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Syria Raid Kills ISIS Leader; Amtrak Working to Reopen Northeast Corridor; Tornados Reported in 9 States; Military Helicopter Crashes While on Nepal Aid Misdion; Was ISIS Raid Worth The Risk?; Pope Declares Two Palestinian Nuns Saints; Stephanopoulos Apologizes For Clinton Donations; Freight Trains Carrying Potentially Deadly Cargo. Aired 2-3p ET
Aired May 17, 2015 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:16] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the impact of a U.S. special ops raid into Syria that killed a top money man of ISIS.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the one that creates the revenue so that they can conduct these operations.
WHITFIELD: How big a blow is this to ISIS?
And Amtrak still not running five days after that deadly derailment. Engineers spending the weekend installing new speed controls as investigators try to figure out whether the train was hit by an unknown object.
Plus -- more than two dozen twisters hit the heartland.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not looking too good out here right now.
WHITFIELD: And more severe weather could hit today.
Plus, goodbye to a late night icon.
DAVID LETTERMAN, COMEDIAN: No, no, no. No. No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not going anywhere, David letterman.
LETTERMAN: What are you going to do?
WHITFIELD: NEWSROOM starts now.
Hello, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Right now, American forces are interrogating the wife of the man who was known the top money man of ISIS. Abu Sayyaf was killed by U.S. special ops in a violent raid in Syria. U.S. Intel is now poring over a treasure trove of evidence retrieved by Delta forces in the raids such as laptops, cell phones and other vital materials. A senior U.S. official tells CNN, all of this is providing quote "reams of data as to how ISIS operates, communicates and earns its money," end quote. And we're getting new details from the military on how it all went
down. Here now is CNN's Victor Blackwell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ground operation was led by the army's delta force who entered the target area on black hawk helicopters and a V22 tilt rotor offspring. After landing, about two dozen commandos scrambled off the aircraft which then took off but hovered overhead.
During a fire fight, ISIS fighters defended the multi-story building from inside and outside positions. But Special Forces were able to get close to the building and blow a hole in its outside. They went in, encountered ISIS fighters and there were more gunshots and reports of hand-to-hand combat. The ISIS combatants apparently tried to use human shields, but U.S. troops manage to kill the fighters without hurting the women and children.
ISIS commander, Abu Sayyaf was killed in the raid. But Delta Force was able to capture and leave with his wife, Umm Sayyaf, in an unidentified Usidi (ph) woman who they rescue along with collective communications gear.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Victor Blackwell.
So joining me now to discuss the raid is former Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam. Gilliam is also a former FBI special agent, former air marshal and former police officer and he is joining us now from New York. And joining us via Skype from Newport Beach, California is CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer, who is also a former CIA operative.
Good to see both of you, gentlemen.
All right, so Jonathan, you first. The raid was carried out with the use of the V22 Ospreys and black hawk helicopters. So this was a pretty noisy operation with the use of those air assaults. So likely people heard them coming, so is the case in which it's difficult to protect your choppers and troops coming in, what or who is on the ground to take cover?
JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Well first off, before an operation like this even takes place, there is a lot of what we call ISRs, which is Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance, where they're actually going out and collecting a massive amount of Intel on this target. So you know, we have to realize that when you have helicopters going in, they are noisy. So we either have already softened up the target by using air power, and we definitely have over watch, but depending on, you know, where exactly like if you were to take an operation like this in Iraq or Afghanistan where the movement was basically free wherever we wanted to go in those areas. But here it's a little bit more of a different target because we're so far away, so -- from actual friendlies. So you're going to see probably a lot of softening of the target, which is planned into the operation before you even go there.
WHITFIELD: And so Bob, we're hearing reportedly an objective was to take Abu Sayyaf alive, but we understand there was this hand-to-hand fighting instead and then he was killed. So the amount of intelligence still gathered, talk to me about visually what the operation means, having a plan a, b, c, and at the very center, making sure they can secure evidence?
BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Fred, you know, I think the real treasure trove in this, as it's been described, would be the hard drives and the telephones. A lot of times these guys leave stuff on those hard drives, they shouldn't. And even if they've been erased, they can be imaged and you can gather the data.
But more than that, you have to look at ISIS as a very discipline force. When they sent fighters, let's say to Tikrit or Fulusia (ph), they don't carry I.D. What they do is they mark their skin and so that the commander who knows who is in a sector. And if one of them wanders out of the sector, it's very clearly stated they are executed.
So all the records of these fighters will be held at a rare base, like (INAUDIBLE), like the site that was hit. And not only that, if in fact he was involved in financing and recruiting and all these administrative details, you're going to have a treasure trove of emails and phone numbers. In for somebody like delta force or JSOC in general, this is just the beginning of getting inside this organization, because the fact is we don't have human sources in (INAUDIBLE) other places, and this is the only way to get the intelligence. So I think this raid will turn out to be successful.
[14:06:03] WHITFIELD: And Jonathan, you know, there were women and children being used, we understand, as human shields, so some split- second decisions had to be made to still secure the intelligence and take out Abu Sayyaf. Does this sound like a fairly typical, you know, planning that went into this kind of raid?
GILLIAM: Well, those contingencies are always planned for. And you know, again, before you even get to the actual raid, we go through massive amounts of contingencies, things that could happen so that we have a good firm grasp on the threat and the possibilities when we get there. That way when things turn fluid and you have somebody grab a child or grab a female and put them in front of themselves, you can think your way through that because, you know, there's a lot of times when those people may not just be human shields, they may actually be holding a weapon themselves.
So, you know, nobody does it better than JSOC. Nobody does it better than delta and the seals, and I think that as Bob was saying there, this is going to be a very successful mission. The Intel that was gathered and the fact that we were able to reach in there and take one of these, for lack of better words, executives from ISIS out of the picture, that's just a huge punch right in the gut.
WHITFIELD: And then I wonder, you know, Bob, is U.S. intelligence or military likely preparing for any kind of retaliatory move after something like this, after a hit is made into ISIS to this caliber? BAER: You Know, I think just the opposite. You know, it's true delta
and the SEALs, they are the best fighting force in the world, and I say that without any exaggeration. And they know how to collect intelligence. In fact, they're on the cutting edge of collecting intelligence. What I think we'll see is raids when these guys try to come after us.
WHITFIELD: All right, Bob Baer and Jonathan Gilliam, thanks to you to both of you. Appreciate it.
GILLIAM: You got it.
WHITFIELD: All right, be sure to tune in to CNN tonight at 7:00 p.m. See Fareed Zakaria's CNN's special "Blindsided, how ISIS shook the world."
And the U.S. military has identified now the six marines killed when their helicopter went down in the Nepal Mountains during an earthquake relief mission on Tuesday. Their bodies were recovered this morning near the crash site.
Captain Dustin Lukusovich, a pilot based at camp Pendleton, California, was a native of Nebraska. Captain Christopher Norgren, also a pilot, from Camp Pendleton, was from Kansas. Sergeant Ward Johnson was a helicopter crew chief out Camp Pendleton who was from Florida. And sergeant Eric Seaman also a crew chief from Camp Pendleton, was a native of California. Corporal Sara Medina was a combat photographer with Marine Corps insulations in Okinawa, Japan. She was from Illinois. And lance corporal Jacob Hug, also a combat videographer based in Okinawa. He was a native of Arizona.
Our Nick Valencia has spoken with the family of one of the pilots and this took place in the hometown of Wichita, Kansas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RONALD NORGREN, FATHER OF CHRIS NORGREN: When he stayed here and lived here, this was his room.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a small bedroom in Wichita, Kansas, a big tribute.
R. NORGREN: Up above you're going to see that's all bishop Carroll high school football stuff.
VALENCIA: He was a star athlete in school.
