatted, him and his sister. And they had a conversation about the concealed carry permits that they both have. And they were saying that, you know, to be cautious. And my daughter said you know what, I really don't even want to carry my gun because I'm afraid that they'll shoot me first and then ask questions later.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. That seems like some sort of omen or something to hear that. Now Mr. Castile, have you seen the video?

CLARENCE CASTILE, UNCLE OF PHILANDO CASTILE: Yes, I have.

CAMEROTA: How do you explain what you see on that video?

C. CASTILE: I see a young man helpless, shot for no apparent reason. I saw my nephew shot by a man, clinging to his life, you know, with no help. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen in my life.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

C. CASTILE: We hear about things like this happening all the time around the United States and the world, you know, people being harmed and abused by people that we're supposed to trust with our lives, people that are supposed to --

V. CASTILE: Protect and serve.

C. CASTILE: Protect us. And they tend to be executioners and judges, murderers. V. CASTILE: I basically think that these things are happening because

there is no checks and balances in the justice system, and that a lot of our African-American men, women, and children are being executed by the police, and there are no consequences. So in essence I feel like it is becoming more and more repetitive. Every day you hear of another black person being shot down, gunned down by the people that is supposed to protect us.

My son was a law-abiding citizen, and he did nothing wrong. He had a permit to carry. But with all of that, trying to do the right thing and live accordingly by the law, he was killed by the law.

C. CASTILE: It is devastating to us all.

V. CASTILE: I'm outraged.

CAMEROTA: We hear that, and that's understandable. And we understand why it feels as though we've seen far too many videos like this. Just the day before your son was shot, we saw one out of Baton Rouge. We've seen so many videos like this, certainly in my line of work, but this one, I have to tell you, is different. And in part it's because his girlfriend was live streaming it. And so you saw her reaction. You saw her four-year-old daughter's reaction in the back seat, and you saw your son's reaction. Have you spoken --

C. CASTILE: All of it. All of that.

CAMEROTA: Have you spoken to his girlfriend?

C. CASTILE: No.

V. CASTILE: We can't locate her. No one knows where she is. The last time I saw her is when my daughter and I came up on the scene and she was in the backseat of the --

C. CASTILE: Falcon Heights.

V. CASTILE: Falcon Heights police department's police car. And they wouldn't even let us get close enough to her to even talk with her.

CAMEROTA: And you came up -- but you came up on the scene, Mrs. castile, because you had seen this unfolding? How did you know what was happening?

V. CASTILE: No. We were getting phone calls, and my daughter was screaming in the house, and I was like what's going on? What's wrong with you.

C. CASTILE: The live streaming.

V. CASTILE: The live stream was going on. I personally didn't see it, but I knew something was going on. And they were saying -- they were at Larpenteur and Rice. But then they were saying you could see a Falcon Heights sign.

CAMEROTA: Yes. V. CASTILE: So I knew immediately that it had to be Larpenteur and

Snelling. We rode up on the incident and we couldn't get to her to talk to her. We were stopped by the police. And I asked them where was my son at. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to know where my son was, because I didn't want my son to die alone.

CAMEROTA: And what was the answer to where your son was?

V. CASTILE: First it was, I don't know. And then the sergeant that was there at the site, he came back and told me he was at the Hennepin County Medical. And I said why did you take him there, why didn't you take him down to Regent's Hospital, because I thought that was a little closer than Minneapolis. But by the time we got to Hennepin County, he was already deceased, and they didn't let me see my son's body.

[08:10:02] C. CASTILE: At all.

V. CASTILE: At all.

CAMEROTA: After we see shootings like this, you often see people take to the streets, you see protests. We've seen that already happening in Baton Rouge. What do you want to see happen?

V. CASTILE: I would like to see justice.

C. CASTILE: Justice. That's all we want is justice.

V. CASTILE: That's all we want is justice.

C. CASTILE: Justice for Philando.

V. CASTILE: Because, like I said, he didn't deserve to be shot down like this.

C. CASTILE: No, not like that.

V. CASTILE: I couldn't believe it. I could never fathom in my life. I did everything right as a parent. I made sure my kids understood the difference in being law-abiding, and that the police were there to help. I never once in my life would have thought that my son would actually be killed by the persons that are supposed to protect and serve him. And he is legitimate all the way across the board. You want to carry a gun. Go and get your license. And that's what him and his sister did. Everything he did was legitimate. He worked an honest job, five days a week.

