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New Day

Equal Pay At The White House; Jobless Bill Heads To House; Search Teams Fail To Relocate Pingers

Aired April 08, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All five permanent Security Council nations plus Germany are involved in this third round of talks. They want to run to scale back its nuclear program so it can't quickly develop a weapon. Tehran say its program is peaceful and wants more sanctions lifted. July is the deadline for an agreement. They are still far apart on key issues.

Parts of the south are recovering after stormy weather rolled through Alabama. Rescuers had to take to dozens of boats to get to dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars. There was also flash flood warning or at least flash flooding near Atlanta and tornadoes in Mississippi. Damaging about 70 homes. At least two people were killed in the storms including a 9-year-old little girl. Devastation there in the south certainly. Chris, those are your headlines.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to inside politics on NEW DAY with Mr. John King. Power to the people. That's what Ted Cruz is all about, John. He's not a conservative, he's a populist.

JOHN KING, HOST, CNN'S "INSIDE POLITICS": He had a big win in the Senate yesterday. We'll talk about that in a second as we go inside politics. Good morning to you in New York. Good morning to you watching at home. With me to share their reporting and insights this morning, Margaret Talev of the "Bloomberg News" and Manu Raju of "Politico."

Let's start with the White House. The president today will sign a couple executive orders to advance the cause of equal pay for women. Let's call this a textbook case, Margaret, of do as I say, not as I do. As White House says women should be treated equally, Jay Carney, the press secretary, was asked yesterday about this statistic. Women at the House get 88 cents on the dollar compared to men, Jay Carney says, well, we're making progress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are, as an institution here, progressed, addressed this challenge, and obviously though at the 88 cents that you cite, that is not 100, but it is better than the national average.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's better than the national average. I guess the coach would say, is that the best you got? MARGARET TALEV, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": Kind of the best they had. I mean, Jay Carney's issue with the way these issues are aggregated is fine except for the problem is it's the same way the national numbers are aggregated. He's saying it is apples and oranges, the statistics are more complicated than you show. Take the average and that includes women with lower paid jobs on the bottom.

And, you know, if you compare deputy chief of staff to deputy chief of staff they make the same money. Critics of this sort of 77 cents number say the same thing, which is it is more comp my indicated than it seems. Somebody in the White House.

KING: This is not new. In 2011, there was a study that said women at the White House made 18% less than their male counter parts. When Barack Obama was in the United States Senate, there was a study found, across all congressional offices not just his, the man on average made $54,000. The women on average, $45,000 a year. He knows his sticking his hand in this blender.

MANU RAJU, "POLITICO": That's right. Clearly not the message they want to send on equal payday. The Democrats will say we're pushing measures that actually, that women do support things that are easy to point to on the campaign trail, the so-called paycheck fairness act coming up in the senate this week. There is a rallying cry in these Democratic states where these members are up in the very key Senate races, where they need a majority of women to come out to the polls to have them keep their majority. Look, they may have their own problems but on the campaign trail, they believe they have things they can point to, to put the Republicans on the defense.

KING: Another thing they want to point to is this jobless, extended unemployment benefits. It passed the Senate yesterday with 59 votes. That didn't happen in America anymore. A number of Republicans decided we want to do this. They send it over to the House. Why, Manu, are they saying, eh?

RAJU: A rebellion among conservatives. They don't believe this is the right policy to go forward with. They think there needs to be a more job creation measures rather than measures to help folks ware unemployed. They believe there's no measure to pass a five-month measure, not a long-term reform of this program. The pressure from Boehner is going to come from a number of these members who are in tough districts where unemployment rate is high.

Places in New Jersey, New York, and Nevada where they're in tough races as well as some of these House members who are running for the Senate in places like Montana and Arkansas, Colorado, where they actually may need to pass something to push back against Democrats.

KING: To what that point as I get to, Margaret with a question, I just want to show you a map. See all that red? Those are the House districts. That is the Republican House right there. The blue are the Democratic districts. Mostly on the coast as you see there. And most of those red, conservative lawmakers, Margaret, they don't feel pressure to do this because they're safe a back home. Would the president say the Senate Democrats, let's give them what they want. Let's give the House Republicans some job creating, tax cuts, financial incentives, or would they prefer instead of having legislation, have the issue?