R. NORGREN: An interesting thing, you'll notice there is a bottle of rum up there.
VALENCIA: What's that about?
R. NORGREN: Well, I mean, he was a good kid and everything, but he also was a kid.
TERRI NORGREN, MOTHER OF CHRIS NORGREN: And he loved life. He loved life and lived it to the fullest.
VALENCIA: Ronald and Teri Norgren are the parents of 31-year-old captain Chris Norgren. He was one of the six marines killed when a helicopter they were in crashed during humanitarian mission in Nepal.
R. NORGREN: Whatever he decided to do, he was good at it.
VALENCIA: An Afghanistan war veteran, Norgren led a team of marine reservists into combat.
[14:09:59] R. NORGREN: I mean, look at all the people he has touched. And every one of those were impressed by the kid. Yes, I'm proud, yes, I'm his father and all that, but people need to know that he made a difference and they can make a difference, too.
VALENCIA: At 6'4", Norgren looked like a tough guy. But his heart was as big as his brain. So when he was asked to go to Nepal to help with the recovery, he found his calling.
R. NORGREN: Be part of something that's bigger than you. Then after you do that, that will help you get up every day and motivate you and get you going, and you need to make that something better. And I truly believe that. And I know he lived by that, and that's the reason why he joined the marine corps. This kid, at 31 years of age, lived his life a lot fuller than I have in mine and I'm 60.
VALENCIA: For his parents, his legacy is one to be proud of. But letting go is never easy, especially for mom.
T. NORGREN: When he was deployed, I had two bands, a green one and a yellow one, and the last one said USMC forever. And the day that helicopter went down, I haven't been able to find it. It disappeared off my wrist, and I'm praying to God that I can still find it. I'm not going to give up looking for the band because it's here where Chris is, and Chris is with me. Always. He is always with me every day of my life. I love you, Chris. Thank you for being my son. I'm so blessed.
VALENCIA: Nick Valencia, CNN, Wichita, Kansas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:14:58] WHITFIELD: All right, Amtrak is scrambling to reopen its busy northeast corridor in time for the beginning of the busy workweek. That railroad was ordered to make some safety changes before it can be put back on the track following last week deadly crash in Philadelphia. The focus of the investigation now included whether the train was hit by a projectile before it derailed?
Erin McLaughlin is following the story from Philadelphia.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the mystery of what happened to Amtrak 188 continues. NTSB member Robert Sumwalt tells CNN, they have been unable to corroborate the assistant conductor's accounts that she heard 32-year-old Brandon Bostian tell the engineer of a nearby septa train that Amtrak 188 had been hit by an unknown projectile. Amtrak dispatch and the engineer of the septa train say they never Bostian report that. Nevertheless, authorities are still looking into the possibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT SUMWALT, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: At this point we really want to chase this lead down. We heard from the assistant conductor that that's what she believed she heard, there was some conversation about that, and we now see a mark on the windshield that we want to look at. So we're going to look at everything at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLAUGHLIN: On Monday forensic experts are expected to examine the fist-size circular marking on the left-hand side of the windshield. They think the marking may have been there before the crash.
Meanwhile, the NTSB now says there is evidence from the train's data recorder to suggest Bostian manually throttled the train. The question is why - Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Erin McLaughlin.
So what could have been happening inside the cab of that train ahead of the crash? Let's bring in Fritz Elder. He is a veteran locomotive engineer and a member of the engineers union. He is joining us now from Washington. Good to see you.
FRITZ EDLER, VETERAN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEER: Good afternoon. Let me just say up front that I absolutely do not speak for the brotherhood of locomotive engineers and trainmen. They would make any statements regarding this matter. I can speak on the basis of my own experience for decades in that area.
