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CNN NEWSROOM

Funeral for Philando Castile; Ofc. Tommy Norman Talks Police/Community Relations; Explosive Used in July 4th Central Park Blast; Unofficial Words Says Trump Picks Pence as V.P. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 14, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:31:21] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN.

Mourners, including the governor of Minnesota, are gathered now to honor Philando Castile. The shooting death of the 32-year-old school cafeteria supervisor rekindled nationwide protests over the use of excessive force by police after his last breaths were live streamed by his fiance. They apparently were pulled over for a broken taillight. And Castile's death followed the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by Baton Rouge police and came a day before a rampage left five Dallas police officers dead.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is outside the funeral in St. Paul, Minnesota.

My understanding the procession made its way past where he worked?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it had plans to do that, Brooke, but it sort of detoured and didn't actually go past the school just for timing sake, is what we understand.

But I have to paint the picture of what we're feeling right now. It's been a glory day. It's rained at some points and cold. Just as people are starting to file out from the cathedral of St. Paul, because the funeral is now over, the sun is peeking through the clouds, rather. Pretty emotional scene as people are starting to leave this funeral, which lasts for about an hour. Before that, there was a two-hour visitation period. I'm talking about strangers, I'm talking about family, friends, even children were going in to say their final good-byes to Philando Castile and give their respects to his family.

We know Valerie Castile, Philando's mother, said she wanted the service to be about prayer. She wanted it to be about peace and reconciliation.

We are expecting soon to hear from the Castile family attorney, who is celebrity Judge Glenda Hatchett. We'll learn more about the mood inside of this service.

But even still, we can hear gospel music as people begin filing out. So we imagine it was emotional. It certainly was an emotional experience all day. As you described quickly, they're carrying the casket through the streets here in St. Paul bringing that casket of Philando Castile here to the cathedral of St. Paul -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Brynn, thank you so much.

It has been an extraordinarily tough week in this country. In just a bright spot for all of us, a family and friendly face for the show to give us some perspective on the issue of police/community relations.

Officer Tommy Norman, of the North Little Rock Police Department, joins us now.

Officer Norman, it is awesome to have you back. It's been little more than a year.

And just quickly, we have a mutual friend in common, Killer Mike, Atlanta rapper. Had him on the show. He said you have to talk to this guy. We did last year. Now sadly, here we are again. How are you doing?

OFC. TOMMY NORMAN, NORTH LITTLE ROCK POLICE DEPARTMENT: You know, I'm doing good. A little disturbed by the recent events across the United States. But as a police officer that loves his community and community policing, still a big honor to make a difference throughout all the hurt in the world.

BALDWIN: We had talked to you before and we're talking to you again just because of the phenomenal way in which you work in your community, constant posts on Instagram, YouTube. You really use social media to the best of your ability to show young people, who just to be frank, don't look like you and why that is so important for you in those communities.

But I'd love to ask you about what Senator Tim Scott said, South Carolina Senator, offering up a very personal brush with law enforcement. He was speaking on Capitol Hill just yesterday. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:35:05] SEN. TIM SCOTT, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: In the course of one year, I've been stopped seven times by law enforcement officers. Not four. Not five. Not six. But seven times. In one year. As an elected official. Was I speeding sometimes? Sure. But the vast majority of the time, I was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood, or some other reason just as trivial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I mean, we have heard stories like that. But to see Senator Scott give his own personal example. As an officer, how will you respond to that?

NORMAN: You know, Brooke, I can only speak for police department here in North Little Rock, Arkansas. We have a positive reputation with our community. We have none of those issues here on our police department. Sorry for the Senator, what he's dealing with. But we have a positive reputation as I speak throughout the community, every single day. We're all really a big family, community and police officers that serve that community.

BALDWIN: You know, remind people, folks who aren't as familiar with your involvement. The photos I spoke about earlier. How is it that you are so involved? What do you do?

NORMAN: It's my heart. When you step out of that police car, feet to the ground, you lead with your heart. As a police officer, your job goes bond the badge and uniform. They're a human being and you should treat people with respect.

BALDWIN: President Obama delivering that eulogy. This is what he said the other day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also know what Chief Brown said is true, that so much of the tensions between police departments and minority communities that they serve is because we ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Do you think we're asking too much of you all, of law enforcement?

NORMAN: Personally, I don't. Every day we want to do more. Now we do ask that the community engage with us more because it takes all of us as a team to make the community a more peaceful place to live. There's not a day that I don't.

Our chief of police, Mike Davis, sets our standards high. And he encourages us to go out and make a difference every day. Even if it is one life a day, two minutes a day you spend with one who needs that hope and promise, you got to get out there to do it.

BALDWIN: I'll say it again -- we need more Officer Normans in this world.

