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European Liquids Ban To Be Lifted; Toronto Mayor Booed; Did A White Candidate Pretend To Be Black?

Aired November 12, 2013 - 07:30   ET

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

FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So it's a real threat, but the answer is in 2007 during that plot, I working with Mike Chertoff, who was the secretary of Homeland Security, we put the ban in place never thinking it would last forever. But you know, in the security world, once you put a rule in place and getting people to back off and getting the industry to work on technologies that allow you to back off of it --

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Mark, why should we get off it? Let's take that point. You know, the threat is not gone, right? Why would we back off?

MARK MURPHY, AUTHOR, "TRAVEL UNSCRIPTED": Think about this. The threat emanated overseas. Everything we do in terms of bans here in the U.S. has no impact on somebody coming into the United States. Same with the shoe bomber, everyone is taking off their shoes in the U.S. that originated out of Europe. The underwear bomber, originated out of Europe. That was that back scatter technology.

So when you really start thinking about where the threat is coming from, it's coming from overseas where these bans have absolutely no bearing. I think that's interesting. Here in the U.S., one of the things I suggest people do, TSA precheck.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's changed my life.

MURPHY: Yes. My God, 1 minute and you're through.

CUOMO: What is it?

MURPHY: So basically, you apply and you get a five-year opportunity with a background check and fingerprinting to go through this expedited security screening where you don't have to take out your liquids. Keep your jacket on, everything else. You can do it for global entry or now anybody can apply to TSA precheck. It's 85 bucks to apply last five years.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Are there any people that just won't make it through? I mean --

TOWNSEND: Yes.

PEREIRA: Talk about that.

MURPHY: I'd say maybe you but I'm not sure. PEREIRA: You saw me looking sideways at you. I saw that. We can rest assured that the people do get screened really are not a concern?

MURPHY: Correct. I fly every week. Why should I go through the same rigmarole that the guy who fly once every two or three years on a one- way ticket with no luggage.

TOWNSEND: I'm in pre-check. Do you get it every single time? No. They scan your boarding pass and you may not get it one time and be sent over to the regular line.

BOLDUAN: Mark, you bring up luggage. Let's talk about baggage fees. We have a graphic of the baggage fees from the airline companies just for the first half of 2013, $409 million from Delta. These are huge -- they're making a lot of fees on baggage fees. Profits are up for them anyway. Is this just the trajectory of how airline companies are running their business?

MURPHY: Yes, they've lost billions of dollars over the years and oil prices spiked and could send them into bankruptcy in the next two years. It's a la carte pricing. If Chris wants to have a big seat with extra leg room, he'll pay for it. Everyone else will get squeezed in the back of the plane.

BOLDUAN: If passengers revolt, will that change your mind.

MURPHY: You have a monopoly in a lot of markets. You have four major carriers controlling 85 percent of domestic airline traffic. So how do you get around if you have to get from Point A to Point B?

PEREIRA: Thank goodness for Southwest.

MURPHY: They're talking about imposing some of the fees themselves.

CUOMO: It's easy money. Of course, they are. They don't have to change their business model or add additional service to make more revenue.

BOLDUAN: We keep flying no matter what.

MURPHY: What are you going to do? There is some competition. I think what you see as more comes online, capitalism, people will look and say I'm going to put an airline into that market, compete on those roots. It's going to run in cycles. We want a healthy airline system.

PEREIRA: Sure we do.

MURPHY: It's big for the economy, but at some point in time, people get frustrated and mad.

BOLDUAN: Really?

MURPHY: A little angry.

BOLDUAN: Mark, Fran, great to see you. Thank you so much. CUOMO: What concerns you more, baggage fees or the fact we may be relaxing security measures? Tweet us with the #newday. Let's keep the conversation going. We'll give you a break to do it right now.

When we come back, Rob Ford, who is that? Well, you know him now, the infamous mayor of Toronto. He admitted smoking crack, tried to excuse it by saying I was really drunk at the time. He took the stage at Veteran's Day service, Remembrance Day up there in Canada, trying to be mayor. Should he be mayor or should he be in rehab? It's a simple question, complicated answer. We'll take you through it.

