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Suspect Killed After Blast at Brussels Train Station; Dashcam Video Released of Philando Castile Shooting; Interview with Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 21, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:10] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Belgian officials revealing more about a terror suspect who were shot and killed following a failed bomb attack at a Brussels central station.

We have CNN's Erin McLaughlin live in Brussels with the latest.

This was some police work that was done there.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris.

And we're getting new and chilling detail as to how this attack unfolded. At 8:40 p.m. yesterday evening, the suspect entered the train station just behind me with a suitcase, shouting, approached a group of people, the suitcase partially detonated. He dropped the suitcase and raced down the platform in pursuit of the station master.

The suitcase detonated a second time, full of nails and glass bottles. Thankfully no one was hurt in either of those explosions. The suspect then stormed soldiers inside the station. The soldiers opened fire, shooting and killing him.

He has been identified, although not named by authorities. Thirty-six years old Moroccan national with no prior links to terror. They raided his home in the overnight hours.

This is just the latest incident in a string of terrorist-related incidents to strike Europe. On Monday, you may remember that failed attack on the Champs-Elysees. The entire continent, Brooke, remains on high alert.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I can't imagine the climate in Europe. At least no one was hurt.

Erin, thank you so much in Brussels.

Chilling new video in the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile released four days after a jury found the officer who shot him not guilty. We will show you the tape and talk to the Castile family's attorney, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:34] CUOMO: Authorities have released dashcam video revealing the chilling moments that led to a police officer shooting and killing Philando Castile during a traffic stop last year in Minnesota. The video comes just four days after the jury found the police officer not guilty of manslaughter.

So, the video is relevant, the case has been decided, and it is certainly graphic.

CNN's Ryan Young has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILANDO CASTILE: Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me.

JERONIMO YANEZ, POLICE OFFICER: OK.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly released dash cam video showing the crucial moment that led up to this deadly encounter last July.

DIAMOND REYNOLDS, CASTILE'S GIRLFRIEND: You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was getting his license and registration, sir.

YOUNG: The shooting of this man, 32-year-old Philando Castile by St. Antony Police officer Jeronimo Yanez ignited nationwide protests over the use of force by police. After Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds broadcast the shooting's horrific aftermath on Facebook last July.

REYNOLDS: Oh, my God, please don't tell me he's dead.

YOUNG: Just after 9:00 July 6th, in Falcon Heights, a small predominantly white neighborhood outside of St. Paul, Minnesota, Officer Yanez stops Castile believing he resembled a suspect in a robbery and had a broken headlight. Diamond Reynolds is seated in the front passenger seat, her 4-year-old daughter in the back seat.

YANEZ: Reason I pulled you over you, your brake lights are out.

You have your license and insurance?

YOUNG: Castile can be seen handing Yanez his insurance card and also telling the officer he has a gun. The situation turning deadly in just seconds.

CASTILE: I have to tell you I do have a firearm on me.

YANEZ: OK, don't reach for it. Don't pull it out. Don't pull it out.

(GUNSHOTS)

REYNOLDS: You just killed my boyfriend. YANEZ: Don't pull it out!

REYNOLDS: He wasn't.

YOUNG: Yanez fires seven shots, five of them hit Castile, two in the heart.

YANEZ: Don't move! (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

Don't move! Don't move!

REYNOLDS: Oh, my god!

YANEZ: Don't move!

REYNOLDS: Don't move, baby.

YANEZ: Code three. Get the baby girl out of here.

YOUNG: Yanez lets out a tirade of profanity as Reynolds begins her Facebook broadcast, narrating a video that will go on to be seen by millions.

YANEZ: I told him not to reach for it. Id told him to get his hand off of it.

REYNOLDS: You told him to get his ID, sir. His driver's license. Oh my God.

YOUNG: Also seen for the first time, Yanez's backup, Officer Joseph Kauser positioned on the passenger side of Castile's car. His casual demeanor up until the moment of the shooting prosecutors say demonstrates he did not feel threatened during the traffic stop.

