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New Day

Two Dead in Accident at SXSW Festival; Plane Mystery: Did It Fly Much Longer?; Manson Follower Davis Granted Parole; Obamacare Premium to Rise; Paul Ryan "Tailspin of Culture"; Frustration Mounting for Families; Kiev Uneasy About Looming Crimea Vote

Aired March 13, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

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MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, once again, to you. Welcome back to NEW DAY. Good to have you with us.

Looking at our headlines at this hour, overnight, chaos in the streets of Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest festival. Two people are dead. Nearly two dozen others are injured after police say a drunk driver plowed through barricades and into a crowd of people outside of a nightclub. Police say the suspect was driving the wrong way down a one-way street and sped away when they tried to stop him. They pursued him. That driver is now in custody and facing murder charges. Police have not released the driver's name.

Malaysian officials disputing a "Wall Street Journal" report that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was in the air for four hours after its last contact. The "Wall Street Journal" cites engine data from unnamed sources. That could expand the search by hundreds of miles. Two Indian naval vessels joining in. That's the latest update this morning.

Search crews came up empty in their latest search south of Vietnam, where satellite imagery Sunday showed something in the water. Turns out, they claim those pictures were released by mistake.

Convicted killer and former Charles Manson follower, Bruce Davis, has been granted parole in California. That does not mean that he's going to be getting out of prison. There will still be a 120-day review period. Then Governor Jerry Brown has 30 days to reject or modify the decision. Davis was also granted parole last year. Governor Brown decided at that time to overturn the ruling and kept Davis behind bars.

A surveillance camera captures quite a brazen robbery, and it's upsetting to see. A robber punching an 8-year-old, an 8-year-old child in the face and then stole the child's iPad. That happened in Minneapolis, right outside a restaurant. The restaurant manager chased the suspect down, identified as Aaron Stillday.

He is now charged with first-degree aggravated robbery. The stolen iPad was recovered, but it was smashed during the attack. We're pleased to report that Apple reportedly replaced it after hearing about that story. And look at that. That is a 500-pound, 8-foot-long wild hog bagged by North Carolina hunter, Jett Webb. Local hunters have been tracking this ginormous beast for years. No one's been able to bring it home until now. Did I really say 8 feet? Looking at it, that's 8 feet. Webb called his encounter with the giant hog humbling, to say the least.

He says he set out to just put a little meat in the freezer for the winter. He came home with enough pork to feed his entire family for a year. I don't even know what to say. If you were just taking a nice hike in the woods and that came along.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It makes me look at your bacon a little differently, Cuomo.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Let me tell you, that isn't bacon. A wild hog versus a pig. There's a show called "Hog Wild," we talked about it once. When you see these things, they have red eyes, big tusks. They will take you down.

PEREIRA: Like a spear in the heart of Cuomo.

CUOMO: You go hunting a wild hog, it isn't your ordinary pig.

PEREIRA: Eight feet long!

CUOMO: I know, no joke. Neither is politics, so let's get inside it on NEW DAY with Mr. John King -- John.

JOHN KING, HOST, CNN'S "INSIDE POLITICS": I am incredibly impressed this morning with your bacon insights there, Mr. Cuomo, that's good.

CUOMO: I do like to chew the fat.

BALDWIN: Yes, you do.

KING: Point, set, match, Cuomo. We'll be with you guys in just a few minutes. Look, when it rains, it pours. We had the Florida special election. That was bad news for the Democrats, bad news for the president. The Republican won. Healthcare was the big issue.

And today, politics will be steaming over new remarks by Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary. Listen to her talking to Congress yesterday about health insurance premiums next year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HHS SECRETARY: I think premiums are likely to go up but go up at a smaller pace. And what we've seen since 2010, the increases are far less significant than they were prior to the passage of the affordable care act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With me this morning to chew that one over -- excuse me -- Nia- Malika Henderson of "The Washington Post" and Ron Fournier of "The National Journal." Now, she is saying as Obamacare is implemented, the premiums will go up, and she could spin that as good news, not as much as they've gone up in the past. But Ron, if you're a Republican cutting a campaign ad, Obamacare's already the issue, isn't the ad likely to say I think premiums are going to go up, period, boom?

