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New Day Saturday
Inside A Killer's Mind; Remembering the Victims; Obama Visits Kenya; Inspector General Says Some Clinton Emails Had Classified Info; Turkey Arrests Hundreds of Terror Suspects; New Dash-Cam Video of Bland's Arrest. Aired 7-8a ET
Aired July 25, 2015 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:00:00] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Should the Seau family be allowed to speak or not? Send us your reasoning at the #NewDayCNN. Or comment us on our Facebook page. We love you get you involved in the conversation. We'll hear from what you had to say in the next hour.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Looking forward to that.
WIRE: All right, guys.
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Coy.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Coy.
So much more news to tell you about this morning.
BLACKWELL: The next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I betcha that he is crazy enough that that might be the shooter in Louisiana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hadn't heard from him in probably ten years prior of that, and hadn't heard from him since. And so, this is a complete shock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: And now, we're going inside the killer's mind. New information this morning, shedding light on the past of theater shooter John Russell Houser. A string of arrests and a record of -- and this is a quote -- "extreme erratic behavior". (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the people who got shot and escaped and all of the people who died, passed by us sitting in that front row.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Can you imagine? Stories of sadness and horror and bravery, as we hear new stories this
morning from witnesses in the heroic efforts that prevented that shooting from being even worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We wanted to come here. I wanted to be here because Africa is on the move.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: And within the hour, an official arrival ceremony for President Obama in Kenya. It's the first time the sitting U.S. president has visited that country.
PAUL: Always so grateful to have you with us. Seven o'one on this Saturday morning. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.
And we're starting with this -- I would call it. This eerie look inside the mind of a killer and we have new pictures of a home allegedly trashed by the Louisiana movie theater shooter, John Russell Houser. The home's new owner said that Houser destroyed rooms and hallways, poured cement into drains, threw dead fish all over the house.
When they heard about Thursday's deadly attack, they were not surprised Houser was to blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I betcha that he is crazy enough that that might be the shooter in Louisiana. I said there is no way. I know he is crazy, but, I mean, he didn't do anything to these people over there. And I get chills saying that, because, you know, I was scared when he was over here and he almost blew my loved ones up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just had that feeling. Sometimes you get that feeling, you know? Just something that I just had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: In the meantime, CNN affiliate KATC reports that five victims of the shooting are still in the hospital. One person is in critical condition. More than a hundred people last night, look at this, gathered at the university of Louisiana-Lafayette last night for a candlelight vigil to remember the two victims killed. A 21-year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson.
Ana Cabrera is live in Lafayette with the latest this morning.
Ana, good morning to you.
ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor and Christi. I can tell you, investigators are still processing the evidence inside
the theater behind me. You can see it's still cordoned off this morning with the yellow crime scene tape. We also know investigators are retracing the steps of John Russell Houser since he arrived here in Lafayette back on July 2nd or 3rd. They've been interviewing people he may have had contact with, interviewing family members. They still don't know why he came to this city and why he chose this theater. They still don't know what it was that set him off on this deadly rampage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA (voice-over): Seven-thirty p.m., 20 minutes into the screening of the comedy "Trainwreck", 59-year-old John Russell Houser seated in the second to the last row of a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, stands up, raises a 40 caliber handgun and opens fire.
Twenty-one-year-old Breaux and her boyfriend are seated just in front of the shooter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He stood up and began firing the weapon and the first two people he shot were right in front of him.
CABRERA: Breaux is killed, her boyfriend wounded. Houser gets off at least 13 rounds before heading for the exit, alongside panicked theater goers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get the ambulances over here now!
CABRERA: He makes it outside, but police responding in less than a minute are closing in. Houser goes back inside and shoots himself in the head.
Taken to a nearby hospital, 33-year-old Jillian Johnson dies a short time later. Nine others are also shot and wounded. Police say Houser arrived in Lafayette just weeks ago. He was staying at a nearby motel. It appears he had carefully planned a get-away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found wigs and glasses and disguises basically in his room. His vehicle had a switched license tag on it. It was parked right outside an exit door of the theater.
CABRERA: Houser, nicknamed "Rusty", spent part of his life in Georgia and Alabama.
