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'N.Y. Times': Stavridis is Being Vetted for V.P.; 3 Officers Killed, 3 Injured in Baton Rouge Attack; Republican National Convention Begins Today; Clinton to Address NAACP Convention. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 18, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

JAMES STAVRIDIS: -- as somehow the fault of the United States makes no sense whatsoever.

[07:00:06] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Admiral, we hear that you are being vetted as a possible running mate for Hillary Clinton. Are you interested in the vice-presidential job?

STAVRIDIS: Alisyn, I think that with a name like Stavridis, it's going to be just too hard to fit on a bumper sticker. So I think probably the best thing to do is ask the Clinton campaign that question, not me.

CAMEROTA: As a Camerota, I do not shy away from the multisyllabic last name, Admiral. But thank you for that response, and we will do just that. Great to see you here on NEW DAY.

STAVRIDIS: Great seeing you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. We have a lot of news for you, including the latest on the Baton Rouge ambush. So let's get right to it all.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: To our viewers in the United States and around the world, you are watching NEW DAY. It's Monday, July 18. I am in Baton Rouge. Alisyn is in Cleveland, obviously the site of the Republican National Convention. We're going to be getting to her in just a moment.

We're here, of course, for the horrible murder of three police officers. We want to show you their faces right now. Six were shot by a lone gunman who seemed determined to kill as many cops as he could.

Montrell Jackson, 32, just had a child himself, a son. Matthew Gerald, long-time veteran, family man. Brad Garafola, 45, new to the force here. There were two other officers who are injured here. One is in critical condition and fighting for his life. The other is said to be in fair condition. And a sixth officer that had nonlethal injuries. That is the human cost.

But there is a lot reverberating here in this community right now and around the country. For the latest on the investigation and the situation, we have Boris Sanchez on scene -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

To set the scene for our viewers, we're just down the street from where you are at Baton Rouge Police headquarters. This convenience store behind me, the B-Quick, is where all of this unfolded yesterday, where people down the street on Airline Highway saw a man walking around with a long gun. This is where officers responded.

And they chased him down several businesses here, even as he was targeting them, opening fire on them. They bravely went after him.

Right now if it wasn't for these cameras, you couldn't tell that all of this unfolded fewer than 24 hours ago. But we're told the investigation is still ongoing behind the scenes.

We know last night investigators detained and interviewed two people for several hours, but no charges have been filed against them. That's congruent with what sources are telling CNN, that the shooter was here in Baton Rouge with other people. He wasn't alone. But it's unclear just how much the people he was with knew about this plot that he had hatched, this plot that has really reopened the wound of a community that was just starting to heal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! Officer down! Shots fired! Officer down! Got a city offer down.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Three officers ambushed and gunned down in Baton Rouge Sunday morning with three other officers wounded.

At 8:40 a.m. officers spotting a man dressed in black, wearing a mask and holding an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle near a convenience store. A law enforcement source says the killer, 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long, a former Marine, was intentionally trying to lure in police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm hit. Left arm.

SANCHEZ: Two minutes later, gunshots rang out, the killer outgunning the officers at the scene. In the hail of bullets, three of them lost their lives: 41-year-old Matthew Gerald; 32-year-old Montrell Jackson; and 45-year-old Brad Garafola.

Police ending the rampage by shooting the gunman.

CHIEF CARL DABADIE JR., BATON ROUGE POLICE: Don't think that this can't happen in your city. We never would have thought that this was going to happen in Baton Rouge, but it has.

SANCHEZ: The attack coming just ten days after five officers were killed in the Dallas ambush by another former military veteran, 25- year-old Micah Johnson, gunning down officers protecting a peaceful protest to the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. COL. MIKE EDMONSON, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We want

the prayers from around the country. You know, we're mourning just like Dallas. I mean, my two partners, my two brothers right here, I was in the hospital with them. I saw firsthand the grief on their face as they were trying to talk to the families. You know, this has got to stop.

SANCHEZ: Law enforcement sources tell CNN that the Baton Rouge killer rented a car from his hometown in Kansas City, stopping in Dallas, where he shot this video on his cell phone before carrying out the attack.

The five-year veteran was discharged as a sergeant and spent about six months in Iraq. He tweeted about the Dallas killer, calling him, quote, "one of us." And then a YouTube video urging viewers...