RON FOURNIER, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": Yes, and if you put yourself in the shoes of a normal American, a year, when your premiums went up, you blamed the insurance company. Now and forever more, you blame Democrats.

KING: You blame Democrats.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST": And not easy to put Sebelius's long sentence there on a bumper sticker, right? I mean, they're going to go up, but at a slower pace and I think that's the problem that Democrats have. They're not really selling this. I mean, they're sort of afraid of talking about it. But I do think one strategy now is to sort of get all the bad news out as quickly as they can, because we know as the year goes on, there are going to be more bumps in the road around health care.

KING: But they have a huge debate now because the Democratic candidate in Florida was saying let's fix the health care law.

HENDERSON: Right.

KING: Let's do some changes. Let's fix it. Now a lot of Democrats are saying, whoa, should we run on that? And a lot of candidates are. The candidate running against Mr. McConnell, the Democrat in Kentucky, Alison Grimes, that's her big message, I don't like Obamacare. I wouldn't have voted for it, but let's not shelve it. Let's fix it. Do the Democrats have a strategic problem now?

FOURNIER: I always thought they did. When you polled that wording, it polled very well, except it never explained -- and they were never explained how they would fix it. So in a focus group that might work, but in the real world, voters want to know how will you fix it and Democrats haven't had a good answer for that.

HENDERSON: That's right. And in these states like Kentucky, like Louisiana, like North Carolina, where these senators' offices have been flooded with calls of people complaining about Obamacare, their premiums went up or they couldn't keep their plans, this doesn't really work.

KING: So the bad news for Democrats, I'll add this footnote as we move on, 39 percent is the president's approval rating in the state of Iowa. A new Quinnipiac poll this morning. If the president's at 39 percent in Iowa as of here, early March, tough year for the Democrats.

Let's move on. Paul Ryan, he is the House Budget Committee chairman. You remember he was Mitt Romney's vice presidential nominee. He might run for the Republican nomination in 2016. He was on Bill Bennett's conservative radio show the other morning talking about his plan to help end poverty in America. Paul Ryan is a disciple of Jack Kemp. He has cared about this issue for a long time, but I always note when I wrote a book, I would say why do smart people sometimes say stupid things? Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: We have got this tailspin of culture in our inner cities in particular of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, he went on, Ron and Nia, to make the point -- he quoted Charles Mari, who is an academic, a social scientist, who says that if you look, that people below the poverty line are genetically inferior. Why would Paul Ryan quote him? And I'm going to say this is someone who spent much of my childhood at or below the poverty line, family was on food stamps.

I don't think, Dr. Mari, that I'm wired inferiorly. Why? Paul Ryan cares about this issue. He's passionate about this issue. You can agree or disagree with his policy prescriptions. Why venture here and not be more careful?

FOURNIER: It's inexcusable. The only reason I can think of it is he's preaching to the choir. He was speaking to a conservative radio host. If he was in an urban audience, which to his credit, Paul Ryan has --

HENDERSON: Right.

FOURNIER: -- I think he would have been more careful. When you compare what he said to what President Obama has said, like brother's keepers, it's interesting, because they're both basically making the same point, but President Obama will talk about the odds are stacked against these young men and we have to help lift them up. Paul Ryan was talking about the culture of not working, which kind of puts the onus not on the institutions but on the people, and that's a much different way to frame it.

HENDERSON: Yes, and I think it is important to talk about culture, but not necessarily inner city culture or black culture, but American culture, right? And these historical and structural forces that are affecting some of these folks in the inner cities. And also, I think we do ourselves just a disservice, and public figures do the discourse of disservice by not talking about poverty in a broader way. If I was a poor white person living in Mississippi, I might feel left out from these conversations.

FOURNIER: You should never ever quote somebody who says African- Americans are less intelligent to whites if you're a leader in this country. That's inexcusable.