Kauser told a Minnesota jury early this month he was unaware there was a firearm in the car and was surprised when he heard shots ring out because he didn't know Yanez had pulled his weapon, saying he did not hear the majority of Yanez's interaction with Castile and maintained he never saw a gun in the car.

Also caught on camera moments after the shooting, statements Yanez made to fellow officers.

YANEZ: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

I told him to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) stop, he had his hand on it.

YOUNG: And minutes later, this exchange between Yanez and a supervising female officer.

YANEZ: I told him to take his hands off of it, and he had his grip a lot wider than a wallet, and I don't know where the gun was. He didn't tell me where the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) gun was.

YOUNG: Prosecutors say it was roughly 15 minutes after the shooting that Castile's gun was discovered in his right front pocket by an officer assisting with chest compressions on Castile.

Yanez was found not guilty of second degree manslaughter Friday and on two cunts of dangerous discharge of a firearm for endangering Reynolds and her daughter. Yanez testified last week he feared for his life because Castile put his hand on his firearm, not his wallet or identification, telling the jury, I didn't want to shoot Mr. Castile. That wasn't my intention. I thought I was going to die.

Ryan Young, CNN, Minneapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Thank you to Ryan for putting together the piece.

Why do we show the video after the case has been decided? Because it matters, because it's part of a national conversation, because this was an outcome nobody was happy with, and in the aftermath, whether it was rightful or wrongful, led to discussions about use of force and training and protocols.

[06:40:03] You know, And that's why it still matters even after the decision by the court.

BALDWIN: It does. So, now, we have the attorney for the family of Philando Castile, Judge Glenda Hatchett.

Judge, good morning to you and thank you so much for being with me.

JUDGE GLENDA HATCHETT, ATTORNEY FOR THE FAMILY OF PHILANDO CASTILE: Good morning. Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with, again, this is something that the jurors and you have seen, the family has seen in court. This is the first time we're all publicly seeing this dashcam video. But when you first saw it, what was your reaction?

HATCHETT: I was stunned. Brooke, I was absolutely stunned. I knew in theory what to expect, but we all saw it for the first time the jury saw it. I think that it really is, it shows that Yanez actually panicked.

This is a man who was trying to comply. He was doing exactly what the officer asked him to do. He produced his insurance. He was reaching for his driver's license.

Yanez had the advantage. He has the gun out. He's controlling the situation, and I think the tape really shows a man who panicked and shot that gun seven times.

BALDWIN: In the end, the jury, though, disagreed, acquitting him.

HATCHETT: They did. They did.

BALDWIN: On Friday, much to your dismay and the dismay of the family.

HATCHETT: Yes. BALDWIN: What do you think the jury saw in that piece of tape that you do not?

HATCHETT: What people have said in their interviews with the jurors, one in particular, he said he did not respond to the commands. The thing is, though, Brooke, that if you ask someone to produce their license and they're reaching for their license, is that reasonable justification? And in my mind, it is not.

I am still baffled at how 12 people could come to the conclusion to acquit him in this matter because I do think that this is a compelling example of a man who doesn't have -- he's not a fleeing felon, he's not combative with the police, he's doing everything he's been asked to, but yet, he still loses his life.

And that's the problem I am having, the family is having and so many people in this country are wrestling with this issue.

BALDWIN: Obviously, it was the officer who felt that his life was in danger, and we know the way that court ruled.

HATCHETT: Yes.

BALDWIN: But looking ahead. I know there's the Philando Castile Relief Foundation.

HATCHETT: There is.

BALDWIN: What is the family hoping to happen in the wake of this tragedy for them? And also, are they filing a civil suit?

HATCHETT: Well, the first thing is that I have to say is Valerie Castile has been remarkable. That's not even a great example of what I can say. I don't even have the words to talk about her courage and her conviction in this.

And the relief fund actually has already helped other families and has given out scholarships in his honor.

As far as a civil matter which is where I'm representing her as the administrator of his estate, we are looking at next steps.

Robert Bennett who is my co-counsel in Minnesota, we're looking at what is appropriate as we go forward on that side of the case. We'll have more details on that coming up.

