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New Day

Flight 370 Poll; Target's Interim CEO Speaks; Sleep Apnea; Climate Change Report

Aired May 07, 2014 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, time now for the five things you need to know for your new day.

At number one, the U.S. is sending a team of military law enforcement experts to Nigeria to aid in finding those kidnapped girls that were kidnapped by Islamic extremists. CNN has just learned that the Pentagon has already started plans to offer support.

The man arrested during Tuesday's lockdown at the White House is due in court today. The 55-year-old man faces unlawful entry charges for allegedly driving his car inside the White House gates.

Airport security video shows a 15-year-old stowaway emerging from the wheel well of a 767 after a nearly five-hour flight from California to Hawaii. That teen could face criminal trespassing charges.

There are two stops planned for the president today. First Arkansas, surveying damage from last month's deadly tornadoes, then to California for some fund-raising and an award from a foundation that preserves Holocaust survivor interviews.

The Los Angeles Clippers are playing their best basketball since the Donald Sterling scandal broke. Game two of their playoff series against Oklahoma City tonight. L.A. routed (ph) the Thunder 122-105 in game one. Go Clips.

We're always updating the five things to know, so be sure to go to newdaycnn.com for the latest.

Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Mick.

When it comes to the search for Flight 370, a lot of you are losing hope, and that's understandable, because they haven't made a lot of progress. And according to a new CNN/ORC poll, just slightly more than half of Americans think we'll ever find out what happened to the plane. And more of you think the search should continue, but that number is far from overwhelming to be sure.

Joining us to break this down and discuss, David Soucie, CNN safely analyst, former FAA inspector, and the author of "Why Planes Crash," and Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst, former inspector general for the Department of Transportation and a lawyer who represents victims and families after airplane disasters.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

David, surprised by the numbers?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: You know, I really am. You wouldn't think that I would be, but I am. I thought that there would be more confidence that we would find the airplane. I thought there would be more confidence in the data that they've gotten so far. But clearly the Malaysians have done nothing (INAUDIBLE) confidence in the American public, or in any public at this point, as to what information they have and where they're going with this and if they even are going to be able to find it. So I'm a little surprised at that.

CUOMO: Another interesting aspect of the poll is whether they are looking in the right place. What were the numbers that we had on that? Fifty-one, yes, they're looking in the right place, 46, no, they're not.

Now, Mary, to me, not surprising that it's a close call because you haven't found the plane. Taking the forensics out of it, a lot of people are interested in the story because of the mystery and the idea of the conspiracy theory of where the plane might be. Fair point?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Fair point and - because, exactly what you said, because we haven't found any clues, no wreckage, no really nothing at this point of that plane, I think that's why people think we probably don't have the right place.

CUOMO: Now maybe some of the most misplaced confidence in this story from the beginning - and, again, this is just my opinion - is the poll question was, did the pilots do it? Sixty-six percent say yes.

David Soucie, do you believe that you could make a case as an investigator that, yes, the pilots did this, not that they flew the plane but that they made it go this way and crash it?

SOUCIE: You know, I think I could. I've always, as an investigator, taken the opposite tact though. Is it - is it possible, is it probable? But could you make the - could you make the fact --

CUOMO: Where are you on this? Are you possible or are you probable?

SOUCIE: I'm possible. I think I (INAUDIBLE) probable.

CUOMO: Well, possible is much lower than 66 percent.

SOUCIE: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm not probable. I'm not probable. And primarily because of the fact of when this occurred. Right then at that time you would -- I would assume that you'd have to have one person acting. The chance that they would have acted together on this is astronomical.

CUOMO: I'm just saying -

SOUCIE: But one person could.

CUOMO: We keep saying we have to test because it's about proof, proof, proof, facts, facts, facts.

SOUCIE: Yes.

CUOMO: I think you have the least facts on that question.

SOUCIE: The least supported for sure.

CUOMO: Right.

SOUCIE: And the fact that the public believes it most in favor of it.

CUOMO: Sixty-six. Two out of three.

SOUCIE: Yes. Yes. It's surprising to me.

CUOMO: Mary, where are you on that?

SCHIAVO: I'm on the other end. You know, I -- we don't have one fact that points to those pilots. And, you know, I put a lot of faith in the FBI, worked with them for years, and they poured over the computers, the flight simulator, nothing. And, you know, there's one thing that was missing from the preliminary report and I found it unbelievably telling.