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, a Texas conservative candidate wins in a very close race, but the way he got elected may be raising -- is definitely raise something eyebrows. We'll talk to him live about the controversial campaign strategy, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: All right, welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. Let's get straight to Indra Petersons -- what is that rain or is that snow? What are we looking at now, Indra?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We know it's a new day when we're talking about snow outside. Look at Central Park, seeing a couple flurries out there. They are not the only ones. Look at Chicago, what they saw yesterday. A lot of delays out toward Chicago, they were talking about snow and gusting winds and then we have Pittsburgh early this morning they were talking about, yes, even more snow.

You know what, take a look at Ohio. I just got this picture from Debby on Twitter. She showed us the first snow of the season. I am loving this. You can see the frontal band making its way across. All of this is so light. We're not expecting much of it to stick around, if at all. Here's where we have a chance. This is trying to creep into the south, very early for them, almost a month early to be seeing this kind of action.

We are talking about heavier snow around the Great Lakes where they are used to it this time of year. In as much as 7 inches could be possible out there, but for the rest of us, just talking about the cold air. That is going to be really the huge story here as this dome of arctic air spreads even farther to the east.

We'll be feeling this chill. Yes, we'll see some flurries as we continue to watch this band, especially from the morning commute today into the northeast. But once it passes, which it will, pretty much by late morning, we're going to be left with that stagnant, chilly, dry air. With that temperatures way down.

You're talking about highs today, even at Nashville, 42. Check out Dallas, 47 is your high. This is not just hanging out for one day. It will be lingering, New York City, still looking at temperatures there at 40 degrees. We are talking about all this hanging out and lasting towards the middle of the week -- Chris and Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Indra, thanks so much for the update.

CUOMO: Toronto's infamous crack-smoking, binge-drinking Mayor Rob Ford. What an introduction, right? He gave his first public address Monday since becoming an international spectacle. Ford spoke at a Remembrance Day ceremony. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like to invite to the podium Mayor Rob Ford.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I don't know what you make of that, it wasn't rousing applause. Some are calling for his resignation. Ford himself saying, "I'm not going anywhere, guaranteed." That's his quote. We sent one of our best up to find out what's going on. CNN's new chief innovation correspondent, Mr. Bill Weir. Bill, great to have you.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF INNOVATION CORRESPONDENT: Thanks. Great for being here. This is CNN.

BOLDUAN: Welcome to not only CNN but welcome to NEW DAY.

CUOMO: Talk about a guy that needs new ideas. What did you see?

WEIR: What a story, right? I only smoke crack when I'm hammered is going to be studied in political science courses for years because what this guy has pulled off, how he got into office, it was so fascinating to me and scandal after scandal, we went back, we want to understand how he got there.

He was scandal prone during the campaign and every time something came out, his numbers went up. And he has so much support now, despite all these admissions and fresh suspicions that more videos could be coming out. We just had to understand why. This is a good example of why. Let me take you inside the mind of the Rob Ford supporter.

We were up there on Thursday when this video came out courtesy of the "Toronto Star." They paid five grand for this. He is incoherently ranting about stripping down to his underwear, killing some guy and ripping his eye balls out. Detractors say this is further proof we need to throw a net over this guy and get him to rehab. He doesn't say anything that's incriminating.

He could be talking about a guy who beat him in cards or a rival football coach. A lot of people think you know what, that's what my buddies sound like when they've had a couple of Moosehead Laggers. If one of my buddies took secret video of me while goating me on and sold it to a newspaper for $5,000, even some of the detractors think that crossed the line. He gets sympathy out of something like that, just a little sampling of the Rob Ford support up north.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEIR: Would you vote for him again if this all blew over? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's done what he said he would do.

WEIR (voice-over): Though some wish to voice their support anonymously.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you rather have somebody taking our money and lying to the people or just having somebody smoking crack?