[07:05:07] GAVIN EUGENE LONG, BATON ROUGE KILLER: You've got to fight back.

SANCHEZ: Tensions high in Baton Rouge since Alton Sterling's death nearly two weeks ago, Sterling's aunt pleading for peace.

VEDA WASHINGTON-ABUSALEH, ALTON STERLING'S AUNT: These people call these families, they tell them that their daddies and their mama's not coming home no more. I know how they feel, because I got the same phone call. Stop this killing. Stop this killing.

SANCHEZ: One of the slain Baton Rouge officers posting this plea on Facebook after the Dallas ambush. Quote, "Please don't let hate infect your heart." Montrell Jackson wrote, "If you see me or need a hug or want to say a prayer, I got you."

President Obama yet again forced to address a mass killing.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until we come together and this madness continues, we will surely perish as a people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: We also got an update on that sheriff's deputy that was in critical condition, Chris. Nicholas Tullier, 41-year-old who served 18 years on the Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, he is fighting for his life right now.

Yesterday officials put out the word in the community, asking for prayers and thoughts to be sent to him and his family, as well as the families of all people affected by the shooting, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Boris. We'll check back with you in a little bit. The local paper here, one of them, the headline says it all in a single word. Sums up this situation as senseless.

Of course, there's also context here, context that is realized most beautifully by someone who lost their life in defense of the protection of this community. Montrell Jackson. You just heard Boris outline a little bit of what he said after the Dallas police shootings, the murders there on Facebook.

I want to put it back up. Rarely do we see something that is so on and let alone by someone who wound up being victim to the problem. "I'm tired physically and emotionally," Montrell Jackson said. Remember, this is an African-American man and a police officer. So he had unique perspective on this national conversation that's going on about policing in black communities.

"Disappointed in some family friends and officers for some reckless comments, but hey, what's in your heart is in your heart. I still love you, all because hate takes too much energy, but I definitely won't be looking at you the same. Thank you to everyone that has reached out to me or my wife. It was needed and much appreciated."

He goes on, "I swear to God, I love this city, but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform, I get nasty, hateful looks. And out of uniform, some consider me a threat. I've experienced so much in my short life, and these last three days have tested me to the core. When people you know begin to question your integrity, you realize they don't really know you at all. Look at my actions. They speak loud and clear.

"Finally, I personally want to send prayers out to everyone affected by this tragedy. These are trying times. Please don't let hate infect your heart. This city must and will get better. I'm working in these streets so any protesters, officers, friends, family, or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer, I got you."

He summed up the problem. He summed up the solution, as well, just days before the problem took his life. Montrell Jackson, 32 years old. His family now is going to have to deal with his loss. So is his baby son. The question is, how does this community move on? How does the killing stop?

Let's bring in Lamont Cole and Chief Mitch Bratton. Lamont Cole is councilman for District 7 here in Baton Rouge. Councilman, thank you. Chief. To both of you, I'm sorry for your loss. And I appreciate you being with us.

Whether it is the aunt of the man who's killed by the police officers, or it's the police officers themselves, or it's the president, or it's anybody with an open mind and heart, everybody says the same thing. It has to stop. But how? How do you believe that this society gets better?

LAMONT COLE, COUNCILMAN, DISTRICT 7, BATON ROUGE: Well, I think first and foremost my condolences to the families of the three officers. I think the first thing we have to do is begin to have some real conversations about some of the challenges we face in our communities, not just here in Baton Rouge but around the country.

And I think those are going to be some eye-opening conversations and perhaps hurtful, but I think we have to go through the hurt before we can get to the healing part. I think once we get there, we can start to have some conversations about perspectives we have, whether they're real or not, about police departments, about individuals in police departments, have some real conversation and work towards real solutions.

CUOMO: You know, Chief, a lot of police officers unfortunately, I've been to too many of these scenes around the country. It's hard for police and many in the community to accept the conversation about what police do wrong when they have just been wronged and murdered. It's a complex situation. What are you telling your officers about how they do the job and how the community respects that?

CHIEF MITCH BRATTON, BATON ROUGE POLICE DEPARTMENT: So let me start, too, the councilman, I want to express my condolences to the officers and the co-workers, their families and things from here. And also, the video of Alton Sterling's aunt broke my heart. So my condolences to that family, because regardless of the situation, they're experiencing a loss just like these other families are.