[07:05:03] Over the years, he got a law degree, ran for tax commissioner, a job his father held, and then went on to own two bars, hanging a black flag with a swastika and a welcome sign outside one, and he also had a criminal record that included arson. He was well- known as a rebel rouser on local talk radio and TV, as well at city council meetings, often racists and homophobic, spouting anti- government extremism, so extreme was tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that track hate groups.
They released postings they claimed were written by Houser in recent years. Hitler is love. And the U.S. is history, a financially failing filth farm.
Houser's ex-wife filed a protective order against him in 2008. He was committed to a mental facility. His wife citing his volatile mental state. She also removed all of the guns and weapons from their home after he threatened to on break up his daughter's wedding.
And then there's ironic posting written in 2013. "Truth carries with it an understanding of death. Rather than live without it, I will take death."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Now, we are also learning more about the murder weapon. We are told that he used a high-point 40 caliber handgun that was a semiautomatic. He purchased it from a pawn shop in Alabama, and it was purchased legally despite his mental health and his criminal history -- Victor and Christi.
BLACKWELL: Ana Cabrera reporting for us this morning. Ana, thank you.
PAUL: CNN law enforcement analyst Cedric Alexander is joining us now.
Now, Cedric, this shooter, we understand, didn't just have a history of legal and mental problems. He was obsessed with things like Golden Dawn, Hitler, the Westboro Baptist Church. When you look what his family said about him in 2008, court documents show that the relatives in Georgia accused him of family violence. They sought a restraining order against him, mentioned the history of mental disorders, including manic depression, bipolar disorder.
How does somebody like that -- I think the first question is, how does somebody like that get a gun legally? Because he did get it legally in this case.
CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, he may have gotten it legally somehow with it not being determined that were some mental health issue. So, he certainly could have lied when he purchased the gun.
PAUL: So, anybody can do that, right?
ALEXANDER: Well, anybody can do that, absolutely. A lot of people can do that. So, there are people, who, oftentimes, can circumvent the process areas. So, that can happen occasionally.
PAUL: Do background checks really make that much of a difference?
ALEXANDER: I think they make an important difference in terms of being able to determine who's in possession of those weapons. To be able to look at a person's history, if they are a convicted felon, then, certainly, they're not going to be issued a weapon. So, I think that's a very important part of the process for anyone who wants to purchase a weapon.
PAUL: Listen, Houser, the Southern Poverty Law Center, as I understand it, he was on their radar apparently. They tell CNN that he had an obsession with hate, with white supremacy and that that went on more than a decade. Let's listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD COHEN, PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: He praised lone wolves on his web postings. He talked about Hitler. He talked about Tim McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. There's a lot out there that reflects kind of an obsession with violence.
I would also mention, Kate, his white supremacist -- white supremacy is nothing recent, nothing new rather. It goes back at least ten years, perhaps longer than that. So, this had been some boiling rage within this person for a long, long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: I want to revisit, something we were talking about earlier. When you see somebody exhibiting this behavior and threatening violence like this, who do you report it to and what has to happen for something to actually be done?
ALEXANDER: Well, you know, oftentimes, the first people we need to report it to are their family members and see if we can get them to intervene. Of course, if they're going to be a threat, they appear to be a threat to themselves and others, then we all have a responsibility to notify our local law enforcement in that regard.
If somebody is exhibiting those type of behaviors or they are being verbal with those type of behaviors of doing harm to someone else because of some erratic belief that they may have. So, we all have a responsibility when we hear this to try to get some people for that person or to notify someone they are making these type of threats because, too many times, how many times have we seen history of someone making these types of threats and then, at sometime during the course of the investigation, it's been determined that they made those threats before someone got harmed? You're going to have people who will make all kinds of threats. Maybe they do it in -- they get angry about something.
PAUL: Round-about way?
ALEXANDER: Yes, in a round-about way. But when we start seeing consistent erratic, hateful --
[07:10:00] PAUL: Specific.
ALEXANDER: Very specific, oftentimes, behavior, we need to let someone else know and because that's when it becomes critically important for the safety of all of us.