WHITFIELD: All right, good. Then based on your expertise, then, we've been talking about the investigation looking at the possibility of some projectile hitting the windshield. In your view, since many who run trains have been quoted as saying, you know, being rocked is something that has become common on America's railroad. So if and when something like that were to happen, the windshield being hit by some kind of projectile, in your view, is it enough to kind of knock the engineer, you know, off his feet, disorient him or her, and hit their head and that could explain why the locomotive would continue to go at high rates of speed?
EDLER: Absolutely. Of course, the investigation is continuing. I wouldn't want to prejudice any aspect of that. But I can tell you from direct personal experience on many, many occasions that rocking and that kind of thing does happen on a fairly regular basis. And as you can imagine, those kinds of things could be tremendously startling, tremendously disruptive. And it's one of the things that my coworkers who do this work every day have to try to take in to -- to do the best they can with. Of course, it's always a surprise. WHITFIELD: So when you say it happens regularly or is known to happen
regularly, is this something that's just happenstance, debris in the air, or are we talking about someone or something intentionally sending these projectiles?
EDLER: Well, it can be, shall we say, natural, like, for example, a bird, or it can be an intentional act by someone on the wayside. And all those things take place. There are different kinds of incidents like that, sometimes bigger things striking, sometimes less big.
WHITFIELD: So the FBI now is in part, and in large part, looking at this. It's even possible reportedly the windshield of that locomotive would make its way to Quantico for further analysis in some comparison with the other two windshields that were reportedly hit that night as well.
In your view, if this is fairly regular that many trains would experience this, what, if anything, should be put in place to help promote the safety of these locomotives?
EDLER: I tell you, in my view, and in the view of many, many of my conductor and engineer colleagues who have been in touch with me in the last days, the single most serious danger to railroad safety is actually the increased risk of chronic fatigue. Whether that played a role --
WHITFIELD: So that's a bigger threat in your view than projectiles?
EDLER: Absolutely. I mean, the projectiles have always been there. I don't try to downplay the safety significance of that. I will say that you want to talk about facts, one of the facts is that the danger of increased risk of chronic fatigue is a real thing.
And I can say that on the incident on Tuesday night that that engineer had his already drastically reduced break time, reduced further by almost a third. Now, whether that really made a difference, I'm not in a position to say, but that's a fact.
[14:20:16] WHITFIELD: Right. And we don't know definitively whether it is being seriously considered or even ruled out in the case of this engineer whether fatigue was a factor. We know that there are a lot of questions that have been asked by investigators. And of course, there are a lot of questions that are unanswered because of his concussion and because of his memory loss for now.
Fritz Edler, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.
EDLER: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, reports of 29 tornadoes across nine states. Flooding and damaging winds and more severe weather today. We'll look at the path of the storms, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:24:38] WHITFIELD: All right, forecasters say today, 30 million people are at risk for severe weather. And this was the scene in Elmer, Oklahoma yesterday as the tornado ripped through the area. There was also lightning as you here there, heavy winds and hail.
So let's talk more about this system with meteorologist Tom Sater.
OK. So these pictures really demonstrate the severity and it's pretty frightening.
[14:25:00] TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. I mean, last weekend we had over seven tornadoes, eight fatalities in the U.S. last week, a good 29 yesterday. I think the good news, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: That's a big number.
SATER: Yes, that's a big number. I don't think we are going to have that many today. So as we talk about, this is a water bay perimeter. And you could see this is mainly the fuel that the storm system is going to use today. We've had water rescues in Texas. Terrible flooding in parts of Kansas, and here are the tornadoes. A number of them, in fact, even at 3:45 this morning. The last one was from the national weather service in New Orleans, a tornado there destroying a mobile home and flipping another one.
This is, though, what the radar looked like. That video you saw in Elmer, this is in Medicine Park. Elmer is off to the west/southwest, but it was on the ground for a long time. You can see that hook as it moves to the region.
