Trump Takes Heat Over Chicago Shooting Tweet; Vigil Today In Memory Of Dwyane Wade's Cousin; Trump Takes Heat Over Chicago Shooting Tweet; Donald Trump's Chicago Shooting Tweet; Latino Journalist Blasts Donald Trump; Rescuing Furry Victims of Louisiana's Flooding.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The cousin of NBA star, Dwyane Wade, a great guy, Dwyane wade, was the victim of a tragic shooting.</s>TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The tweet isn't important. What's important is this horrible crime. Sympathy for the family is the thing we ought to be feeling.</s>TRUMP: Hillary Clinton called black youth super predators. Remember that?</s>KAINE: He's got guys connected with the Klu Klux Klan. They're claiming him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Passengers on board a Southwest airlines flight feared the worst when they heard a big boom as one of the plane's engines blew.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It felt like half of the plane almost like capsized.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're definitely grateful that we were still safe.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Round of applause for the captain.</s>CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We're always so grateful to have your company. Welcome to Sunday. I'm Christi Paul.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. Listen, we've got a lot to talk about this morning, including quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, stirring up controversy by refusing to stand during the national anthem. There have been a lot of reaction to that. We'll get to that. But first, the Trump campaign on the defensive again. This time the GOP nominee is taking heat for this tweet following the death of NBA superstar, Dwyane Wade's cousin. And this is what he sent out, "Dwyane Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago, just what I have been saying. African-Americans will vote Trump."</s>PAUL: So in other words, that was the first thing that he tweeted as soon as this happened. After critics slammed him online, he tried to redirect the conversation on Fox News.</s>TRUMP (via telephone): It's so unfair to have a mother walking down the street with a young daughter, a young boy, and somebody gets shot whether it's the mother or the child. It's happening all the time. You look at what's happening in the communities. You look at the tremendous violence. We can stop that immediately. We can over a longer period of time fix the education.</s>PAUL: The Clinton campaign was quick to blast Trump's initial response. Vice presidential nominee, Tim Kaine, saying he struck the wrong tone.</s>TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We ought to just be thinking -- we ought to be extending our sympathy to the family. That's the only reaction that's appropriate right now and maybe a sadness about this gun violence issue, which we know it's complicated.</s>PAUL: Now Sunlen Serfaty is in Des Moines, Iowa at Senator Joni Ernst annual Roast and Ride fundraiser.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes, that's following the Trump campaign and the backlash to Trump's Saturday tweet. Sunlen, hello.</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT: Good morning, Christi and Victor. Donald Trump causing quite the uproar over social media tweeting about the tragic killing of Dwyane Wade's cousin and noting that he believes the uptick in inner city violence is one of the main reasons he believes that African-Americans will vote for him in November. These sort of comments met with immediate criticism, especially as he brought up this recent tragic killing, noting that he was politicizing the moment, that he's inserting himself into this tragedy. Donald Trump here in Des Moines speaking to a predominantly white audience again trying to reach out to African-American voters and specifically he brought up this recent killing. Here's what he had to say.</s>TRUMP: More than 6,000 African-Americans are the victims of murder, of murder, every single year. Just yesterday the cousin of NBA star, Dwyane Wade, a great guy, Dwyane Wade, was the victim of a tragic shooting in Chicago. She was the mother of four and was killed while pushing her infant child in a stroller just walking down the street, shot. It breaks all of our hearts to see it. It's horrible, it's horrible. And it's only getting worse and this shouldn't happen in our country. This shouldn't happen in America.</s>SERFATY: And adding to the criticism is Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate, who while he was out campaigning, criticized Donald Trump for highlighting this case. He said the only response right now that is appropriate is expressions of sympathy to their family -- Christi and Victor.