Skip to main content

tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  August 26, 2015 8:00pm-9:01pm PDT

8:00 pm
good evening thanks for joining us. i'm john berman sitting in for anderson. a sad and searing day in roanoke, virginia and tonight with prayer vigils and public mourning. all day people have been paying their respects and simply trying to come to terms with what at a local shopping center where early today a television news crew was gunned down by a deranged former colleague, at cnn affiliate wbdj. >> it's my sad duty to report that we have determined through the help of the police and our employees that alison and adam died this morning shortly after 6:45 when the shots rang out. we do not know the motive.
8:01 pm
we do not know who the suspect or who the killer is. >> reporter alison parker, photojournalist adam ward both widely respected. each deeply in love and on the verge of beginning new lives with the ones they loved. we'll focus heavily tonight on those stories. we will also bring you new details about the killer who took his own life. what we won't be doing is turning this hour into his story. we'll be mentioning his name and showing his picture as little as possible. his stated motives and violent history matter giving him any further publicity even in death certainly does not. with that we begin with brian todd in this awful timeline. >> reporter: it's 6:45 a.m. wdbj reporter alison parker is giving a live interview. adam ward is photographing. then shots ring out. both parker and ward are hit as well as the woman being interviewed. ward's camera films the shooter, gun raised in the air as he laid dying ward's last living act capturing an image of his own
8:02 pm
murderer. >> alison parker, age 24. and adam ward, age 27, died at the scene. flanagan then fled before deputies arrived on the scene. >> reporter: at this point a manhunt is now on for a suspect who obviously is armed and extremely dangerous. it would last nearly five hours and cover roughly 200 miles. authorities say the shooter took off from the bridgewater plaza and headed northwest to the roanoke blacksburg airport in a gray mustang. while on the run he took time out to take credit for his crimes. 8:26 a.m. a manifesto from the shooter gets faxed to abc news. shortly after 10:00 a.m. a man claiming to be the shooter calls abc and tells them he's shot two people. >> shortly before 11:00 roanoke city police department located
8:03 pm
flanagan's 2009 ford mustang at the regional roanoke region airport. flanagan then left the airport in a chevrolet sonic that he had rented earlier in the month. >> reporter: these tweets started around 11:10. around the same time police discovered he switched vehicles. he's posting things to social media while on the run first trying to justify why he went after alison parker and adam ward and then unbelievably posting video he filmed while killing them. what the shooter didn't know is the same phone he was using to post those heinous images is how authorities were tracking his moments and closing in. his car was first spotted here nearly 180 miles away from the airport. >> shortly before 11:30 a.m. this morning virginia state police trooper was on patrol along interstate 66. her license plate reader alerred to a license plate on the chevrolet sonic traveling east
8:04 pm
on 66. the driver of the sonic refused to stop and sped away from the trooper. it was only a minute or two later when the sonic ran off the road into the median. >> reporter: as trooper approaches the car she discovers the driver shot himself but still alive. the manhunt is over. >> the suspect was later flown to another hospital with life threatening injuries. and died -- pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. >> brian todd joins us now. brian, at this point do authorities know how this shooter knew where parker and ward would be this morning? >> reporter: john, that's one thing they don't know this evening and authorities say that's a key focus of the investigation tonight. how did he know they would be here at 6:45 a.m. eastern time. very early in the morning for a live report. also tonight one thing we can show you tonight we're getting our first look at the wdbj
8:05 pm
channel 7 live truck. it was blocked until a moment ago by a police vehicle. that's the live truck that these two journalists were transmitting from early this morning when they were shot. john >> brian todd for us again in roanoke. thank you so much. tonight we're only focusing on the now deceased gunman to what we're learning about the apparent roots of his killing rage. drew griffin has been gathering details all day and he does have new ones. >> reporter: the day he was fired from wdbj-tv february 1st, 2013 the shooter told his bosses i'm not leaving. you're going to have to call the f-ing police. colleagues said he threw a tantrum. sales staff took shelter in a locked office. police did, indeed, escort him out of the newsroom. internal peopleos obtained by cnn show his brief one year employment was racked with complaints of aggressive behavior. poor journalistic performance.