PAUL: Cedric Alexander, always appreciate your insight.
ALEXANDER: Thank you very much.
PAUL: Thank you, sir.
ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.
PAUL: Victor?
BLACKWELL: All right. We've got live pictures, Christi, about this arrival ceremony here scheduled to begin pretty soon in Kenya for President Obama. This is just outside of the statehouse in Nairobi. This is the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited Kenya. We are going to take you back live in just a moment.
Plus, after the revelation from that decade-old court document that Bill Cosby admitted to obtaining drugs to give to women, he wanted to have sex with, we're now learning where he got those drugs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: This morning, President Obama is in Kenya. A few moments ago, he was laying a wreath at a ceremony there at the memorial site for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi.
This is his first visit as president to his father's homeland. Listen what he said at that summit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This continent needs to be a future hub of global growth, not just African growth.
(APPLAUSE)
And the country that is hosting us today is setting an important example. Kenya is leading the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Let's go now to CNN's White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski in Nairobi.
Michelle, last night and today, he was welcomed warmly, but the official welcome is, I guess, about to start?
[07:15:08] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, he'll be meeting in a bilateral with the president of Kenya so that will be the big ceremonial greeting. But across Kenya, you know, in just the small part of Nairobi where he has been, the crowds have been big. We saw at least a hundred people at one location chanting Obama, chanting welcome, going after the motorcade. Nothing -- we're not talking massive crowds here that have tried to swamp the motorcade or anything like that, it's been very orderly, but really a warm jubilant welcome, wherever he has gone so far, Victor.
BLACKWELL: And not just officially here that there's a lot of work to do, but he will be and has visited family. Give us an idea of the balance here that the president is striking.
KOSINSKI: Right.
Right. Well, even when he was speaking today at these official events, he said, obviously, this is personal to me. He said he is proud to be back in Kenya that his family is from here. I mean, one of the people who introduced him said he is a son of Kenyan soil.
And as soon as he land inside Nairobi yesterday, he was greeted at the airport by officials and his half-sister, and then he immediately went to a hotel restaurant where he had dinner with about three dozen members of his extended family here in Kenya on his father's side.
And we just got a glimpse before the dinner started of him talking and laughing, really animatedly with members of his family who, obviously, he hasn't seen in a long time, having a good time. It seemed like it wasn't a hint of awkwardness or lack of things to say, even though he is the president of the United States. Just a warm time, you could really tell he is enjoying that.
And members of his family are expected to attend some of the events throughout the trip as well, at least while he is in Kenya. So, even though he won't be able to travel to his father's village in the western part of the country, he won't be able to, you know, sit in his grandmother's hut, and she -- ahead of this trip, she was talking about how she was going to prepare a traditional dinner for him. You know, unfortunately, that won't happen.
Before the president left on this trip, he even said it's difficult for him as president to be able to do these kinds of personal visits. He said it's much easier as a private citizen when he can kind of go in incognito and wear a baseball cap and kind of wander around on his own and the places he wants to go. But he is, obviously, trying to make the most of it and incorporate some of his family on this trip.
BLACKWELL: Yes, maybe a hint of a future visit after he leaves the White House, but still a lot of work to do on this swing through the continent.
Michelle Kosinski, thank you so much.
And we'll bring you live pictures of that arrival ceremony and as soon as we get them, as soon it starts -- Christi.
PAUL: We certainly will.
We have some other video, too, Victor, that we just have to show you.
This shoot-out between police and three prison escapees. Wait until you hear about this brazen breakout. That's coming up.
Also, Hulk Hogan, he's fired. He's out! Fired by the WWE.
Why professional wrestling biggest star ever is given the boot for what he said on a sex tape! Not what he did.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:21:42] PAUL: Twenty-one minutes past the hour right now.
And investigators in Trinidad and Tobago trying to recapture, look at this, two inmates who made a brazen escape yesterday. Police say three inmates possibly armed with grenades broke out of jail that led to this, dramatic shoot-out. Killed the prison guard and one of those three inmates but the other two are still on the loose and considered armed and dangerous.
