Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Donald Trump Talks to Media Prior to News Conference; Awaiting D.A. News Conference on Sandra Bland Death; FBI Director Issues Warning on ISIS; Interview with Barack Obama's Half-Sister Dr. Auma Obama. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 23, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP GROUP: And they invited me and, all of a sudden, they went silencio. They went silent. If I win, believe me, we'll get things straightened out.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is it a great danger to be here?

TRUMP: They say it's a great danger. I love the country. There's nothing more important than what I'm doing. I'm the one that brought up the problem of illegal immigration. We have big crowds all screaming in favor of Trump. They want the problem fixed.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We will have legal immigration. We want to get the legal immigration in. We want legal immigration.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What do you think of Obama not giving his birth certificates?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Rick Perry is talking about that on the news.

TRUMP: I think Rick Perry did a terrible job. Your new governor is doing a great job. Abbott, Governor Abbot is doing a great job. Rick Perry, honestly, I don't think he understands what it means.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is he following your lead?

TRUMP: He's following my lead, absolutely. We're the ones that brought it up. I took a lot of heat the first week. And the second week everybody realized I was right. One of the things, I employ thousands and thousands of Hispanics. I love the people, the Latinos. They are great. They are fantastic people but they want -- these are the people who work -- they want legal immigration. They want it to be legal. They don't want the illegal immigration with all of the tremendous amount of crime. Already today I'm hearing about it. People say it's so dangerous what you're doing, Mr. Trump. It's so dangerous what you are doing. I have to do it. I have to do it.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: We're going to look into that and the answer is going to be yes.

We'll be back. We'll be back.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, on the bus, if you want to follow us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Donald Trump officially there in Laredo, Texas, surrounded by members of the media there. We have some crews there as well. Donald Trump is expected to give, I suppose, what would be a longer, more of a news conference statement in a matter of minutes. We'll take that live for you ahead of this border tour there in Laredo.

Meantime, we'll take live a news conference given by the Waller district attorney in the case of Sandra Bland, who, according to the sheriff there, said she committed suicide in the jail cell. The family says otherwise. We'll get new details on her autopsy.

Stay with me. Lots happening on this Thursday. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:36:57] BALDWIN: All right. Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A reminder, we're waiting for Waller County district attorney, Mr. Elton Mathis, who will give details on the autopsy with regard to Sandra Bland. She's the woman in Texas recently found dead in her jail cell after initially being pulled over for not signaling in a lane change. We've seen the dash cam video from that interaction with the state trooper who is now on administrative duty. And then the sheriff has said she did commit suicide in her jail cell. The family isn't buying that. So much so that they have ordered an independent autopsy to determine what happened to Sandy Bland. So again, we're waiting for that district attorney to give new details on that autopsy.

Ryan Young is with me now on the phone.

Because, Ryan, you have new details pertaining to the case. What have you learned?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We do. I want to talk about -- we do know from sources that details are going to come out and clear facts about why they believe she committed suicide. There's a power point presentation where they are going to show bits of evidence and pictures from the autopsy so they can try to quell the rumors circulating on social media. What we did learn today, we talked to a young woman who spent the last 17 days in a jail cell across from where Sandy Bland was locked up. They actually talked from across the hall. She said she never heard any commotion, any yelling, anything strange, that Sandy Bland was distraught for most of the time she was there, she was crying and there by herself and she was having trouble understanding why she was under arrest.

BALDWIN: I see. So that inmate from across the way didn't hear or see any commotion. Again, as you pointed out, there will be a Power Point presentation and photos from the autopsy of Sandy Bland. We'll wait for that from the D.A.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Ryan. Go ahead.

YOUNG: We talked to her for about 35 minutes. She said she would talk through the food slits so they would talk to each other from across the hallway. She said Sandy was crying all the time and very upset that she was still in jail. She was sleeping when they found Sandy and afterwards she could see her body on the other side of the cell. So she's very upset, obviously, because she thought she was a very nice girl but she kept saying to us, she didn't feel like anything was being done to Sandy, that everyone was talking to her, that everyone was being kind and she never heard anything strange during that whole period.

BALDWIN: Ryan Young with that conversation with that other inmate.

Ryan, thank you. We'll talk after we hear from the D.A. Thank you so much.

Now to this, a new terror warning from the head of the FBI. ISIS is now a bigger threat to the United States. This is coming from the FBI Director James Comey issuing that warning when he spoke with my colleague, Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:16] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Is that now a bigger threat to the U.S. homeland than al Qaeda?

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: Yes. The threat that ISIL presents, poses to the United States is very different in the kind and type and degree than al Qaeda. ISIS is not your parents' al Qaeda. It's a very different model and it's currently the threat that we're worried about in the homeland most of all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to circle back with those comments with my next guest in a second. There's also this, a Somali-based terror group with ties to al

Qaeda posing concerns ahead of President Obama's arrival in Kenya in a matter of days. The president leaves tonight and those terror concerns prompted U.S. military actions ahead of his trip. Defense officials saying they have conducted half a dozen secret air strikes in Somalia against that terror group al Shabaab in the past week because U.S. Intelligence is hearing chatter that an attack on nearby Kenyan troops could be imminent.