8:06 pm
and warnings from management that he was making his co-workers feel threatened and uncomfortable. at one point the station referred him to mandatory counselling. after his firing, former colleagues tell cnn they were concerned for days he would come back. jeff marks is the station's general manager. >> it was a little bother some that he was still in town and would be seen by our employees. but, again, what do you do? >> reporter: the shooter sued wdbj-tv claiming discrimination. the suit dismissed last summer. the station was the last stop in what appears to be a spotty career in local television. records showed he works at tv stations in greenville, north carolina, savannah, georgia, san francisco not far from his home town. in 2000 he was fired from a station in tallahassee, florida for what the news director described as odd behavior. after his firing, a lawsuit
8:07 pm
filed alleging racial discrimination. the suit dismissed. this morning allegations of racism would emerge again. this time in a disturbing string of tweets. on the shooter's own twitter page. hours after the shooting he rights alison made racist comments meaning alison park terrify reporter he killed but never worked with. it's unclear if they ever even met. a minute later he writes eeoc complaint, claim of race jim with the equal diplomat opportunity commission. parker went to hr on me after working with me one time. adam was adam ward the photographer killed. the station's manager said no one saw this coming. >> he did make some accusations against people sometime ago. you can never imagine that somebody is going to come back and act on those issues that were so old. >> reporter: about a week ago the shooter started posting pictures and apparent life history, highlights from his
8:08 pm
childhood through high school and beyond. and in the rambling 23 page fax to abc news he says his plan to kill was set in motion after the killings in charleston, south carolina earlier this summer. why did i do it? i put down a deposit for a gun on 6-19-15, the church shooting in charleston happened on 6-17-15. later, he write, admiration for the south korean national mass killer responsible for the killings at virginia tech and the columbine high school killers. his final tweet, i filmed the shooting, see facebook. >> so deeply troubling. drew griffin joins us now. the shooter specifically targeted those two young journalists. any sense at this point why? >> reporter: the general manager of that station really is puzzled by that why he didn't come after management? why these two? but we do know from internal document from that station, from a lawsuit, john, that adam ward,
8:09 pm
the photographer who was killed today was in the newsroom february 1st, 2013, when the shooter threw a tantrum upon his firing and adam ward the photographer was filming the scene. and on the way out the shooter addressed him saying you need to lose your big gut and then he flipped his finger off at the camera. that's the only contact we know between those two but, again, that was two years ago and there's absolutely no record that this shooter knew or even met alison parker. >> all right, drew, thank you so much. just moments ago we got reaction from the gunman's family. a statement given to our affiliate in san francisco, the misspellings you see are on the original. it is with heavy hearts and deep sadness it read that we express our deepest condolences to the family of alison parker and adam ward. we're also praying for the recovery of vicki gardner.
8:10 pm
it goes on. our thoughts and prayers are with the victims' families and wdbj 7 news family. words can't press the hurt we feel for the families. we ask the media respect our privacy. president obama spoke briefly about the shooting late today. >> i think it's one more argument for why we need to look at how we can reduce gun violence in this country, but right now the fbi has been helpful with local authorities in trying to solve what is really a tragic death. >> two tragic deaths. as you saw in drew's report motivations from a deep and dark well spring. virginia tech, columbine. splis expressing third condolences. with us now, the author of a history of columbine. dave, thank you for coming in. i would say it's nice to see you tonight but awful to be here talking about this. when you hear this shooter, his rambling, referencing with admiration the shooters in columbine and virginia tech,
8:11 pm
what goes through your head? >> well, a lot of things. and today anger more than anything. because we've been at this for 16 years now. it's been going on and on and it's not getting any better it's getting a lot worse. it's expanding. at first we were clueless about it. i think we now in the media quite a while ago should have admitted we're collaborators in this process. we need to do something. we should have done something a long time ago. i sit down with anderson cooper every time. he says a similar thing. every time we see each other it's a horrible situation. he's too polite about it. he can't thump his chest and say we don't use the name of the killer or images. but he's doing something and he took the step of two or three years ago and nobody else followed except megyn kelly on fox news and your morning show "new day". everybody else is going on as if
8:12 pm
it's not our problem we're not doing it, it's not our fault. and, of course, he can't say like charlie rose what are you doing? george stephanopoulos, matt lauer. >> it's choice we're make. ate choice that we feel comfortable with. but, you know, media out lets, no media out let pulled the trigger today in roanoke. so they didn't cause directly what happened. so this guy -- >> yeah, but, let me walk you through. we didn't have this thing before columbine. we had mass murderers we didn't have these spectacle murderers. we have a growing number and type of them. there's two different ways to cover them. one is if it's kind of small we get, you know, sort of a flash in the pan, minor mention. otherwise it's, you know, wall to wall, basically a tv movie all week long about them. and number two, you know, you don't want to address killers. guys if you're out there and you
8:13 pm
want to do one of these right now you need to do one of twhoings. number one, get your body count up really high. crack the top ten. or number, two you got to do something creative, got to be different, and look it's got to be something like make a scare of new venues like a movie theater or a church. >> you're making a point here but this guy, this guy clearly did do that. >> exactly. >> he filmed the whole thing. designee filmed it himself. >> he waited to get the shot and then posted it on twitter. linked to it on facebook. >> we'll see more of these. it won't be the first time. what i'm saying is if you do one of those things one or both, preferably both we give a starring role on head for tv movie all week. you're bigger than brad pitt or any movie star bigger than madonna for a week. >> then take me to the next step. what's the mindset of someone who crease that then?
