Return to Transcripts main page

WOLF

No Charges Against Boy's Mother In Gorilla Death; Republicans Uneasy With Trump Judge Comments; Last Super Tuesday Tomorrow; Kasich States Trump Should Apologize To Judge; Sanders To Hold News Conference Next Hour; Obama Possibly to Endorse Clinton; Jabs in New Ads; Trump Flip-Flops on Libya. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 6, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00] JOSEPH DETER, OHIO PROSECUTOR, HAMILTON COUNTY (live): But in terms of the mother, you know, had she not -- had she been -- for instance, had she been in the bathroom smoking crack and let her kids run around in the zoo, that would be a different story.

But that's not what was happening here. She was being attentive to her children by all witness accounts, and the three year old just scampered off.

I'll be honest with you and I'll show you. Can you -- let's see, which picture do you got?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

DETER: Which one is that? This is the area that he went through, and you can see the fence. But he went through right through these Bushes right here. And we'll put the other one up if you will then. That's the one. And that's -- he came through the bushes and fell down here.

And, quite frankly, I don't know how he wasn't hurt. He did not have a concussion. He did not have broken bones. He may have just tumbled and landed flat on his back. That's kind of the speculation. And was really unscathed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the law, in situations like this, and what standard would have had to have been met if there were to be charges filed?

DETER: OK. First of all -- and I'll give you the elements of this charge, child endangering. First of all, you had to be a parent, guardian or custodian. The child has to be under the age of 18. We've met both those criteria. That parent must recklessly, recklessly, create a substantial risk to the health or safety of the child.

Now, when I say recklessly, this is what it means in Ohio. With heedless indifference to the consequences, disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the person's conduct is likely to cause a certain result. A child's scampering away, it's not foreseeable that he's going to fall into the gorilla encampment. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would the out -- did the outcry of the public,

all these e-mails you received, did that weigh on you when you made this decision?

DETER: No. But I'll tell you, I was -- I've been a bit taken aback by some folks' moral equivalence of human life and animal life. And this is a beautiful little boy. And had they not acted and this animal behaved sometimes like animals behave, we could have had a genuine tragedy here. It's sad enough that the gorilla was taken out but it could have been a lot worse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Along those same lines, Joe, we've had a lot of major stories in news conferences (INAUDIBLE) of execution (INAUDIBLE) serial killers, child killers. Just the attention this brought to (INAUDIBLE) and to this bureau, are you surprised?

DETER: We have -- I frequent the zoo, you know, as my kids were growing up. And I talked to Thane Maynard on Friday and they're genuinely heartbroken about what happened. And, you know, ultimately, I think that some of the remedial fixes will solve this problem that they've done.

But, quite frankly, to get your question specifically, I've never seen the attention given to a child endangering case in my life like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So, there you have the announcement from the Hamilton County prosecutor, Joseph Deter, saying no charges will be filed against the mother in connection with her three-year-old who fell into that encampment where that gorilla was. The gorilla was shot and killed.

I want to talk over this decision. Laura Coates is joining us. She's a CNN Legal Analyst, a former federal prosecutor. Laura, first of all, do you think the prosecutor made the right decision here?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely, Wolf. With the elements of the crime that he was discussing and what the facts of this specific case are, the conduct of that boy's mother did not rise the level of endangering her child. It rose to the level of a young boy who escaped his mother's grasp and fell into a gorilla enclosure in an unforeseeable way. It was not criminal conduct. They made the right call.

[13:05:05] BLITZER: How hard would it have been to make a case against the mother, to file charges against her?

COATES: Well, I mean, I'm surprised the prosecutor made the example of had she had been in a bathroom smoking crack as the only alternative. But certainly if the mother had made steps and had actually demonstrated that she was not attentive, was not supervising her child and acted in total disregard for the child's safety, knowing that it may be an alluring thing for the child to be so close to an animal that may have mesmerized him. But here, we did not have any evidence that the mother was just lax with all of her duties. In fact, the case, I believe, talks about -- she turned her attention away to be tending to other children that she was also supervising to take a photograph of them. Anything less than that is not neglect in any way.

What we had here is a clear-cut example of a child acting like a three-year-old child would do. And the consequences were terrible.

BLITZER: Is there a civil case -- no criminal charges are being filed against the mother. But is there a civil case that the zoo or any other group potentially could make against the family?

COATES: Absolutely. And that's one of the issues that I think people are having with the zoo taking these kind of remedial measures after the fact to rise the level of that fence, to provide netting. It acknowledges, in some part, although it never happened before, that there was a step that needed to be taken to prevent this very kind of thing happening.

