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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump Rally Violence; Turkey Explosion Kills 37; The Failure of Trump Mortgage; Maryland Officer Killed in Unprovoked Attack. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 14, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:16] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An American man turns himself in to Kurdish officials after spending time in ISIS territory. Officials now scrambling to figure out exactly what he was doing there. He's an American. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Beirut following this story for us.

Hi, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, very little information at this stage. As you say, it isn't really clear what he was doing in ISIS territory. I'm sure many observers will say you don't really get to hang out there as a foreigner, as an American, as this man admits that he clearly is, unless you have ISIS' permission. But, still, Kurdish officials taking him into their security custody here to launch an investigation as to how he came to be simply walking out of ISIS territory towards Peshmerga/Kurdish fighter front lines.

A video released on the Internet of that moment of the handover shows a Kurdish official talking to him, interrogating him. And what's clear from what he says is that his father is Palestinian, his mother is Iraqi. He appears to say perhaps from the town of Mosul in norther Iraq, held by ISIS now, close to where he would be standing. But he, in fact, is an American citizen.

Now, there's been reports perhaps suggesting he was in possession of a Virginia driving license. All of that unclear right now but still a strange story of how an American citizen came to be wandering out of ISIS territory, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump is doubling down, saying he does not accept responsibility for the violence that takes place at his rallies. But his comments on the campaign trail prompted one man to rush the stage at an Ohio event this weekend. Twenty-two-year-old Thomas DiMassimo was hauled out and later charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic. But in a CNN exclusive, DiMassimo said he was just trying to send a message.

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THOMAS DIMASSIMO, KICKED OUT OF OHIO TRUMP RALLY AFTER RUSHING STAGE: I was thinking that I could get up on stage and take his podium away from him and take his mike away from him and send a message to all people out in the country who wouldn't consider themselves racist, who wouldn't consider themselves approving of what type of violence Donald Trump is allowing at his rallies, and send them a message that we can be strong.

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COSTELLO: So let's talk about this and more. Joining me from Detroit, Stephanie Suboch and Lauren Underwood. Both are first time voters and Bernie Sanders supporters. They were escorted out of a Trump rally recently in Michigan. And in North Carolina, Chenjerai Kumanyka -- and I hope I pronounced your name right, sir, It's Kumanyka, correct?

CHENJERAI KUMANYKA, ESCORTED OUT OF TRUMP RALLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA: That's right.

COSTELLO: Oh, good. You are Clemson University assistant professor. You were also removed from a Trump rally after showing up in traditional Mideastern attire.

Welcome to all of you.

I'm going to start with you, professor, because you went to a Trump rally and you were wearing -- describe for our viewers what you were wearing to that Trump rally.

KUMANYKA: Well, what I actually had on was a west African -- a red west African shirt and pants. And then I also had a caftia (ph) on. And that is actually something that is worn throughout the Middle East, even by some Christians. But it's -- it is Middle Eastern -- popular Middle Eastern attire.

COSTELLO: Are you from the Middle East?

KUMANYKA: I'm not, but I wore that outfit in solidarity with those who have been affected by some of this hateful and violent rhetoric by Donald Trump. And, you know, I just wanted to go and send a message that we don't have to be small. I mean as long as we're peaceful, we don't have to be small, you know, in order to attend and be a part of the democratic process.

COSTELLO: Well, some Trump supporters might say that you wore the Middle Eastern gear because you wanted a reaction from the crowd. You meant to cause a ruckus. What would you say to them?

[09:35:10] KUMANYKA: Well, according to their logic, that only works if the crowd is indeed bigoted. And in this case, it turned out that the Trump campaign was who was bigoted. You know, the security -- the police escorted me out and claimed that they were told to do that by the Trump campaign. The Trump campaign said I was no longer welcome according to the Anderson County police sheriff. You know, and so, yes, that's a -- I believe that that did come from the Trump campaign.

COSTELLO: All right, I want to go to Lauren next. You were escorted out of a Trump rally in Michigan. You're a Bernie Sanders supporter. Why did you go?

LAUREN UNDERWOOD, ESCORTED OUT OF TRUMP RALLY IN MICHIGAN: We went to try and see what Donald was talking about, like what he was promoting as a presidential nominee, like seeing what he was all about and that's the answer we got from him.

COSTELLO: Stephanie, what happened? How did people know that you guys were Bernie Sanders' supporters?

STEPHANIE SUBOCH, ESCORTED OUT OF TRUMP RALLY IN MICHIGAN: I was wearing the hat that had a peace sign and it said Bernie 2016 on it. And then Lauren was wearing a shirt that said "dump the Trump" with a toilet on it.

