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New Day

Clinton and Trump Respond to Deadly Police Shootings; Interview with Mayor Bill de Blasio; Interview with Mayor Dewey Bartlett; Trump and Clinton Battle for a Win in Ohio; Second Night of Violent Protests in Charlotte; Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 22, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:01] BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This isn't just some isolated local issue. We need to have national standards and some guidelines. What happened in Tulsa, I mean, with a guy with his hands up, a father of four doesn't end up dead in the street because there was a police officer there who was scared simply because he was black. That's first.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

SELLERS: And the second thing is there are a lot of police departments out there, Jeffrey. A lot. Very small police officers. We had two shootings, one in north Augusta, South Carolina, and one in Seneca, South Carolina, neither which get much play, but they're small police departments that need the resources of the federal government, not only so they can have the equipment like the body cameras, but they can also have the training.

CAMEROTA: Yes. OK. Do you agree it's a national problem?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's -- I mean, no. I don't think it -- if what we're seeing is a national problem, we're going to hire all these people, then, no, I don't think it is.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, it doesn't imply we're going to hire all these people.

LORD: Is it a localized problem --

CAMEROTA: But do you think that this is not just something that is not just an isolated incident, but there's a national problem that deserves the attention of the president to try to tackle it on a national level?

LORD: To take a look at it, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: And solve the problem on a national level.

LORD: But as to solving it, as to making local communities -- I mean, they're not all the same. I mean, every community in America is different. Charlotte is not Tulsa to use the example that we've got right in front of us. And, you know, we need to take these things into consideration. You know, one of the things that's perpetually sort of said here is that it's all about race. And here we have in Charlotte a city that has a black police chief. The officer charged is black and the person who was killed was black.

CAMEROTA: Right. But the victims, I mean, the common thread is that the victims are often unarmed black men. So do you think that there should be national standards? Could that help?

LORD: I don't think so. I mean, just because I think based on my experience with all kinds of things, the federal government gets out of control pretty quickly. And then it's permanent. That's the thing. And then you've got a whole bunch more of lobbyists. And I mean, this just gets into a mess here when you do these things.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, Bakari, thank you very much.

LORD: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: You've both sold out. Both of your different philosophies really helpful. Thanks a lot.

Let's get over to Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: So you're going to be hearing different ideas about what to do to help with policing in black communities. Donald Trump, one of his ideas is stop and frisk. He says it worked incredibly well in New York. What does New York City's mayor think about that? He is an outspoken critic of stop and frisk.

We have Mayor Bill de Blasio here, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:36:23] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The issue of crime and policing now at the forefront this morning of the 2016 campaign following police shootings in Charlotte and Tulsa. Donald Trump favors stop and frisk. He calls the controversial policy under New York City Mayor Giuliani an unqualified success. The New York's current mayor does not agree.

And Mayor Bill de Blasio joins us now. He has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Mayor, thanks so much for being here.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: Before we get to stop and frisk, let's talk about the violence that we saw overnight in Charlotte. What's the answer to felling the violence there? People are so angry about another police shooting.

BLASIO: Well, look, violence is never acceptable, let's be clear. People want to peacefully protest. That's of course their right. But let's go to the underlying causes here. People are very frustrated because the relationship between police community is not what it should be in most parts of this country. And this is really the work of our time, to bind police and community together. But that happens through neighborhood policing, through connecting people very personally, so police and community get to know each other.

It certainly is not through policies like stop and frisk, which have created a real wedge between police and community. It created division. And it's not -- really when you look at it, it's not something new to understand that we need a kind of communication, the kind of understanding between police and community.

Our police commissioner now, Jimmy O'Neill, believes, and he's the architect of neighborhood policing, Bill Bratton, just left office here, the greatest police leader of our time, believed that the way forward for all American police departments was to deepen that relationship. This is where we have to go.

CAMEROTA: But let's talk about stop and frisk because so many people say it was effective. You may not have liked it, but it was effective. The crime rate plummeted in the -- from what it was in New York City in the '80s and early '90s to then in about 2011. I think it dropped by more than 75 percent. And a lot of people give the credit to stop and frisk because it was proactive instead of reactive.