So here's what we're watching. Cold air is coming in behind this. Minneapolis 74 for a high today, tomorrow 47. That's it. And just like last week where we had snow, we're seeing it on the back edge. It's not ten states we had last weekend and the blizzard conditions. But again, just a slight risk which is much better than the enhanced version or the moderate risk, so we're thinking maybe hail, maybe some wind damage.
But we'll break it down a few places for you. Here's the area of low pressure. There will be some snow on the back edge. In fact from Bismarck to Winnipeg, maybe two to four inches, and then from St. Louis of flooding, I think, could be a concern in parts of Arkansas in toward northern areas of Mississippi and Louisiana and of course Texas where we're watching a line moving toward the Houston area.
Let's me show you some video from Wichita because they picked up a record rainfall yesterday, a good just over three-and-a-half inches. I mean, that is a massive flooding. And that is the daily rainfall record.
So these storms that are moving slow, Fredricka, are definitely going to produce some widespread flooding. So we're going to watch it and we're going to be watching it moving to the east. Cool temperatures back behind us and we'll talk about that.
WHITFIELD: My goodness. People have to remember when they see this standing water like that, really be careful about driving through it.
SATER: Don't do it.
WHITFIELD: Don't do it.
SATER: Just don't.
WHITFIELD: That's the warning.
All right, thanks so much, Tom. Appreciate that.
All right, still ahead, Washington weighs in on the delta force raid in Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The risk goes up the more you conduct these kinds of operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, hello again and thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Right now, U.S. intelligence officials are interrogating the wife of a key ISIS figure known as the terror group's top money man. U.S. Delta Force commandos killed Abu Sayyaf in a daring Friday night raid in Eastern Syria.
They captured his wife, Um Sayyaf, who officials believe has deep knowledge of ISIS hostage operations. The special operations mission also recovered what officials called reams of data, computers, laptops and other vital intelligence materials.
Here in the U.S., most lawmakers are praising the mission which was authorized by President Obama. But some are questioning if it was worth the risks. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty joins me now with more on this. So what are lawmakers weighing today when they talk about risk versus reward?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, while the administration, Fred, is touting this as a significant blow to ISIS, there are still a lot of questions that remain about this mission and whether it was worth it, and really at the most basic facts including what Abu Sayyaf's real name actually is.
Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are throwing a little cold water on the significance of the mission. One top Democrat in the House Intel Committee, Adam Schiff, he says that he believes the administration still has a lot of questions to answer especially when you're evaluating the idea of the risk versus the reward.
Here's what he said on "STATE OF THE UNION" earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: This was an extraordinary risk. If one of our people were captured, if we lost some of our special forces, there would be tough questions to answer about whether it was worth it.
And I think notwithstanding the success of this operation, we still are going to have to ask those questions. Was the intelligence value that we hoped to gain and the fact we are gaining worth this kind of risk?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: And some in congressional leadership were notified about the raid ahead of time on Friday and were told there would be a series of briefings coming up for them this week -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And then what about the value of the intelligence recovery and what's being said about the potential there?
SERFATY: Well, the United States -- the U.S. government is saying there were reams and reams of data that was recovered from the mission site, noting that there was a computer that could potentially contain some valuable information going forward.
And the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, he spoke about the amount of information that was recovered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE ED ROYCE (R), CALIFORNIA: As I understand it, quite a treasure trove of information there with the laptops and communication equipment, the cell phones, that might allow us to find out who offshore is also funding ISIS when you hear about money coming in from other countries into ISIS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: And in addition, his wife, Um Sayyaf is being detained in Iraq right now and she will be interrogated. There is word within the administration that she potentially has some information, Fred, about the hostage operations of ISIS -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much in Washington. All right, still ahead, in hopes of encouraging Christianity in the Middle East, the pope canonizes two new Palestinian nuns. The significance of this historic move, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:37:54]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clay is a slippery surface so controlled sliding is the number thing that players have to adjust to at this time of the season. Learning to stay balanced while hitting really is an art form. Sometimes it takes players years to learn.