COSTELLO: Oh, well, again, some Trump supporters might say you went there in order to get escorted out.

SUBOCH: We knew that we were going to get escorted out, but we just didn't think that it would be like this. We didn't go there to like cause a scene. We just went there to honestly listen.

COSTELLO: So, Lauren, describe to us what happened when you were escorted out and who escorted you out?

UNDERWOOD: A -- as the crowd started pointing and yelling at us, an officer and a Secret Service member came and like led us by the back out through the crowd. And the whole crowd was booing and screaming and then they started chanting "USA, USA," which was kind of confusing to us because we're both, you know, born and raised like U.S. citizens, like we're from USA. And then in the video you can hear someone screaming, "go to Mexico." And it was just -- they were just -- it was kind of like an angry mob. It was really like intimidating.

COSTELLO: Stephanie, how did you feel? Did you feel afraid? Were you intimidated, too?

SUBOCH: Yes, I was really intimidated too. And especially when the officer told me that if I came back, I would get arrested. And then I asked him, I said, well, isn't it my right to protest? And he said, not here. You don't have any rights here.

COSTELLO: So, professor, I guess I'll ask you this because Donald Trump says Bernie Sanders' supporters and protesters, like you, are going to these rallies to purposefully insight people hoping that violence will occur so that it can be blamed on the Trump camp. What would you say to that?

KUMANYKA: Well, first of all, let me say, you know, there's a lot of talk about Donald Trump, but we have to first acknowledge, this is not a Donald Trump problem. This is an American problem. The GOP has had this rhetoric of, you know, stoking right wing populism and irrational fears of people who are deemed to be others, and that's a long American tradition. So Donald Trump is -- did not start it and sadly, although he's playing into those politics of fear, he can't end it.

Now, he should want people, like these wonderful students I'm talking to now, other people who have been attacked, he should want those people to be able to participate in the Democratic process and hear his message. But what has happened, in fact, is that if you come dressed in the wrong outfit, like I was, then you might be escorted out or you might even be viciously attacked.

COSTELLO: Lauren, tell me -- you know, I'm sure you heard what happened in Chicago over the weekend, right, where, you know, some violence broke out between Bernie Sanders supporters and Trump supporters. When you were watching that, what went through your mind?

UNDERWOOD: It's just -- it's crazy to me to see how just -- we're also at the primary levels and there's so much violence breaking out from tensions between the candidates and it's kind of scary to see how angry people are getting over this and where they're actually like hurting each other and trying to kill each other over it.

COSTELLO: So, Stephanie, do you blame Bernie Sanders supporters for going to this Trump rally at all and inciting this? What would you say to them?

SUBOCH: I would just say that, you know, good job. I don't think that it's like their fault that this happened. I think that a lot of it has to do with Trump's message because he kind of like promotes violence. So --

COSTELLO: And, Lauren, would you go to another Trump rally?

UNDERWOOD: I don't think I would just because the -- how intimidating it was and how everyone was like screaming at me. And I think I saw what I needed to see to like get an understanding of what it was like. So I don't think I would want to go back, no.

COSTELLO: How about you, professor?

KUMANYKA: Absolutely, I will go. I encourage everyone to go. We have to be organized in trying to exercise our democratic rights to peacefully protest this kind of violent rhetoric, the violent policies.

[09:40:04] And let me just be clear. Donald Trump knows how to make a point when he wants to make it. But the man -- the young man who was punched by someone in North Carolina, Donald Trump defended that person. And if you listen to the last thing that man said, he said on camera that the next time we might kill that young man. This is a lynching kind of rhetoric and Donald Trump is endorsing it.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Chenjerai Kumanyka, Stephanie Suboch and Lauren Underwood, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, ongoing terror raids after a car bomb ripped through Turkey's capital. More than two dozen suspects now in custody. A live report, next.

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COSTELLO: The death toll climbing in Turkey after a car bomb rips through its capital city. The blast killing at least 37 people and injuring 125 others in Ankara. CNN learning just hours ago nearly 30 people are now in custody following an anti-terror raid.

[09:45:07] CNN's Arwa Damon is near the scene of the explosion. Hi, Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol --

COSTELLO: Arwa, can you hear me?

DAMON: Behind us you can seep the police cordon and that white sheet across the -- you can see the white sheet across the road. This is one of the main boulevards in Ankara, a very central area, normally very busy especially at the time that the explosion took place at 6:45 p.m. local on a Sunday. There are shops on either side of the road here. It's where you come and you walk with your friends, your family. There's also a number of open air restaurants.