8:14 pm
he clearly had a role in this. >> of course. yes. there's several different kinds. there's very small number that are psychopaths, deeply depressed or ill in the manner of schizophrenic. all of those cases they are lashing out and doing it for infamy. obviously today very clear he didn't do it just because he was mad at these people. he didn't know them at all. >> he did it to kill and be seen killing. >> to be seen. this guy filmed himself to make sure. edit on live television. these people are going for notoriety. if you take the notoriety away there's no reason to do it. >> this guy field aggrieved at something. if you read this 21 page thing it's because he was treated badly at the station or shootings in charles opinion. >> all sorts of ridiculous thing. mary ellen o'toole who was on earlier. it was the exact same thing i thought as i read through it. classic injustice collector.
8:15 pm
there's these lists, everything but the kitchen sink and several of them on the face of it are preposterous. here's a person -- >> what is an injustice collector? >> it's somebody who collects like everything he sees -- no matter what you do, he collect these things. >> he would have found something. he would have found a reason to collect injustice. >> oh, sure. >> somewhere. it didn't have to be something that happened at this television station. he would have been aggrieved at something. you have that sickness for lack of a better word. >> right. yes. so why did he lash out like this? >> yes. >> you know, the guy who created the fbi hostage negotiation unit. when i talked to him about this. he said a lot of these guys they commit suicide probably because they have a much better idea of how to start the shooting than the way out. or what they are going to do
8:16 pm
with it. they really don't have -- they haven't thought through how this will end. they know they want to lash out. they want to be heard. they want to do something. how it all plays out, it's not a logical process. >> to say the least nothing rational remotely about this. dave cullen, thank you for being with us. we've just gotten some new information a new statement from alison parker's father. next another achingly powerful moment chris hearst sharing pictures talking about the woman he loved, the woman he hoped to marry the most radiant woman he ever known. later we have other news. signs the trump campaign is gaining more momentum. we'll bring the first interview with his new campaign chief in iowa, a man who dumped rick perry for donald trump.
8:17 pm
when a moment spontaneously turns romantic, why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use, is the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure.
8:18 pm
do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any symptoms of an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use. insurance coverage has expanded nationally and you may now be covered. contact your health plan for the latest information. hey! so i'm looking at my bill and my fico credit score's on here. yeah! we give you your fico credit score. for free! awesomesauce! the only person i know that says that is... lisa? julie? we've already given more than 175 million free fico credit scores to our cardmembers. apply today at discover.com we value sticking with things. when something works,
8:19 pm
people stick with it. more people stick with humana medicare advantage. because we stick with them. humana medicare advantage. the plan people stick with. ♪usic: "another sunny day" by belle and sebastian ♪ ♪ such a shame it's labeled a "getaway." life should always feel like this. hampton. we go together. always get the lowest price, only when you book direct at hampton.com
8:20 pm
just no way for us to imagine the heart wake tonight for anyone close to alison parker or adam ward. horrible enough to report on it and we have the deepest sympathy for anyone actually living it. alison just moved within chris hearst. they were together for nine months. they were hoping to get married. late today he spoke to reporters about her and showed a photo album a gift on their six month anniversary. >> this is my memory of her, when we had our six month anniversary. she made a scrapbook for me. put in all the pictures we spent
8:21 pm
together for the first six months. even pictures i didn't want to be in there. she put them in there. we were a perfect couple. >> the parker family understandably has been bearing the loss privately. late tonight her father andy released a statement. i want reads barbara, drew and i are numb. i find my grief unbearable. she excelled and everything she did and was loved by everyone she touched. her father goes on to say. she loved us deerly and we talked to her every single day. not hearing her voice again crushes my soul. our family can only take solace in the fact although her life was brief she was so happy with it. she lived to it the fullest and her spirit will always be with us. our thoughts are with them tonight. 360's randi kaye has a look what made her and adam ward so special to so many people. >> when i was younger i wanted to either become a doctor or become a pharmacist, but as a