And there was so much discussion how the plane went up to 43,000 feet and down to 6,000 feet and maybe the pilots claimed to that high altitude and kill people, and this and that. You know, all the altitude data was missing from the preliminary report. And that tells me they have no confidence in that data about the altitude. And that was one of the key points on the pilot suicide theory. So I think we have to -- I'm going to keep the jury out on that one.

CUOMO: All right. So that takes us to the people who were keeping the information out of the report, the Malaysian authorities doing the investigating. Sixty-nine percent say that they're not handling it well. Bob job, 69 percent, good job, 26 percent.

David Soucie, surprised by these numbers?

SOUCIE: You know, not at all. Not at all. They have done a bad job at it. They - and especially from the perspective of the public because there's criminal investigations going on. They're not going to divulge all this information. They can't. They have to keep it -- parts of this secret. So I'm not surprised at all (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: What parts have to be secret?

SOUCIE: Anything to do with the criminal investigation. Criminal investigation.

CUOMO: What criminal investigation?

SOUCIE: When they're investigating the people, they're investigating the pilots. Now at this point they're starting to release it because they're saying, well, we've cleared everybody. So now they're giving us all the information. But they're still not giving information about what they did to clear these people.

CUOMO: But you know what happens, when you're not open and it turns out that you're not open for no particularly good reason -

SOUCIE: That's right.

CUOMO: It creates paranoia, conspiracies and lack of confidence, which leads us to the next poll question, Mary Schiavo, do you believe that some other government or some terrorist or somebody shot it down? Fifty-seven percent say likely. For -- you know, you read it for yourself. But, Mary, the idea that -- isn't that a fair collusion, when you don't run the investigation the right way, you fuel this type of paranoia?

SCHIAVO: Exactly. And it's as if they were living in another decade. Anyone, you know, now knows that you can't keep these kinds of secrets. The ICAO rules say you shouldn't keep these kinds of secrets. You're supposed to make the information available certainly to the families.

But I think the poll results just have the - a kind of a throwback effect. Americans remember the last attacks on aviation, they remember 9/11, the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber and they just assume this is another. But there's not one shred of evidence that it was a terrorist attack and we can tell that the government in Malaysia is not treating it as terrorism because they have done no investigation and they have done none of the things that you do in a terrorist investigation. So I don't think they're treating it as one.

CUOMO: And I'll tell you what, as we wrap up the segment, one of the things that had make me proudest during the coverage is having someone like you, Mary Schiavo, you, David Soucie, where we know we have people who know what they're talking about, we know they're not going to step past what we understand from the facts and they're willing to test the things. That's how you keep confidence in what you're doing as reporters and certainly same rules apply to government. So thanks to both of you for being here today.

SOUCIE: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: And I'm sure we'll be talking again soon.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

CUOMO: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up next on NEW DAY, a CNN exclusive. One-on-one with Target's newly minted interim CEO. What is he doing to restore customer confidence in the brand following that massive security breach?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back.

Once again, a huge shakeup at one of the country's largest retailers. Target's CEO stepped down Monday after that data breach last year impacted as many as 110 million shoppers. You remember this. This happened kind of in the heart of shopping season, holiday shopping season. Now the company's chief financial officer, John Mulligan is taking the reins, at least until the company finds a more permanent CEO. He just sat down for a television exclusive interview with our Poppy Harlow. And Poppy is here to talk about it.

Literally, you just wrapped it up.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Like about 10 minutes ago when we ran up here.

BOLDUAN: Great. Well, it means it's fresh in everyone's mind, right?

HARLOW: It is.

BOLDUAN: The big question I think everyone wants to know is, what did Mulligan say about what happened -

HARLOW: Right.

BOLDUAN: How the breach happened and more importantly, is it safe to shop at Target today?

HARLOW: Because this is a company that so many of us shop at, so many people are employed by it. It is a mainstay in retail. You know, I asked him, have you gotten down to the bottom of exactly how this hack happened, how did 110 million customers' private data become public through these hackers? They said they're still investigating. They don't know exactly what happened. This happened between November -- mid to end of November and mid December. But in terms of if customers are safe, he said absolutely. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MULLIGAN, INTERIM CEO, TARGET: Our guests can shop with confidence today at Target. Obviously we removed the malware. We've closed the point of access where the individual came in. So we've taken significant steps to improve the security. And our guests can shop with confidence at Target today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We talked a lot about this because, Kate, I was scratching my head and I kept asking him, well, but you don't know exactly what caused this, so how do we know customers are safe?

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

HARLOW: He insisted that they are. They have put this new pin technology into their Target credit cards. But, you know, I think really until we know what happened here, a lot of people are still going to be hesitant. We've seen people -- less people shopping at Target in the wake of this. Their numbers are coming out in a few weeks, so we'll see if those shoppers have picked up and regained that confidence. It is so important for this company.