KING: If you want to engage a community in a conversation and maybe ask them to look inward and think hard about some things that are tough. It's hard to say think about this, but first, let me you know I think that you are genetically inferior.

HENDERSON: And you might want to go on the Tom Joyner morning show, and that's a show that a lot of African-Americans listen to.

FOURNIER: And there is something in politics called dog whistling and that's what this is about. Whether he meant it or not, he's sending a subtle signal to white Americans who feel like they're being climbed over on the ladder to success, that, I'm with you, I know we have to help to protect you against the other guy.

KING: I do know he's cared about these issues for a long time so let's see if he tries to fix this.

HENDERSON: I guess.

KING: And explain himself. Your guess is he is.

Let's move on to Ukraine. The president met with the Ukrainian prime minister yesterday. The prime minister said he would not give up no territory. He did say he was open to perhaps a diplomatic solution to the Crimea region down the line. The president says he stands with Ukraine.

And listen to Secretary John Kerry here testifying before Congress saying the United States is ready. If Russia doesn't back down to impose tough sanctions and then more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't want to go into all of the detail, except to say this -- it can get ugly fast if the wrong choices are made, and it can get ugly in multiple directions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ugly fast, ugly in multiple directions. So, the president was careful. Secretary Kerry careful not to draw any sharp, red lines, as in this will not stand, because they don't have a military option, but is there a credibility issue, potential problem here for the administration if Putin doesn't blink?

FOURNIER: Yes. I mean, Putin's got to be wondering, ugly fast? This has been pretty slow, the response.

HENDERSON: It's true.

FOURNIER: Now, I know there's very little the administration can do. You can't really blame the president for what Putin did, but I think you can say that the options that the president's had at his disposal, he hasn't used them forcefully and hasn't used them very quickly.

HENDERSON: And even on the Hill, I mean, talk about things going slow, it looks like things are going slow there. The Senate and the House can't agree on what sort of packages of sanctions, is it some sort of combination? Are they revamping the way the IMF works?

FOURNIER: Not to mention our allies, which are not getting behind sanctions.

HENDERSON: Exactly.

KING: So, they need better coordination, command and control issues there. Nia and Ron, thank you. As I go back to you, Chris and Michaela and Brooke, in New York, we've been joking all week about Mr. Cuomo, the man in the middle there and some tensions between him and the ladies. I want you to listen yesterday to Michelle Obama trying to get Kermit to pick sides.

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MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: Well, Kermit, I think you're very cool, and I think you're very smart.

KERMIT: Well, thank you. Thank you and I think you are very nice, much nicer than Miss Piggy.

OBAMA: Well, that's kind of a low bar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You've got some time to go. Look right and left, Mr. Cuomo. Who, which one?

CUOMO: So, I'm Kermit? As long as I'm Kermit, I'm good. I thought I was Miss Piggy in that. I was like, why do I have to be Miss Piggy?

BOLDUAN: There's no picking sides.

CUOMO: No, no.

PERIERA: There's only love, only love.

CUOMO: John, you talk about, what is it? The embarrassment of riches. That's what Mickey was saying before.

KING: Secretary of State Chris Cuomo.

BALDWIN: Very diplomatic there.

CUOMO: Yes, I am nothing if not a diplomat. Always on the fence.

BALDWIN: John King.

CUOMO: Thank you, John.

BALDWIN: Thanks, John. Coming up next here on NEW DAY, as the search for the missing Malaysia flight continues, the only things the families of these lost passengers can do is sit and wait and pray. We will hear from some of them ahead.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. As the search continues for the missing Malaysia flight, every dead end becomes more difficult, obviously, for these families of the 239 souls on board. And in a gesture for the missing, the airline has retired the flight numbers between Malaysia and Beijing.

Pauline Chiou spoke with some of the family members. She joins us from Beijing with a little bit more. Pauline, I just cannot imagine. How are they holding up?

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been a really difficult week, Brooke. There is a deep sense of desperation as precious time has been lost. It's evening here in Asia as day six wraps up in this mystery and families are still very much looking for answers.