As police officers, and I'll say it, we have a difficult time admitting when we're wrong, but I also see sometimes where the public has a hard time admitting when we're right. And both sides are going to have to give.

At this point, division and hate are causing us to be here today. I said it yesterday, and I'll say it again. I don't think we have a white and black issue. I don't think we have a police versus non- police issue. I think we have a right and a wrong issue. And until everybody that is on the side of right and on the side of these United States of America gets together, we're just going to continue seeing these things. And it's going to take from all sides of the table.

I'll tell you right off, there are bad cops. But they make up a small amount. And I don't want them to tarnish this badge that I wear, just as I would never judge anyone standing here by something that someone that looked like them had done. And until we all get to that point, we're going to, unfortunately, keep meeting like this.

CUOMO: The chief said there are bad cops. Your eyebrows go up.

COLE: Well, I think...

CUOMO: Why?

COLE: I think this. I've been saying this for a while. Rules without relationships lead to rebellion. I think oftentimes officers don't go into situations or don't join the police department with bad intentions. I think that there's a failure to create relationships in the community, and what happens when there's no relationship, there's rebellion on both sides as a lack of ideologies and thought processes that may not be correct.

So rules without relationships lead to rebellion. And what we're seeing is a rebellion on both sides. So I think that we have to work really hard to establish positive relationships in the community respect for each other and how we treat each other.

CUOMO: Will that erase a notion of sides? I mean, in my head, I get it. And again, I've been to a dozen of these where either you care about life and the respect of accountability for citizens and how they behave and police and how they behave when they're not wearing just their citizen but their officer hat, but it doesn't seem that way.

Even when people say there shouldn't be sides, they talk about this in terms of sides. So what should that bridge be, in your opinion?

COLE: Well, I think the bridge has to talk about human life. We have to start talking about us as human beings and how we treat each other when we remove all of the armor that we wear. I think even without the police uniform or the badge, we all wear a certain type of armor when we step out into the world. And I think we have to remove that armor and just start talking to each other as people.

And then when we start talking to each other as people, we'll learn that we have a lot more in common than less in common. And then we'll start talking about real solutions about how we move forward as a community and how we work together. People say come together. Doesn't necessarily mean you work together when you come together. We have to start working together to make sure that we keep not only the citizens safe, but we have to keep our officers safe.

They're charged with keeping us safe. And I know that sounds a little bit selfish, but the reality of the situation is, who am I going to call when I need help? Who am I going to call when I want to be protected? I'm going to call the police. That's just a fact of the matter.

So we have to work better to keep them safe and change this conversation about departments and organizations and start talking about individuals who have bad intent or ill intent in their hearts. So I agree with the chief. This is about right and wrong and about people who do wrong.

CUOMO: Well, Chief, Councilman, it's good to have your voices here. I'm sorry this is the occasion, but this is the reality. And hopefully, something better can come out of it or at least less of the same. Gentlemen, thank you.

COLE: Thank you.

BRATTON: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Of course, what's happening here in Baton Rouge is not just reverberating in this community, in this state, but all over the country and certainly into our presidential politics. That takes us to Cleveland and the Republican National Convention. And that's where Alisyn is -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Chris, we're talking about it a lot here, because the Republican convention begins in just a matter of hours. And tonight's theme is making America safe again. So how will Trump and the convention speakers tonight address the

Baton Rouge killings, what's happened in Dallas, among other things? CNN's Phil Mattingly is live inside the Quicken Loans arena with more. Do you have a preview of how it's going to go tonight, Phil?

[07:15:04] PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn. Look, Donald Trump's advisers, I've spoken to them over the last couple of days, and they're honest. They know today marks the start of a very big moment in Donald Trump's candidacy, a moment perhaps to push for unity, a moment to showcase his new running mate, Mike Pence.

But also a moment to focus on what is becoming a prevailing theme of the Trump campaign, security, both at home and abroad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Our world is spinning out of control. Our country's spinning out of control. That's what I think about. And I'll stop that.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump pledging strength ahead of the first day of the Republican National Convention.

TRUMP: Obama's weak. Hillary's weak. And part of it is that, a big part of it. We need law and order.