8:22 pm
journalist i get to cover those types of fields. >> reporter: this is how viewers got to know alison parker. a video produced by the station showing her smiling, full of life. >> i absolutely love mexican food. very, very spicy food. . >> reporter: the 24-year-old virginia native signed on with television station wdbj last year as a morning reporter. alison covered everything from zoo animals to weather. even appearing on cnn last november. >> what you're seeing right now started out as heavy rain. >> reporter: alison graduated from virginia's james madison university in 2012 and was the news editor for the school paper. she loved whitewater rafting and kayaking. >> she took any assignment and ran with it. her personality came through. she was smart. gave her all to the job. >> reporter: alison was dating the station's evening anchor chris hearst though the couple
8:23 pm
kept their relationship quiet. on twitter hearst said he was numb writing they were very much in love. they just moved in together after dating nine months. the best nine months of our lives he wrote. we wanted to get married. she was the most radiant woman i ever met. and for some reason she loved me back. wdbj journalist adam ward was also killed at the scene. >> in salem, adam ward news 7 sports. >> reporter: after a stint on air he became a photographer and was alison's morning partner for the last year. they first met at the station as interns. they were a good team. and it showed. >> adam, come out in front of the camera. how do you feel right now >> when i first put the heels on i rolled an ankle. we're good since then. >> reporter: adam an ex-athlete was a hard worker always smiling and respectful. he joined the station in 2011 after graduating from virginia tech. he enrolled the same year a
8:24 pm
gunman killed 32 people in a deadly rampage at the school. those who knew him said he a heart of gold. adam was 27. and engaged to the station's morning producer melissa ott who was at work in the control room watching the broadcast when the shooting happened live on air. it was her last day at the station. she had taken a new job and adam may not have been far behind. he told her recently, i'm going to get out of news. i think i'm going to do something else. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> 24 and 27 years old. we have an update on the woman who was wounded, vicki gardner who underwent surgery. victor blackwell is there and joins us now. victor what's the latest on vicki gardner's condition? >> reporter: she's in stable condition we're hearing tonight, john. there had been some conflicting reports early in the day soon after this incident that vicki
8:25 pm
gardner had been shot. colleague at the smith mountain lake region chamber of commerce confirmed gardner was shot in the back although no confirmation exactly how many times she had been shot. local hospital representative tells cnn that she underwent emergency surgery today and is now recovering at that hospital. we also know there are a lot of people here praying for her. we just left a vigil if he bethlehem united methodist church and another vigil happening right now. >> what else do we know about her? >> reporter: well, we know her title she was the executive director of the smith mountain lake regional chamber of commerce. however, people who know hearsay that this is more than just her title, she loves this community. takes every opportunity to promote it. and she is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an artist here and late this evening, john, we received a statement from her
8:26 pm
employer there at the chamber of commerce saying they are confident that she will recover and they are going stand strong with her through this. >> good. victor blackwell, down in roanoke, thank you so much. next wdbj's general manager joins us what has to be the longest dave his life. to talk about the people who knew alison parker and adam ward and are now coping with this loss and dealing with the notion that a former colleague is the one who took their lives. one who took their lives. e possibility of a flare was almost always on my mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go... and how to deal with my uc. to me, that was normal. until i talked to my doctor. she told me that humira helps people like me get uc under control and keep it under control when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.
8:27 pm
serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. raise your expectations. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible.
8:28 pm
in the nation, what's precious to you is precious to us. ♪ love is strange so when coverage really counts, you can count on nationwide. we put members first. join the nation.