And so, when the zoo took that action, they opened themselves up to liability for saying that they did not take the appropriate steps in advance. Also, ironically enough, the parents could actually bring some type of a suit against the zoo for not taking better steps to ensure the child's safety. That would be a little bit odd given the scenario, but odder things have happened in the legal system in America.

BLITZER: So, there could be civil suits against the zoo, you're saying, but what again -- what about against the mother, against the family?

COATES: The suits against the mother would largely not be there because it's about damages. The financial damages. But who would be the person they're suing on behalf of? Harambe the gorilla? I think not. Perhaps the zoo would say, ideally, you know, we had to take these steps because of your child's conduct. And your actions set a domino effect in the wheel in motion to do this.

However, these will not be successful likely because it was the -- it was the third party, the zoo, who independently decided that a death had to occur. They took the steps to actually execute Harambe the gorilla and that was not part of what happened with the mother's own conduct. So, if there -- in a civil suit, it would likely not be successful at all for those reasons.

BLITZER: Once again, the prosecutor, the Hamilton County prosecutor, Joseph Deter, is announcing no charges, no criminal charges, will be filed against the mother in connection with -- her three year old who fell into that area where the gorilla was.

All right, Laura, thanks very much for that report. Laura Coates --

COATES: Thank you.

BLITZER: -- is our CNN Legal Analyst. Coming up, we'll switch gears, move to the U.S. elections. Top

Republican officials speaking out against Donald Trump. Worried some of his recent comments may alienate voters.

And now a former Republican presidential candidate is joining the growing call for Donald Trump to apologize. We have details. That's next.

[13:08:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get to politics right now. We're just one day away from the final super Tuesday of this -- the six-month presidential primary process here in the United States. Six states, including California and New Jersey, they vote tomorrow.

The Republican Party is pretty much over with. The Republican primary race pretty much over with, with Donald Trump having captured enough delegates to make himself the presumptive nominee. But that doesn't mean members of his own party are all rallying behind him, especially in the wake of some critical comments he's made about a federal judge.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who ran against Trump in the presidential race, is the latest to push Trump for an apology, saying this, attacking judges based on their race and-or religion is another tactic that divides our country. More importantly, it is flat out wrong. Donald Trump should apologize to Judge Curiel and try to unite this country.

On the Democrat's side, Hillary Clinton is just 26 delegates away from effectively securing the nomination over Bernie Sanders. And with that, we're also learning that Hillary Clinton will likely get an endorsement from President Barack Obama perhaps as early as this week.

We'll hear from Bernie Sanders next hour when he holds a news conference in San Francisco where he'll likely talk about his strategy going forward and calls, a lot of calls, for him effectively to drop out after tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are on very different trajectories heading into tomorrow's primaries, especially with President Obama's expected endorsement.

Chris Frates is joining us live from Los Angeles right now where Hillary Clinton is holding a campaign event later tonight. Chris, what do we know about the timing of the endorsement that's expected from the president?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we know that this endorsement could come as early as this week. Although, it's important to point out here that nothing has been nailed down. In fact, President Obama and Secretary Clinton don't have any meetings or public events scheduled, at this point.

But the news is coming, as you point out, ahead of -- one day ahead of the big final super Tuesday primary here where Hillary Clinton is expected to clinch the number of delegates she needs to become the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Now, the hope here is, in the future before the convention, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and President Obama can all get on a stage together and get behind the presumptive nominee who, at this point, looks like it will be Hillary Clinton.

[13:15:00] And the president essentially signaling that if Bernie Sanders wants to continue his challenge, he said just as recently as yesterday that he's going to take this all the way to the convention and he's going to try to flip some of those super delegates who are giving Hillary Clinton the nomination. He's going to try to flip them to his side. If he chooses to do that, President Obama is not going to wait on the sidelines. And, in fact, Elizabeth Warren, the progressive -- one of the progressive leaders, also indicating that she doesn't think super delegates are -- should decide this race. So this is some signals from the establishment here that Bernie Sanders is going to have a real tough road if Hillary Clinton does, in fact, get to that magic number of 2,383 tomorrow, Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris, what are you hearing about how Hillary Clinton might try to reach out to the Bernie Sanders voters and when that will happen?

