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Hillary Clinton Announcing Bid Soon?; New Video in South Carolina Police Shooting. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 10, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:01] ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, one thing that's really important is get support in person from people who are trying to do what you're doing, whether it's family or friends or a support group.

When you're surrounded by people who are trying to lose weight, that really helps. Also, drink beverages that don't have calories. Juice or soda, which can have a lot of calories, sometimes you just slug those down and you don't even realize how many calories that you're taking in.

And, thirdly, exercise to keep the weight off, because, Americans, we really aren't that bad at losing weight. What we're not so great at is keeping it off. And exercise can really help -- back to you.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour here. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Friday.

He is charged with the murder of the man he pulled over. And now former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager has been separated from other jail inmates, he's been placed in isolation as a guard monitors his mental health, all of this coming out today as this second video has now emerged.

This is dash cam video. This is taken from inside the officer's patrol car. And what you will see is the final moments leading up to the deadly shooting and it shows the moment Walter Scott decides to run. The deadly chain of events begins here in a parking lot. Watch with me. OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SLAGER, SOUTH CAROLINA POLICE DEPARTMENT: See your license, registration and insurance card. What's that?

OK. Let's start with your license. The reason for the stop is your brake light is out.

WALTER SCOTT, RESIDENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA: Oh, OK.

SLAGER: OK.

SCOTT: (OFF-MIKE)

SLAGER: Do you have insurance on the car?

SCOTT: No. I don't have insurance.

SLAGER: Well, if you don't have insurance on your car, since you bought it, you have got to have insurance.

SCOTT: Well, I haven't bought it yet. I'm saying I'm about to do that Monday.

SLAGER: You told me you bought it.

SCOTT: (OFF-MIKE) drive the car.

SLAGER: Oh, OK.

SCOTT: Yes, because my car is down. (OFF-MIKE)

SLAGER: Fine. Let me have your driver's license. You don't have any paperwork in the glove box?

SCOTT: No, sir.

SLAGER: No registration in there, no insurance?

SCOTT: No. He has all that stuff.

SLAGER: Why isn't it -- OK. But you are buying this car?

SCOTT: Yes, sir.

SLAGER: Did you already buy it?

SCOTT: No, not yet. I'm about to buy it Monday.

SLAGER: Just a minute ago, you told me that you bought it.

(CROSSTALK)

SLAGER: ... Monday.

SCOTT: I'm sorry about that. (OFF-MIKE)

SLAGER: OK. All right. We will be right back with you.

Got to stay in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taser, Taser, Taser!

SLAGER: Get on the ground now! Get on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the dash cam video. And, of course, even with this video, there's still a really short, but significant gap in time here between that video and then the cell phone video that captures the fatal shooting some 250 yards away. Let's talk about this with Seth Stoughton. He's a law professor at

University of South Carolina and a former Tallahassee police officer.

Seth, welcome to the show.

SETH STOUGHTON, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA: Thank you, Brooke. Pleasure to be here.

BALDWIN: Seth, let's just begin with the dash cam video and what you're seeing here. This is really video one. There's the gap in time, and then there's video two. And just talk with me your law enforcement hat on. How is this officer responding to Walter Scott, the driver here?

STOUGHTON: It looks like a completely standard traffic stop. Police officers don't like to identify any traffic stop as routine, because all sorts of things can happen on a traffic stop.

But there's no particular indication that officer Slager is concerned. He doesn't approach the car with his gun out or his hand on his gun. He has a very conversational tone with Mr. Scott before the foot pursuit starts. So, right up until the time that the foot pursuit starts, it looks like a completely standard traffic stop.

[15:05:09] BALDWIN: It's standard. And I know, according to South Carolina law, it's perfectly legal.

It's the middle light on the window, it's the brake light, that was out. But is it common, Seth, is it common to pull people over for this?

STOUGHTON: Yes.

Minor traffic violations are a very common reason for officers to pull people over. The most benign reason is to just warn them that there's some little mechanical failure in their car that they need to fix. But of course pretextual stops, stopping a vehicle because you suspect some amount of criminal activity by the occupants, even if you don't have enough reasonable suspicion or probable cause to stop them on those grounds, you can stop a car for any actual violation, even if that's not your primary motivation. So, yes, stops like this for whatever reason are very common.

