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Gunman Attacks California Synagogue; Synagogue Member Killed in Gun Attack Remembered by Friend; Joe Biden's Deputy Campaign Manager Discusses Biden's Message on White Supremacy. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2019 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A teenager stormed into a synagogue and opened fire on innocent people celebrating the last day of Passover. A funeral is planned today for Lori Gilbert Kaye who was killed in the attack. Her friends say the 60-year-old shielded her rabbi from the bullets as he raced to evacuate children. You will hear from one of friends in just a moment. Three others were also injured, including Rabbi Israel Goldstein. He spoke out after the violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RABBI YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, CHABAD POWAY: -- let anyone or anything take us down. Terrorism like this will not take us down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Officials say a motive remains unclear, but the gunman's own reported words suggest a hate crime. An anonymous letter posted online from someone claiming to be the gunman referenced recent attacks on houses of worship, including the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue six months earlier and at the mosques in New Zealand.

President Trump denounced the synagogue attack and anti-Semitism at a rally over the weekend. The president, however, is still trying to defend and explain his controversial response to the deadly Charlottesville white supremacist rally after former Vice President Joe Biden criticized it in his campaign launch video. CNN's Dan Simon is live in Poway, California, with the latest for us. Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. The suspect is 19-year-old John Earnest. He is a college student. And the apparent motive seems to be anti-Semitism. The woman who died in this attack, Lori Gilbert Kaye, she died after putting herself between the shooter and the rabbi, the rabbi saying that she took a bullet for the entire congregation. He says that he is alive because of what she did.

But we're also hearing about some other incredible acts of bravery and heroism, including from a 34-year-old Almog Peretz. He was shot in the leg, and then moments after that he ushered several children to safety. There was also an Iraq war veteran who was part of the congregation. He charged the shooter. Apparently, the shooter dropped his weapon moments after that. And then you had this Border Patrol agent who fired several rounds at the shooter as he was fleeing in his vehicle.

For some inexplicable reason, the shooter called police to identify himself, and he was apprehended moments after that. In the meantime, we are hearing from the rabbi who explained the early sequence of events. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RABBI YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, CHABAD POWAY: I walk two, three footsteps when I hear a loud bang. I thought Lori may have fell or the table tipped over into the lobby right here. I turn around, and I see a sight that I -- un-describable. Here is a young man standing with a rifle pointing right at me. And I looked at him. He had sunglasses on. I couldn't see his eyes. I couldn't see his soul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: It's unclear if the shooter had any kind of weapons training. We don't know how he obtained the gun, but from what it sounds like, the gun jammed at a certain point during the shooting. And if that is, in fact, the case, that likely prevented several more people from losing their lives. John and Alisyn?

BERMAN: Dan Simon for us in Poway, California. Dan, thank you very much. The woman killed in the attack, Lori Gilbert Kaye, she was at the synagogue to say the mourner's prayer, the Kaddish, for her mother who recently had passed away. Moments ago Alisyn spoke to Lori's friend of 25 years, Dr. Roneet Lev. She honors her friend Lori as she is buried this afternoon. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. RONEET LEV, FRIEND OF LORI GILBERT KAYE: I appreciate the kindness of everybody and really happy to be here, and important for me to tell and let the whole world know Lori Kaye, my best friend, the second mother to my children. We raised our children together here at this congregation of Chabad of Poway. Anybody who knew her, and she reached many lives around the world, countless people that may not even know her name, now need to know Lori Kaye, because she was a most amazing person.

She was human, she had false and positive aspects, she's had ups and downs in her life like all of us. But no matter what, in the worst of her darkest days, and she's had trauma in her life, she always, always looked at the positive.

Before coming here, I came and took some of many books she has all over her house. And this is her. This is "Be Happy, You Are Doing a Freaking Good Job, 14,000 Things to be Happy About." And that's Lori, always looking at the positive, always giving. Anyone who knows her, knows her as someone giving. I was looking in her car, and I found greeting cards, I found gift cards, I found an Easter basket full of things to give to someone else that people she knew were giving.

[08:05:03] I've traveled around the whole world and she loved that, and admired from afar. So before every trip, she would give me a check or two checks, each for $100 or more. And I'd be all over the world, and she said Roneet, go find some charity that needs it. And I told this story to another friend. She goes, oh, she did this for me, and she did this for me.