But, in this -- I hope that the nation will really look at this carefully, Brooke, and I hope we as a nation will move to a different place because we're seeing these shootings far, far, far too often.

BALDWIN: Final question. It would seem there's a report locally about something being filed in federal court. Can you confirm that for me?

HATCHETT: No, I can't, because we're still at the process now of evaluating what the next steps are. But, as you know, I'm very transparent and I certainly will share those details with you.

BALDWIN: OK, Judge Glenda Hatchett, thank you so much.

HATCHETT: Thank you very much, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Chris?

CUOMO: All right. We're going to shift topics after the break. A couple of Major League rookies are chasing history, impressive displays of power. What may be about to happen, we have the details in the "Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:54] CUOMO: New York and Los Angeles, Major League Baseball's two largest markets, they got two rookies taking the league by storm. How big?

Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report".

Impressive stats. Impressive.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Chris?

Your Yankees didn't have to wait too long after Derek Jeter retired for another superstar to come along. Rookie Aaron Judge, the Yankees' best young slugger since Mickey Mantle. The 6'7" Judge continuing his assault on baseball last night with another blast. His league leading 24th home run of the season.

Check this out. Judge's teammates can have a little fun with how tall he is, picking each other up to give him the high five. The Yankees, though, they would lose their seventh straight, 8-3, to the Angels.

Meanwhile, out west, another rookie, also dominating. Last night, the Dodgers' Cody Bellinger became the first rookie ever to hit 10 home runs in ten games. He's only two home runs behind Judge for the league lead.

Both players should be in the home run derby contest in Miami. It should be a lot of fun.

All right. Former Patriots and Chiefs offensive lineman Ryan O'Callaghan revealing publicly to Outsports that he is gay. O'Callaghan was his way to hide his sexuality from his family and friends. O'Callaghan also said the pressure of hiding that he is gay led to him abusing pain football was his way to hide sexuality from family and friends.

O'Callaghan says the pressure of hiding he is gay led to him abusing pain killers, and he said he planned to kill himself after his football career but a counselor for the Chiefs helped talk him out of it. O'Callaghan now says he hopes his story will help others that maybe dealing with several circumstances.

And, Brooke, he thinks that the NFL is now ready for an openly gay player.

BALDWIN: Glad he's out and I'm glad he's talking about it.

Thank you so much, Andy Scholes, with the "Bleacher Report" this morning.

Special counsel Robert Mueller set to meet with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today. What could come out of that meeting, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:18] CUOMO: All right. So, in just a few hours, special counsel Robert Mueller is going to be meeting with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now, yesterday, he met with leaders of the House Intel Committee. Why? Because he's trying to brief them on what he's doing so they can coordinate efforts.

Joining us is Democratic Senator Chris Coons. He's a member of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committee. I got it right there finally.

It's good to have you, Senator. Thank you for joining us.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE: Thank you, Chris. Good to be on with you again.

CUOMO: All right. So, let's go through some big headlines for today.

First, what do you make of the Democrat loss in South Carolina and Georgia's special election? What does this mean for you Democrats?

COONS: Well, Chris, we've got a long way to go until there's an election for the 2018 House. The special elections gin up a lot of attention locally and nationally. Obviously, it's disappointing not to have taken this seat in the Georgia sixth, but it is a seat held for years by Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich and was most recently held by a Republican congressman. So, it's not surprising that Jon Ossoff wasn't successful in the special election.

Between health care and tax reform, there's a lot of things that are going to happen here in Congress between now and the next time there's a general election where control of the House is genuinely at issue.

CUOMO: And I see how Democrats can take some pride in getting close. But that's not what it's about. You have to figure out why all the negativity towards the president isn't enough for people to switch if they are Republicans to Democrat. What are you not giving them?

COONS: Well, Chris, I think our challenge is to put forward a strong and clear agenda that helps Middle Americans look at the two parties and look at the directions we'd like to take the country and say they would rather have Congress in the hands of Democrats.