FRATES: Well, Wolf, I just talked to a campaign aide who made the case that those discussions haven't really begun in earnest yet. No surprise here. You know, there are still elections to go. The fat lady has not sung here. But Hillary Clinton has made it pretty clear that she wants Bernie Sanders' endorsement and that she wants his supporters to get behind her bid. Politically, that's no surprise. Bernie Sanders does much better with young voters. He does better with young voters and progressives. Those are areas where she needs some help. And the Clinton campaign also pointing out that that's why President Obama's going to be so key. Back in 2008, they didn't have a Democratic president to help bring this party together. They hoped that President Obama, who's also popular with young people and progressives, can really help bring that wing of the party behind Hillary Clinton if she's able to clinch tomorrow as expected, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Chris Frates reporting for us from Los Angeles, thank you.

Bernie Sanders, by the way, will be taking questions from the news media at an event in California in the next hour. We'll have live coverage. That's coming up right here on CNN.

So what's the most pressing question facing Bernie Sanders? Is it when he drops out of the race, if he drops out of the race? How should he do it? We're going to ask a Bernie Sanders key supporter later this hour. Stand by for that.

On the Republican side, the chorus from inside the party is growing louder and louder, criticizing Donald Trump over comments about a federal judge in his Trump University case. Trump is saying that because of the judge's Mexican heritage, he can't be impartial in the case against Trump University.

Here with me is CNN's chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, our chief political correspondent Dana Bash and David Gregory, he's a CNN political analyst, the host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast.

Guys, thanks very much for joining us.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, just one of several major Republicans, Gloria, saying that what Donald Trump is saying is completely wrong. He's got to fix this. I see no signs at all of Donald Trump backing down. He's -- if anything he's doubling and tripling down.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, this is a civil suit and it's about business. And if you notice, Donald Trump, he's so passionate when he talks about his business deals and his business dealings. He's not going to back down on this. And this is what Republicans feel is so reprehensible about this because he's effectively equating someone's ethnicity with bias, which would mean, if a woman were sitting as a judge on a case of, say, sexual assault, would she not be able to judge that case because she's a woman, because of her sexuality? So if you start equating ethnicity with bias, sexuality with bias, it goes on and on.

This is not what Republicans wanted to be about after the last election. You remember, they had the autopsy. They said we have to be more inclusive. But this is Donald Trump making his case in a civil suit, and I think he cares almost as much about that as he does about what Republicans are saying, if not more about winning this civil suit.

BLITZER: Even Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who is a strong Donald Trump supporter --

BORGER: Yes. Yes.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: And has been rumored to be on a short list as a potential vice presidential running mate --

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: Even he has said this is a bad mistake that Donald Trump has engaged in.

Meanwhile, Dana, the war of the commercials, the ads, clearly escalating right now. And we still have a long time to go before -- before November. But I'm going to play a couple of clips from a Hillary Clinton ad attacking Donald Trump and a pro-Donald Trump super PAC attacking Hillary Clinton and her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I want you to listen to me.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not --

B. CLINTON: I did not --

H. CLINTON: I did not send classified material --

B. CLINTON: Not a single time.

H. CLINTON: And I did not receive --

B. CLINTON: Never.

H. CLINTON: Any material that was marked or designated classified.

B. CLINTON: I never told anybody to lie.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: He says that when he questions whether the judge can be fair because of his Mexican heritage that is not racist. Do you agree?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I -- I don't condone the comments.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I completely disagree with the thinking behind that.

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: He is just as American as Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: These ads are -- they're getting pretty intense right now.

BASH: Oh, very intense. And I think that's just the beginning of it, probably. I mean never mind the ads, which is obviously the paid television. What the candidates are saying in what we call the earned media is pretty intense. And I think the rhetoric is like already we haven't seen in many, many years, maybe if ever.

[13:20:14] But I think just on the last ad, and to pick up on what Gloria was talking about with regard to Hispanics, it's obviously beyond kind of a fairness issue and what's right and wrong. It is heavily political. I mean the fact of the matter is, the Hispanic population has exploded. It continues to do so in this country. And it's not just -- I was just looking it up -- in states that, you know, we talk about a lot, New Mexico, Arizona, even Texas. The last census showed Alabama, the most reliably red state on a presidential level that we can even think of, had the biggest growth of Hispanics than any other state, like 158 percent in the last census. That shows you how important this group is as, you know, part of the American fabric, but more importantly, politically speaking, demographically and as voting blocs.