BLACKWELL: So, we've got some new details from this now decade old deposition from Bill Cosby. So, you know the comedian admitted to getting Quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with. We've now learned that those were from a Los Angeles gynecologist and cosmetic surgeon. Cosby said Leroy Amar prescribed a drug for a sore back and Amar died before that deposition was given.
PAUL: Legendary pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan has been kicked out of the WWE for making racial slurs. "The National Enquirer" released transcripts where Hogan uses the n-word in reference to the dating life of his daughter Brook. The remarks were recorded in an unauthorized sex tape. That's according to "The Enquirer". Hogan is apologizing saying no excuse for what he said.
BLACKWELL: Wildfires have scorched almost 700,000 acres in Northern California this week. They've taken a toll on Napa and Sonoma counties which are part of one country as you know. But one wine operator says the fires which are about an hour away pose no threats to the vineyards.
CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera joins us now.
What's the latest? Because this is going on and on. It's so dry.
IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has been dry, but I think actually they get a break over the next couple of days. No rain which would be fantastic, although this time of year, very difficult to get rain anywhere in California. But what's going to happen is we're going to have this marine layer that's going to be coming in, and that will allow for the relative humidity to go up and firefighters like that. The issue for today will be the winds. It's still going to be gusty, anywhere from 20 to as high as 25 miles an hour late this afternoon as we get some heating out there.
The temperatures will be into the 70s but what we usually don't get is a really strong flow here from the water, and that is going to penetrate all the way where they are fighting the fires. So, that means relative humidity is going to skyrocket actually anywhere from 70 as high as 85 percent through the afternoon, where normally in the 30s for the relative humidity. Now, that is going to be short-lived. We're talking about this only lasting for the next couple of days.
And in fact, what will happen as the humidity goes down, the temperatures, of course, will go up. So, that means where conditions are going to favorable here, save for the wind later this afternoon for firefighting efforts, heading into Saturday and Sunday. And you see that spike. Monday afternoon, pushing 90 degrees and the RH by the afternoon will be about 25 percent to 30 percent. So, at least for the next couple of days, a bit of a break to that.
PAUL: Thank you so much, Ivan. Appreciate it.
BLACKWELL: Thanks, Ivan.
So, we heard a lot about the gunman in this theater shooting in Louisiana, but let's talk more about the victims of this crime, how they are being remembered. We'll talk about that coming up.
Plus, Turkey launches another round of air strikes against ISIS. Why it is now taking a more aggressive stance against these terrorists.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[07:28:41] REM HOUSER, BROTHER OF THEATER SHOOTER: He just needed some money to continue moving on, living on, you know, living and surviving. And so, we gave him some and that was the last we had heard of him. We hadn't heard from him probably in 10 years prior to that, and haven't heard from him since. And so, this was complete shock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: That was Rem Houser, the brother of the gunman in Thursday's movie theater shooting in Louisiana. He says the killer asked to borrow some money just about a month ago, but that the two hadn't spoken about a decade prior to that.
We are learning new details about the 59-year-old shooter, including the fact that he allegedly trashed and bobby trapped an Alabama home from which he was evicted in 2004. We'll have more on that throughout the morning here on NEW DAY.
But let's talk about the shooting victims here. One of them was a musician who co-owned a toy and a gift shot. Another was a student who planned to start radiology school in the coming days.
CNN's Boris Sanchez has more on these two women whose lives were taken in this week's deadly shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one of the last times Jillian Johnson would sing with her band.
The 33-year-old, one of two victims killed at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, when John Russell Houser opened fire on the crowd.
[07:30:08] COLONEL MICHAEL EDMONTON, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE: We cannot lose sight of the fact that a 21-year-old and a 33-year-old beautiful young lady, lost their lives last night. They had a vision, they had a future. I said this earlier, they had a face, they had a name, and it wasn't to die in this theater. SANCHEZ: In the aftermath of the deadly shooting, a clearer picture
emerging of those affected by the violence.
Jillian Johnson ran a boutique with her husband and brother in Lafayette. Friends say she toughed people lives with her creativity.