So she is the symbol of random acts of kindness. And the more we're talking about her, the more I hear about it. My mom -- she took my mom to breakfast the other day. She loves her coffee at Einstein Bagel and she gets a bagel. And she gets two. And my mom goes no, no, I don't need it. She goes no, no, there's a homeless person, and she's giving her extra coffee and bagel for someone else.

She's sometimes late. And why is she late? She goes, oh, because I had to stop by this person's house or that person's house. She collected people. She loved people.

And we're standing here in front of my synagogue, a house of worship. We believe in God. We believe God is good. If god picked Lori Kaye, if God picked Lori Kaye, he did this for a reason and the reason is good because we believe God is good, and Lori is a person who can spread goodness in this world. She's making us stronger as a Jewish people. We will not let anti-Semitism stop us in any way. Whoa know there's evil in this world, but it is nothing compared to the good we have.

CAMEROTA: Will things change at your synagogue because of this? Because you know that you're under threat, will there be an armed guard present? What will make you all feel comfortable going back to synagogue?

LEV: Well, it will change us. It's changed the rabbi forever. We're trying to think of cute nicknames to call him with his hands. So it will change us, it will change us, but it will change us for the better. It will change us for the stronger. I have four children, and they're going to be proud Jewish people coming to this synagogue, not afraid. We will be stronger. We'll have more security. That's not my expertise, but our faith is stronger. We will come here more often, not less often. And no one should be afraid.

Like I said, there's more good, there's way more good than evil. Yes, evil exists, and we're going to wipe it out. But there's way more good. And the way we get to that is by coming here, being a part of the community, embracing our faith, embracing goodness in however you express it. And this will not stop us. This unites us and makes us better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: It's remarkable to hear the resolve so soon after the attack while they're still experiencing their grief. That's the same thing that I felt and heard in Pittsburgh afterwards. It just strengthens their faith.

BERMAN: Well, I think that's exactly right. She does say this will change them. It's changed the rabbi. The rabbi has lost his fingers. But her faith, their faith is not shaken. And in fact, her kids and more people will be headed to synagogue I think this weekend. CAMEROTA: Lori, the victim here, personified forgiveness, and her

daughter was quoted as saying she is sure that Lori has already forgiven the gunman.

BERMAN: And I have to say the most moving line in that interview as when Dr. Lev told you that God chose Lori for a reason.

CAMEROTA: The rise of white nationalism is now a key issue in the 2020 race. Former Vice President Joe Biden launched his campaign by criticizing President Trump's response to Charlottesville. President Trump has tried to defend his response as being handled perfectly. So joining us is Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director. Kate, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: So Kate, it's been reported that there was an internal debate in the campaign about what you would lead with, what subject you would focus on for former Vice President Biden's launch, his campaign video. And you fastened on Charlottesville. And now it seems, of course, tragically prophetic. Now just days later we see what happens in Poway. And I guess I'm wondering, was it always a plan of the campaign to focus on white supremacy, or was this just going to be a campaign video that made a big splash, but then you would move on to other priorities?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, Vice President Biden feels intensely that we are in a battle for the soul of this nation, that we are in a moment of real moral reckoning, and we have to make a decision about what kind of country we want to be and how we want to treat each other.

[08:10:00] So it's something that he feels profoundly, it is a motivating reason for him to run. He thinks -- I heard the woman you were just talking with say that there's so much more good in this country than there is evil. I think that's certainly something that Vice President Biden would agree with. And so it's something that really motivates him and is a core reason he's running for president, to restore a sense of dignity and moral leadership to the White House. So I think you'll hear a lot from him on that.

CAMEROTA: And so today, we understand he's in Pennsylvania, tomorrow he's in Iowa, then this coming weekend in South Carolina, will we hear him talking about the rise of white supremacy?

BEDINGFIELD: I think you'll hear him say what he has consistently been saying. After the tragedy in Charlottesville he wrote a piece for "The Atlantic" talking about how he felt we were in a battle for the soul of this nation and how he felt that the threat to the country was unlike any that he'd seen in his lifetime. So I think you will certainly hear him make the case that this is a real moment for Americans to stand up and reclaim American values and treat each other with dignity again. So that's a motivating factor for him. and that is certainly something that you'll hear from him on the campaign trail. CAMEROTA: And what is Joe Biden's solution to stopping the rise of

white supremacy and white nationalism?