BLASIO: That's -- I understand people say that. That's just not the history. The history is that Bill Bratton came in in 1994, instituted COMSTAT, which was a systematic strategic approach to policing. That's what really started the change even before David Dinkins increased the police force here. That's what changed things in New York City.

Stop and frisk was for -- it was intensified for a limited period of time in the last decade, in particular. And the bottom line is it created a huge amount of division between police and community. We ended that unconstitutional use of stop and frisk. That overuse of stop and frisk.

What's happened in the three years since we made the change? Crime has gone down consistently since we actually stopped using it. Bill Bratton would say that what we need to do in law and safety is bring police and community closer together. That's what proved to be the case.

So, you know, Donald Trump talks about stop and frisk like he knows the facts. He has had no experience with policing, no experience with public safety. He should really be careful because if we re- instituted stop and frisk all over this country, you would see a lot more tension between police and community.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the terror attack that we saw here in New York and New Jersey over the weekend. Rahami is the suspect. He was taken in alive after a gunfight with police. Do you know what his status is, if he's talking yet to police?

BLASIO: Well, obviously, police, FBI, everyone wants to get a lot more information from him, but the most important thing to say here is NYPD, FBI, all our partners did an extraordinary job of finding him very, very quickly. We've got more work to do. There's a couple of people of interest out there we'd like to talk to. CAMEROTA: Let's talk about those guys because I think we have a

picture, you guys have put -- putting out the picture, first, of Rahami worked. I mean, we've got it out on TV, it worked. We got him in short order. So tell me us about these two guys that you're now asking for the public's help.

BLASIO: On the first point, I want to thank, everyone, the media did a great job getting the word out. We also used for the first time a kind of broad messaging system.

[07:40:05] We sent to every cell phone, every device, in the New York metropolitan area a message that this guy was on the loose. And that's one of the reasons because it was out there so broadly about an individual immediately called the police when they saw him. So this is --

CAMEROTA: And he'd been watching CNN, by the way.

BLASIO: Yes, see?

COOPER: And he recognized Rahami across the street.

BLASIO: And we thank CNN. But now we've got two individuals out there. We do not know if they have an involvement or not. We know we need to talk to them.

CAMEROTA: What makes you think they have an involvement?

BLASIO: By the video there's obviously a question of whether they were somehow associated. But we want to be very careful about this. It's not a confirmation that they were involved but they may know something about the devices that were used. They may even be people who were stopping by, but still could give us some context to what they saw. So there's a lot more work to do.

Here's the thing, it all adds up the same way. The public has a huge role to play here. The famous phrase, if you see something, say something. I hope this is the ultimate illustration to the people of this country that everyone can support law enforcement with their voice, picking up that phone, going over to an officer, saying you saw something. In this case, how many lives were saved because one guy followed through and actually informed law enforcement of what he saw.

CAMEROTA: It really worked. In this case, it really worked. From -- so many people. We talked to the woman who saw the pressure cooker. She called 911.

BLASIO: That's right.

CAMEROTA: And they were able to lift the fingerprints off that and find DNA on there. It worked on every single level.

Is your latest thinking that this guy acted alone or that there is some sort of -- there were some sort of health or even cell here in New York or New Jersey? BLASIO: Hey, this is all preliminary. Ongoing investigation. One of

the things I always say is, law enforcement will define the state of play. It's very important that anyone who's an elected official not pretend to understand what law enforcement understands. So they'll tell us, but what I can tell you so far is we don't have specific evidence of a cell. We are concerned to know whether there's other people.

We just don't have a final answer on that yet. So this has to be done very meticulously and very carefully. I don't think it's helpful for any of us, certainly not an elected official, to jump to conclusions until we have the facts. Got to get those two guys in. Huge investigations going on and it's a seamless investigation. The FBI, NYPD, all our other partners very much working together to find out what else we need to know about this case.

CAMEROTA: Does it worry you that this wasn't stopped beforehand?