</s>PAUL: All righty, Sunlen, thank you so much. Trump's message comes amid this surge of gun violence in the city. We've been talking about it with you for months. According to the "Chicago Tribune," look what the headline is this morning, "Three people have been killed and at least 15 others have been injured in shootings since yesterday afternoon," not even a 24-hour period. And that number doesn't include one of the more high profile shootings, the killing of Nykia Aldridge. She is the cousin of NBA superstar, Dwyane Wade. Family and friends are planning to hold a prayer vigil for her later this afternoon. She was shot in the head and arm while she was simply out with her newborn baby in a stroller. She died a short time later at the hospital, leaving behind four children. That baby was not hurt. Of course, now that baby is going to grow up without a mother, so physically not hurt, we should point out. Rashan Ali has been checking out the latest with this. We understand they have -- police have talked to a couple of people of interest.</s>RASHAN ALI, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Right. A dispute involving an Uber driver led to the shooting of Dwyane Wade's cousin according to Chicago police. So far no arrests have been made in this case. Investigators say two men had an argument with the driver that escalated this gun fire on Friday. Nykea Aldridge was headed to school to register some of her other children when she was caught in the cross fire. The mother of four was simply pushing her 3-week-old newborn baby in a stroller at the time. A special prayer vigil is planned in her honor this afternoon at Pastor Jilanda Wade's New Creation Church. This isn't the first time a relative of Dwyane Wade has been the victim of violence. Back in March of 2012, Wade's nephew was shot twice in the leg during a robbery attempt in a Chicago convenience store. One man was killed and five others including Wade's nephew were hurt. Aldridge's death comes one month after the Chicago Bulls superstar joined fellow NBA players on stage at the Espys pleading for an end to racial profiling and gun violence. On Thursday, just one day before the shooting, Wade took part in an ESPN round table discussion about violence in his hometown of Chicago. At least 455 people have been shot to death in Chicago in the first of seven and a half months of 2016. That's according to the "Chicago Tribune" newspaper, which has been tracking every homicide in the city.</s>PAUL: We're going to have a larger conversation about this with Cedric Alexander in just a little while about Chicago and what to do and how to move forward here. So Rashan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the political implications now and bring in the political panel this morning, A. Scott Bolden who is the former chairman of the Washington, D.C. Democratic State Committee and a Hillary Clinton supporter along with Donald Trump's senior adviser, former congressman from Georgia, Jack Kingston. Good morning to both of you. Congressman, I want to start with you. Stewart Steven summed up the criticism of Trump's tweet this way. "As ever Donald Trump experiences human tragedy through one prism, what's in it for me?" Why did Donald Trump in this tweet pair this tragic death of his mother with African-Americans will vote Trump?</s>JACK KINGSTON, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I think number one he did express sympathy very abundantly at the Ohio rally and --</s>BLACKWELL: Three hours later.</s>KINGSTON: And I think what he's doing is under scoring the fact that we do have problems in the inner city, often affecting African- Americans more than other populations. And I think the big story here isn't what he tweeted, it's the 6,000 African-Americans who have been murdered this year. That's where we need to be focusing. The fact that a Republican candidate or any candidate is reaching out and talking about that should be a positive thing, not just for African-Americans but for all of the country. If you look at the failed policies that we have seen in so many of the inner cities run by Democrats and the fact that the murder rates in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and Newark, New Jersey, and of course, Chicago have skyrocketed this last year, that should be a campaign issue. It shouldn't be about what was tweeted and was wasn't tweeted. It's about what are we going to do about this.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, so Scott, you hear what the congressman is saying there. The candidates often use tragedies to discuss specific issues and their plans for them. His statement is this is something that should happen. Your response?