C. CASTILE: Serving. Serving children in the school. This man was so laid back it is incredible how anybody could mistake that. But --

V. CASTILE: Sometimes you have those that, you know, you sit up and say that there is no more, what do you call that --

C. CASTILE: No more justice.

V. CASTILE: No, no, no, when they -- profiling. They're still saying there is no profiling, but it is. It is. We're being hunted every day. It is a silent war against African-American people as a whole.

CAMEROTA: And so --

C. CASTILE: It is sad to say. We think we are in the land of plenty, you know, freedom and things like that.

V. CASTILE: We're never free.

CAMEROTA: And so what does justice look like for you in that case?

V. CASTILE: Well, right about now, it is not looking too good because I'm not getting any answers that I'm asking for. And like I said, they did not even let my son to identify him. I have to wait until tomorrow after an autopsy.

C. CASTILE: And she may be -- they might even not let her come to see him right away, today.

V. CASTILE: They don't know anything. They don't know who the investigators are. They don't know who the --

C. CASTILE: The doctor, the medical examiner is going to be.

V. CASTILE: They don't know who the medical examiner going to be. They don't know the name of the police officers that were involved in the shooting. They are telling me they don't know anything. So I don't know anything.

C. CASTILE: What we do know is Philando is dead. That's what we know.

V. CASTILE: That is what we know. I will never see my son again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: I mean, you know, the hard thing for this family is going to be they're just starting this journey. You know, they haven't been hit by the loss yet. And on the one hand it's allowing them to be really open and honest about the situation before they become consumed by the pain that will hit them. That mom has wisely not watched that video, but it is going to sink in. And once it does, their need for answers is going to be met by a different challenge, which is dealing with what they most of all, which is that their son is gone.

CAMEROTA: I can't imagine two better spokespeople for this tragedy. You know, they are -- they're clearheaded at the moment. They are dispassionate, I mean, strikingly at the moment. And just talking about the outrage they have on so many different levels, the frustration of not being able to get their questions answered. The frustration of thinking all along that something like this might happen, and that because their son was black they felt that they had to tell him, counsel him in a different way than we would our children. And that he did everything right, and that this mom did everything right in terms of the advice she gave to her son and that her son was a hard-working guy and legally carrying. I mean, all of these things are just what in particular, this makes it so striking to talk about.

CUOMO: People of color feel like that all over the country. It does, you know, you should know that this police force said they've never had a shooting in like 30 years. But it doesn't mean that the insecurity isn't there for people of color in communities about how they interchange with police. And that's why we cover this story.

And we're going to have much more on this throughout the morning, especially talking to people in positions of power about what to do. We know the problem. We know how it manifests itself. The question is, how do you change it? We can't seem to get there.

Now, one of the things that could be talking about this would the process of the election, right, but we don't flow how this is going to enter in. Although we did hear both Trump and Clinton touch on issues yesterday that surround the needs of these communities. But for the most part with Donald Trump yesterday, it was still defending what happened with this tweet of a star that many believed was a derogatory symbol for Jews.

[08:15:06] Let's go to CNN's Manu Raju live outside the Capitol Hill Club. That's where Trump will meet with Republicans this morning.

Manu, what do we expect?

MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, Chris. Any moment, Donald Trump should be arriving here. This is the first meeting with a full House Republican conference, and also, Senate Republican conference since he became the party's nominee.

Now, not just Donald Trump is here, but also, about a couple of dozen protesters are standing around us, chanting things like, calling Donald Trump a fraud, calling this the party of Trump. So, expect a lot of these theatrics to happen as well.

Now, one interesting thing to note, Chris, is that a number of Republicans have decided to skip today's session, largely because they want to stay away from the theatrics that we have been seeing on the campaign trail, including yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's very sad. You know, it's very sad.

RAJU (voice-over): Donald Trump fired up and lashing out.

TRUMP: Lie, lie, lie. Lie, dirty, rotten liar.

RAJU: Again accusing the Clintons of bribing Loretta Lynch. Just hours after the A.G announced that Clinton will not be charged for a use of a personal email server.

Trump also doubling down on his most recent Twitter controversy. TRUMP: They took the star down. I said, too bad. You should have

left it up.

RAJU: Insisting he saw no problem with this tweet that his team sent and then revised, after it was widely criticized for being anti- Semitic.

TRUMP: It could have been a sheriff's star. It could have been a regular star. My boy comes home from school, Baron. He draws stars all over the place. I never said, oh, that's the star of David, Baron, don't.