Thanks so much. My best to you and I just appreciate your time. Thank you.

NORMAL: Thanks, Brooke. It's been a big honor. Thanks a lot.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Let's move along. Just in to CNN, new developments involving that July 4th explosion in Central Park that seriously injured a tourist. Investigators revealing what caused the blast. Live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:42:30] BALDWIN: Breaking news just in to us here on CNN. A Fourth of July explosion in Central Park that left a tourist seriously injured, turns out it was not the result of fireworks but rather made from the homemade explosive TATP, most recently used in the Paris terror attacks.

Evan Perez, our justice correspondent, has these new details.

TATP? Tell me more.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. As you mentioned, this has been the explosive of choice for terrorists, especially in the Paris terrorist attacks, as well as the shoe bomber, Richard Reid. It's been used over and over.

What we know so far is the lab work has been done on this explosive and what they found was household chemicals that were used to make this TATP. Now it is not exactly clear what the intent was here. It was placed in this bag. They managed -- investigators managed to trace the source of the bag actually to a bakery that doesn't exist anymore in New Jersey. They still have no idea who placed it there, even how long it was there. We know from the weather, it rained overnight, then during the day might have heated up. These chemicals are known to be very unstable. And it appears that this tourist simply set it off by stepping on it. It's an explosive that's very hard to keep stable. And simply the temperatures that day in Central Park might have caused it to crystallize and would have made it more easily to go off.

Now as far as whether or not this is a terrorist attack or somebody who was trying to plan a terrorist attack, that's something obviously that's at the top of minds of investigators. They've not found any indications of that. They didn't find any fusing device. They didn't find any ball bearings or any type of thing you see in the devices that are made by terrorist groups. But obviously it is something that's very, very concerning. This was simply a tourist who was walking around Fourth of July weekend in Central Park and jumped down from a rock, managed to set off this explosive. He was severely injured. His leg was severely injured. And it is something now obviously that is going to change his life.

Obviously, this is something the investigators at the NYPD and FBI are very, very much focused on, simply because we -- they know that people test out these types of explosives using homemade ingredients. But it is not clear exactly what the intent was here -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Yeah. I remember we talked about it at the time, think it was a college student who was in town and now he lost his foot as a result of stepping on this.

Evan Perez, thank you for the update.

[14:45:02] All right, so it is arguably the biggest decision of his campaign. It is playing out like an episode of "The Apprentice." Sources telling CNN signs point to Donald Trump choosing Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. But to be clear, to quote Dana Bash, "The call has not been made." Joining me now, CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable

Sources," Brian Stelter. And Jeff Stein, a reporter for VOX. Jeff is with us. He has a piece out, "The Way We Pick V.P.s Is Terrible, The Alternatives Are Even Worse."

JEFF STEIN, REPORTER, VOX: Thanks for remembering.

BALDWIN: Yeah. Thank you so much, Jeff. We'll get to you in a second.

But first, Brian Stelter, I read an article, likened it to "The Bachelor." It is all very public.

(LAUGHTER)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Yeah. Even more than ever before. Maybe that's before Donald Trump is such a media savvy candidate and we live in this social media era. Right now Newt Gingrich is on Facebook answering questions from his Facebook Live followers. He only has a few thousand people watching but he's talking about --

BALDWIN: Like you.

STELTER: Exactly. He's talking about this process of being interviewed for hours as a candidate for V.P., running mate potential. Yes, there is a 113-question survey he had to answer. So he's being very open about this. And we don't normally see that about the contenders for the job. I think it is probably because Gingrich is lobbying for are it openly, even though Pence seems to be one that's in the lead. Trump has said Gingrich will be promised a position somewhere in the administration. Maybe the other contenders, like Chris Christie, would have a job in the administration. Knowing Trump, will he surprise us with these other announcements, will he promise jobs to other people in the coming days?

BALDWIN: Meeting the families this week. Who gets the final rose?

Jeff, to you and your piece. You say in whole selection method that it is a mistake. Why?

STEIN: I think the main critique that my piece makes of our current vice presidential selection method is basically that we force our presidential nominees to pick between a short-term electoral interest and what's actually best for the country. Right? Do we really want the next leader of the free world to be chosen based on the fact that Iowa looked like a gettable state one year? That doesn't just doesn't seem like a great way of doing things.

BALDWIN: But it's not like this is new. You are thinking of rounding out the ticket. Years past, this has been done

STEIN: No. Of course, I don't have any grand delusions that a piece will prompt a constitutional amendment. I think it is worth zooming back every now and then saying, wait, why do we do it the way we do it. BALDWIN: No, it is a point we're taking. You think that, this person

is a heartbeat away from the presidency and interesting the country's best interests in mind, you would like to think that's priority numero uno.