MATTINGLY: Weeks of national and international turmoil heavily impacting today's events, coincidentally themed, "Make America safe again." Trump slamming President Obama's response to Sunday's killing of three officers in Baton Rouge, saying the president doesn't have a clue. Tweeting that the country is, quote, "a divided crime scene, and it will only get worse." As all eyes are on the presumptive GOP nominee to see if he's ready to pivot to a more presidential tone.

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: It's not a change of -- a pivot. What it is, is a showing of the rest of the person. That hasn't been done in this campaign. The Donald Trump that I see on a daily basis is more than just the Donald Trump sitting out there in campaign rallies.

MATTINGLY: The campaign touting a different type of convention, one featuring fewer politicians and more voices with a personal connection to Trump.

MANAFORT: Oftentimes, other than the wife of the candidate, you don't see any glimpse into the personal life of the person being nominated for president. This campaign, this convention is going to show Donald Trump from the viewpoint of his children.

MATTINGLY: Trump bucking tradition, even expected to introduce his own wife, Melania, before her primetime speech tonight.

TRUMP: The next vice president of the United States, Governor Mike Pence.

MATTINGLY: Indiana governor and Trump V.P. pick Mike Pence expected to speak on Wednesday. He and Trump giving a preview of their chemistry, acknowledging their differences in an interview with "60 Minutes."

LESLEY STAHL, "60 MINUTES": What about the negative side? He apologized for being a negative...

TRUMP: We're different people. I understand that. I'll give you an example. Hillary Clinton is a liar. Hillary Clinton -- that was just proven last week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's negative.

TRUMP: You better believe it. Hillary Clinton is a crook.

STAHL: That's negative.

TRUMP: I call her Crooked Hillary. She's Crooked Hillary. He will -- I didn't ask him to do it, but I don't think he should do it, because it's different for him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: The buttoned-up conservative Indiana governor, the bombastic New York billionaire. It's going to be an interesting dynamic to watch over the course of the next couple months, no question about it, Alisyn.

Now, while this week is all about the Republicans. That doesn't mean Democrats aren't going to be paying close attention. Hillary Clinton's campaign looking to highlight the fact that a lot of top Republicans still won't be here at all this week and certainly won't be speaking.

The campaign putting out their own agenda, mock agenda of what this week would look like if the top Republicans were speaking. People like Mitt Romney, like George W. Bush. A strike through their names as they are not coming to Cleveland -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Should be very interesting to watch all of this unfold this week, Phil. Thank you very much.

Well, the NAACP is hosting its own convention just a few hundred miles away from here in Cincinnati, Ohio. Donald Trump turned down an invitation to speak there, but Hillary Clinton accepted. She will address the civil rights group this morning.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is live in Cincinnati. What is she expected to say, Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, among other things, Alisyn, Hillary Clinton, appearing here at the NAACP convention, is expected to talk about the killings of police officers in Baton Rouge and the need to stand against violence while, at the same time, standing up for criminal justice reform. As you said, Donald Trump has said he is not going to attend this convention, citing scheduling conflicts. This appearance in Cincinnati is an attempt by the Clinton campaign to

capitalize on some of the free media in the southern part of this all- important battleground state, even as the Donald Trump Republican convention continues in Cleveland to the north of the Buckeye State.

We also know Hillary Clinton is expected to talk about a drive to bring 3 million voters into the rolls by election day, focusing especially on African-Americans as well as Latinos.

And this, of course, a big push in a sweet spot for Hillary Clinton in the polls. After the speech here at the NAACP, she's also expected to sort of capitalize on what is seen as an organizational advantage here in Ohio by holding an organizational rally.

Back to you.

[07:20:07] CAMEROTA: Thanks, Joe. Thanks so much for all of that.

All right. We want to go now back to Baton Rouge. That's where Chris has been reporting live for us after those police shootings -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. Thank you very much.

Whether you are following this story from the perspective of what happens when police use force in a situation and somebody dies, like just happened here in Baton Rouge last week, or you're watching this with fresh eyes after the murder of yet another group of police officers, the Black Lives Matter movement comes up. Are they a force for good? Are they a force for bad?

We're going to talk to one of the main organizers for them about what he thinks about what happened to the police here and what he wants, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Depending on whom you ask, it is a movement for better or for worse. Black Lives Matter. I want to bring in DeRay McKesson. He's one of the organizers for the movement. He's been all over the country at sites of where there are questions about use of force by police, especially on black individuals. And he joins us right now.