BALDWIN: OK. This is the dash cam video. We also of course have played the video from someone who happened to be in the area. And that's when you see this officer ultimately shooting and killing Walter Scott, hitting him multiple times in the back and then in the ear.

Initially, there;'s, as there always is, a police report. My question to you is, and there's been a lot of outrage over this, there are accounts from the police report that do not watch up once you see the video. What do you make of that?

STOUGHTON: Nothing good. I don't think you can make anything good out of that, whether for reasons of intentionally deceiving his supervisors in the public, to stay out of trouble, whether because officer Slager or other officers were not well-trained enough. I'm not sure.

I can't really explain that. You should not see that discrepancy. The fact that it exists and exists to the extent that it does is really troubling. When I first read the reports of this shooting happening, it came out on Sunday. The shooting was on Saturday. It looked like a news article about a police use of lethal force.

There was nothing, sadly, extraordinary about it. What makes it extraordinary is the fact that there's video and that the video disproves so much of the initial statements.

BALDWIN: That's the thing that people across this country, as if there was not already sort of this distrust with law enforcement -- let me just say I know wonderful police officers. But to know that in this one case -- and it makes people think, gosh, if this can happen in South Carolina, where maybe somebody has fudged a police report for his or her advantage, how often does is happening? From a law enforcement perspective, how would you respond to that?

STOUGHTON: We don't know. We don't know how often things like this happen, not just because deception is difficult to catch, but because we have no good information about police shootings nationwide.

BALDWIN: That's exactly right.

STOUGHTON: The state of our knowledge about police shootings is a national disgrace. We could have much better information and we could have much more robust data, and we don't. And that's disgraceful in this day and age. We really should.

BALDWIN: Seth Stoughton, thank you so much for your candor. I really appreciate it.

STOUGHTON: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, the widow of Eric Garner, the man who died after police put him in that choke hold, she will join me to talk about the role cameras played in her late husband's case and what officers told her before that video surfaced.

Plus, new video of the deadly tornadoes that ripped through the midsection of this country. See what happened next as storm chasers got dangerously close here.

And upcoming, an interview you cannot miss. I will speak live with a man who just walked out of prison after 30 years on death row. He is now a free man after a new revelation. He will get candid about being scared of forks, and walking around a mall and what he thinks of cops and lawyers that put him there. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:15] BALDWIN: Today, the family of Walter Scott, the man shot and killed by a South Carolina police officer, will gather. They will be holding a wake today ahead of his funeral tomorrow in the town of North Charleston.

The lives of both mothers involved in the South Carolina case are now forever changed, their grief playing out on a national stage. But as different as their circumstances may be, they actually share something in common here, a feeling of forgiveness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN SHARPE, MOTHER OF MICHAEL SLAGER: I can't imagine him. He loved being a police officer. I can't imagine him doing something that -- it's just not like him. it's not his character.

I just -- I just have to let it be and hope God takes care of everybody involved, not only my family, but the Scott family, because I know they're grieving, just like I'm grieving.

JUDY SCOTT, MOTHER OF WALTER SCOTT: I'm supposed to be really angry and upset and raging and all that, but I can't, because of the love of God in me. I can't be like that.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You don't feel that in your heart?

SCOTT: No, I don't. I feel forgiveness in my heart, even for the guy that shot and killed my son.

COOPER: You feel forgiveness?

SCOTT: Yes, for him. Yes, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There are few people who know, have felt the kind of pain the Scott family is going through right now, none really better than my best guest, the widow of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old man heard saying those words, "I can't breathe," over and over as he was placed in a choke hold in that deadly arrest on Staten Island last July.

[15:15:09] Esaw Garner joins me now, along with Jonathan Moore, the lawyer handling Eric Garner's case.

Welcome to both of you. Thank you so much.

ESAW GARNER, WIDOW OF ERIC GARNER: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Let me begin with you. I was watching you watch those mothers, both the sense of -- the strong sense of forgiveness, especially soon after losing a son, and then the mother of the officer who did this.

First, what do you make of this sense of forgiveness? Have you forgiven officers in Staten Island? No?