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CHIOU (voice-over): This man cries out in desperation, "I can still reach my son's mobile phone! You need to find him quickly!" But six days into the search, airline officials have little to say and few concrete answers. The nightmare started on Saturday. Families of the passengers rushed to Beijing's airport, full of fear and uncertainty.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had disappeared. The airline shuttled families into various Beijing hotels, trying to provide updates inside this conference room. Mr. (Sher's) only son was on the flight. She says, "We only live because of our children. What's the point of having money without our children?

My only demand is to have my son come back peacefully. Otherwise, it's meaningless." this man's cousin was also on the flight. This man's cousin was also on the flight. His cousin's father, who was already in poor health, died just a few hours after learning about the missing plane.

He says, "We don't mind our own discomfort. We just want them to search quickly and let us know what's going on. Dead or alive, we want to know as soon as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You must give us some time to go through all these.

CHIOU: Conflicting information out of Malaysia adds to the frustration. At least ten countries involved in the search chasing leads that fizzle out. This relative says, "We will definitely sue the Malaysian government for all the delays. They've been talking nonsense this whole time."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU: And that man there says he's researching international law and plans to bond together with other families to sue the Malaysian government over these delays. Meanwhile, the Malaysian ambassador to China met with some of the families today to try to answer their questions, but those relatives said they came away with very few answers --Brooke.

BALDWIN: As they sit and wait and wait. Pauline, thank you so much. Coming up next on NEW DAY, we will shift our focus here to Crimea, revolution in Ukraine started far to the north of the capital in Kiev. We will talk with some of Ukraine's younger people and ask what they have to say about the Russians.

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CUOMO: Ukraine is in a desperate fight for its future. You know that. You know, the people have taken to the streets as Russia looms large and seems to desire influence if not controls. So the stakes couldn't be higher especially for those who inherit the future. The young people. You see their faces in the protests. We haven't heard from them about what they want. What this means to them until now. CNN's Michael Holmes has more.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Independence Square in Kiev where the protest movement began and so many people lost their lives. The story has, of course, moved hundreds of miles away to Crimea. But here in the capital, many young Ukrainians can't quite believe they could lose part of their country to Russia after the referendum this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely was a disaster because we consider Crimea as a part of Ukraine and those people who live there, despite the fact that they speak Russian, they are Ukrainian.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crimea built itself with Ukraine. But in Russia, with Russia, I think that there is no future for Crimea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just not what they do in the 21st Century.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So it's a great problem because the army of Russia in our country. It's not --

HOLMES (on camera): It really upsets you, doesn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crimea will be again Ukrainian.

HOLMES: You think a mistake is about to happen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everyone has a right to choose where they want to live, but it should be in a peaceful way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a joke. How can you have a free and, you know -- referendum under the power of Russian guns. It's a joke.

HOLMES: Already some in Crimea are leaving. Many heading to Kiev to be with family and friends, not wanting to wake up next week in another country. Michael Holmes, CNN, Kiev, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So it's interesting. I was talking to someone the other day who has been at a university who said we talk so much about, you know, the language, Russian versus Ukrainian, territorial, and she said it was really the generational difference. Those who are younger because it's only been an independent nation since '91. Those who have only known it that way really don't want Crimea to go the way of the Russians versus the elder population who see it so differently.

PEREIRA: It's really good to hear the people themselves speak because we've heard so many leaders on both sides. Military officials and what have you. What about the people in the neighborhood trying to live their lives and go to work and take care of their kids. That's important.

CUOMO: Especially the young. You know, the old expression war is old men talking and young men dying. You see these young people in the streets fighting for this supposed future. They'll be the architects of it. They're going to inherit it. We haven't been really hearing from them until now.

BALDWIN: Michael Holmes, thank you. Coming up next on NEW DAY, the mess around Malaysia's Flight 370. It is worsening. Leads going nowhere. Officials aren't coming up with many answers. We'll break down what we know, conflicting reporting out this morning when NEW DAY continues.

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