8:29 pm
8:30 pm
family put out a statement. one line stands out. it speaks of news that no family should ever hear. that sentiment will differ in degree and holds for the extended family that television news rooms and news viewers are. today general manager delivered the news and tried to express what he thought and felt of the killer. >> i think i'll step out of my role as a former journalist and say i'm not sure whether i want
8:31 pm
him to live or die. if he dies he took the coward's way out. if he lives he goes on trial and goes to prison for the rest of his life. i presume that. in any case we're hurt enough that i want to express our anger and we want to express our love for alison and adam who whenever i saw them here at work full of smiles and full of conversation and exuberance about what they did. they will be so missed and not easily replaced. >> jeff marks joins us now. jeff, again our shies are with you. i can't imagine doing what you all did today at that station which is to keep the news on. to keep on reporting, which is remarkable and your courage and bravery. let me ask you this. you as the general manager you new alison parker and adam ward. what can you tell us about them? >> well, i worked with both of them not as closely as their daily colleagues did. but if i walked in the building
8:32 pm
in the morning, and i saw alison or adam first i knew i was in for smiles. they had just a great attitude. and it showed in their work. adam was always willing to do whatever extra was need even after a long shift when he got up at 3:00 in the morning. alison would get involved in any project and do whatever she was asked to do. she was showing solid growth as a reporter and occasionally as an anchor. they were just joys to be around. alison was preparing to learn a dance routine with a partner to take part in a charity event called "dancing with the valley stars." she was very much looking forward to it and we all were. adam had so much fun playing on the company softball team that they let me play on too. adam was a lot better than i was and that's one of the reasons why he won the city championship. so i will remember them so fondly and i'm so distressed
8:33 pm
tonight as their colleagues here. >> those are the memories that we want to keep and hold dear. the gunman whose name we're not choosing to use here, he work at your station for a short time before he was fired a couple of years ago. what can you tell us about his time there? >> well, it was tumultuous in that he was not -- he was not strong as a reporter. people did a lot of coaching with him to try to make him more aggressive as a reporter. but in i had personal relationships sometimes he was a little aggressive. and people were shy to work with him. he was just not a pleasant person as it turned out. he seemed to have some anger and distress. >> in that day that he was fired, that stands out. because it's our understanding that the police had to come to e -- escort him out of the newsroom. but to have a lockdown in the newsroom that sounds outrageous.
8:34 pm
>> well, that might be a little overstated but in any case we didn't want him to interact with his colleagues. we wanted him to leave. there are people that stomp their feet and make trouble when they leave. if that's the case we will sometimes call in some extra help. he was outraged, and that happens. i wasn't there. but i think the folks did the right thing by calling in the local police. >> why these two victims? any sense about why he would have gone after them? do we even know for sure that he ever worked with alison parker at any point? >> well, we believe that they did in that she was an intern a few years before she came here as an employee and that overlap his time in 2012, i believe. and so something might have happened if she was sent out -- had been sent out on a story with him, and there had been some kind of interaction. but alison was the nicest, kindest person and not a person
8:35 pm
given to any kind of picking of a fight or any kind of racial or other harassmen. that's not believable. he did work with adam because adam was a news photographer when this fellow was a reporter, and there may have been some back and forth. but frankly he back and forth with a lot of people in the newsroom, producers and others. i don't know if you would say these people were picked off today because they were easy prey. you know, i'm not spending a lot of time getting into the head of the killer. i'm trying to be there for my employees and be the public face of wdbj 7. >> let me ask you at the end about something that's in your head and heart. earlier you said you weren't really sure if you wanted the gunman to live or to die. now that we've learned that he is, in fact, dead, how do you feel? >> well i got that out of my system. i said that on our news at noon today locally and i was saying
8:36 pm
that as much to the local community as i was saying to it myself. and to my fellow employees here. i was angry and upset and i believe in our justice system. i believe very much that it works most of the time. and i would have entrusted his fate to the justice system. but and he was coward. and it didn't matter to me what happened to him. no matter what, it wasn't going to bring back alison and adam and that's what i had to work on today was their memory, keeping it alive. and keeping our people focused on having an opportunity to breathe and breathe and also to do their jobs. >> well, sir, know that we're all thinking about you tonight. we're with you in these tough days ahead. jeffrey marks thank you so much. >> john, thank you very much. >> we'll have more from roanoke shortly a touching contribute to alison parker from one of her
8:37 pm
close friends. just a day after he threw jorge ramos out of press conference. donald trump is not backing down. hear hat they each have to say including exclusive interview of the newest member of donald trump's campaign. a big influential player. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic
8:38 pm
to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your doctor about otezla today. otezla. show more of you.