Clay is a bouncy surface, so one of the most effective shots is to use lots of top spin. If I hit that well enough, I would have it fire in the back of the court, which is just where I want it. I want my opponent slipping over and sliding out of position. And I can do that with the drop shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A historical day at the Vatican. Pope Francis canonized two Palestinian nuns making them the first Palestinian saints of modern times. The ceremony took place in St. Peter's Square and was attended by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The move is not only being seen as religious but also political. CNN's Oren Lieberman joins me live from Jerusalem. So Oren, who are these nuns and is this considered significant there?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. This is a huge celebration, a huge victory for Palestinians and Christian here in the holy land. Both of these nuns were born in the 1840s. They focused their life -- they dedicated their life to servitude, to helping the poor, which is, of course, one of Pope Francis -- what he focuses on a lot. So it was natural for him to canonize these two.
[14:40:01] And because of the number of Christians in the holy land, it is very much a celebration for them. That's from the religious side. It was also a very big statement politically because Pope Francis officially recognized a state of Palestine.
Now that did not go over all that well with the Israeli government. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said they are disappointed in the pope's decision, and they see actions like that as unilateral actions that encourage Palestinians to avoid coming back to the peace talk table.
They say the best way to encourage a two state solution is bilateral action. Of course, many Palestinians are frustrated after years of talks that they say have led nowhere -- Fredricka.
PAUL: Well, that might explain the timing of this canonization and perhaps the pope's words about recognizing the state of Palestine was a prelude to what was to come.
LIEBERMANN: Well, it was very important step, certainly a significant step that the pope here has weighed in perhaps weighing in politically where normally he weighs in religiously and encouraging both sides here to get back to the negotiations.
Now that Netanyahu's government was formed, there will be tremendous international pressure on both sides to get back to negotiations. President Barack Obama made a statement.
We've heard other statements the past few months, especially from the U.N., how they believe a two-state solution is the most viable solution, the best way to create peace here in Israeli and the West Bank between Israelis and Palestinians. So Pope Francis is also pressuring that process, pressuring both sides to get back to peace talks, back to furthering the peace process here in and around Jerusalem.
WHITFIELD: All right, CNN's Oren Liebermann, thank you so much from Jerusalem.
All right, George Stephanopoulos delivers yet another mea culpa?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC ANCHOR: I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Will that be enough? What should happen now? We'll talk with our media guru, Brian Stelter, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:45:36]
WHITFIELD: All right, the ABC Television Network is in damage control today as questions mount about a big conflict of interest. George Stephanopoulos, host of "Good Morning America" and "This Week," and also the chief anchor of ABC News apologized for a third time this morning for not telling viewers or his bosses about $75,000 he recently donated to the Clinton Foundation over a three-year period.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Now I want to address some news you may have seen about me. Over the last several years, I've made substantial donations to dozens of charities including the Clinton Global Foundation. Those donations were a matter of public record, but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation.
I now believe that directing personal donations to that foundation was a mistake, even though I made them to strictly support work done to stop the spread of aids, help children and protect the environment of poor countries. I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, CNN's Brian Stelter anchors "RELIABLE SOURCES" and he is joining me live now. So this morning you talked about this at great length. So is apology, is the third apology now enough?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This seems like, for ABC, the end of the story. That's what they want it to be. He's apologized on all of his shows, he said he'd explained himself and can now move on, but I don't think everybody is going to move on here, Fredricka.
Certainly ABC wants this to be over, but there are some Republicans, some conservative commentators who say this is not enough, that Stephanopoulos has to be removed from all election coverage in 2016. I don't see that happening, but clearly for some people --
WHITFIELD: Why not? Why wouldn't anyone see that happening? I heard that former RNC chair, Jim Gilmore make that point and we are talking about the race for the presidency, 2016. Whether it be on his show this week, and it's all about politics, doesn't this conflict of interest, these donations, present a problem in any political presidential race kind of coverage since Hillary Clinton is in the race?