RAJU: The Republican nominee turning to Twitter to compare his tweet with the "Frozen" book cover, writing, "Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the Star of David also?"

Hillary Clinton's campaign mocking this argument, tweeting, "Do you want to build a straw man?"

In his hour plus speech, Trump hit a number of controversies, refusing to back down once again from his comments about Saddam Hussein.

TRUMP: I don't love Saddam Hussein. I hate Saddam Hussein, but he was damn good at killing terrorists.

RAJU: While looking ahead to November, signaling a future role in his campaign for Newt Gingrich, rumored to on Trump's VP short list.

TRUMP: In one form or another, Newt Gingrich is going to be involved with our government. That I can tell you.

RAJU: Meanwhile, Clinton remained mum about her-mail controversy, while keeping a laser-focus on her opponent, criticizing Trump's bankruptcies in front of the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City on Wednesday afternoon.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What he did here in Atlantic City is exactly what he will do in he wins in November.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, in just a few hours, Alisyn, James Comey will be here testifying before the House Oversight Committee after the FBI director announced earlier this week that he would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over her e-mail arrangement. Expect him to get a grilling. Republicans are not satisfied with this decision not to refer this for a criminal prosecution.

But it's really part of a larger effort by Republicans to keep the pressure on after the FBI director made his comments that Hillary Clinton was careless in handling her classified e-mail. Paul Ryan sent a letter today to James Clapper saying that she should be denied any classified briefings going forward in a general election.

Watch for more of that in the coming weeks here, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: We will be watching that, as well in just about two hours,

Manu. Thank you very much.

So, up next, Ohio Senator Rob Portman, what does he want out of the congressional hearing with the FBI director? Plus, in a wake of these two deadly police shootings, both of them caught on camera, what will Congress do? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:04] CUOMO: Back-to-back police involved shootings, two men dead, both black, both encounters caught on video. Outrage growing. Should Congress do anything for this?

Policing is often seen as a state issue, but aren't these bigger than just police issues?

Let's talk to Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio.

And, of course, Senator, on the agenda today, you have the director of the FBI to talk about Clinton's e-mail investigation and his findings to the dissatisfaction of many in your party. When you hear about these shootings, does it give you pause for concern about what you guys are choosing to do with your time? Do you think this issue deserves as much time as the e-mail issue?

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: Well, they both deserve time. We certainly should be capable of addressing both of them. On the e- mail, Chris, and I know you've been involved in this issue over time, talking to I'm sure Secretary Clinton about it and so on, one of the concerns is she said things that were not true. That's one thing that Director Comey laid out.

My bigger concern is what the impact is on protecting classified information. Our nation's secrets are protected by a lot of government entities. I was at a parade over the weekend, as you can imagine, I'm with a lot of those. And a guy came that works at NASA Glenn, and he's a senior person there, and he said, you know, he has been protecting our secrets, classified information for a long time and he and his colleagues are wondering, you know, why should they have to go through all these steps to put things in the safe at night, not take anything home, to be so careful about it.

That's one of my concerns, there seems to be no consequence here. Maybe a double standard also. But it's this broader issue of protecting classified information for our national security purposes, and there seems to be no consequence here. That is something that is definitely worth looking into.

CUOMO: Well, certainly, there were violations of State Department guidelines that the State Department would deal with.

You know, Comey, in referencing the statute, doing research on it, I don't know if the staffers have this prepared for you or not. This statute, when prosecuted, is almost never prosecuted on the basis of gross negligence. It is always on intent to deceive. It is almost always coupled with intentional deception to the FBI.

None of those elements were present in Clinton's case, and that's why Director Comey, while providing some censure, some criticism to what she did, said he couldn't prosecute.

Why isn't that good enough for you?

PORTMAN: Yes, well, look, that may be true with regard to the specific statute and the situation now, where she is no longer an employee of the State Department. But I will tell you that we have plenty of information coming in, and I'm, as you know, chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of people saying, gosh, I was at the State Department. If I would have done that, taking something home, I would have lost my security clearance. I would have lost my job because I couldn't do my job without it.

The Department of Defense, as you know, takes a very serious view of this.

[08:25:01] In other words, if somebody takes something home or leaves something on their desk --

CUOMO: But it doesn't make it illegal.

PORTMAN: -- is only fired but prosecuted.

Well, some people have actually served jail time for taking things home.

CUOMO: But there is almost in those cases an intent to deceive, knowingly, willfully, wantonly, as you go through the language of the statute and deception to the FBI.

