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Interview With Father of Edward Snowden; Bradley Manning Verdict; Guns in School; Virginia Governor's Gift-Gate

Aired July 30, 2013 - 16:00   ET


JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Bradley Manning gets the book thrown at him, except for perhaps the most serious chapter. I'm Jake Tapper. And this is THE LEAD.

The national lead, Private Manning found not guilty of aiding the enemy, but convicted of nearly everything else for the largest leak in U.S. history. Is this a preview of things to come for that other famous leak source, Edward Snowden? We will ask our first guest about it, none other than Ed Snowden's father.

In other national news, reading, writing, arithmetic and rounds. Teachers will soon be packing heat when students at one Arkansas high school return to class. Will it make them any safer?

And the money lead. Double meat, double cheese, double our wages already. Thousands of fast food workers walk off the job demanding more money. Would that spend the end of the dollar menu?

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jake Tapper.

We will begin with the national lead today on THE LEAD.

It was the charge that could have assured that 25-year-old Army Private Bradley Manning would spend the rest of his life behind bars, but a military judge today found Manning not guilty of aiding the enemy in the largest leak of classified intelligence in U.S. history.

Manning already pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 total counts he faced and he was convicted for most of the rest of them today, including five counts of espionage. The former intelligence analyst showed the world what one man with a thumb drive and a head full of ideas can do, for right or for wrong.






Thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it.



TAPPER: How are they different?



TAPPER: That showed a U.S. helicopter killing innocent bystanders.












TAPPER: Hold on one second. I'm sorry.













SNOWDEN: No, I do...


FEIN: I need to interject here.



TAPPER: You disagree with that.















SNOWDEN: Thank you.

TAPPER: We appreciate it.

The world lead coming up. Sure, numerous administrations going back decades have failed and tried to broker a Mideast peace deal, but Secretary of State John Kerry is giving it a shot anyway with a nine- month deadline. Kerry announced his ambitious plan flanked by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the State Department.

Some might say that he's already crossed one major hurdle by getting both sides to come to the table, except, of course, there's more than two sides. The Palestinians have two factions, the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is not part of this negotiation, though it surely is part of the problem.

This latest round of peace talks hope to tackle all the big issues, such as those Jewish settlements on Palestinian territories, the status of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and, of course, terrorism. But Secretary Kerry says it's in everybody's best interest to find common ground once and for all.




TAPPER: President Obama has said he will stay out of the peace talks, but he did end up meeting privately with the negotiators today at the White House.

Coming up next, will we start seeing back-to-school sale signs outside gun shops? It's an NRA dream come true at schools in one Arkansas town with teachers packing so much firepower, how can your kids not feel safe?

And in world news, what do prisoners at Gitmo have in common with middle-aged women from coast to coast? The slightly kinky pleasure that they're all into coming up next.


TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

We're following some developing national news out of Missouri right now. Police say an SUV rear-ended a Cadillac and sent it crashing through the front wall of a day care in Kansas City. The driver of the SUV and at least three children were hurt when the car came crashing into the Christian Academy Child Care building. The victims were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. We will have more on this story as it develops.

Call it take your gun to school day for 20 teachers and faculty members in Clarksville, Arkansas. Ever since the horrific mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, last December, the school district has been training staff to react in live action scenarios with student actors in case a similar nightmare were to unfold in their schools.

But beginning this school year, teachers and school staff will start carrying concealed weapons through the hallways to function as their own security guards. And it's all perfectly legal under a little- known state law that allows licensed armed security guards on campus. So, will it work?

And Clarksville's superintendent David Hopkins joins me now.

Thanks for being here, sir.

So, 20 school employees carrying guns. What is their training like?

DAVID HOPKINS, SUPERINTENDENT, CLARKSVILLE SCHOOLS: Well, sir, we made sure that they had really good training for this. They had 53 hours of training through an outfit in northwest Arkansas, Nighthawk Custom Training Academy trained by Jon Hodoway. He's an expert in what he does. They're really good people and I think they've done a fine job for us.

TAPPER: There's been some pushback on this idea, at least one parent planning to pull her child out of the school system in reaction to this decision.

We also spoke today with Brenda Robinson. She's the president of the Arkansas Education Association. She tells us this, quote, "Guns have no place in cools unless they hire trained security guards or police officers. This training they're receiving does not equate with the same training as a paid professional," unquote.

How can you, sir, reassure parents the risk won't be greater now that you're basically putting 20 guns into the school, into the hands of teachers?

HOPKINS: Right. Well, unfortunately, the lady you talked to doesn't understand the source or understand the training that they've gone through because, in fact, it is police training they've gone through. It was police officers, active duty police officers, in fact, SWAT trainers that are trainers for SWAT teams that gave classes to our teachers through the Custom Training Academy.

TAPPER: But I think the point she's making is that 50-some-odd hours of police training does not equal the experience of being a police officer. As you know, many police officers, very training (ph), go their entire careers without drawing their guns ever. There are a lot of statistics about guns, of course. Each side disputes the other.

But a recent study in the Southern Medical Journal concluded that the dangers of having a gun at home far outweighed the safety benefits. That's because of accidents, suicides, impulse of act, kids getting guns.

Where will these guns be?

HOPKINS: These guns will be concealed on the employees in the district. And again, the training that they've received is first class training. And, you know, if you hire a new police officer out of the police academy, as far as the firearms training portion that they received, we have received as much or more training than they would receive. In fact, more training. I believe the course is 40 hours here in Arkansas and our individual received 53 hours of training.