Let discuss more of the comments with Director Comey with Mitch Silber, of K2 Intelligence and the former director of intelligence analysis for the New York Police Department.

Mitch, great to have you on.

MITCH SILBER, K2 INTELLIGENCE & FORMER DIRECTOR OF INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I think it's also -- first, underscoring the importance of Director Comey saying that ISIS is the greater threat. Al Qaeda affiliates are around the world. By no means is al Qaeda forgotten.

SILBER: Yeah. Brooke, the director has given a lot of thought to this and cares deeply about these issues. To some degree, it's comparing apples to oranges. The organization has the intent to carry out a spectacular attack and kill thousands of people and there are affiliates and allies, whether in Yemen, the chaos and havoc there, in Syria or even in Somalia, as you mentioned. That organization is still there, is still thriving and has the capability. The underwear bomber with the printer cartridge, that bomb maker is still out there. Compare and contrast that to ISIS. ISIS, the organization, has never actually launched a plot against the United States. Instead, what has happened is something very different and something I've called crowd source jihad. They've put out general --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Crowd source jihad?

SILBER: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's a good way to put it.

SILBER: They put out a generalized message. It's the month of Ramadan. You should take this opportunity to kill them and good luck with that.

BALDWIN: And an infidel could be anyone. I mean, it could anyone.

(CROSSTALK)

SILBER: Right. And it could even be another Muslim. But essentially they are not providing any top-down guidance. There's not any operational linkage between someone in garland, Texas, and the organization back in Iraq and Syria. They are essentially putting out a request and other people, other fan boys, ISIS fan boys, are going into operation from the bottom up, so a very different threat. One top-down, al Qaeda's leadership tries to carry out a plot, the other bottom-up, where people are essentially taking it upon themselves to do this.

BALDWIN: Crowd sourcing jihad. I had never heard of that.

Mitch Silber, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

SILBER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, as we mentioned, Donald Trump is expected to tour the United States border with Mexico. He's there in Laredo, Texas, as are many a member of the media. We'll bring that to you live as it happened.

Next, the prosecutor in the Sandra Bland case is going to give a press conference with new details on her autopsy.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:46:02] BALDWIN: Kenya is a special place for President Obama. It's where if father is buried. It's where his grandmother still lives. And now the president is set to make his first trip to Kenya since he became commander-in-chief seven years ago. I traveled to Kenya and visited a rural village call Kogelo, far western Kenya, where there is clear anticipation of a potential visit from the president, they are hoping.

It's there where I met with President Obama's half-sister, Dr. Auma Obama, for an exclusive look of where they come from and even meeting the step-grandparent, Momma Sarah. There, we spoke about how even worlds away the president and his sister have a tremendous amount in common.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So we made it.

DR. AUMA OBAMA, HALF-SISTER OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We did.

BALDWIN (voice-over): Auma Obama and Barack Obama share a father. While the president grew up in Hawaii, Auma was raised in Kenya.

OBAMA: I know from the age of 8 that I have a certain idea of how I see myself and the kind of life I wanted to live.

BALDWIN: Auma wanted a different future for herself than the one expected of her.

(on camera): I'm fascinated by you growing up as the only girl among all of these brothers.

OBAMA: Yeah.

BALDWIN: What was it like growing up in this culture?

OBAMA: It was not that easy. One of the things that happened is I learned at a very young age, when you're a girl, there are certain expectations of you regardless of how you feel and what you want. There were times I wasn't keen on doing something and ask why I had to do that they would say, because you are a girl. The answer wasn't good enough for me.

BALDWIN: (voice-over): To Auma, visiting her grandmother always felt like going home.

OBAMA: I asked so many questions. You're a girl, you should be listening. You should be passive. And I wasn't. I kept asking questions and she would tell me, at the rate you're going, you'll never get married or find a husband. I was like, yeah, it doesn't matter because I'm going to choose my own husband. She told me, that's not going to happen. We choose the husband for you and actually he chooses you.

I came home, I came here very often and it's very traditional. We would be cooking and we would serve them, bring the food to the table. So inside I was fighting and knew that at the end of the day, whatever I'm going to be, I'm going to be my own person.

BALDWIN: And that she did. Auma Obama founded an organization in the village where she was raised called powerful voices for healing.

(SINGING)

BALDWIN: Her mission, provide a space for young people struggling with poverty to pave their own future.

OBAMA: One of our slogans, we keep on telling them, "Use what you have to get what you need, not what you want, what you need."

BALDWIN: Growing up on opposite ends of the earth, Auma shares this vision with her brother, the president of the United States.