BEDINGFIELD: I think he is somebody who believes fundamentally that we have to treat each other with dignity. I think he is an empathetic leader, he's somebody who cares, who hears people's concerns. And he believes that, again, we have to treat each other with dignity, that we have to once again return to a sense of nobody is better than you are but you're not better than anybody else.

And so I think it's fundamentally about the kind of leadership that he's always represented, and that's what you'll hear from him on the campaign trail. Today he's here in Pittsburgh to lay out his vision for an inclusive middle class, to make sure that everybody who works hard in this country gets dealt into the deal, and to remind people that it's the middle class that built this country. It's not CEOs, it's not hedge fund managers, it's not bankers, it's the middle class. And so you're going to hear that from him as well.

CAMEROTA: That said, the economic numbers have been better-than- expected. The economy on many metrics is booming. We just got the first quarter GDP, 3.2 percent, which is good by any standard. And here is what Celinda Lake, well known Democratic strategist and pollster who has worked with Vice President Biden in the past. Here is what she says about the Democrats' challenges in this election. "We don't really have a robust national message right now. We tend to talk about things like paid leave and equal pay. And those things are all very popular policies, but they don't add up to an economic message that is robust enough to win the presidency and beat Donald Trump. You may agree or not with it, but you know what his message is, and Democrats, you don't know what their message is. That's a recipe for disaster in 2020." So while the economy is booming in this way, what is the vice president's message?

BEDINGFIELD: So I think the issue is that working people aren't feeling this boom, that the benefits of the economy right now are accruing to the top, to the one percent, to the top of the economy. And working people aren't feeling the benefits of a booming economy. So Vice President Biden is somebody who has been a staunch supporter of working families his entire life. In fact, the firefighters today endorsed him for president, talking about the strength of his record, fighting for working families. So you're going to hear from him today about the need to restore the basic bargain in this country, the belief that, if you work hard, you should be dealt in to the prosperity that your hard work creates. And so that's what you're going to hear from him today. That's what he's going to be talking about as he goes around the country.

CAMEROTA: Elizabeth Warren, one of his competitors, has taken issue with where he has gotten some of his fundraising dollars. We know that you guys had an impressive first 24 hours. But she says this, "How did Joe Biden raise so much money in one day? Well, it hopes he hosted a swanky private fundraiser for wealthy donors at the home of the guy who runs Comcast's lobbying shop." In terms of Mr. Biden's message, do you think voters have a problem with going after the money of wealthy lobbyists in this current climate? BEDINGFIELD: We raised $4.4 million online, 107,000 donations, 65,000

new donors who weren't on our list when the vice president announced, responded to his message and chose to give money to the campaign.

We are really, really hearted by the grass roots supports for him across the country, and I think that bears out in our fundraising where people are really energized by what he has to say and are contributing online.

You know, 97 percent of our donations were under $200.00. So there is no question that he is energizing people all across the country.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Kate Bedingfield, thanks for explaining to us what to look for over the next few days.

BEDINGFIELD: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: We'll talk to you again.

BEDINGFIELD: Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, President Trump is condemning anti-Semitism and hate crimes after the attack on the Poway synagogue, but he is still defending his Charlottesville response. We will discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, President Trump condemned anti-Semitism and hate crimes after the deadly attack at a California synagogue. The President though defended his controversial response to Charlottesville.

Joining us now to discuss this, Ana Navarro, CNN political commentator; Kirsten Powers, columnist for "USA Today" and a CNN political analyst; and Jeffrey Toobin, CNN chief legal analyst.

Let me play the sound for everyone so they can hear what the President said. This was during a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and he was speaking about the attacks in California. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America's heart is with the victims of the horrific synagogue's shooting in Poway, California. It just happened. Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:10] TRUMP: We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated -- it just happened, it must be defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Ana, that statement, the right kind of statement to make, how do you assess that versus his defense of Charlottesville over the weekend?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, first, let's give him credit where credit is due. This was the right response this time. The problem is, John; that this is not in a vacuum. It is in context of what he has done and said for the last three years.