Now this attacker -- or attackers, we're not entirely sure at this stage -- drove a vehicle laden with explosives and detonated it very close to a crowded bus. The intent was to cause maximum casualties and instill maximum fear within the population.

Now the Turkish government is saying that they believe a terrorist organization is behind the attack, not yet disclosing which one, saying that they want to wait for their results, the full results of an investigation. But Turkish media has been reporting, quoting security sources, that it is the PKK, the Kurdish separatist group, that has been waging a decades-long war with the Turkish government, that has seen fighting renewed, fairly intense fighting renewed, since a ceasefire fell apart over the summer.

Turkish media reporting one of the attackers was a female born in 1992. This is a very much a city, a country, that is reeling from the violence, especially because Ankara was meant to be in a state of heightened alert following an attack that took place less than a month ago, and twin suicide bombings that ripped through a rally in October. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Arwa Damon reporting live from Turkey this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, inside one of Donald Trump's biggest business blunders. Next.

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[09:51:31] COSTELLO: We all know Donald Trump hates losing.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I say it kiddingly, but I mean it 100 percent. We're going to win, win, win. We're going to win so much you're going to get sick and tired of it. You're going to say, Mr. President, we can't take it anymore. You're winning too much.

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COSTELLO: But that doesn't mean he's only had success. Do you remember Trump Mortgage? I didn't think so.

Christine Romans is with me now. She's been going inside Trump's businesses, and his successes and his failures.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And there are some, Carol, there really are. Donald Trump has built a reputation on being a good businessman, the best, winning all the time. And he says that acumen will make him a great president. But Trump has more than once started businesses, or put his name on a product, that would fail. At the very height of the mortgage market, Trump jumped in and faltered.

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ROMANS (voice-over): On the stump, Donald Trump spins away every business failure, whether it's using bankruptcy laws for his four troubled casinos.

TRUMP: I have used the laws of this country, just like the greatest people that you read about every day in business.

ROMANS: To Trump University.

TRUMP: Trump University, we're going to start it up as soon as I win the lawsuit.

ROMANS: To Trump Airlines.

TRUMP: I sold the airline and I actually made a great deal.

ROMANS: But the one you don't hear much about, Trump Mortgage. It launched in the spring of 2006, the peak of the housing bubble when there were already warning signs the housing market was headed for collapse. Months earlier, Fed chief Alan Greenspan hinted at a bubble.

ALAN GREENSPAN, THEN-FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Signs are fraught in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels.

ROMANS: Of course, Greenspan didn't see the size and scope of the coming meltdown. Apparently, neither did Trump. Here's what he told CNBC in 2006.

TRUMP: I think it's a great time to start a mortgage company.

ROMANS: Trump Mortgage connected lenders with borrowers looking for loans. It didn't actually lend money outright to home buyers. It promised to be, quote, the strongest and safest residential mortgage company in the industry.

A year later the bottom fell out of the housing market.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest housing bust in history.

ROMANS: This is your biggest asset, folks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Housing prices falling most parts of the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy could turn south. We could go into recession.

ROMANS: Trump Mortgage failed to hit its financial targets. Less than two years after it opened, the company was history.

These days, Trump's campaign downplay this failed business. In an e- mail to CNN Money, it said this was, quote, "a tiny deal that Mr. Trump looked at but never ultimately moved forward with, because Mr. Trump decided he didn't want to be in this business, foreseeing the market crash."

Is that just more spin on a failed business venture? That's for the voters to decide.

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ROMANS (on camera): Team Trump minimizing this Trump Mortgage company as, again, just a tiny deal in a universe of some 500 companies. But Trump is selling his real estate skills as the basis for his success, so this case may be more revealing. Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Christine Romans, many thanks.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Maryland police officer killed in what's being called an unprovoked attack.

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COSTELLO: Flags in Maryland are flying at half staff after a 28-year- old police officer is killed in what the department calls an unprovoked attack. Officer Jacai Colson was shot and killed in front of his police station on Sunday. His bosses say he had no reason to be targeted and the suspect had nothing to do with the officer. Fellow officers say Colson cannot be replaced.

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JOHN TELETCHEA, FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: Jacai had an infectious smile. He lit up a room. He was a tremendous personality that made everybody smile and wanted to be everything to everybody. He was a police officer who was a real cop's cop.

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COSTELLO: Officer Colson would have celebrated his 29th birthday this week. The suspect in the shooting was wounded and is now recovering in the hospital. Another person was also placed under arrest.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, right now.

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[10:00:03] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is literally inciting violence with his supporters.

TRUMP: Isn't it great to be at a Trump rally, really? It adds excitement, doesn't it, folks?