BLASIO: I think there's something to learn in each and every one of these situations. We need to know more obviously about what that earlier contact with the FBI was. But it's not right, again, to jump to conclusions. There's a huge volume that the FBI has to handle. We need to understand specifically, what did they know, how did they follow up, and what can we learn for the future?

This is a part of our lives today. But the reason I maintain a lot of hope is extraordinary intelligence gathering capacity, certainly on the federal side, NYPD has it as well. Consistently, we've been able to find things and stop them with very few exceptions. But even with the exceptions what we learn after the fact is people knew. People knew who if they had simply called in, it would have made all the difference.

I think this is about deepening the public's understanding that they have to be a part of this. They have to be partners with law enforcement.

CAMEROTA: I mean, his father tried. You know.

BLASIO: And that's important.

CAMEROTA: His father tried to alert authorities.

BLASIO: And that's important. And we need to know what happened there and I'm not for a moment saying there aren't some things to learn from this and some things that might not have been done right. But I will say this, we are learning every day in this age where there are lone wolves. We understand that. And sometimes we get, you know, the kind of prior information we want and intelligence gathering is the number one defensive tool.

But we also learn in New York City, you need a big, robust force. We have the biggest anti-terrorism force we've ever had that we've instituted in the last year. You need a lot of involvement in the public. That will give you the best chance of stopping these things before they start. CAMEROTA: Mayor Bill de Blasio, thanks so much. Great to have you on

NEW DAY.

BLASIO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: As always. Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Now throughout the morning we've been talking about the protests in Charlotte but also the riots in North Carolina. But there's another American city in play right now. Tulsa is grappling with their own deadly police shooting. But it's very different in Tulsa. You have different facts, true. But you also have video that was released for people to see. And, as a result, you have a different atmosphere.

Last night there was a peaceful vigil held for Terence Crutcher. He's the man who was shot and killed by police on Friday.

Joining us now is Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett. Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. I'm sorry that it is under these circumstances. What can you tell us about how Tulsa is doing this morning?

MAYOR DEWEY BARTLETT (R), TULSA, OKLAHOMA: Well, we're doing pretty well. Everything considered I think we're doing fine. You know, this is a type of thing -- it's interesting hearing the conversations between the various people for the last 15 minutes. And what we've really done is very, very difficult work. But it's relationship building in Tulsa. What we did starting seven years ago after I was -- after I was elected mayor, my wife Victoria and I started attending a different church every Sunday. Many of them African-American churches. When you -- when people do that they develop not only a relationship but a true friendship.

[07:45:03] That has come into play in a very, very big way because we look for common ground among friends. The last thing we're going to do is try to cause a friend a difficulty. So it's that type of really community-based policing that not only our family but also our police chief, Chuck Jordan, he's had the same attitude. It all comes together in a good way and at the end of the day when even bad things happen, we had the ability to communicate and avoid violent confrontation.

CUOMO: All right. So let's look at the couple of the dynamics at play here. The first is, there's video available and it was released. Do you think that that has had a significant impact on keeping the situation more stable than what we're seeing in Charlotte?

BARTLETT: For several years we've contemplated if we had a terrible event like we're experiencing, we had to be transparent. We had to put the information out immediately, which is exactly what we did. We even brought the family in, which is a very, very difficult situation. We got them involved. We showed them what happened. We told them what we knew up until that point in time. We've released all the -- all the videos that we've had to the public. So we really bared our soul, so to speak, to show what we knew at that point and what we've done. And then we've counted upon the relationships and the friendships that we had in place to allow us to get on to the next level.

The various judicial systems are involved now. Now it's up to them to do their evaluation and hopefully -- we're hoping they do it quickly and thoroughly.

CUOMO: The officer involved in the shooting did not turn on her dash cam. Did not have a body camera, even though grant money has been received. Why are there no body cameras? Why isn't the protocol that you turn on whatever cameras you have at every stop?

BARTLETT: Regarding the camera and the car, when she first stopped, it was, she was assuming that it was just simply a stalled vehicle. The particular position in her switching mechanisms was at a place where the camera did not come on.