(on camera): Here we are and you've given so much of your soul to these children and to this community, and then you have your brother who has launched this My Brother's Keeper and he's helping young black men in America and the sense of service and leadership. Within the two of you, you've grown up on opposite ends of the earth but you share this common denominator and I'm wondering, why do you think that is?

OBAMA: When we got to know each other, we hit it off but we felt -- we were able to talk too easy about things and it seemed that we talked about the same thing. We were similar in that sense that we can do something for our communities and I'm driven. I get tired of myself. I need five lives to do the things that I want to do. I exhaust myself. I think maybe he has that. He's driven in the same way. We can all do something to make a difference and he has that very strongly. I do, too.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:50:21] BALDWIN: (voice-over): Making a difference, something Auma recognizes in one very powerful American woman, someone Auma first came to know as her brother's opponent in the 2008 presidential election.

(on camera): Just speaking about strength in women and looking at all of those little girls, I have to ask, coming from a U.S. perspective, Hillary Clinton is running to be the president of the United States.

OBAMA: Uh-huh.

BALDWIN: If she's elected, she will be the first female. What do you think your girls would think about hearing about a female president in the U.S.?

OBAMA: I think in that context, with the right exposure, it wouldn't surprise them because we have very strong women. We have strong women, some in politics, in business. It's just not that they are at the right places of power. And in that context they would be like, wow, what a great thing to have happened. And this is kind of the craziness of our culture is that we're constantly confronted with strong, black African women. When it comes to the men, suddenly they bow and the men take the upper happened or they give the men that space where the men have to take the role of the father, the stronger person and makes the decisions. To me, in the background, the women are making the decisions for the men as well.

BALDWIN: Do you think we'd be seeing Hillary Clinton posters around here instead of Barack Obama posters?

OBAMA: I think we're not ready for that in many ways. If there was a woman trying to be president in Kenya, that's the way I would compare it, I think our men would be like, why a woman?

BALDWIN: (voice-over): In Auma's memoir, "And Then Life Happens," she took jabs personally.

(on camera): Are you over the jabs she threw at your brother?

OBAMA: No comment.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

She's a good friend of mine.

OBAMA: The jabs were politics. I got to know her and she was really nice. I was impressed with her. Strong woman.

I don't actually like coming to the grave so much.

BALDWIN: Why?

OBAMA: Because it upsets me.

# (voice-over): She also wrote of her difficult relationship with her father.

(on camera): What do you think your dad would say to you today, given everything that you're doing for kids in Kenya?

OBAMA: I'm hoping he would be proud of me because I'm helping kids take their live in their own hands and determine their destiny ands that something my dad felt very strong about. Saying that as a girl, he did try to control the decisions I made because of all of that.

He also taught me very much -- and this is on a very personal level, nobody is better than me, which is really amazing. It doesn't matter where the person comes from. They have to prove themselves as much as I have to prove myself. It's a good start in life because there was a lot of challenges being a girl and being able to prove yourself and get your way through things and get what you needed was not always easy and I always had that pride and this is what people call about pride, I'm just as good as the next person and I can do as well as the other person. So in that sense, it gave me a strength that has enabled me to do a lot of things.

But he also challenged me. I always tried to prove to him that I was as good as I wanted to be and when you're constantly trying to prove yourself to somebody and it was difficult when he passed away, OK, now I don't have to prove myself to anybody which took away some of my steam and my energy. It was a bit of a shock.

(SINGING)

BALDWIN: (voice-over): Auma looks forward to the day when her brother can visit, her passion brought to life.

(on camera): If your brother were to come here, what is the first thing you would want to show him?

OBAMA: This has been a real labor of love doing this work. And with regards to the kids, I find that's like a win-win situation. When you're around the kids, they swallow you up. You disappear because it's easy.

BALDWIN: They do.

OBAMA: They do for us than we do for them.

(SINGING)

OBAMA: I get excited and then they have to tag along with that. (SINGING)

OBAMA: I just have to hope that he understands that the core of this work is getting people to be able to make their own features and look at themselves and maintain their dignity and be able to say, I did it. It's my life. It's my future. That's what we're trying to achieve. If he can see that, I'm hoping he'll see that without too much explanation.

(SINGING)

OBAMA: But, yeah, I just show him around. That's what I do. And wait and see.

(SINGING)

(APPLAUSE)

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:55:13] BALDWIN: Pretty special getting to be in Kenya with Auma. By the way, we're not finished with showing our exclusive interview with Dr. Auma Obama, the president's half-sister. More on her foundation and the incredible children coming up tomorrow.

Next up on CNN, any moments now, we're watching and waiting for Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. He's there along the U.S./Mexico border. He'll be speaking, hosting a news conference. We'll take it live.

Also, we're waiting on the district attorney in the Sandra Bland case in Texas. He will be giving a news conference at any minute as well with new details on her autopsy.

Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:07] BALDWIN: Top of the hour.

Breaking news here on CNN. Pictures of the district attorney in Waller County, Texas. He is giving details on the autopsy on Sandra Bland. She was arrested --