STEIN: Right.

BALDWIN: Stelter, we are talking so much about Trump because we're on the precipice of Cleveland, the Republican convention.

STELTER: Yeah, we're not hearing about Clinton's choices. And maybe she likes it that way. During the convention she'll make those choices. Maybe she's happy not to have that intensive coverage.

Donald Trump, we know he is a reality TV star. He starred on "The Apprentice" for a number of years. This is natural for him. In some ways, he's learning into it. We should keep that in mind tomorrow. 11:00 eastern time tomorrow in the Hilton ballroom. He's going to have a giant stage for this announcement. It does feel like he is leaning in to his reality TV past, his producing past, as he does this decision.

BALDWIN: We'll all be watching.

Jeff Stein, Brian Stelter, thank you both so much.

Again, 11:00 tomorrow morning is when we officially find out.

Meantime, next, the long-classified document alleging ties between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 hijackers is finally being made public. How soon the document, I referring to as the 28 pages, will be released, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:45] BALDWIN: Just in to us here, we are about to learn a little bit more about potential ties between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 hijackers, the so-called 28 pages. This is all part of a 2002 congressional investigation into the September 11th attacks. These pages are classified. They have never, ever been made public. But now, according to sources in to CNN, they could be released as early as tomorrow.

CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is working this one for us from Washington.

Jim, remind us just in terms of ties with Saudi Arabia, significance of the documents. And what are we expecting to learn?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I've spoken to people who's read these 28 pages which are actually 29 pages, I'm told. Keep in mind, they are classified until they come out tomorrow. But in general terms it will show what this 2002 investigation found about employees of the Saudi government or people with ties to the Saudi government, particularly in the L.A. area, had in particularly with two of the 9/11 hijackers. Keep in mind these were early leads. A couple years later, the 9/11

Commission report found no official Saudi role. But I have spoken to people who have read them and said, listen, there were some leads that weren't fully explored in their view. Now it will be in the public eye. And there are going to be a lot of people piping in saying that there's more there than the government admitted at the time.

BALDWIN: We'll talk tomorrow about all this.

Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

For now, straight ahead, multiple sources, clues, perhaps even a flower delivery all pointing to Indiana Governor Mike Pence as Donald Trump's pick to be his running mate. We'll discuss that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:20] BALDWIN: Here we go, top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

It appears the Trump veep-stakes could end in Indiana. Multiple sources now saying that staffers for Indiana Governor Mike Pence have been told he should prepare to be named Donald Trump's running mate. Sources say Pence's deputy campaign manager is now headed to New York City.

Our own Jeremy Diamond, who's actually on the same plane with Marc Lotter, who is helping run Pence's re-election effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC LOTTER, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, PENCE FOR GOVERNOR: I'm on this airplane with you. I've got nothing to offer.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you on here to meet with campaign, anything?

LOTTER: I'm here to have meetings.

DIAMOND: For the Pence campaign, not for the Trump campaign?

LOTTER: (INAUDIBLE) for the Pence campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Those are just some of the signs that Governor Pence is the man, the selection, though we have no official word of a formal offer. Trump, reality TV producer, a businessman, he is a master of making the most in this final round. He has been promoting his big V.P. reveal just 20 hours from now. We will all learn from a massive ballroom in the midtown Manhattan Hilton Hotel tomorrow morning, 11:00 eastern.

Joining me now, CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, who is in Indianapolis just outside the governor's mansion there, watching everything from comings and goings, including flower deliveries to the governor's mansion. We have senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. And we'll get Dana Bash here in a second.

Sunlen, let me begin with you.

You have been tracking comings and goings. The deal is not done yet. Right?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's what our sources are telling us, Brooke. But certainly here on the ground in front of the governor's mansion, there definitely is a flurry of activity around Mike Pence's house. We saw a flower delivery, as you mentioned. He also got a visit from his lieutenant governor a few hours ago. Pence could be seen standing at the front door when he was escorting him out. This is the person that could potentially succeed him if he, indeed, goes on to join Donald Trump's ticket and onward. So definitely, a lot of activity outside the governor's mansion.

Earlier today -- and I should note, he's been inside for now about four hours. Earlier today, he did tend to some gubernatorial duties. He gave a very formal economic address, launching some innovation -- initiatives here in Indianapolis. And we were at that speech and he was absolutely poker faced all morning. He seemed really to avoid any sort of personal exchanges. He didn't stay and shake hands afterwards. In fact, he made a bee line straight out of the speech to his car. He would not take any reporters' questions. Of course, he understands everyone has the same question today.

The big question we now have is, has he been informed? What sort of discussions is he having? Again, he's been in the governor's mansion now for about four hours -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: OK, so that's -- that's what's happening --