8:39 pm
pwho thrives on the unexpected. andha-ha! box shall we dine? [ chuckle ] you wouldn't expect an insurance company to show you their rates and their competitors' rates, but that's precisely what we do. going up! nope, coming down. and if you switch to progressive today, you could save an average of over 500 bucks. stop it. so call me today at the number below. or is it above? dismount! oh, and he sticks the landing!
8:40 pm
8:41 pm
continue between donald trump and jorge ramos after donald trump threw him out of a press conference last night. he was later back in and pressed trump on immigration. today on "new day" and "today" show they each gave their analysis of whachd. >> he was totally out of line last night. i was asking and being asked a
8:42 pm
question from another reporter. i would have gotten to him very quickly. he stood up and started ranting and raving like a mad man. and frankly he was out of line. >> as reporters it's our responsibility to ask questions and he hasn't answered those questions and in this case i felt that it was not only my duty but i had to ask those questions. he didn't like the question. that's why he threw me out. >> joining me now, national interview with sam clovis who left rick perry's campaign and donald trump's co-chair and policy adviser. mr. clovis thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me on, john. >> that exchange between jorge ramos and donald trump last night. people as you well know liken ramos to walter cronkite of the latino community. mitt romney won 27% of the latino vote. if you want to win the white house like donald trump you need do better than 27% of the latino
8:43 pm
vote. does tossing jorge ramos from a news conference help you do that? >> i don't think we need to look at jorge ramos particularly from the latino perspective. he was a reporter and became disruptive. he interrupted the questioning. he stood up. he began to shout at mr. trump and mr. trump appropriately tried to answer his questions. tried to deal with him and he would not show the consideration to the other reporters or to mr. trump. he was asked to leave. he left the room and he was invited back in and there was a very positive exchange between mr. trump and mr. ramos. i think if you look at it from a reporter's perspective and inconsideration that mr. ramos had for the other reporters in the room, there were about 50 of them in there by the way and he was trying hijack the press conference. there's only so much time that a candidate can offer that and he
8:44 pm
ought to be able to offer those questions to as many reporters as possible. mr. ramos was making that impossible. sneended up with a long exchange. last night a former strategist for trump, he said that the -- it's a distraction. roger stone think these are the issues. so, does roger have a point? >> well, i think that the issue that we have here is between mr. trump and megyn kelly. i think because they are both prominent celebrities it takes on a lot different view or lot different set of attributes that others might look at. we come from the largest cable network in america and megyn kelly is a superstar there. mr. trump is a superstar in his own right for what he's doing and certainly because he's leading in the polls. but i look at this as a situation that will resolve itself. they are both professional and i think it will be resolved in a very civil manner.
8:45 pm
>> the issue you have now as a policy adviser, one of his key strategists what to tell him to do about it. would you advice him not tweet angry things about megyn kelly? >> i think that's something that he probably has to deal with. >> but, would you advise him not to do it? >> i would advise him to stay to focused on the message he has but not to allow reporters to try to intimidate him or bully him and if he feels necessary to step into that and i think he should. i have been out there myself. i've campaigned myself. i had reporters who have asked me questions that were totally inappropriate and totally off line and i've done the same. i've stepped right into them and said no. >> but megyn kelly has not asked donald trump anything for weeks at this point and he's still angry tweeted her overnight. is that the type of thing to tell him to avoid.
8:46 pm
it sounds like maybe. >> i would tell him this. i would say allow this to cool. allow this to settle itself. allow this to become a disagreement among professionals and then to settle it as professionals. and i think that's exactly where we're headed. >> sam clovis, thank you very much. thank you for sharing your advice with us here on "ac360". thanks, john. appreciate it. >> just ahead for us we'll take you back to virginia for live update on the aftermath of the shootings and a tribute from a close friend of alison parker's.