STELTER: My impression is that ABC has made two calculations here. One calculation is that because ABC came out right away and defended him, supported him and said they stand by him that they will just stick by that and be unwavering in their support.
I think the second calculation is that none of the leading contenders of the Republican nomination for president, except maybe Rand Paul and we've also heard from Ted Cruz. Those are the only two big candidates that we've heard from that have said anything very negative about Stephanopoulos.
We haven't heard Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush or Scott Walker or many of the others who have been given chances to criticize Stephanopoulos to actually do so. So why is that? Well, maybe it's because they want access to his big audience.
Maybe they want to make sure they can get on "Good Morning America" or they can get on "This Week" and I think if they're too critical that may be in jeopardy.
Here's another reason here also and that is a lot of Republicans actually do respect and appreciate Stephanopoulos as a journalist. You know, it's been almost 20 years since he left the Clinton White House. He has evolved a bit in that time.
And he has a lot of Republicans that have private come to his support so that maybe why ABC believed they can move through this and not have a Brian Williams type of situation on this.
WHITFIELD: Right, but what's interesting here is that there are circuls who argue, wait a minute, is he a journalist because he didn't come up as a reporter, as a journalist. He was an analyst. He worked for the Clinton White House then became an analyst and then suddenly a news man that ABC selected to eventually become the faith of the network.
So you have to wonder what is that stake for ABC as a network, yes, they've stood by him so far. They've come out with a statement or two, but if it does nothing more than that, isn't that potentially damaging for the network?
STELTER: I view it as a forever story among some people. In some cases among conservative critics who want to use this against Stephanopoulos for a long time, but I think you're raising an important point, which is this large issue of trust in media.
Whether you are on the left or the right or you're on the middle or you don't care, you want to be able to trust the people that are reading the news to you and delivering the news to you on television.
And certainly in Stephanopoulos' case, he's supposed to be the man, who announces the next president. He'll be the main anchor on election night in 2016.
If in ABC's research and if in their polling, they start to see that Stephanopoulos has taken a hit on his credibility then we could maybe see them change in their support for him.
[14:50:07] We did see that happen with Williams, NBC was certainly out there doing market research, putting their finger in there a little bit to see how the public was reacting.
And they saw that Williams did take a massive hit to his credibility. But that was a very, very different case, and of course, the case got a lot more attention than this case has gotten, so they're probably not comparable.
WHITFIELD: OK, well, I don't know, two networks, two leading news mans -- men -- two leading news men -- right, but now the network has big problems and a lot to consider to allow him to continue on.
STELTER: There are so many great charities to donate to, but if you're George Stephanopoulos and you have millions of dollars to give away, why the Clinton Foundation? That's the baffling part of all this.
WHITFIELD: All right, Brian Stelter, thanks very much. I know we'll be talking about this further. It ain't over yet.
All right, up next, why some towns across America are preparing for what they call rolling bombs passing through their communities.
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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There is a new list of America's wheeziest and sneeziest cities, and it takes into account not just Poland, but also ozone because both of those things can make it very difficult for people to breathe.
Coming in at number 5, Chattanooga, Tennessee, then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then Memphis, and the number one sneeziest, wheeziest city in the United States is Richmond, Virginia.
But there is sneezing and wheezing going on at more places than just those five cities. Take a look at this map. What you see in green means there's high levels of ragweed pollen.
What you see in red is high levels of ozone, and brown means relatively high levels of both ragweed and ozone. Now there are medicines to take when you're wheezing and sneezing.
[14:55:12] And there are also some tips that we can give you. You can put your air conditioner on recirculate. That can help keep the air clean. Also, keep your windows closed, change clothes after being outdoors.
Also, wash your hair. Your hair can become a collector of pollen, and do strenuous outdoor activities in the morning when ozone layers tend to be lower.
