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Trump & Clinton Face Off Tonight in First Debate; Charlotte Police Release Video of Keith Scott Shooting. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 26, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I look so forward to the debate with Hillary.

[07:00:04] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is no new Donald Trump. This is it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

We are live, as you can hear, on the campus of Hofstra University. This is where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will square off for the first time in a historic debate. We are 14 hours away now. Tonight's debate being called the most consequential in modern political history. So, no pressure.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It's all pressure.

CAMEROTA: It's all pressure.

CUOMO: And that's what makes it so consequential. How will each of these candidates do with all the pressure and attention on them? Hey, and the timing is perfect. This race is locked out. We have new, national and battleground state polls, showing that it is a virtual tie. Take a look for yourself.

Election is just 43 days away, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Let's begin our coverage and give you the numbers. We'll give you the analysis. We have CNN's Jason Carroll starting us off. He's live inside the debate hall.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris. And a lot of folks are wondering what's going to happen when these two candidates take the stage behind me. Two very different candidates who are preparing in very different ways.

Let's take Donald Trump, who has not been following the traditional route. Has not been holding mock debates. His advisors saying they don't want him to be over-prepared for what's going to be happening later on. Instead, what he's been doing is going over some of the issues with

his trusted advisors. Versus Hillary Clinton, who has been following their traditional route. What she's been doing is she has been holding mock debates, in fact, having one of her long-time trusted advisors, Philippe Reines, standing in as Donald Trump as she prepares. Even late last night, preparing for the debate that's to come ahead.

So two very, very different styles. Both campaigns trying to manage expectations ahead of tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I'm very concerned that Donald Trump will be graded on a curve. Just because he doesn't fly off the handle in the middle of this debate does not mean that he is prepared to be president of the United States.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: If Mr. Trump has any disadvantage going into tomorrow night's debate, it's that he's not really treated fairly. And that's pretty obvious if you read many of the print reports, if you turn on almost any station at any point in the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So, the debate will last about 90 minutes. It will be broken into six 15-minute segments. Clinton will be at the podium on stage left. Trump will be at the podium on stage right. One thousand people expected to be right here in the hall. Up to 100 million people expected to watch -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Just huge numbers in terms of viewership. Thank you, Jason.

Let's look at some other important numbers right now. The latest polls show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton locked in a virtual tie nationally. There's a new CNN poll of polls. That's the one that averages the last five national polls. It shows Clinton with a razor- thin lead, 43 percent to Trump's 41 percent.

Now, this morning, CNN has new battleground state polls, as well. Those all-important swing states, which have the race down to one point in two key states. Let's look at Colorado. Trump edges out Clinton among likely voters there, 42 to 41 percent, while Clinton has a slight lead in Pennsylvania over Trump, 45 to 44 percent. It couldn't be any tighter, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, joining us now with what we can expect from Donald Trump at tonight's epic debate, we have senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign, Jason Miller.

Jason, thank you for joining us before the big night. How is your candidate feeling?

JASON MILLER, SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: He's feeling good going into tonight. I think we have the momentum is on our side to see these new poll numbers that are out today, showing Mr. Donald Trump definitely has a lot of support, momentum, particularly in these key battleground states. We're seeing it nationally with numbers showing that Mr. Trump is in the lead.

And with regard to Secretary Clinton, I saw reports from your own Dan Merica last night, saying that Secretary Clinton was polling two a days (ph). That might be something to brag about when you're getting ready for high school football, but I'm not sure heading into arguably the biggest debate that our country has ever seen that that's something that you really want to be putting out there.

CUOMO: What's wrong with preparation, Jason? You guys are trying to spin this as a virtue that Trump doesn't want to study the issues, doesn't want to do mock debates? Why? Why is going in there and winging it an advantage?

MILLER: Well, that's not the case, at all. Mr. Trump is going to be very prepared for this evening. But the key point to make about Mr. Trump is that he's going to go in there with the clarity and the conviction of a candidate who knows exactly what his vision is and exactly how he wants to help the country. And so he's going to go in there and essentially be himself. And that's something that's really easy to prepare for.