8:47 pm
♪ in the nation, we know how you feel about your car. so when coverage really counts, you can count on nationwide. ♪ love
8:48 pm
because what's precious to you is precious to us. ♪ love is strange just another way we put members first. you may know what it's like to deal with high... and low blood sugar. januvia (sitagliptin) is a once-daily pill that, along with diet and exercise, helps lower blood sugar. januvia works when your blood sugar is high and works less when your blood sugar is low, because it works by enhancing your body's own ability to lower blood sugar. plus januvia, by itself, is not likely to cause weight gain or low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). januvia should not be used in patients with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. tell your doctor if you have a history of pancreatitis. serious side effects can happen, including pancreatitis which may be severe and lead to death. stop taking januvia and call your doctor right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area which may be pancreatitis. tell your doctor right away and stop taking januvia if you have an allergic reaction that causes swelling of the face, lips,
8:49 pm
tongue, or throat, or affects your breathing or causes rash or hives. kidney problems sometimes requiring dialysis have been reported. using januvia and a sulfonylurea or insulin together may cause low blood sugar. to reduce the risk, your doctor may prescribe a lower dose of the sulfonylurea or insulin. your doctor may perform blood tests before and during treatment to check your kidneys. if you have kidney problems a lower dose may be prescribed. side effects may include upper respiratory tract infection, stuffy or runny nose and sore throat, and headache. for help lowering your blood sugar talk to your doctor about januvia today. it means you can also afford to get up to 50% epic-er epic rides. making it the place yippeeee! to find a place for labor day. go and smell the roses!
8:50 pm
i want to go back to roanoke, virginia. "new day" anchor chris cuomo is there. what's the latest? chris, you hearing me okay? >> reporter: sorry about that. we are in roanoke, virginia at what has become the heart of this community. this is wdbj behind us, the cnn affiliate. this tree that's been lit up has become the memorial, the black ribbons representing the two journalists lost. you see the balloons and
8:51 pm
8:52 pm
flowers. what you can't see and hard to appreciate if you haven't been here all day is the emotion from the communities towards what they are calling their news family. they have come, they have questions of why that we hear all too often. you hear them in too many place
8:53 pm
room. she brought a light into the room. and she had a fun kind of geeky fun silly side to her that you didn't see on camera but i got to see off camera. she was just a great woman. >> i've been watching these clips of her all day. her joy at what she is doing, her pride in being a reporter, it leaps through the screen. >> absolutely. she did any story that she was given that she was assigned. she understood that she had a big responsibility being a journalist. she knew that she had to -- some days she had to tell top stories. some days she had to tell wonderful stories. and she wanted to do that. and she was so excited to do that. it's a tough responsibility to have. and she was excited to have it. and she understood that it was
8:54 pm
important and it was important to do it right. and she did it right. >> you said she was the kind of person in the office you could hear her before you could see her because she had so much energy as she moved through the building. >> oh, yeah. she was this tiny little thing and she would come in with all of her gear. you would hear hearsay something funny or something silly and when she came in it made us all smile. but then the minute she knew she had to get her job done she would flip the switch and get down to work and do her job. >> tell bus the last time you saw alison before today. there was a picture with her boyfriend, yes? >> yeah. alison loves pictures. and i like to follow her life and progress and her stuff and job. i would follow a lot of that on different social media. and i remember seeing over the weekend picture of the two of them, and it was a lovely candid
8:55 pm
shot where her boyfriend was looking right at her and she's kind of looking away and it's so artsy and i love it. i just remember thinking, you know, good for her. you know. that man loves her. you could just tell. and i was -- it made my heart smile, you know. and i liked that. that's the last image that i saw of her before today. >> what a great way to remember her. elizabeth bynun, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. that does it for us. we'll see you again at 11:00. special edition of cnn with don lemon starts now. it is 9:00 p.m. on the east coast. this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. chris cuomo you see him there. leading our coverage tonight from virginia where a community is mourning two young journalists from wdbj. executed on live tv in the middle of a report this morning. 6:45 a.m., reporter alison parker and cameraman adam ward
8:56 pm
(dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class. the twenty-fifteen subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru.
8:57 pm
but first, we have a very special guest. come on out, flo! [house band playing] you have anything to say to flo? nah, i'll just let the results do the talking. [crowd booing] well, he can do that. we show our progressive direct rate and the rates of our competitors even if progressive isn't the lowest. it looks like progressive is not the lowest! ohhhh! when we return, we'll find out whether doug is the father.
8:58 pm
wait, what?
8:59 pm
we figure you probably don't have time to wait on hold. that's why at xfinity we're hard at work, building new apps like this one that lets you choose a time for us to call you. so instead of waiting on hold, we'll call you when things are just as wonderful... [phone ringing] but a little less crazy. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life.
9:00 pm
not the other way around. we'll see you again at 11:00. ambushed on the air. new details about the gunman that killed his former colleagues during a morning newscast. we are watching how markets in asia reacting to the dow's big rally. what joe biden is saying about a possible run for president. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm natalie ailen. >> good to be with you, natalie. i'm errol barnett. this is cnn newsroom. the united states is dealing with yet another