A Natural Resources Defense Council says there is a pretty good chance that you live in one of these sneezy, wheezy areas. One in three Americans they say live in areas with high pollen counts and high ozone.
WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. The crash of the Amtrak train in Philadelphia has brought train safety into the international conversation. As investigators figure out what happened in Philadelphia, there is another potential danger on the rails that could impact you.
Tanker cars carrying a highly flammable type of oil are crisscrossing the country and there have been nearly a dozen fiery accidents since the beginning of last year. Here now is CNN's Drew Griffin.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): Every day thousands of rail cars carrying tanker after tanker, volatile crude oil, roll through America's cities and town. When accidents happen, they can be devastating.
In February near Mt. Vernon, West Virginia, a train carrying 107 tanker cars filled with crude oil from North Dakota derails. The oil cars split open and a fireball erupts. Miraculously, there was only one injured.
MELANIE COST, CSX SPOKESWOMAN: The best thing right now is to let the fires burn out for safety reasons.
GRIFFIN: In 2013, a small community in Quebec was not so lucky. An oil train broke free, rolled into town, derailed and exploded -- 47 dead.
KAREN DARCH, BARRINGTON VILLAGE PRESIDENT: I had the chance to visit and noticed how similar the town was in many respects to my own village.
GRIFFIN: Karen Darch is village president of Barrington, Illinois. It's supposed to be one of those upscale suburban Chicago communities where the biggest headache is the commute downtown. In the last few years, a much bigger headache has rolled into town. The boom in domestic production of oil has led to more trains, more oil, more potential danger rolling right through Barrington.
DARCH: We don't know on any given day what could happen any given night. We have 10 percent of our homes within 300 feet of the tracks. We have a high school with 3,000 students, a few blocks away, from our freight track.
GRIFFIN: Darch lives right near the tracks and what she and her town are preparing for are what are commonly being known as rolling bombs. It is an issue that has plagued small towns in increasing numbers.
In the last two years, there have been ten accidents with trains carrying oil in places like Alyceville, Alabama, Castleton, North Dakota, Lynchburg, Virginia. The problem magnified by the sheer volume of oil now rolling across the U.S.
In 2008, less than 10,000 carloads of crude oil were carried on American railroads. That's all across the country. Last year that number was close to half a million in Barrington, they don't need statistics to tell you that.
A few years ago, this rail line barely saw two trains a day. In 2008, the domestic oil boom hit, the rail line was sold to Canadian National and the trains began to roll.
DARCH: It is a huge danger if they breach, if there is a derailment in the heart of my town and there is a breach of those tank cars, there can be a plume of flame high into the sky, and if cars rupture and oil burns, there will be a lot of destruction in the center of town.
GRIFFIN: The response from the government so far demands better tank cars, sturdier, newer, supposedly less prone to explode, but the cars that exploded in West Virginia were new. They still split open and erupted in flames. The cause of that derailment is still under investigation.
Briggen Maggao (ph), who used to run the government's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration says it's not the oil tanker that's the problem, it's the railroads that carry them.
BRIGHAM MCCOWN, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR, PIPELINE AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS AGENCY: The focus really needs to swing back around to the railroads and say, look, you guys have to keep these cars on the tracks. It's that simple.
GRIFFIN: Government statistics for the most recent year show that after human error, derailments are caused by one reason, bad railroad tracks. Something the American Association of Railroad says they're determined to improve.
JANICE REILLY, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RAILROADS: We have invested billions of dollars and we're going to continue to invest billions of dollars for the necessary infrastructure to move this commodity safely.
[15:00:10] GRIFFIN: But just like improving rail tanker cars, improving the tracks come with federal standards that are basically left up to the railroads to comply. No real government authority, says the former government administrator. And no real proof any of this is getting any better.
Which leaves towns like Barrington, Illinois, at a dangerous crossroads.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Barrington, Illinois.
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WHITFIELD: So much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM and it all starts right now.