[06:55:09] At the moment, Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. So, they've got the opportunity to move their agenda in a way they haven't had in a long time. We need to be not just pointing at some of the excesses or even outrages of President Trump, some of the statements he made as a candidate or some of the choices he's making, and instead put forward a positive and constructive agenda. I think if we don't do that, we won't be successful in 2018. If we do do that, I think we've got a really strong chance of taking back the House.

CUOMO: Let's get your take on two issues that do matter to the American people. The first one, the press secretary says he hasn't had a chance to talk with the president yet about whether or not he agrees that the Russians hacked and interfered during our election. Do you believe that on any level? The fact, of course, is the president has talked about this many times. He's always been sideways on acknowledging the Russian hacking despite all the evidence that it actually happened.

What do you make of the press secretary saying they haven't talked about it?

COONS: Well, that's right, Chris. It's just puzzling for Sean Spicer to say he doesn't know, he hasn't talked to him about it. It was striking in the recent testimony by former Director Comey that Attorney General Sessions had apparently never sat down with him to ask him in detail about the Russian intrusion into our 2016 election and what we should do about it.

The more important thing is that it's not clear that President Trump takes this seriously as the assault on America that it is. Here in the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, we passed strong sanctions against Russia by a vote of 98-2 last week. And I think that shows that Republicans and Democrats have come together to confront this threat.

Former Director Comey said in his testimony before the Senate recently that because Vladimir Putin's Russia succeeded in interfering in our 2016 election, we can expect them to come back and try again and try harder. We need to be working in a bipartisan basis. This isn't an election issue for 2016. This is an election issue for 2018 and 2020, Chris.

CUOMO: Quickly, what do you want to come out of the Mueller meeting today? I know you won't be there with the leadership of the committee. But what do you want?

COONS: It's called deconfliction. It's making clear what's the investigation that Mueller is looking into, and what's the Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee looking into, to make sure there isn't interference between those two investigations.

Former Director Comey testified recently that he believed it's entirely possible to have on going investigations here in the Congress, and I have confidence in those investigations. In the Senate, they're moving forward in a strong and bipartisan way.

Comey testified it's possible for those investigations to move forward without causing a needless interference with the counterintelligence and possibly criminal investigation being led by special counsel Mueller. CUOMO: But Comey is out and Mueller is in. You will learn today what

he thinks about deconfliction. We look forward to getting that reckoning.

Lastly, health care. There's a lot of hypocrisy going on, nothing new, where you are. You have an undoubtedly closed process that Republicans are saying they're going to have a draft maybe tomorrow, but this week, and they want to vote next week. What do you see coming?

COONS: Well, we don't know what's in the bill that's being written by the Senate Republican majority. There are many Republican senators who said in recent days they don't even know what's in the bill.

CUOMO: Yes.

COONS: Chris, here is the difference between this process and the process that produced the Affordable Care Act. There are dozens of hearings, days of hearings in front of the Health and Education Committee and the Finance Committee in the Senate before that bill ever moved forward to the floor. Folks may not remember that. They may instead remember a statement by Speaker Pelosi.

But the important thing to remember is that dozens of amendments by Republicans were taken up and voted on, more than 150 amendments in those committee hearings. It was a long, tortuous process that took nearly a year from introduction to passage. It went through several different committees. There were lots of opportunities for the American people to learn what was being considered, to think about what was in the bill and to weigh in.

I had the head of an important hospital in my area in my office yesterday -- very upset, very anxious because he and his physicians, their nurses, this hospital that cares for children in my community, they don't know what's in it and I can't tell them what's in it. This is no way to move forward a bill that will affect such an important thing as the health care of every American.

CUOMO: Senator Coons, thank you for being on NEW DAY.

COONS: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. We're following a lot of news including a big win for Republicans in Georgia and in South Carolina.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JON OSSOFF (D), LOST GEORGIA HOUSE RACE: Rather than demonizing each other, we find common ground to move forward.

CUOMO: Republicans avoiding a major upset in Georgia's special election.

KAREN HANDEL (R), WON GEORGIA HOUSE RACE: We need to lift up this nation so that we can find a more civil way to deal with our disagreements.