TALEV: I think ultimately there will be an unemployment insurance continuation because there has been repeatedly, after these protracted debates. The woman pay issue and long-term unemployment issue, if you're watching this from the sideline and you're a woman, if I get more money out of this, that's cool. If you're un-term unemployed you're thinking, look, I don't care how we get there.

Both of these issues, because it's an election year, it's going to tick way deep entire the calendar until was see how it comes out in the wash. No, I don't think the long-term goal of the White House is to scrap coverage for people who are unemployed to prove a point.

KING: Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, the majority leader, has been making issues of the Koch brothers. He's doing it over and over and over again including this on the Senate floor yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: NASCAR fans can easily find their favorite drivers by simply looking at the cars as they fly by because there are corporate emblems on the hood of the car. Senators these days might as well where Koch Industry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: As they wear blue and gray and black suits on the Senate floor he wants to have the Koch monitored for all the Republican senators. A lot of people look at Senator Reid, where are we going here?

RAJU: You know, it's really kind of curious because most Americans don't know who the Koch brothers are. It's almost a message to the Democratic donor base to scare them into action and to put money into the Democratic super PAC or campaign committees, money to push back against the ads because the Koch brother group, "Americans for Prosperities," which is pummelling Democrats in all these key states and races.

Do you think that average middle of road voter knows the Koch brothers are behind these ads? Probably not at the end of the day. If anything else, it's about trying to get old folk to Democratic side to open their wallets so they can push back.

TALEV: They did galvanized Democrats in that summer of 2010, the bus tour of the anti-Obamacare summer. That's when the Koch brothers became the George Soros of the Republican Party. When you start insulting NASCAR fans you're opening up a whole other can of worms.

KING: Ted Cruz is not known as a senator, freshman senator of Texas. Publicly called him a jerk. However, a big victory. Yesterday the Senate passed his legislation that would bar Iran's choice to be the next United Nations ambassador from Iran from entering the country. Listen to him talking about his legislation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: He is a known terrorist. He participated in holding Americans hostage for 444 days. Now, listen, they're naming him was a deliberate slap in the face. It was intended to be contemptuous to America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Senator Cruz there with Jake Tapper. This is a keeper for me. This is a press release in which Ted Cruz praises John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two Republicans with whom he sparred in the Senate and Chuck Schumer, Pat Leahy looked at Ted Cruz, get out of here, it's a good day for him. He can prove that he got something done.

RAJU: Actually getting a bill done rather than blocking a bill. It's been interesting to see Cruz take a more hawkish line on the national security matters. More hawkish than one of his potential 2016 counter parts, Rand Paul. This is an effort since the Ukraine vote for Cruz to show himself some more of -- burnish those NASA security credentials. This is an example of that.

KING: If the House passes this and it's a signing ceremony, do you think we could see Ted Cruz in the White House with the president?

TALEV: Such a torn in the side of the Obama administration, but the president and his team are uncomfortable about this guy being the envoy and his hands being on that at all. Fascinating story.

KING: It's fun to watch and that's a bipartisan moment for Ted Cruz. As we get back to New York, bipartisan moment, Bill Clinton and his brother from another mother as the Bush family says, George W. Bush t in the box. Last night do we have this picture? I thought we had it. We're going to act it out.

KING: There we go right there. Ex-presidents get along watching a little basketball last night. My bracket went to toast, I think, on the second day. How about you guys?

BOLDUAN: If you recall, John King, I was doing quite well, but then everything blew up.

KING: Congratulations to the Huskies. That's all we can say.

BOLDUAN: Do we even know? Did Clinton or Bush do a bracket?

KING: I don't know. We'll find out.

BOLDUAN: John King?

KING: We'll have it for you tomorrow.

BOLDAUN: John King, Inside Politics.

KING: Inside bracketology. CUOMO: When you say I was doing quite well, do you mean like the royal I, team that comprises I.

BOLDUAN: I specifically scouted all of those teams.

CUOMO: Really? Your nose right in my eye.

BOLDUAN: I have a very smart husband who helped me out. I was overseas.

CUOMO: The truth, #truth.

Let's break here on NEW DAY. When we come back, we told you about the pings. Crews are looking for the pings. That's how they believe they're going to get the location of Flight 370. We're going to look at exactly how the pinger works and how crews are working to establish contact.