Her band, The Figs, releasing this statement to CNN, quote, "Jillian made everything more beautiful. She worked to make Lafayette a more beautiful place. And one of the most tragic things that's ever happened here took her. She was a mother, a wife, a sister, an artist, a collaborator, a band member, a friend to so many. We are devastated", end quote.
Twenty-one-year-old Mayci Breaux, a former student at LSU, came to the movie with her boyfriend Matthew. Law enforcement officials tell CNN the couple sat in front of the shooter. Mayci died inside the theater, while Matthew remains at the hospital.
A family member says he's recovering, but struggling with what happened, saying, quote, "Although he's in a lot of pain now, it is nothing compared to the mental anguish he's going through. Their whole family is completely distraught about everything going on," end quote.
Doctors at Lafayette General Health where five of the injured, including Matthew, are being treated, reveal a connection to Mayci.
DR. DAVID CALLECOD, PRESIDENT, LAFAYETTE GENERAL: Mayci Breaux, one of the victims, actually is an X-ray student. She was scheduled to begin radiology school here at Lafayette General just in a few days. And so, this really, it hurts for our staff.
SANCHEZ: As for Houser's other victims, doctors say they are expected to make a full recovery.
Despite tragedy, flashes of heroism from two teaches, Ali Martin and Jena Meaux. Ali diving in front of her friend, wounding her leg, to keep her out of the shooter's range, and then running to pull a fire alarm hoping to warn others. Officers say that alarm likely saved lives.
Boris Sanchez, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Hillary Clinton is on the campaign trail in Iowa today as she deals with renewed controversy over her e-mail account. Intelligence community officials have informed members of Congress that some of the material Clinton sent out from her private server contained classified information, but because the e-mails were not identified in that way, it's unclear if Clinton realized that she was sending potentially compromising data.
Meanwhile, inspector general have now asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the matter.
Let's bring in CNN's Sunlen Serfaty with some details here -- Sunlen.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor.
Well, this new information, it really deepens this controversy. Clinton turned over 30,000 e-mails to the State Department and inspectors general, they took a sample of about 40 of those e-mails. Now, based on that, four of those e-mails contained classified information.
And this is the important part here. None of those four e-mails were marked as classified by the State Department, so it's not clear if Clinton knew she was potentially compromising that information.
Now, back in March when the e-mail controversy first popped up, she said she did not e-mail any classified information and, yesterday, Clinton responding a bit to the dust-up, saying there are a lot of inaccuracies, representing a report in "The New York Times" that she was the intent of a criminal investigation. That turned out to be not true.
Here's how she put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe the heat is getting to everybody. We all have a responsibility to get this right. I have released 55,000 pages of e-mails. I have said repeatedly that I will answer questions before the House committee. We are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right and I will do my part.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: And this is already quickly picked up steam from Republicans.
Speaker of the House John Boehner saying in a statement, quote, "what these reports demonstrate is the inherent risk of conducting our nation's diplomacy and foreign policy on your home e-mail and personal server. Her poor judgment has undermined our national security and it is time for her to finally do the right thing."
Now, Clinton, today, she starts a three-day trip throughout Iowa, a state where she has recently seen her polling really drop in the recent months. This just puts the spotlight right back on this vulnerability for her.
Again, certainly, Victor, not the position that she wants to be in on the defensive as she hits the trail today.
BLACKWELL: Absolutely. Happy you hit that. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks for starting the conversation.
We want to keep it going.
[07:35:00] So, you at home, tell us what you think about this and what impact this will have, if any, on Hillary Clinton's campaign. Hit us up on Facebook and on Twitter to share your thoughts.
Now, let's bring into this conversation, we have with us -- sorry. Jeffrey Lord, Jeffrey Lord.
Sorry about, that Jeffrey.
JEFFREY LORD, "AMERICAN SPECTATOR": Hey, Victor, no problem.
BLACKWELL: Good to have you this morning, former White House political director under President Ronald Reagan, contributing editor for "American Spectator". So let's go to the these Quinnipiac poll numbers for Iowa. Sunlen just brought them up. Voters here, it shows that she is slipping in favorability, compared to several GOP rivals.