Secretary Clinton has a much bigger challenge as she's trying to program all of her lines and figure out what poll-tested methods are going to help tonight. Mr. Trump has a much different approach, and quite frankly, I think that's why he's doing so well in the polls.

[07:05:15] CUOMO: And, obviously, the excitement is the volatility with Trump, right? And what he wants to avoid tonight is a moment like the Fiorina one. Let's play that. Then you can tell me why you don't think that happens tonight. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPER, CNN ANCHOR: Ms. Fiorina, I do want to ask you about this. In an interview last week in "Rolling Stone" magazine. Donald Trump said the following about you, quote, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" Mr. Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance. Please feel free to respond what you think about his persona.

CARLY FIORINA (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, it's interesting to me Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly and what Mr. Bush said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.

TRUMP: I think she's got a beautiful face, and I think she's a beautiful woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What have you taught or what has he learned from that moment that will make him different tonight?

MILLER: I think what you're seeing tonight, Mr. Trump will be very focused. I think he's -- I think he knows exactly what he wants to tell the American people. That is that he's ready to be commander in chief right now. Seeing eight years of the country going in the wrong direction and Mr. Trump is ready to take it in a much better direction. I think you'll see that he's remarkably focused for this evening.

CUOMO: Is this the night? Do you think that this is -- you know, we always talk about the hype in politics. I don't think there's any tonight. I think this is the moment that this is Donald Trump's chance to sit across from or stand across from Hillary Clinton and make the case that he can be president of the United States. Do you see it as that big of a proposition tonight?

MILLER: To me it's always important, and Mr. Trump is a game-day player. He'll be ready for this evening. And again, I take you back to -- let's look to the energy and momentum coming to this weekend. You see the poll numbers looking good for Mr. Trump. We see these crowds, these rallies. They're drawing tens of thousands of people.

And quite frankly, Chris, the news from the Clinton camp coming into this weekend, with Cheryl Mills, with the news that she's taking immunity from the Department of Justice, this is -- this is now five former Clinton staffers, employees and consultants who have taken immunity. That's a basketball starting lineup. I'd name them something like the Clinton Five, but there might be more immunities before this next weekend.

So with Mr. Trump, he's very focused. He's very clear, and he'll be ready to go for this evening. You know, I think, really, the burden is on Secretary Clinton.

CUOMO: If the scandal, if that's what tonight is about, if it' a scandal kind of measuring contest, you won't get to any of the issues, because there's so many controversies with both of these candidates. That's part of the trick for the moderator.

And one of the spin moves that's coming out of both sides is, "Hey, will there be fact checking tonight?" I always thought that was, like, the main job of a moderator. But from the Trump side, we're hearing, "No, don't fact check. That's not what this is about." Why? Why would you not want fact checking in a debate?

MILLER: I think what tonight is going to be about, is we talk about how we're going to get our economy back on track, how we're going to make our nation safe, again. We're going to renegotiate these trade deals, how we're going to stop illegal negotiation. Mr. Trump will present his vision. Secretary Clinton can present her vision.

And I think, especially with upwards of 68 percent of the American public think that we're going in the wrong direction. They're going to see Mr. Trump is that agent of change, someone who's ready to take our country forward. That's what I think we're going to see tonight. CUOMO: Right. I understand that that's what you want to be

discussing. But when one of the candidates says something that's wrong, you know, or that is, obviously, nonfactual, why would you not want the moderator to be in the position to check that?

MILLER: We think that Lester Holt will be very fair this evening. There is, I think, some concern that things might be a little bit tougher for Mr. Trump, just since there's so much blowback against NBC after the commander in chief forum a couple of weeks ago.

But look, Mr. Trump will be ready. He'll be ready to make his case, defend his positions. I think he'll do well.

CUOMO: And when you're coming into tonight with the preparation, was there a moment where you were sitting with Trump or watching him and saying, "He's ready"? Did you have a moment like that with him?