PORTMAN: Yes.

CUOMO: Director Comey, who I'm sure you know already, is no joke. This is not a guy that gets painted with a partisan brush on any kind of regular basis. He says, I couldn't make the case. I'm not saying it wasn't extremely careless in his own words, but not a crime.

That's not good enough for you guys. So, you're going to bring him up there and some would suggest you're going to undermine his credibility with this hearing.

PORTMAN: Well, I have a lot of respect for him, and you know, I've seen him in action when he was at the Justice Department during the Bush administration. I know is a straight shooter. Again, my current role on the Homeland Security Committee, I've had a lot of interaction with him.

I respect the guy. And I do think that he has thought through this carefully. So, the hearing is on the House side. Not the Senate side. I'm not involved with it.

But I don't think we should be undermining his credibility. But I think we should be asking these tough questions. I mean, look, I mean, if there's no consequence, Chris, to what she did, which was not only to take things home in a sense, but to go well beyond that to have her own private server, that most experts believe was hacked, and as you know, Director Comey said that's likely that this happened. He can't say specifically which groups might have hacked and gotten this information.

He also made the point that she was not accurate in saying to you and to others, there's no classified information on my server.

CUOMO: Right.

PORTMAN: And, finally, she said, but if there was, none of it was marked. He said, well, some of it was marked.

So, I think -- I hope what happens today is that he is asked to elaborate on some of those points so that we can understand what happens --

CUOMO: But you do understand --

PORTMAN: -- where she was deceiving the public, and the media, and what the consequences are.

CUOMO: But you do understand that you're putting him in such a bad position. He cannot give you the satisfaction that you want. You say consequences. He deals with crimes. That's what he does.

He doesn't deal with, you know, you're bad politician. That's for you guys to deal with. Those are the political, you know, crisis that she is obviously paying.

Look at her poll numbers, obviously, some of this is already baked in. But all the behavior you just pointed out, he doesn't have any reach on those. She didn't lie to him about what was on the server. She didn't lie to him about what was going on.

She may have lied to you. She may have lied to me. But if she didn't lie to him, then there is no crime.

So, I don't get what satisfaction you want of having the director of the FBI come out there that doesn't undermine his credibility.

PORTMAN: Yes, he is coming to the house, so I won't be involved in it.

But I do think that this will give him an opportunity to explain himself. And he does very well when he explains himself.

CUOMO: Sure he does.

PORTMAN: I'm not concerned about his credibility ultimately, because he'll have the opportunity to be very plainspoken and clear as he was in his statement of which, by the way, was very tough on her, and not the -- he didn't indict, but he did in effect not legally, but indict her credibility and her honesty by some of the comments that he made.

And you know, I think he'll be just fine. I'm not concerned about his performance.

CUOMO: Right.

PORTMAN: I do think, Chris, there is this broader issue of if there appears to be a double standard here and no consequence, what does it mean about broadly speaking protecting our national secrets, which as you know, tens of thousands of Americans who are in these sensitive positions are asked to do every day.

CUOMO: True. And if you have people indicted for things that don't rise to the level of criminality, that's not a great system either. Let me ask you something else --

PORTMAN: I agree.

CUOMO: Let me ask you something else, though, Senator, that is of a pressing concern. It doesn't get enough attention, let's give it some right now.

Opioids are presenting a scourge, unlike anything we've seen since crack, and many experts say worse, because it is coming out of the medicine cabinets as much as it's coming out of the street, and doctors are pushing it along. What can be done? We know you're at the front of this.

PORTMAN: Yes, Chris, I totally agree with you. It is an epidemic now, and I say that not lightly. I mean, it is a crisis.

I just got off the phone with someone from Akron, Ohio, this morning. They had 15 overdoses in a 10-hour period in one city in Ohio. We believe there are 200,000 people who are addicted now to these opioids in Ohio, that's the size, by the way, of the city of Akron. It is the number one cause of accidental death in our state, surpassing car accidents. We now think that's probably true nationally.

As you know, in New York state, some of the same issues have occurred. So, this is something that has to be addressed in a more comprehensive way and in a different way. The legislation I've been pushing basically says, let's divert people from the criminal justice system into treatment. Let's be much more aggressive on the prevention and education.

You mentioned prescription drugs. Four out of five heroin addicts probably started with prescription drugs. And many of those, Chris, started with getting a painkiller. I have -- you know, two families have come to me in Ohio.