WEIR: Back in the big city, flavors of Ford frustration run the gamut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should say now goodbye, I'm sorry and go home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COUMO: Just smoking crack. That's when you know politics has ebbed.

WEIR: That's your choice.

PEREIRA: There's a divide. It's sort of the platform he ran on was representing the suburban voter as opposed to the downtown, the hip Toronto attorney or money guy. There's a divide between those two people. I think that shows the difference between the support network that he's enjoying from the suburban voter.

WEIR: He is a progressive conservative which sounds like an oxymoron down here. He's a conservative, the kind of guy who says I'm going to go downtown and teach those taxes and spend liberals a thing or two. He attacks the 5-cent tax on plastic bags or promises we'll end the war on cars and gets subways back to the cities, let you drive your truck.

If you want to drive your truck downtown, you can do that. It struck a chord. There are parallels. There are parallels between the Tea Party in 2010 with a simple message that Washington is broken. This guy ran on the message that Toronto is broken. It struck a chord. He was the right guy at the right time. They had over 100 debates and town halls when he ran for mayor.

CUOMO: He got 47 percent in a three-way race. He did well.

BOLDUAN: Do you think he is going to weather the storm? What's your sense?

WEIR: It all comes down to what the police have next. They have been surveilling his driver and best buddies for six months. There's really suspicious activity. The day that Ford came out and addressed the crack allegations for the first time he called this guy 19 times. He called him over 700 times in the six months.

He's convicted of threatening his girlfriend, but he's now indicted on trafficking marijuana, threatening people to try to get that video back maybe even bribing them with drugs. He's messed up with some really sketchy characters. If they pull him into a conviction, that's really the only legal way they have to get him out thereof.

CUOMO: Otherwise he'd have to step down. Even if they support him, if the guy has a problem, they should want him to get help.

WEIR: Now his brother said he needs a vacation and a little counseling. But everyone is saying you go to rehab for 30 days and come back, you'll be fine because they all think he's doing an amazing job as mayor.

BOLDUAN: What a story.

WEIR: Isn't it?

BOLDUAN: Bill, great to see you.

WEIR: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Welcome.

PEREIRA: His NEW DAY debut.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, a bombshell accusation, what prosecutors say a newlywed bride did before she allegedly shoved her new husband off a cliff.

CUOMO: An a lot of people voted for Dave Wilson and a lot of people were shocked to learn that he's white. Why? Is it a case of false advertising or the work of a political mastermind or probably something in between? We'll talk to him and find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right, it's time for you to put your cap of judgment on. Here's the situation. A White Republican from Texas came up with an unorthodox strategy to appeal to a mostly black Democratic voting district. He simply implied that he was black as well. That's what the criticism is. Dave Wilson left his photo on flyers for his campaign for Houston Community College board of trustees.

That's a fact. Why did he do? Why did he opt instead for smiling black faces that he found on the internet? Well, meanwhile take a listen to this Wilson campaign radio ad for more proof of the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Killing the hopes and dreams of our children, setting them up for failure. Girl, please, I bet he had relatives. So what are we going to do? I'm voting for Dave Wilson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right, the play worked. Wilson beat out a 24-year incumbent. The question is why? Was it done the right way? Well, who better to speak for his moves than Dave Wilson himself joining us from Houston. Sir, thank you for being with us. DAVE WILSON, HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Thank you, Chris, for having me.

CUOMO: Mr. Wilson, I have never heard of a politician not wanting their face all over the place? Why did you do this?

WILSON: I wanted to run this campaign on the issues, not my skin color and that was mainly the whole strategy. And because it was an African-American district, I didn't feel like putting my picture on any of those brochures would get me any votes. So I stuck with the issues and I brought them up and that's what I considered important in this race, the issues. Not my skin color.

CUOMO: All right, that's a good high road answer. Let's look a little bit at the low road, though. Your quote is every time a politician talks, he is deceiving. Do you admit that you, too, were being deceptive here?