MILLER: There have been several of those moments. I mean, Mr. Trump is -- he's really hitting his stride as a candidate right now. We're seeing it on the campaign trail. And quite frankly, we're seeing it with these poll numbers that are great. He's -- he's going to be ready for this evening.

CUOMO: You think this is the big moment? You said earlier when I asked you, "Well, debates always matter." We've never seen anything like this. Hillary Clinton has never been in a situation like this. She's never been in a general election debate before. Trump has never been in anything like this before. Do you think this will be the defining moment of this race?

[07:10:05] MILLER: I think tonight will be important. Like I said, Chris, we have several debates that the candidates will be going through. We have six more weeks on the campaign trail.

But the trend lines are really what matters here. We're seeing, like I said, the crowds. We're seeing the energy. We're seeing the momentum. We're seeing that Mr. Trump is a very focused candidate. Tonight will be important, but so will the other two debates and everything that happens for the final six weeks.

CUOMO: But there's only one first, Jason, and that's what we're going to see tonight. Thank you for joining us on NEW DAY. Good luck tonight.

MILLER: Thanks, Chris, appreciate it.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Chris, Charlotte, North Carolina's, mayor lifting a midnight curfew as dash-cam and body-cam video of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott was released to the public this weekend. But big questions remain this morning.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is live in Charlotte with more. What have you learned, Brynn? BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, remember, these two videos are what Keith Scott's family viewed before they went public, and they don't provide many answers to the big question. Was this shooting justified? Of course, that question, the center of an ongoing investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gun! Gun! Drop the gun! Drop the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) gun!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't shoot him!

GINGRAS (voice-over): Keith Lamont Scott's widow releasing cellphone video of her husband's final moments before he was fatally shot by a Charlotte police officer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't have a gun.

GINGRAS: Insisting that Scott was not armed when officers opened fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, chief, chief! Don't you do it.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Release the video!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Release the video!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Release the video!

GINGRAS: Under mounting pressure from the public, Charlotte police releasing their own video a day later, including this dash-cam footage showing an officer in plain clothes, with his weapon drawn on Scott. You can see Scott exit his SUV and begins walking backwards toward police. Then Scott is shot at four times by Officer Brentley Vinson, who is off camera at the time.

JUSTIN BAMBERG, FAMILY ATTORNEY: There is no definitive evidence in this video as to whether or not there is an object in his hand and, if there is, what that object is.

GINGRAS: Also made public, body-camera footage from an officer racing to the scene. In the chaos, you briefly see Scott with his right arm by his side. Moments later, he's lying on the ground with five officers converging on him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Handcuffs. Handcuffs. Handcuffs.

GINGRAS: None of the three videos show clearly whether Scott was armed.

CHIEF KERR PUTNEY, CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT: You have to put all pieces together. We interviewed a lot of people. We've interviewed all of our officers involved, and the consistent themes were the facts.

GINGRAS: Police presenting photographs of a handgun, holster and marijuana cigarette that officers said they recovered from the scene.

Demonstrators swarming Bank of America Stadium Sunday. Activists boycotting the NFL Carolina Panthers game in protest of Scott's death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GINGRAS: And we're told a sit-in calling for the resignation of mayor and police chief has started last night until this inclement weather came through. We expect it to pick back up, though, later this evening -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Brynn, thank you very much.

More news to tell you about. A lone suspect in the deadly shooting rampage at a Washington state mall expected to be arraigned today. The Turkish immigrant is accused of killing five people last Friday at a Macy's store at a mall in Burlington that's just north of Seattle. Authorities say the 20-year-old, who has a criminal record, was taken into custody after a nearly 24-hour manhunt. They say he has no ties to the victims. They're still digging for a motive in the attack.

CAMEROTA: The king of golf is gone. Beloved golfing legend Arnold Palmer died Sunday in Pittsburgh. He was 87 years old. Palmer had millions of adoring fans and credited for making the sport a televised sport. His hall of fame career defined in part by his epic battles on the fairways with rival Jack Nicklaus. President Obama joined golfing legends Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus in extending condolences to Palmer's family.