I mean, initially when the campaign launched, there was a lot of discussion this being baked into the cake with Hillary Clinton. She's been in public life for decades now. People either love her or don't. But is this changing the perception of Hillary Clinton and can she change that?
LORD: Yes. I do think it's going to be awfully hard. I mean, what we are just discussing a few minutes ago, those right straight back to the kind of problems Hillary Clinton has had as long as she has been on the public scene. The missing Rose Law Firm billing records that disappeared and then, suddenly, materialized on a table in the resident's portion of the White House.
I mean, as I recall, in reading some of this history, she came within a hair of being the first lady to be indicted, and they finally decided they didn't think they had quite enough evidence, but they all thought she wasn't telling the truth.
This kind of thing is basically coming up again and I'm just not sure that, you know, leopards can change their spots, as it were.
BLACKWELL: Now, I just want to remind the folks at home we are having a conversation with a former White House political director under Ronald Reagan. And I know that those who support Hillary Clinton and Democratic leaders would say that this is very early on and most voters aren't paying attention to this.
LORD: Well, that's true. That's true.
BLACKWELL: And she will probably move clove closer to the nomination.
I want -- we don't have much time, but I want to get to Donald Trump, also in Iowa today, a week after the comments he made about Arizona Senator John McCain. There are a lot of people would say he needs to change his tone.
What do you say?
LORD: I think his tone is what is carrying him this far. I think if he -- you know, we used to have a saying in the Reagan days, let Reagan be Reagan. I think you have to let Donald Trump be Donald Trump. I think the moment he ceases to do that, he will have a problem.
So, I think he's just going to plow on and frankly I don't think he can change it if he wanted to.
BLACKWELL: You know, we were talking this morning about President Obama in Kenya. When the president was elected, it seemed as if the electorate was looking for someone a little more nuanced than George W. Bush. He's quite professorial.
LORD: Right.
BLACKWELL: Has the country tired that in this attraction with Trump, or at least the Republicans?
LORD: That is, frankly, it's a very good point and that is a historical pattern. You know, they -- the American people changed President Bush for President Obama. In the past, it was Carter for Reagan. The older Dwight Eisenhower for the young John F. Kennedy. You can go back in history and this pattern repeats over and over and over again.
So, the very fact that Donald Trump is at the other end of the scale from President Obama, and I don't just mean politically but stylistically, that may be something the American people are looking for.
BLACKWELL: All right. Jeffrey Lord, thank you for with being with us this morning.
LORD: Thanks, Victor.
PAUL: Well, Turkey, making arrest and conducting rounds of air strikes against ISIS, but why is the country taking this aggressive action now and what difference will it make? Our military expert is weighing in on that.
Also, it's a story we have been discussing all morning on Twitter and Facebook. The late Junior Seau being inducted into the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. But his family isn't going to be allowed to speak at that ceremony. We have your comments coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:42:34] PAUL: Forty-two minutes past the hour.
And nearly 600 terror suspects are behind bars this morning in Turkey. This is part of a massive anti-terror raid across the country that began yesterday. Turkish warplanes and artillery also targeting ISIS positions over the border in Syria.
Now, CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd is joining us here.
So good to have you here, Philip.
PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning. PAUL: We are seeing a big ramp-up by Turkey against ISIS and against Kurdish militants as well. A lot of people might be wondering, why now?
MUDD: A couple of things going on here. You talked about the sweep, the pickup of suspects in Turkey over time. It looks like that the threat to Turkey has grown and in my experience as a CIA guy, there is a simple calculus here. When the threat rises, the local team, in this case, the Turks pays a lot of attention.
They were reluctant to get involved for a couple of reasons. First, the Syrian oppositions are taking out Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Turks would like to do Assad gone, so they were reluctant to strike some of the Syrian targets. And, second, they are worried about poking a stick in the eye of ISIS because of concerns that the ISIS guys would just come across the border.
But I think, finally, we saw a major terrorist attack in Turkey last week. We saw this number of suspects picked up. I think the Turks finally said, enough, we're going after them.
PAUL: Well, we know Turkey is allowing the U.S. access to its air bases too for these air strikes on ISIS. Is there any connection or coincide that it's happening now after this Iran nuclear deal?