BOLDUAN: And that's going to be a challenge for this brand if they can't say what happened yet. Do they think they will ever find out what happened?

HARLOW: They do. They're doing an internal investigation. We also know there's a criminal investigation. The DOJ is investigating, along with the Secret Service, several states. That's how big this is. They think they'll get to the bottom of it. They didn't give a date for when the report will come out. But I think the bigger picture here is not just Target, right, this is happening at Neiman Marcus -

BOLDUAN: They're, unfortunately, not alone.

HARLOW: Michaels, other retailers as well. Can any retailer really be safe in this day and age? Here's what he said to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: At this point in time, do you think that any major retailer can be hack-proof?

MULLIGAN: I - you know, I can't speak to that. What I can tell you is that the cyber security is a threat broadly, not just for retail but for American business. And as we've looked at our response, there are things that -- actions that we've taken internally that I mentioned, there's actions we've taken that we think are important for the retail industry.

We think information sharing across the retail industry. We think chip and pin is an incredible step forward to provide additional security for our guests. And last week we announced that we're going to partner with MasterCard to accelerate in that in our stores. But more broadly, across all of American business, we think information sharing is critical between the government and business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Bottom line, this is a big, big hang-up for not just Target, a number of retailers. Why did the Target CEO step down after 35 years at the company? I pressed him, Kate, on that. He said multiple times to me, that is between Gregg Steinhafel and the board. I'm not privy to that information. So they're still not directly saying if the former CEO stepping down is tied to this hacking, but it has been a very tough, tough year for them.

BOLDUAN: And some suggestions that there were other things going on under that CEO that it was all part of it.

HARLOW: They've had trouble expanding in Canada. There's been a number of things but I think everyone wants to know what exactly happened but they're saying customer's are safe.

BOLDUAN: And important to hear his voice. He has a huge job ahead of him. He's the head of a huge company.

HARLOW: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Poppy, thank you -- great interview.

CUOMO: Got a little "Human Factor" right now and today's edition, did you know that millions of Americans suffer from sleep apnea? Well, it's true. And the potentially deadly condition obstructs breathing at night and can literally kill you. It's something that almost sidelined Super Bowl champion Aaron Taylor. That is until he took charge. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has his story for you.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Super Bowl champion Aaron Taylor's job as a guard was to be big and strong to defend. First at Notre Dame, a two-time all American and then for the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers. Some of the same things that got him to the NFL may have also been affecting his health. Just like 60 percent of former linemen according to a 2009 Mayo Clinic study.

AARON TAYLOR, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I was waking up more tire than I thought I should have been, waking up feeling like I was hung over. I had a headache, my throat hurt, I had trouble concentrating. I was irritable.

What kind of sandwich is that?

GUPTA: While he had a family history of sleep apnea, a potentially life-threatening illness caused by structural obstruction of the airway during sleep, Taylor never thought it would be something he would have to deal with himself.

TAYLOR: Throughout the night, 20 times per hour, for 20 seconds per time I wasn't breathing. That night after night after night after night is what led to all the problems that I had.

GUPTA: Once he was diagnosed with sleep apnea he made working out and eating healthy a priority. And Taylor started using a breathing device called a C Pap to help him overcome it.

TAYLOR: It now basically keeps my throat open so that I can breathe continuously.

The result has been my kids get their daddy back, my employers get a good employee back, my wife gets a good husband back.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Sanjay thank you.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, a new climate change report from the White House with dire weather warnings for the country and one heavily populated region in particular. We have what you need to know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

A new White House report on climate change goes beyond the if and when saying it's already here and being felt in the U.S. The report says severe drought and relentless wildfire seasons to be expected in the West. Flooding across the country is only expected to get worse.

We're going to focus on one of the reports that was alarming, the rising frequency of torrential rains in the northeast. Guess who is here? Meteorologist Indra Petersons.

The question is we're going to talk about the drought and all that kind of stuff I'm sure in the coming days and weeks. But why the torrential rain in the northeast?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I mean let's just take a look at the graph. Let's keep in mind -- right, you have the ocean it's already warmer. The air, it is warmer. So you put that in mind you know that the air can now hold more water vapor, more of that is evaporating. You're holding a water vapor what does that turn into -- heavy rain. So that's the problem we're seeing, this really heavy rain especially falling into the northeast.

PEREIRA: And we're already seeing examples of this. We've already seen this.