That's a long life, long, full life.

CUOMO: You know, a truly great American there. You know, of course, golf is still a country club sport, you know, by and large, but Arnie Palmer and Arnie's Army, you know, with his wood chopping stroke and his all-American appeal and his working-class roots. You know, he really introduced something to that sport that made it so attractive on television. It was as much about him as it was about the event, you know.

CAMEROTA: I pay tribute to him all the time at every lunch, because I enjoy an Arnold Palmer.

CUOMO: He does have a drink named after him.

CAMEROTA: So there you go.

CUOMO: Very true, very true. All right. So protests did extend into a sixth straight night over the deadly police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. Newly-released dash and body-cam video, as well as photos are not going to end the controversy. Was there a gun that police say, yes. You hear in the video a police saying, "Gun, gun, gun."

[07:15:06] But did they need to shoot and kill? We debate, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: For a sixth straight night, Charlotte protesters marched through the streets of North Carolina, demanding justice for Keith Scott's death.

Over the weekend, Charlotte police released dash-cam and body-cam videos of the deadly encounter. Police say a gun was recovered at the scene.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator and host of BET News, Marc Lamont Hill; and law enforcement trainer and former NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Marc, I want to start with you. Police say that they recovered a gun. They say the gun had Keith Scott's fingerprints on it. Does that change your thinking about this case?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I imagine that the police want to make that claim. They've made that claim from the beginning.

What I was hoping for was something more conclusive from the video. For over a week now, or nearly a week now, we've been hearing, you know, "Once you see this video, all doubt will be erased. All these protesters will be put to shame. Then we'll realize this has all been for naught."

[07:20:03] And when I look at the video, I still don't see any conclusive evidence of him having the gun at that moment. I don't doubt that he owned a gun. I don't doubt that there was some gun in the area. The question is, did he have a gun when he was backing away from the police? And that question is yet to be answered for me.

CAMEROTA: It is really unsatisfying, to tell you the truth, when you watch the video. It's very heartbreaking, and it's very disturbing when you watch the video.

So let's take a look at -- this is the dash-cam video of one of the police cruisers that pulled up on the scene. And it's very upsetting. I just want to tell our viewers, because right now, there is -- on the left side of your screen, that is Mr. Scott getting out. He looks like he's complying. He's walking very slowly backwards. And then he's shot. And you just see him fall there on the left side of your screen.

Joe, what do you see? It looks liked again, to us, how is that a threat? How is he a threat, walking backwards there? JOSEPH GIACALONE, LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINER: Well, the issue that comes

down to is here, is that, like Marc said, we don't know if he has a gun or not. You can't see it. It's -- it's pretty obvious that we don't know. I mean, he closes the door with his hand, you know. And then the only way he would have it would be with his left hand.

CAMEROTA: Right. So he was right-handed. So he was a right-handed man. Maybe, if we believe the police, he had a gun in his left hand. But, again, in his left hand walking backwards slowly, how does that pose a threat to them?

GIACALONE: Well, the only way that they can articulate that is if that he was planning his method of escape, backing out and then going to run, as soon as he got to a certain point between the two cars.

CAMEROTA: But what do you see when you look at this video?

GIACALONE: Well, I see a guy who is walking back, and I see a police incident where they didn't isolate and contain him to try to keep him within that circle.

CAMEROTA: So, you see bad police protocol, that they shouldn't have had him get out of the car and walk backwards towards him?

GIACALONE: Well -- well, the issue that comes down to is they have to get him out of the car. The question is you have to try to slow this thing down. He's not listening to commands. We have -- the wife is, you know, shouting out things that are going on.

So for the police, they get this tunnel vision kind of thing, where they're focusing in on it. I counted it, I think, about 12 times where he says, you know, drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun. So, you know, the issue that finally comes down to is that this -- at least the crime scene photo of the gun and the evidence marker should have been released tonight within a few hours. This is a standard thing that happens in many cities, including New York City.