MUDD: I think that's coincidental. I think the Turks realized as we just talked about, that they focused, they faced a local security threat. There has been long negotiations with the Americans, with the secretary of defense and others about using Turkish air bases, those negotiations have been going on for a long time.
A couple of other things going on here, the Turks want to go after their own problem as well, that is Kurdish militants. The Americans would prefer that the Turks stick against the Syrian extremist but we have seen just overnight they are Turks are hitting the targets we want them to hit. The opposition -- or the Syrian extremists but going after Kurdish folks that we prefer to stay away -- that they stay away from. It's a package deal for the Turks.
PAUL: Listen, I want to talk to you what we are learning from Belgium. That they've arrested two men who've been held from Guantanamo. Now, we understand, this raid targeted a recruiting network for al Qaeda in Syria.
Just wondering, do you anticipate that we might actually see more of this?
[07:45:05] And how concerned are you about detainees from Guantanamo getting back into the terrorist ranks?
MUDD: This is an ugly story, but it's an inevitable story. The U.S. intelligence community is required to issue reports about how many Guantanamo people who are released go back to the fight. The reports are fuzzy but you're talking 20 percent, 30 percent, and a fair number from North Africa. So, you can anticipate -- both these folks, by the way, are from North
Africa, the folks picked up in Belgium -- you can anticipate that some percentage of them not only back in the fight but will return to North Africa or Europe. The concern here is twofold. Number one, there are a lot of North African refugees in Europe and European security services are going to say, wow, these guys from Algeria, Morocco returning from Guantanamo to Europe are going to embed themselves in these expatriate communities and find recruits to go over to Syria.
The second big concern obviously is numbers. Thousands of Europeans have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight. When you get these Guantanamo returnees going back to Europe, they're going to find communities that unfortunately have some young people who are willing to listen to the message. We will probably see more of this.
PAUL: And they are seen as heroes, I suppose, in some circles --
MUDD: Sure.
PAUL: -- after getting out of Guantanamo?
MUDD: That's right. You can think in mafia terms, they are mob guys, they're made men and those made men can come into these networks immediately because they are trusted.
PAUL: Yes.
All right. Philip Mudd, always appreciate your insight. Thanks for being with us, sir.
MUDD: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: New dashcam video this morning of the Sandra Bland arrest. She's the woman who died in Texas in police custody. Does this new video, this new angle give us better insight into what happened after that controversial traffic stop?
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[07:50:17] BLACKWELL: Ten minutes until the top of the hour now.
And we just got some newly released dashcam video showing more of the traffic stop arrest of Sandra Bland. She was found hanged in a Texas jail cell earlier this month. Her funeral is today.
All right. So, here's the video. It's from the dashcam inside the police cruiser that arrived at this scene of the arrest. So, this is the second vehicle. You see the patrol car. Sandra Bland was in the back of that car, in the back seat. Officer here takes her outside of that car. Reaches in, takes her out, and then pats her down and puts her back inside the car.
Let's bring in HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.
Joey, is there any value to this video? What are we learning here? JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST/CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, Victor -- good morning to you.
There's always value because it gives you a further sense of what happened there. Apparently, she was in the back of the female officer's car who showed up to assist Officer Encinia at the time, and she's pulled out. She's patted down. But it just further -- it really emphasizes a traffic stop gone awry. It doesn't really add any additional value other than pointing to the fact that it certainly doesn't need to develop and escalate to this level in the first instance.
BLACKWELL: And not just a traffic stop that's gone awry, because we know -- a special inspection report indicates that guards at the jail failed to do the timely checks, and this was found three days after Bland's body was found in the cell. I mean, it appears here there's a stronger and stronger case, as we learn more here, that this family has against this police department.
JACKSON: Sure. And, you know, it extends to the jail. I know you're referring to the Texas commission. Every state has a commission that evaluates the jail and jails are expected to perform and minimum things are required to be done.
Of course, they were cited, that is the jail, for two things. The first of which is not having officers who are adequately trained to deal with people who potentially have any kind of potential mental ailment or who could be suicidal based on things occurring in their life. And in addition to that, the lack of training, the jail was cited for not having officers check periodically on the care, custody and control of a particular person, you know, who is prisoner there.