We're also, there's Mich and Jeff Wise getting ready to do the pinger thing. That's going to be good.

We're also waiting for Oscar Pistorius to resume his testimony. He's talking about the moment he shot his girlfriend. We're going to bring you that live when it starts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Just in to CNN, the Australian Department of Defense has released audio and video of the possible pings picked up by search vessel "Ocean Shield." Now these are a computer-generated version of the actual sound. I want you to take a listen.

You have to really listen, but they're at 1-second intervals. Right? The signals detected this weekend could they be from Flight 370's data recorder? That's the big question. Searchers have not been able to relocate those signals leading some to wonder if the battery on the pinger may have died.

Jeff Wise joins me here on the giant map. Somewhere in the South Indian Ocean here trying to recreate what some of the technology is being used to look for, the pinger. We've talked about this. It's a little heavy. Jeff, you can hold it.

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: OK.

PEREIRA: Let's turn it up. This is the device that they're using and we can already hear --

WISE: Right. We're actually picking up the ping that's released by an actual pinger like the one on the plane.

PEREIRA: We should point out. This is the one that the Chinese were using.

WISE: Right. This is a handheld version. This is designed to be held by scuba divers searching in shallow water. You don't hear it anymore and then back, now I aim back at it you can hear it. There's a little compass on top. When you're searching underwater you can say, OK, I'm pointing east, therefore --

PEREIRA: Put it closer to the water. Part of the circuit that needs to be completed that this device and that device would be in the water. You can even submerge it. You won't be electrocuted.

WISE: You're sure?

PEREIRA: I'm positive. You can see how that does to it. I'll turn it down a little bit so we can talk. The frequency is 37.5. That's the standard frequency. Why was that chosen?

WISE: This is an actual pinger like in the plane, as I said, 37.5 kilohertz. That's a frequency that not many things in nature makes that frequency. Therefore, it's going to be pretty quiet. The ocean is very noisy. Sounds travels much better through water than air because it's a denser median. That means the sound can travel further. The downside is that everything that's making noise t in the ocean all piles up.

PEREIRA: Again, this is the device. This is the little thing that they're so desperately searching for.

WISE: Tiny little thing. It looks like a salt shaker.

PEREIRA: OK, so we've talked about this technology. We want to just show it to. It's similar technology, but not the same as the TPL that's being towed behind the "Ocean Shield." Give us an idea of its capability.

WISE: The idea there is it's a similar kind of device. It's basically a microphone. But it's attached to this thing that's pulled underneath the surface.

PEREIRA: Sure.

WISE: It can go very deep. Thousands of feet under the water. You're able to get closer to the bottom of the ocean, closer to the sound if it's down there. And it's also shaped in such a way that it acts like a lens -- mirror of a telescope. More sophisticated.

PEREIRA: In terms of even it because it's more powerful and it will detect a farther range, it still has some challenges because the ocean at that point, you were talking about false positives.

WISE: Right.

PEREIRA: Give us an idea of what you mean by that.

WISE: Well, basically when you're looking for a highly improbable event, we're talking like maybe a one in a million chance of finding this thing in the vastness of the ocean. The idea they happen to hit upon the right spot on their first try. Remember, this thing can only -- even a sophisticated tow fish that's been pulled behind the "Ocean Shield," even that can detect it within a range of a mile or two. You're talking about an ocean that is hundreds of thousands of square miles. The chances that you're going to be right there in that specific spot are very unlikely.

PEREIRA: Again, time is running out. If the batteries have not died, there is a concern they are about to so there's thus the urgency to find this so they can begin to locate that wreckage and begin to solve this mystery.

WISE: It's going to be a very tough job to find this without the pinger.

PEREIRA: We've got to turn that off now. It's making me crazy. Jeff Wise and Chinese pinger locator. Fantastic. Really appreciate it -- Chris, Kate.

CUOMO: The sound is becoming the tell-tale heart of this studio. I'm going to hear it forever now.

BOLDUAN: That's right.

Let's take another break. Coming up next, Oscar Pistorius about to resume his testimony in South Africa. We will have it for you -- we'll have it for you live.