CAMEROTA: That would have helped. Marc, police have released this evidence that they say was the gun. They took a picture of it. They said that there was an ankle holster. They say that his fingerprints were found on it. And you do hear even in his wife's cellphone video of them saying, "Drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun." So why are you still skeptical that there was a gun?

HILL: Well, because I have these eyes of mine that are so stubbornly committed to look for the gun and not able to find it. You know, I don't doubt there is a gun. But again, one of the concerns we had is, again, if you look at Charleston with Walter Scott, there was a gun. It just wasn't Walter Scott's. You know -- it wasn't in his possession at the time.

Sometimes police officers place things on the scene afterwards. That's not uncommon. I'm not saying that we should assume that police planted evidence, but it's certainly a reasonable and plausible scenario. When we look at the video and don't see a gun, we're asked to believe that this man was backing out of a car and decided to pick up a weapon to get into a shootout with police and decided to use his off hand, his weak hand to do so strikes me as curious.

And you're right: in the video they absolutely say, "Drop your weapon." But I've been in a lot of scenes with police where I've seen excessive force used where the person will be laying on the ground, not doing anything, and the police will say, "Stop resisting" as they punch him in the face, "stop resisting" as they continue to hit him. Yelling those commands out sometimes is a way of making -- of creating a narrative for yourself. People will says, "Hey, I kept asking him to not resist. We kept telling him to drop the weapon, and he wouldn't. That's not an uncommon thing."

Finally, you know, yes, it's on the tape, but also on the tape is her saying he doesn't have a weapon. So if we're going to go by audible observations, then we could just as easily say that -- that he didn't have a weapon. We don't know. And the video was supposed to...

CAMEROTA: Joe, do you -- you're right, and the video is clearly inconclusive and unsatisfying on that level. Do you understand, Joe, why the public is skeptical, even though the police have said, "oh, we found a gun at the scene"? They're like, "Not so fast."

GIACALONE: Absolutely. And the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has failed to address the social media problem that they have. A lot of misinformation has gone out there from the very beginning, and they have the opportunity to stop it in the beginning.

And instead, we have these alternative stories that have come out. And they should have come out with the facts right away. They should have released some of these photos and some of the videos just to -- not to appease people but to inform people. This is the difference between the two. And now it's almost like they're trying to appease people.

CAMEROTA: Even if there was a gun, Joe. I mean, this was not somebody they were looking for. They just rolled up on him. He was minding his own business, waiting for his child, we're told. At a bus stop. Why did it have to escalate like this? He was outnumbered. There was something like five police officers.

GIACALONE: Well, yes, the number of police officers doesn't disturb me. The fact that they were on their way to a warrant and they -- he was-- you know, attracted their attention because he was spoking a joint, supposedly.

[07:25:00[ You know, this is the kind of thing where I also have to question supervision there. You have all these officers on the scene that are going to do a warrant, and they're not in uniform. You know, we don't know.

And we also hear a story where they had to go run back and get their tactical outfits on so they might have just been in regular, plain clothes.

CAMEROTA: Right.

GIACALONE: And Mr. Scott might have saw that officer carrying a gun himself without the vest on and thought he was a threat to him, too. So we have to think of that story, too.

CAMEROTA: That is a really interesting scenario. Thank you for pointing that out. Joe Giacalone, Marc Lamont Hill, thank you very much, both of you.

We do want to get your take out there. You can tweet us at NEW DAY or you can post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay. We'd like to read those.

All right. Back here to Hofstra, debate moderator Lester Holt has a tough job ahead of him tonight, keeping two presidential hopefuls with major trust issues honest. We will speak with surrogates for both the Clinton and Trump campaigns, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. We have the clock on your screen. You always know that something is about to happen when the CNN clock is on there. We're about 13 hours away from the biggest moment of this presidential race. Period. All hype is justified. Trump and Clinton and their first debate tonight. And guess what?