</s>A.SCOTT BOLDEN, FORMER CHAIRMAN WASHINGTON, D.C. DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Well, it certainly should not happen. This was a crass -- who Donald Trump is, he saw a tragedy, a woman who's left the family, who's been killed tragically and his first response is black people vote for Trump. She just got shot and killed. Highly, highly, highly in appropriate that's the first thing. So there's no real answer to that. That's Donald Trump because when his handlers got to him, then he offered his condolences. Listen, this is not a black problem secondly. This is an American problem. This happens in poor communities, black, white and brown. And so -- and we have a Republican governor for the state of Illinois, we have a Republican Congress. This is all of our problem. I'd like to have the Republicans work with Democrats on reducing gun violence, shutting down the gangs in Chicago, which make up 70 percent of these shootings and get some reasonable gun control in place. Stop gun sales at gun shows and do reasonable background checks.</s>BLACKWELL: Congressman, let me ask you about this because it appears to be that there is a pattern here. Let's put up the tweet from June after the shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Trump tweeted, "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism. I don't want the congrats. I want toughness and vigilance. We must be smart." If you didn't want them, why acknowledge them instead of first acknowledging the loss of those families and the deaths of those victims? There is a pattern here. Why does Donald Trump through these tweets, again I don't know the man, I don't know what's in his heart, think me first, at least by this rhetoric from the tweets?</s>KINGSTON: Victor, remember, Donald Trump is not a politician. He's never held --</s>BLACKWELL: He is a politician. He's running for president.</s>KINGSTON: OK. Is this not a little bit ankle biting here when you're saying let's focus on the tweets and not the bigger problem. Forty nine people were killed in Orlando and the murderer's, the terrorist's father goes to a Hillary Clinton rally. And he's a pro-Taliban guy. That's very scary to me.</s>BLACKWELL: Congressman, let me push back on that because it's not as if I'm digging for something that was not supplied by the candidate himself. He tweeted out that message on June 12th. He tweeted out the message yesterday. These are things that he is offering. He is a politician because he's running for president.</s>KINGSTON: You know, in his speech yesterday in Iowa he spent a lot of time on this. He was very eloquent. He was very sincere, both in his sympathy to the Wade family but also to the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is not guns. It's interesting that the Democrats rush in after a tragedy and talk about gun control, but that's not political. But when Donald Trump does whatever he says it's political. I mean, a little bit -- let's be honest with ourselves about this. The reality is in the inner cities you have failed education programs. You have the decimation of families. You don't have the jobs and opportunities, and that affects all populations. I agree with Scott on that. It's not an African-American problems. It's all of our problems and Donald Trump is saying what do you have to lose to look at the alternatives? And to me what I've said is if I'm selling you a car and you've already told me you're not going to buy it from my competitor, well, I'm not going to be as competitive as I could be. I think the best thing not just for African-Americans but for all populations is to look at both parties and see what they have to offer instead of just shutting one out.</s>BLACKWELL: Scott?</s>BOLDEN: Well, let me just say this, it's an excellent point. What are the Republicans offering African-Americans, right? African- Americans are very interested in equal rights, gun control, criminal justice reform, human rights, civil rights, abortion rights. Republicans got any of that on their platform list? No. That's why African-Americans are with Democrats who fight to protect those rights and fight for more of those rights and fight against Republicans who try to block that at every stage in Congress. So it's one thing to say you want my vote as an African- American. It's a completely different thing, what are you offering me? When you want my vote, you've got to ask me out on a date and give me some reason to stop seeing the person that I'm seeing. Right now the Republicans don't have anything to offer. Thanks but no thanks.</s>BLACKWELL: Well, the argument that the Republicans have been making is that there has been very little if any progress in this city. As we just heard from Christie, that headline, three dead, 15 wounded in just the last 20 hours or so. Both of you stay with us. We're going to continue this conversation in just a moment. It's good to have both of you with us this morning -- Christie.</s>PAUL: We have to talk about Trump and Clinton trading barbs over who would be better or worse for African-Americans and Latinos. But Hillary Clinton is being attacked for describing a former member of the KKK as a friend and mentor. Victor will talk more about that in a moment. Also panic and fear on board a Southwest flight as major engine trouble forces it to make an emergency landing. That's what is happening inside. Also, a star NFL quarterback taking a stance by sitting down for the national anthem. As you can imagine, a lot of debate over this one.