GARNER: I don't think I will ever have that much love or that much God in my heart, because it was a heartless and Godless thing that took my husband off this earth. So, I don't think there's anything that the officer could say to me or

express to me. He's not sorry. He's not. If he was sorry, the time to be sorry would be when my husband was asking for air to breathe, to let the EMTs do what they needed to do to try to revive him or bring him back. And they stood there and watched him die. I don't think I could ever forgive him.

BALDWIN: There are a number of similarities, totally different situations, but some similarities between what happened with your husband and what happened in South Carolina, and specifically the fact that they began with small infractions, selling loose cigarettes, a broken brake light.

There are those that say in both those situations, you know, had Eric Garner not resisted, had Walter Scott not jumped out of that car, this never would have happened.

GARNER: First of all, for the record, he wasn't resisting.

For him to be resisting, he would have been fighting, running, or trying to get away or trying to keep them from -- he wanted to know why were they bothering him in the first place. He didn't have a cigarette in his hand. They didn't see him make a sale. They didn't see him accept money. They didn't see him do any of that.

They totally disregarded the fact that he broke up a fight. The reason the police were called to that site was for the fight. But the two guys that were fighting had disappeared, walked right past the police. They saw my husband and an opportunity to harass him, as though they did. And then the end result is him dying, regardless of whether he was selling cigarettes or whatever.

I know people that have are fought police, have took guns, have shot police, and they are still here to talk about it.

BALDWIN: There are those, though, with all due respect, who would say if he just had put his arms out and allowed the officers to put those cuffs on...

GARNER: I can't speak on that. I'm not him. I don't know how he felt at that time. But I know, by what I have seen -- like I said, I haven't watched the video completely, because I can't.

But up until the point, even in the frozen frames of the video, I see the expression. I have been married to him for 27 years. The expression on his face was, why are you bothering me? What are you here for?

JONATHAN MOORE, ATTORNEY FOR ESAW GARNER: And I would say that being upset about how you're being treated does not equate to resisting, either legally or factually. So, I think what Mrs. Garner says is absolutely accurate.

BALDWIN: What about with the case in South Carolina? The NAACP has already come out and said, yes, racial profiling.

You came out after all of this and said, at least in the case of your husband, that this wasn't about race.

GARNER: I can't say that it actually wasn't. I can say my feelings are that it was retaliation, that it wasn't about him being black and selling cigarettes.

BALDWIN: How do you see what happened in South Carolina?

GARNER: Really, I have just heard about it a couple of days ago. I was watching the news, and I seen it. And then immediately after that, they showed the video of my husband. And I feel like there's no comparison, because my husband didn't run.

My husband gave them no reason to do anything to him but answer his question, why are you bothering me?

BALDWIN: Do you feel this man shouldn't have run?

GARNER: I think that they need to find out what happened before he ran and why he ran. That's what I think. I think that they need to find out why he ran.

MOORE: And I think also the issue of whether there was race involved in the encounter between the officers of Staten Island and Eric Garner is a broader question and requires you to access to more information than what Mrs. Garner has access to.

We know for 10 years that the NYPD engaged in racial profiling in how they did stops and frisks. This was essentially part and parcel to that kind of policy. We'd have to know more about officer Pantaleo, about his background. We know he has prior complaints. And so...

[15:20:02] GARNER: And we know that he is still working, and he is still getting a pay check. And still -- it's nine months later, and they're not doing anything.

I haven't heard anything about what's going to be the end result of my case with my husband.

BALDWIN: I understand.

GARNER: And then they're asking me about this case in South Carolina. I can't feel anything but what I feel for my husband.

And until someone gives me some type of justice or something, I can't feel for anybody else. I do feel for the families, of course, because we all took a loss, but right now my main focus is try to get justice for Eric Garner.

BALDWIN: You can understand why people are asking you a little bit about South Carolina and especially one of the similarities being the fact that there was video.

(CROSSTALK)

GARNER: Right. And another similarity is that they're in two racist situations, South Carolina being one known for being racist and Staten Island being one known for being racist.

BALDWIN: Were you told by police what happened before you saw the video, before this video emerged? Were there inconsistencies between what police told you initially...

(CROSSTALK)

GARNER: I haven't talked to any police.

BALDWIN: Do you know what I'm asking?

MOORE: Yes. I understand. And there was no -- that's one of the...

BALDWIN: Because there are questions over what happened in South Carolina.

MOORE: Yes, that's right. There was no effort actually even to reach out to Mrs. Garner from the police department to talk to her about what happened.