[06:25:09] DeRay, you came out, and you condemned the killing of the police officers here in Baton Rouge. What do you want people to know?

DERAY MCKESSON, BLACK LIVES MATTER ACTIVIST: So the reality is that the movement began as a call to end violence, and that call remains true today. That we fight for a living, breathing justice, a justice that would have Alton here and Philando, and Raquiah (ph) and Ayanna (ph), and so many people.

And we know that a just world is a world where people don't experience a trauma in the first place. It's hard, because what we've seen over the last 24 hours is people condemn the movement without knowing any facts. And what we said yesterday was that there were more questions than answers. So the movement has always been rooted in a call to end violence. And like I said, that call remains the call today.

CUOMO: Well, you and I have been in the same location more than once. And you know that part of the criticism comes out of the fact that it's impossible to keep message cohesive in any movement, but there's certainly been incidents where members who say they're members, anyway, of the Black Lives Matter movement have been very hostile towards police, who have made calls for violence, who have been antagonistic.

Now, whether understandable or not because of their perspective, is that something that the movement should have to own, as well?

MCKESSON: So we know that the rhetoric in these situations sometimes is charged, especially on the heels of an unarmed person being killed. And we know that that rhetoric does not match the violence that people in the streets are pushing back against.

So yes, the movement can always grow in terms of its tactics and how it approaches the problems, but again, the rhetoric doesn't match the violence that people are facing that brought them into the street in the first place.

And like I said before, my heart goes out to the victims of all violence. That we want to the live in a world where people don't die by gunfire. We want to live in a world where people, the police don't have militarized weapons, and where the public doesn't have access to these militarized weapons either.

CUOMO: What do you -- what is your response to the idea that the hashtag shouldn't be "Black Lives Matter," it should be "all lives matter"?

MCKESSON: Yes, you know, it's an interesting thing where people are frustrated that black people are focusing on the unique trauma that black people are facing in this country.

And I would never go to a breast cancer rally and yell out "Colon cancer matters." And that's what people are doing here, that they are frustrated by the fact that people are focusing on the inequity and injustice, specifically targeted to black people.

We know that the way blackness functions in this country is unique and that we have to deal with that trauma in a different way. We also know that, in focusing on black people, that other people will also benefit when we get to equity and when we get to justice.

So I think of all lives matter as a distraction technique that has probably been one of the most through line distraction techniques of the moment, but it doesn't get us away from talking about the key issues at hand, which are police violence, and the world that we want to live in, which is a world where police don't kill people.

CUOMO: How do we do it better? How does there become less of a divide? If we can put up the numbers of police officers who are shot and killed, the numbers are going up. There had been a trending down. This year is a bad year, remarkably so, 72 percent ahead of where we were just last year.

For many, it won't be a coincidence that we've had all this backlash after use of force cases that did or did not end up in officers being held accountable or responsible for excessive force, and yet we're seeing officers get attacked more.

How do you feel that you bridge that? How do you feel that you forward the Black Lives Matter movement without increasing antagonism towards the police, whom as you know the black communities need as much as anybody?

MCKESSON: So here's the thing. The first is that people have to come to the table and really focus on solutions. I think about the last two meetings we had with President Obama is that some of the police did come to the table, acknowledging the broken police culture, and that change needs to happen, but I will say in the public space that I've not heard police unions and other police chiefs really come out and say that they know change needs to happen.

The second is that we have to think about things like a use of force standard that explicitly talks about the preservation of life. And again, in so many cities, that's not the case. And the third is that there must be accountability when police use undue force.

So when we think about the police not being convicted, the court is not saying that the officers were not involved in the killings. The court is saying that the involvement was not criminal. And that means that we need to rethink the way we hold police officers accountable. And there has to be some procedural justice at the very least so people understand that the police do not operate outside of the law, which is how they currently do.

CUOMO: All right. DeRay, thank you for coming on. And just so you know, we've had a local police chief on here, Chief Bratton, who said there are bad cops, but there are many more...

MCKESSON: Yes, I heard him, and that's important.

CUOMO: So there's acknowledgment out there. But the dialogue should continue. And it should do so peacefully. I know you believe that, as well. DeRay, thank you for being on the show. What's happening here in Baton Rouge, you're going to hear about it all week long, not just because of our reporting.