And so, it's problematic, and I think you'll see reforms from that moving forward. Not that it helps this family but certainly moving forward. You need the training and you need officers to actually check on people who were there as opposed to hitting an intercom and saying, hey, are you OK?
BLACKWELL: Yes. So, Bland's family is saying they would like an independent autopsy, their own pathologist to conduct it. Her funeral is today. So, the expectation that has already happened, the results have not been released.
But what is next in this investigation? What's next to get answers here?
JACKSON: Sure. I think a couple of things in this, Victor. The first, of course, to your point out about the independent autopsy, it's important, because transparency is important, trust is important. You want people to respect whatever findings there are. And so, if the family does it, then, of course, you have the respect of the findings of a person that you hired.
But in terms of what needs to happen here from the authority's point of view and family's point of view. From the authority's point of view, they'll present the case to a grand jury. That's important because you want to put it to a body of people in the community who can evaluate whether anything criminal happened here.
From what we're learning now, it appears nothing has. But still, you want to put it to that body presenting all of the evidence, they make for the findings.
From the family's perspective, I think they want accountability. Certainly, they want to find out what happened. I think the autopsy, independently, will give some information as to what they believe occurred, but then further than that, I think they're going to want to hold the jail accountable for any lapses that occurred there.
And so, you know, I think we'll see civil suits to follow. Money never brings back anyone. But that's what our system has to compensate people who have been aggrieved.
BLACKWELL: All right. We'll continue to follow this one, of course. Joey Jackson, thank you so much.
JACKSON: Thank you, Victor. Have a good day.
BLACKWELL: Christi?
PAUL: Well, at the top of the hour, we're talking safety in records to the latest shooting at the movie theater in Louisiana. Do you think that we need airport level security in theaters now?
Also, he is being inducted into the Hall of Fame, but Junior Seau's family will not be allowed to speak at that ceremony. We'll sharing your thoughts about that controversy surrounding the late football star. Stay close. Coy Wire coming up.
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[07:58:03] BLACKWELL: The last hour, we told you that Junior Seau's family will not be allowed to give a speech when the late Charges linebacker is inducted into the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Instead, a video commemorating his career will be shown.
PAUL: And no mention of the lawsuit the family filed against the NFL over player injuries and brain disease.
But Coy Wire has been getting your comments on this.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Big, debatable topic here, guys. People on social media going crazy.
So, Seau's family filed a wrongful death suit against the NFL. This was after the star linebacker took his own life in 2012. He was only 43 years old. Doctors believe that traumatic brain injury led to his death.
And so, Seau's daughter, Sydney, had been planning a speech, thinking that she was going to be able to replace her father at his induction speech into the Hall of Fame. And an executive vice president with the Pro Football Hall of Fame told CNN that there were some discussions early on that that was going to be a possibility for her to do so.
But as it turns out, nobody in Junior Seau's family will be able to speak for him at the ceremony, and the Hall of Fame says this has nothing to do with the circumstances surrounding Seau's death. They said it's simply following a policy that's been in place since 2010. A lot of people speculate they were afraid she was going to talk about concussions, the lawsuits and they were afraid of that.
Now, we asked you, -should the Seau family be able to speak or not? You had a lot to say. The responses came flying in.
Doug said, "If other families have been allowed this courtesy, then absolutely. However the lawsuit should not be part of the speech honoring Seau."
Deenia said, "The family should be able to say thank you on behalf of him, since he's no longer able to speak for himself."
Andy with some strong words says, "This is what make he's want to completely boycott huge conglomerates like the NFL even if it means no Sunday football."
A lot of people are furious that this family is not going to be able to speak for one of the greatest linebackers of all time. The ceremony is August 8th. We'll see if some pressure, some public outcry will get them to reconsider that policy that was just established in 2010.
BLACKWELL: Or may be if there's a compromise, maybe a pre-recorded speech from the family.
PAUL: Yes.
BLACKWELL: Coy Wire, thanks.
PAUL: Thank you, Coy.