WILSON: I would rather put it in the context of target marketing. You have to speak to the audience. You can't sell maternity clothes to a bunch of men. So I had to work in that district and try to -- it's a sales job. I'm trying to get votes and trying to get people to support me and I wanted to focus on the issues.

CUOMO: I know, but isn't one of the issues who the person is that they're voting for? Shouldn't the voter know who you really are? Isn't there a little bit of a come on here?

WILSON: Well, I also -- in the last two years, I spoke at a breakfast meeting four times, the largest African-American group in Texas at that. I also had spoke before the Houston Community College before many times and on their YouTube, you can see my face. And my opponent, quite frankly, he put out a flyer with my picture on it and some inflammatory, racist kind of comments about me. So, my picture was out there and the fact, too, that in the early vote I was behind. And after he put my picture out, I picked up 275 votes and I pulled ahead by a margin of 26.

CUOMO: That's kind of the point here, though, right? Isn't that the ultimate judgment about the tactic? Didn't you kind of stain your own victory here? You wind up winning the race anyway. Don't you wish you had just done it in a way that wouldn't call into the legitimacy?

WILSON: I think people in that district are not getting enough credit of their intelligence and who they're voting for. The fact of the matter is, it was about issues. It was a 24-year incumbent who squandered $24 million building a college in Qatar and failed to vote for $6 million worth of scholarships for indigent students in the district.

CUOMO: Why did you need to say Ron Wilson supports me and then you have an asterisk to say, by the way, this is the Ron Wilson who is my cousin? Come on. That's a ploy. Own up to it.

WILSON: It is a ploy. I agree with that. The fact of the matter is that the ploy didn't come out until he sent out the racist piece that said I was a right-wing hate monger and I had advocated the return of chain gangs to clean the streets. I don't know where he got all that. He sent that out and I felt like I had to neutralize that issue and I wanted to -- not confuse, but I wanted to refocus the issue back on -- refocus the race back on the issues, not the color of my skin.

CUOMO: All right, but will you also admit now that you've won the race that you also at least wanted to cloud the judgment on whether or not you were black or white?

WILSON: No, I don't admit to that. Clouding the judgment isn't true. I wanted to focus that race on issues.

CUOMO: But you used a fake Ron Wilson.

WILSON: Not skin color.

CUOMO: You have all the voices in the affect of he's one of us. He's in the neighborhood. You don't put your picture anywhere. Doesn't it all add up to a bit of a campaign evasion? You won the race. You might as well be honest about it now.

WILSON: I live in that district. I don't know what you mean by that, but I live in that district. There's not been one voter who has come up to me and said they felt deceived because of the flyers that I put out. The people who say they're deceived is my opponent, Bruce Austin and the liberal news media.

CUOMO: I say this last thing. First of all, thank you for coming on the show. Half joking I ask you, how can the voter come up to you and complain when they don't know what you look like? That's part of the problem here, right?

WILSON: They know what I look like. Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: There are other issues, other incumbents had trouble and you're one of the men who wound up coming in and winning the election. Good luck to you going forward.

WILSON: Come and talk to me in a year and see how I represent that district compared to the person that preceded me.

CUOMO: Done. That is a true reflection of who you are. Thank you, sir.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, we are now getting a true sense of the damage and devastation from Typhoon Haiyan. We'll have live team coverage on the massive international recovery effort just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people are dead. Our friends are dead. Some of our family members are dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: In crisis, the typhoon that's left thousands dead now poses serious risks to the living. Bodies are in the streets, food is scarce and a new storm is delaying aid and a new fear that disease and starvation will kill many more.

BOLDUAN: Breaking his silence, the owner of the Miami Dolphins is the latest to speak out on the controversy gripping his team. What it was that appalled him most and why the Dolphins' week just got even worse.

PEREIRA: Jimmy Kimmel taking heat for a skit that suggested the U.S. kill all Chinese people, despite his apology and from ABC, a huge number of people of the Chinese-American community are calling for further action.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY continues right now.