What she learned was through her friends who were there and through the media. They have actually never apologized to her for what happened to her husband.

BALDWIN: Would you have any message for -- just again, I look at you as a mother and a widow speaking to the mothers in South Carolina. Any message for them?

GARNER: Do what you feel. You know, that's all I can say is do what you feel. I can't go by what they feel.

They feel that they can forgive and they have God. And I believe in God, and I love God too. And I have God in my life, but where was God when they were choking my husband? Where was God in him to keep my husband breathing?

BALDWIN: Esaw Garner, thank you so much. And, Jonathan Moore, I appreciate you being here as well. Thank you so much.

GARNER: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: I'm so sorry again for your loss.

GARNER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here, storm chasers get incredibly close to those tornadoes here in the Midwest. We will take you there next.

Also, making it official, CNN learning Hillary Clinton is about to make big, big news this weekend, announcing her run for the White House. Many believe it will look a lot different from the presidential announcement she made the last go-around. Stay with me. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:22] BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton is ready to make it official.

CNN has learned she will be launching her 2016 White House bid Sunday through a video message on social media. And then she's off to it, to the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

I imagine my next two correspondents are soon heading in her wake. Her aides say she's not taking anything for granted after finishing third in Iowa during her first with bid for the White House in 2008.

CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar and CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny are with me here together in New York.

Can't imagine why you're both here.

Finally, it's out. She's announcing via video Sunday and then she's off to Iowa. What's her message?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Her message seems to be laid out pretty clearly in this epilogue of the paperback version of "Hard Choices." It's been out a year, but the paperback is coming out later this month.

And Huffington Post got a hold of it. Basically it's -- she's been around for decades. What's her message about the future? Well, in this, she talks about how now she's a grandmother, is realizing and has realized that she wants to leave basically the world a better place, that she wants all young children and all people to have the opportunities that her granddaughter, Charlotte, has, and sort of, as a steward of the world, she wants to make a better place when she leaves it.

BALDWIN: OK. As the steward of the world, the head of the NRA would choose to agree with some of those. Let me just tee this up, Zeleny.

The convention is happening right now in Nashville. A number of Republican contenders will be speaking. I believe Jeb Bush is up momentarily. But we just heard from Wayne LaPierre and he thinks differently of Hillary Clinton. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAYNE LAPIERRE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: Is Hillary Rodham Clinton really who you want to be our first woman president?

AUDIENCE: No!

LAPIERRE: Is she really, truly worthy of that high honor?

AUDIENCE: No!

LAPIERRE: Do we really want to put the country through another Clinton term of scandal, and deceit, and self-serving behavior?

AUDIENCE: No! LAPIERRE: She will not bring a dawn of new promise and opportunity. Hillary Rodham Clinton will bring a permanent darkness of deceit and despair forced upon the American people to endure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Darkness and deceit and despair, Jeff Zeleny, no huge surprise, the reaction from the crowd, but my goodness.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And that's the reality check. That's the environment that she's walking into.

She's been out of the political arena for several years. But now she's back right into it. It's a 50/50 country. No one is more polarizing than her. But, look, her supporters are not in that crowd. That speech will fire up her supporters as much as it fires up NRA. She knows what she's walking into. Her people know what she's walking into it.

But what she has to do, first of all, is convince Democrats that she's the person for this job. And not every Democrat is ready for Hillary. There actually are some others who are running, a handful of others.

BALDWIN: Who? Who are others, potentially?

ZELENY: Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb. We had another one yesterday, former...

KEILAR: Lincoln Chafee.

ZELENY: Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican senator and governor of Rhode Island.

A little of other people are interested in this. She knows that she has to fight for every vote. Going to Iowa is significant. She got third place there last time.

(CROSSTALK)

ZELENY: A bit of a humility check, as you reported this morning.

KEILAR: That's exactly right, because what they want -- this is the hard part for her, though, is, compared to 2008, there really isn't this President Obama, then Senator Obama figure waiting in the wings.

She needs to go in and fight for every vote and sort of say, look, I'm not taking this for granted, as she did, in a way, going in last time in 2007. Her video said, "I'm in, and I'm in to win."

That's not her message this time. I think a lot of her advisers look at that and they kind of cringe that they let that go out the gate.