PETERSONS: That's what's so crazy. When you talk about these numbers -- I mean yes, let's talk about it. Look at these numbers. We're talking 73 percent of the heavy rain event, they're saying in the northeast we're seeing it already increased about 73 percent. Now, take a look. This is Pensacola, Florida I mean a week ago. How can we possibly forget that? They saw in some places five inches of rain in an hour. That is something that you don't see in Pensacola, Florida, maybe once in every 200 years. And we're saying it's rare. It's one in every 500 years.

PEREIRA: And didn't we see in September Colorado had a deluge as well?

PETERSONS: Yes. So here's another concern. It's about something we call blocking patterns. That's like instead of seeing those systems move really fast along the highway, it's like a big traffic jam. They're stopping so in that case they saw as much rain in one storm event that they would typically see in the entire season.

PEREIRA: And we talk about the northeast. I think none of us can forget, I mean the people in the northeast still reeling from it, still recovering from it, that's a perfect example of the heavy and intense storms that we're seeing.

Petersons: I mean this is a big concern here. You're talking about what's going on, on these (inaudible). Incredible amount of flooding right along those coastal sections and even the storm surge there -- the storm surge there.

PEREIRA: Thirteen feet?

PETERSONS: Thirteen feet. Incredible.

So you're bringing up the big concern that we all have especially when we think about the northeast right. Pictures like this. When you take a look and when you're talking about Sandy. Then of course, remember what ahead to our infrastructure. We have concerns.

Let's talk about what we've already seen. This is the problem, in the last hundred years, where you're seeing the green arrow that's where we've already seen the sea level rise one foot.

PEREIRA: Wow.

PETERSONS: Where you see the yellow spot here on Jersey it has already two feet. You can imagine the devastation we're thinking assuming this report is correct.

PEREIRA: So that's the thing. We think about it's not just the devastation and then recovery of homes and properties, et cetera that changes agriculture, it affects infrastructure. I mean the effects are felt in widespread fashion.

PETERSONS: Correct.

PEREIRA: The effects are felt in wide spread fashion.

PETERSONS: And they're saying we're getting warmer -- right?

PEREIRA: So this is the trend. It doesn't make sense to some of us that it's warmer but also more rain.

PETERSONS: The fact yes -- and also warmer. A lot of people are going to want to go to the coastline. They're going to want to see release -- look at this, the next 25 years, this is where we are now. How many days we're talking about that are over 90 degrees, see the red? This is the frequency of places that will be seeing days over 90 degrees according to the report starting in just 25 years. More and more events and everything we just discussed is related to that heat -- all expected --

PEREIRA: This is where you want to kind of dig down and take a look. You know, the report comes out and it seems like a lot of data and what have you, we wanted to show you Chris and Kate what this is going to feel like.

PETERSONS: How it all connects, yes.

PEREIRA: Thanks Indra.

PETERSONS: Sure.

CUOMO: And because of all that data we're now in desperate need of "The Good Stuff. When we come back, we're going to tell you a story, you know how you look on the outside, it often affects how you feel on the inside, right or wrong. One hair stylist is giving her time and talents to give a boost to those less fortunate. That's why she is "The Good Stuff". Straight ahead, you'll want to see it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Good song for this one. Time for "The Good Stuff". In today's edition: Kentucky hairstylist Sherry Wood. Sherry's day off is Wednesday, but she doesn't take it. Every Wednesday Sherry goes to a nearby homeless outreach center and styles hair. The people she helps, she says it means more to them than anything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY BENTON, HOMELESS: I deal with depression as well as the substance abuse and recovery, and so it lifts me up. It makes me want to feel better about myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That's Tammy Benton and look how good she looks now. Just one of the dozens of people Sherry has helped. Still Sherry says she is the lucky one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERRY WOOD, HAIRSTYLIST: They're all wonderful. I love them. It's like family here. They treat me very well. It's my blessing, truly it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Sherry, you are also giving the blessings. For that you are "The Good Stuff". We want to thank WDRB our affiliate in Louisville forgiving us this story and they gave Sherry $500 to help her with the costs of this good work.

PEREIRA: Did they.

BOLDUAN: Never underestimate the power of self-esteem.

PEREIRA: And also the fact that some people say this is so frivolous. But it's give what you can. Give what you can to make it feel good.

She looked good, too.

PETERSONS: And they're both happier.

CUOMO: Win-win -- that's "The Good Stuff". Time for "NEWSROOM" with Ms. Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks a lot have a great day, "NEWSROOM". Thanks so much. "NEWSROOM" starts now.

And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. And we do begin with breaking news.