Let's remember what his campaign was like. Let's remember the ad that featured Hillary Clinton with wads of cash and a six point Star of David. Let's remember his last ad of the campaign that was an attack on George Soros and Janet Yellen and the CEO of Goldman Sachs -- all Jewish -- again with wads of cash, going back and back to these anti- Semitic tropes.

So look, I think as a country, we've got to reflect and we've got to call out anti-Semitism every single time we see it, whether it's a cartoon in "The New York Times," or whether it's the President of the United States, we've got to call it every time, every single time, regardless of ideology, regardless if it's from somebody we like, or somebody we dislike, regardless if it's Republican or Democrat, or anything in between, because it is triggering people, and it is having a cost of life.

CAMEROTA: Kirsten, it's also just a little bit confusing to hear President Trump talk about these things, because with Charlottesville, for instance, he has decided to give a hearty defense of Robert E. Lee, saying he was a great general, and that that's actually what he's referring to in Charlottesville, he now says in trying to explain why he said there were good people on both sides.

And he says the people that he talked to, in fact, that Robert E. Lee is their favorite General. I mean, it's just a challenge for him to talk about this when not on teleprompter as he was this past weekend, and again, the words are valuable -- and I know everybody appreciates them. But sometimes he says different things.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, well, I mean, when he was asked whether he thought that white supremacy was a problem after the New Zealand mosque attack, he said, I don't really and he said, I think it's a very small group of people that have very, very serious problems.

Well, that's really kind of belied by the statistics, which is that white supremacist attacks are actually on the rise. And I think it's something that, you know, a lot of people are now scared of. And so I think that he doesn't -- yes, I think you're right, when he's on prompter, maybe he says the right thing. But when he is sort of left off the cuff, we get to hear what he really thinks and he doesn't really think that white supremacism is a problem in our society, when it so clearly is. And so all that can say to me is that he is just -- it's just a problem that he doesn't care about.

BERMAN: And then maybe the most important comment here, I'm glad you brought that up, Kirsten because when asked if he saw it as an issue, he diminished it. And his Department of Homeland Security, we've heard it has shifted around resources, not spending as much as people would like to see spent on this issue.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right, I mean, he is very concerned about violence by immigrants. He is very concerned about radical Islamic terrorism. But he is not concerned about white supremacy. And, you know, this is who he is, you know, when he is not on a teleprompter, we see what he really believes.

And you know, if he wants to pretend that those people in Charlottesville were about Robert E. Lee, and not chanting "Jews will not replace us." You know, it's our job to create point out the reality of what's going on there. People are going to believe what they want to believe. But that crowd was not about Robert E. Lee, that was a racist, anti-Semitic crowd and that's the crowd, he continues to this day to endorse.

NAVARRO: And I'm glad Jeff brought up the issue of immigration, because let's remember that in Tree of Life, one of the things that triggered the killer was immigration and the idea that Jews were helping bring in immigrants and therefore destroying the white race. That is the same theme that we are seeing in the manifesto of this killer now here in California that Jews are bringing in immigrants.

And let's remember -- let's remember the myth around George Soros funding the caravan coming up from Central America, and how Donald Trump reacted to that, giving that some credence. So it is all of these things that are triggering mad people, okay. We can't blame anybody. Not Ilhan Omar, not Donald Trump for what a mad person is doing, grabs an AR-15 and starts killing people because they are different, because there is hatred.

[08:25:07] NAVARRO: But I think that everybody has got to take responsibility for the things that are said and done that trigger people. And we see Donald Trump all over Ilhan Omar when she may have said something that is portrayed and perceived as anti-Semitic, yet, pretending he didn't hear what Steve King said -- you know, the congressman from Iowa, that is perceived and portrayed as white supremacy and also being part of the problem.

So you can't have it both ways. You can't pretend that you care when it's somebody else, but not pretend -- and pretend that you don't care or don't know when it's part of your team.

CAMEROTA: Ana, Kirsten, Jeffrey, thank you all very much. So there was this eight-year-old girl that witnessed the violence inside her synagogue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOYA DOHAN, INJURED IN POWAY, CALIFORNIA SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING: My uncle, he was holding my hand and he was like hugging me and stuff. And the person who was shooting, he was aiming at him.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: We have more on her story, next.

[08:30:10]