CUOMO: And we're also going to be talking about the signals picked up by the pinger locator. They are promising but the search for Flight 370 is far from over. We're going to look at some possible limitations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The search for Flight 370 is in full force yet again this morning with the Australian vessel, the "Ocean Shield" trying to locate the black box using a pinger locator. Here with us at the big map, is former adviser to the U.K. Ministry of Defense and a retired lieutenant colonel in the British military, Michael Kay, and also a CNN aviation analyst.

Good morning once again. Talk about the technology. It's fascinating, for us not familiar with it. First let's put up the animation of the towed pinger locator, which is what everyone has come to know so well. It does this mowing the lawn, call it a lap climber strategy. What is that the most effective way?

MICHAEL KAY, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I think we got to set our expectations for the long haul, we do have the technology, but it's a very complex search and the technology has its limitations. For instance, the pinger locator has a four-mile cable, and it is towed through the water at about one to two miles an hour. It you're searching an area seven miles long that can take up to seven miles an hour.

When they get to the end they have to slowly pull in the ping locator, a sensitive piece of technology, four miles of cable. That's a lot of cable to pull in. Turn the ship around. We've seen the size, and then redeploy out again and go one to two miles. So within 24 hours you're only going to get potentially one to two sweeps in.

BOLDUAN: And that's why you see -- we see that 24-hour clock, and it really explains. While they say they're working around the clock. Eight hours for one turn, you might only get three turns if everything's working like clockwork.

KAY: That's a great point. We haven't factored in weather or anything going wrong with the technology and other ships in the area as well. We know from some of the first signals is that they have to stop, turn everything off are and then zone in.

BOLDUAN: Talk about the other technologies at play and go to the magic wall for that. The utter silence that is needed, I find fascinating. It's how sensitive they really need to listen in to everything. Let's start. We'll get to the pinger locator again in a second, but this is the diver pinger locator, this is what the Chinese used. What are the limitations of this device?

KAY: This is very rudimentary piece of equipment. When we're looking at the depths, of up to 5,000 meters -- this isn't going to be very useful at all. I mean, it doesn't filter out any of the noise. Go on to the next animation.

BOLDUAN: This is the towed locator, what everyone the focused on.

KAY: If anything's going to spot it, this thing will, pick up a signal. We need to point out, that this is trying to pick up the strength of this signal. So as it passes across the top, the strength is going to increase to here, and then as it moves away from the signal, it's going to decrease again. What it needs to do is it needs to triangulate that through three separate runs.

BOLDUAN: Sounds easy, when we see an animation like this. Of course, it will pick it up, as soon as it floats right over it, is pulled right over it, it's going to pick it up, but so many variables. The topography that can block if it's even going to be heard, right?

KAY: Absolutely. We've heard the salinity, amount of salt in the water, temperature and pressure, the three key things to affect any signal.

BOLDUAN: Next, Bluefin 21. This is this underwater submersible, very high-tech and what they want to get to do put in the water, but they say they're not going to put it in until they narrow the field, until they hear a ping again. Why is that?

KAY: I think that's absolutely right. This works on passive sonar. This listens for the pings. This works on active sonar. It's pushing energy out into the water. If it hits debris it will sense that and pull it back in. This is actually looking for debris. You can bolt things on to this, lights, and detecting the earth's field. There are lots of capabilities of Blueray has.

We know this is a critical part of the time line at the moment. In the batteries go, then this is going to be rendered useless. What actually Chief Marshall Houston has said, if it is rendered useless, he'll put it in the water anyway. Over 34,000 kilometers that's going to take a long, long time. We have to build expectations for the long haul.

BOLDUAN: The 30,000 square miles is better than they were dealing with originally, but nowhere what they want to be able to put this thing in the water.

KAY: That is a great point. An area of over 10 million miles and we are down to 3x3. So that's a great point.

BOLDUAN: Still not there. A lot of work ahead, but we'll say they have maybe days, they hope, lasting still on that battery in the black box. Thank you, Michael.

KAY: Good to see you, Kate.

CUOMO: Let's take a break. Coming up on NEW DAY, the Oscar Pistorius expected to resume any moment. Oscar back on the stand continuing to detail his account of the night he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp. It's expected to restart momentarily. When it does, we will bring it to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)