BLITZER: It explains why Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, the majority leader in the Senate, David, is so angry right now, so upset that Donald Trump's words could alienate Latinos, Hispanics, that the Republican Party needs. DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I mean we're kind of

beyond alienation. I mean this is outright racism and bigotry from the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. When can you remember the last time when you had major Republican figures, leaders in the party, all disavowing these comments, calling on him to apologize, condemning the head of the Republican Party's remarks, an attack on the judiciary based on a judge's race. It's extraordinary and it says how extraordinary the Trump campaign is in its lack of any kind of strategic focus, on how he's going to act more presidential, as he said he would do, how he's going to create some more addition here, how he's going to get more people to vote for him, whether they're women or minorities, Hispanics, when he has huge deficits in the polls right now.

Not only that, he's in the middle. He's starting off another really bad week. A week when he could be spending time trying to attack his opponent who is consolidating Democratic support and is about to get a very popular president to put his thumb on the scale too. So, from a strategic political point of view, he's wasting a lot of time in addition to, I think, sending shivers up and down Republican voter's spines.

BORGER: You know, I mean these Republican leaders, now that they've said they're going to support the nominee or endorse him, one way or another, they're now twisting themselves into pretzels here trying to figure out how they can, on the one hand say, OK, we support Donald Trump. On the other hand, we disagree with him on this particular issue, which, by the way, it's not a small issue. It's a -- it's a foundation of the Constitution, you know, the separation of powers. And so it's a large thing that they have to sort of try and figure out a way around. And I don't think they have figured out how to maneuver it.

And I also think, again, people underestimate Donald Trump's intensity when it comes to his business dealings. And the people that you're talking about are talking about saving the Republican Party, right?

GREGORY: Right.

BORGER: And he wants to win this lawsuit.

BLITZER: So are you suggesting he's more interested in winning a lawsuit or becoming president of the United States?

BORGER: Well, I think he's very interested --

BASH: I think -- I think -- I definitely think you're on to something, Gloria, that I think that if he sat down and said, this is one choice, this is the other, it will be a different answer. But it's so visceral for him --

BORGER: Right, very visceral.

BASH: To respond in a way like, you know, that -- I mean we know his M.O. for decade as a businessman has been to sue, sue, sue, sue, sue. That's what he does. So he has this intimate understanding he thinks of the judicial system and he likes to sort of work it with lawsuits. But this is a whole different ball game, again --

BLITZER: And not many, David --

BASH: When he's running for president and questioning whether this person can act a certain way based on his heritage.

BLITZER: Not many high profile Republicans are coming to his defense.

GREGORY: Not on this. Quite the opposite. Again, this isn't an ideological debate here. I mean everybody agrees that this is a totally inappropriate thing to say. Second, not coming to his defense on other areas where he's been attacked. I mean go back, Jonathan Martin in "The New York Times" wrote a very good piece saying, look, after Hillary Clinton went after Trump on foreign policy, there was nobody to stand up for his views. So this is an attack on temperament. This is an attack on how thin skinned he is, on organization and on his view of the world and nothing seems to be -- nobody seems to be coming to his defense.

BLITZER: All right, guys, we're going to continue our assessment of what's going on. Lots going on. Stand by.

Coming up also, Donald Trump reversing his stance on several foreign policy issues, walking back previous positions when it comes to Libya, Iraq, nuclear weapons. We're going to discuss that and more. The former defense secretary, Leon Panetta, you see him live in New York right there, the former CIA director. Mr. Panetta standing by to join us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:46] BLITZER: The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, says his rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's harsh criticism over his foreign policy plans could come as soon as today. Trump's views are being questioned after he reverse course on some issues ranging from the war in Iraq to nuclear proliferation. Just this weekend, by the way, Donald Trump changed his position on Libya. Again, here's a quick look at his evolving opinions starting back in 2011.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Gadhafi, in Libya, is killing thousands of people. Nobody knows how bad it is. We should go in. We should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically. Stop him from doing it and save these lives.

I was -- I never discussed that subject. I was in favor of Libya. We would be so much better off if Gadhafi were in charge right now.

I was never for a strong intervention. I said, I could have seen surgical where you take out Gadhafi and his group.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: All right, let's discuss this and more with my next guest, the former U.S. defense secretary, Leon Panetta. The secretary has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, I should point out.

Thanks very much, Mr. Secretary, for joining us.

LEON PANETTA, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Thank you, Wolf. Nice to be with you.

BLITZER: So when you hear Donald Trump make those various statements on Libya, for example, you're a former CIA director as well. What goes through your mind when -- when he seems to be changing his views on some very, very sensitive issues.