TAPPER: Who plays for the guns and what is this all going to cost?

HOPKINS: The cost is about the cost of one additional resource officer, approximately $50,000 to provide the stipends to our ERT members, that's our emergency response team. They each received an $1,100 stipend and they used that to purchase the firearm, to purchase holsters and other equipment that they would need. We outlined what they needed to purchase. We went through Walter Arms out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and they were very good to work with us and helped us acquire the firearms that we needed and put this program together.

TAPPER: Lastly, sir, very quickly, if you would -- a lot of other schools that have tried this had problems with insurance. The insurance companies refusing to allow a policy with teachers armed in the school. How are you dealing with the insurance issue?

HOPKINS: Right now, we're not having a problem with the insurance issue. I believe a lot of that is probably politics unfortunately. But, currently, we're doing fine with our insurance company.

TAPPER: All right, Clarksville, Arkansas, superintendent David Hopkins, thank you so much. We certainly hope this is a safe operation.

HOPKINS: Thank you.

TAPPER: Coming up, he had to give back the Rolex, along with all the other presence showered upon Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell by a key campaign donor. So, now, we're good?

Plus, what's a fair wage to flip burgers? A battle is brewing in the fast food industry. How much are you willing to pay for your Big Mac?

Stay with us.


TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Now, time for our politics lead. Here's some good news for Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, if he still wants to run for president in 2016. There's a good chance many Americans have already heard his name -- name recognition. That's good.

The bad news, of course, is we'll know him as the guy who got hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and gifts from a campaign donor, gifts which are now at the center of a federal investigation. Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity. McDonnell says he won't resign over the unreported gifts but he will give them back, including the Rolex and catering cost for his daughter's wedding.

THE LEAD's Erin McPike is here with more.

Erin, clearly, this is McDonnell's attempt to move past the scandal. But the investigation is going to continue, right?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The investigation is ongoing, Jake.

But today, Governor McDonnell didn't want to talk about that. What he did try to do is express contrition about all that has happened and he did also try to lay out all his accomplishments he's done for the state over the last four year. But it's clear that McDonnell is very much under fire because he got testy today in a series of interviews.


REPORTER: Have you at all thought about resigning? I mean, has it crossed your mind at all?

GOV. BOB MCDONNELL (R), VIRGINIA: Not at all. No, I intend to work this next 160 days to do everything possible to be able to finish out a very good term.

MCPIKE (voice-over): But embattled Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is still apologizing. The latest revelation, "The Washington Post" reported this weekend his wife, Maureen, used about $10,000 in PAC money to buy items from Nordstrom's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's.

Already, McDonnell admitted friend and donor Johnny Williams, the wealthy CEO of dietary supplement company Star Scientific, showered the governor's family with loans for his side business, $15,000 of clothes for the commonwealth's first lady, 15,000 bucks more for catering the first daughter's wedding, and even a $6,500 Rolex for the man in the governor's mansion.

Williams may be a personal friend but Mrs. McDonnell promoted one of Star Scientific's products at a conference in Florida, and the governor's political organization hosted a lunch at the governor's mansion also to push the supplement.

REPORTER: Governor, are there any more gifts or loans that have yet to come out, or is this the end of it?

O'DONNELL: Listen, I can only say that I have disclosed under the law what I believe the law requires me to disclose.

MCPIKE: The law requires him to reveal just the gifts given to him but not the ones to all of the other members of his family. Despite that distinction and McDonnell's insistence that he's followed the letter of the law, the controversy has caused an uproar with Virginia's residence.

REPORTER: But are you concerned it's been enough of a distraction that it could hinder your ability to do your job effectively?

MCDONNELL: Yes, it has been -- that's one of the reasons I thought an apology was proper. It has been a distraction to the citizens of Virginia because of the press attention. It has been somewhat of a distraction to me personally.

MCPIKE: The governor has said he will repay all of the loans made to him personally. And, today, he went a step further.

MCDONNELL: I announced today that we are making arrangements through my counsel that tangible gifts that I have are also going to be returned. MCPIKE: But for an enterprising business-friendly Republican who once showed so much promise, it hasn't been a fond farewell tour in this critical swing state. Instead, there's a lasting stain.

REPORTER: Nationally, people talked but as a presidential candidate. Are you disappointed that this has maybe changed --

MCDONNELL: They maybe have talked about it. I haven't expressed much interest in that. I'm ready to be -- I'm ready to be a normal guy and a normal dad.


MCPIKE: One thing I found striking about this is he kept saying over and over the reason he's repaying these loans and giving back the gifts is simply because Virginia's residents have gotten upset about this.

TAPPER: And not because he's done anything technically or legally wrong because Virginia's laws don't require him to report it.

MCPIKE: Exactly.

TAPPER: Very, very unusual story.

Erin McPike, thank you so much.

Let's check with our political panel in the green room.

Ryan Lizza, here's a hypothetical question for you, Ryan Lizza. Let's say the White House calls you and leaves you a message, how long would it take you to call them back? An hour, two hours, I think three days is kind of money.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, don't the kids -- don't they text nowadays, Jake?


LIZZA: You know, in all seriousness, I think this negotiation that started today, it will be real when it's all done in private, right? It's not when they're publicly calling one another. I think that's the thing to look for, when they stop making the public statement and get down to business in private.

TAPPER: Exactly, without talking to us. A White House official told me it took Boehner's office at least one night, a half a day to get back to them. We'll talk more about that with President Obama's new offer of a grand bargain with the politics lead. That's coming up.