We have started a process about a year ago actually of purchasing and testing body cams. We're testing them right now. We've purchased -- eventually we'll purchase about 500. But we went through a very lengthy process to make sure we had cameras that worked well with the type of software and computerization that we have in place without having to buy a lot of necessary new equipment.

So we're in the process of doing that. Unfortunately, we didn't have them adequately tested to put them out. But we are putting them out at this point.

CUOMO: The other question is the training. Two points of concern. One is what you hear from the helicopter in terms of an apparent prejudging of the victim involved and then this lack of de-escalating measures by the police that responded to the scene. That this man, though walking slowly away and arguably not complying with what he is being told to do. If it is true, he is being told to drop to the ground.

BARTLETT: Right.

CUOMO: They could have grabbed him, they could have done so many different things that they did not do. Does that give you a question about the kind of training your officers are getting?

BARTLETT: The training, we have -- we have a very high-quality officer. The requirements that we have to be a Tulsa police officer, they have to have a four-year college degree. So we have a very well- educated officer. The training we have normally is very, very good. Obviously the video speaks for itself. We have -- I have, personally, a lot of questions about a variety of tactics that we've seen. And that's -- that will surely come into play. We're going to have discussions about that very soon.

But at the end of the day, we want to honor the family's request that we approach this thing from a peaceful point of view, that we rely upon our relationships. We're all very, very frustrated and very angry about what we've seen and, fortunately, we've been lucky in Tulsa to avoid a lot of problems.

CUOMO: Well, you know what, you hear -- BARTLETT: But it's something that we spend years and years and years

developing that relationship.

CUOMO: The relationships matter, there's no question. Community policing does as well. And to the extent that you're doing them, Mayor, there's been a benefit.

BARTLETT: Absolutely.

CUOMO: But you know what the protesters say, no justice, no peace. What this situation will come down to after this initial wave of transparency is whether or not these officers are held accountable for what they did and did not do in this situation. Do you have confidence that will happen?

BARTLETT: Absolutely. And that was one thing that I have started off with speaking to the families and to the groups is that they will be held accountable. No question about it in my mind. That is our number one focus right now is the judicial system. The law -- the issue of law must be a top priority, it is a top priority right now. They will be held accountable. Without question.

[07:50:03] CUOMO: Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. We'll stay on the story. Appreciate you joining us on NEW DAY. You're always welcome.

BARTLETT: Thank you very much for your interest.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

BARTLETT: I appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. The latest polls show Donald Trump riding a wave of momentum in three must-win battleground states, including Ohio. So we're going to take you live to Cleveland for our battleground series, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Forty-seven days until Election Day. So all this week we're giving you a look at the race in crucial battleground states. With 18 electoral votes at stake Ohio is a huge prize. Donald Trump has a five-point lead over Hillary Clinton in this latest poll but Ohio's governor, Trump's former primary opponent, John Kasich still has not endorsed him.

CNN's Martin Savidge is live in Cleveland with more. Tell us about the scene there, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. There are 7,700,000 registered voters in the state of Ohio. It's a key state as you've mentioned. Campaigns are racing to try to get even more people registered.

It's been an odd campaign here and that has meant that the candidates sometimes are seen in some really odd places.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): As the clocks ticks down in the Buckeye State both campaigns are going after unlikely Ohioans. For Trump that's voters like Jeff Hill.

JEFF HILL, OHIO VOTER: Donald Trump's who I'm voting for.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Would you say you're Republican?

HILL: This year I am. I'm not -- ordinarily no. This year I'm Republican.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): He's older, white, blue-collar. Trump's voter sweet spot. Census numbers show Ohio has more like him than any other battleground state which explains why Trump has here more than plenty, showing up on traditional Democratic turf like factory towns, coal fields, even union halls.

[07:55:10] BOB PADUCHIK, OHIO DIRECTOR FOR TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The people are concerned about national security. They're concerned about domestic security. They're concerned about jobs and some of the trade deals and I think that resonates with not just Republican supporters of Mr. Trump but also independents and Democrats.

SAVIDGE: But Trump isn't the only one after non-typical voters.

(On camera): This is the town of Powell. It's a suburb just north of Columbus. It's definitely predominantly white. It's upper middle class. And it's very heavily Republican. There's a Trump office right across the street for goodness sakes. And yet these are exactly the voters that the Clinton campaign is going after.

How do you speak to that kind of a voter? It's a little bit of a different conversation, I would think.

CHRIS WYANT, OHIO STATE DIRECTOR FOR CLINTON CAMPAIGN: We certainly do talk about Donald Trump and his divisiveness and the rhetoric that we've heard from him consistently for the last year and a half while he's been running. But we also certainly talk about Secretary Clinton and her -- her career of fighting for children and families.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): That's the same message Clinton's campaign has been hammering home in Ohio TV. Where she and her allies have outspent Trump and his backers by nearly a four to one margin in the state.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The goals we will strive for, the principles we will live by --

SAVIDGE: Sherrie Scarton is a longtime Republican. Voting for Reagan, McCain, and Romney. But she can't vote for Trump.

SHERRIE SCARTON, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Hillary is a smart woman, and Trump is just -- he's just, I hate to say it, I -- he's a maniac.

SAVIDGE: Another more high-profile Republican is also not committing to vote for Trump. Popular Ohio Governor John Kasich. But the key now is turning out the vote. And organizationally Clinton seems to have the edge with 55 field offices and plans for two dozen more compared to Trump's 31 so-called victory offices.

Early voting in Ohio starts in less than four weeks. Plenty of time, political expert Paul Beck says, for things to change for either candidate.

(On camera): Nobody's got this state wrapped up.

PAUL BECK, OHIO POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: The real question now is not which candidate voters may go for, but will voters actually vote at all? An early indication you could look at the applications for absentee ballots in the state, well over a half million have been filed. 40,000 ahead of this same period in 2012 -- Alisyn and Chris.

CAMEROTA: Martin, thank you.

CUOMO: Appreciate it, pal.

Our battleground series continues tomorrow. We're going to take you to the tight race in North Carolina. Clinton looking to make some history there.

We have much more on our breaking coverage of the violence in Charlotte. Let's get to it.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do he some breaking news for you because it's been a second night of violent protests erupting in Charlotte as anger builds over the deadly police shooting of a black man.

North Carolina's governor declaring a state of emergency there because riots have broken out in the city's business district as you can see on your screen. They are clashing with police there.

CUOMO: There were protesters, legitimate ones but there were also vandals, shattering windows of downtown businesses that lead one person was critically wounded and four officers were also hurt.

The big question in Charlotte is, why won't officials release video that they say -- that they say, proves their account of what happened in this shooting of Keith Lamont Hill Scott that he had a gun?

We're going to talk with somebody who has seen that dash cam video. What does he see?

We have every angle covered. Let's begin with CNN's Nick Valencia live in downtown Charlotte. NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. The

riots last night were restricted to downtown central business district. The neighborhoods seem to have been spared but not the businesses here, especially on this street. Behind me you could see the aftermath looters targeting this souvenir shop. Police unfortunately anticipate more of the same tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): Overnight a state of emergency declared in Charlotte. The governor deploys the National Guard.

GOV. PAT MCCRORY (R), NORTH CAROLINA: We cannot tolerate violence, we cannot the destruction of property, and we'll not tolerate the attacks toward our police officers.

VALENCIA: Violent protests erupt for a second night. In the chaos a man lays bleeding on the ground from his head. Authorities say one person was shot by another civilian outside the city's Omni Hotel. That person is on life support and in critical condition.

Police descend on demonstrators in riot gear, firing flash grenades and deploying tear gas to disperse crowds. CNN's Boris Sanchez in the middle of the intense scene.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Whoa, OK. They clearly want us out of here.

VALENCIA: CNN's Ed Lavandera also caught in the frame.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK. It's OK.

VALENCIA: Knocked over by a protester while reporting on live TV. The protester later apologized.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Someone taking out their frustrations on me.

VALENCIA: Police confirmed several police officers suffered injuries. Charlotte --