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Takata Issues Largest Auto Recall Ever; Biker's Run-Over Foot May Have Sparked Gunfire; North Korea Cancels Visit by U.N. Chief; Critics: No U.S. Plan After Fall of Ramadi?; Does White House Have a Plan to Stop ISIS?; Los Angeles Votes for $15/Hour Min. Wage; Bernie Sanders: Clinton Wealth "A Problem". Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 20, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:02] KIM KOPF, SISTER KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT INVOLVING TAKATA AIRBAG: And I'm not surprised by the numbers.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: One out of seven cars on the road. That's mind-boggling to me.

KOPF: Yes. It's a lot. And I knew at the time when they were talking about the replacement bags that it could take them a long time to get those manufactured. And it's a big process. But it needs to have happened.

COSTELLO: Tell us what happened to your sister.

KOPF: She was a passenger in a -- Nissan and in an accident that had the airbag deployed and it came out and it hit her and cracked her skull, and as a result of the neuro trauma a few days later she died from those injuries.

COSTELLO: What would you suggest people do if they have a car that's affected by a Takata airbag?

KOPF: Goodness. You know, there aren't enough airbags for recalls right now. They're behind in the replacements. You can take so many precautions but you have to drive your car. It's a Catch-22. You need your car but you also need to be safe in your car. So you can do as much as you can but there are things out of your control as her accident was. And you know, it's really sad that we're in this situation that we're in.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Because even if you go to this Web site and you find out your car is affected, it's likely that your local dealership won't have the right airbag to replace it because Takata can't make the new ones fast enough.

KOPF: Correct.

COSTELLO: Kim Kopf, thanks for --

KOPF: Yes.

COSTELLO: Kim Kopf, thanks for sharing your story. I appreciate it. Also in the news this morning, police in Waco, Texas, are trying to

figure out what caused Sunday's parking lot blood bath that left nine people dead and 170 people in custody. Police say it all started when an uninvited biker gang showed up at the parking lot and one of the bikers got his foot run over. Seriously. That's what police are saying started this whole thing.

Let's find out more from Nick Valencia. He's in Waco this morning.

Good morning, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. A new development breaking overnight. One of those biker gangs involved in Sunday's incident was planning on having a weekend event but that has since been canceled on the suggestion of the local sheriff who's expected to take place about two hours outside of Waco with more than 300 bikers to be in attendance. That will no longer happen.

Also police saying this morning that three men are taken back into custody. Jim Harris, Juan Garcia and Drew King. Police say they were among the first arrested on Sunday, originally charged with $50,000 bond. They were -- they posted that bond. Police wanted them back in custody held on a million dollar bond now. They got them back into custody with the help of the U.S. Marshal Service.

Meanwhile, here back at the strip mall, things steadily creeping back to normal. Yesterday we saw police remove some of the remaining vehicles and motorcycles that were still here after Sunday's shootout.

In some cases, Carol, they had to break into some of the cars and remove weapons from some of those cars. Today, though, they are planning on reopening this strip mall. We've already seen some of the businesses reopen for the first time since Sunday -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Valencia reporting live from Waco, Texas, this morning.

Also this morning, North Korea causes a collective shutter around the world by claiming a technical breakthrough that ratchets up its nuclear threat. The secretive nation now says it has created nuclear warheads small enough for missiles, meaning the U.S. and much of the world would be within striking distance.

CNN's Will Ripley is in Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: North Korea continues to ramp up the military rhetoric that we saw when we were on the ground in Pyongyang. While we were in North Korea just this month, the country boasted about launching a missile from a submarine. Of course publicity photos of that event were later suspected of being doctored which raises the question of credibility.

Is Pyongyang embellishing the technology that they have in hand right now or do they truly have the capability to miniaturize nuclear weapons, in other words to make them small enough to place them on some sort of missile and launch them towards an enemy such as the United States.

The Pentagon is certainly taking this threat seriously, even saying as recently as last month they do believe North Korea has this kind of technology and if that is the case, not only does it pose a threat and a grave concern to the United States but also other powers in the Asia Pacific region -- China, India, Japan, South Korea. All within gunshot of North Korea and nervous any time this militarized nation announces yet another development in its military technology.

North Korea spends a tremendous amount of money developing its nuclear program often at the expense of feeding its own people and while they say they want to connect more with the international community, they took another step toward isolation when Pyongyang abruptly canceled a scheduled visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kim-Moon to the Kaesong industrial complex.

[10:05:01] It would have been the first visit of its kind in some 20 years. Secretary-general was hoping to discuss reunification but instead North Korea cut that trip off and made an announcement about another development in their nuclear program further isolating this rogue nation.

Will Ripley, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Just a few hours ago the National Security Council spokesman Patrick Ventrell responded to North Korea's nuclear claims by saying this, quote, "We do not think that they have that capacity, however, they are working on developing a number of long-range missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that could eventually threaten our allies and the homeland. That's why the administration is working to improve regional and homeland missile defenses, and continuing to work with other members of the six-party talks to bring North Korea back into compliance," end quote. We'll keep you posted.

Onto Iraq now, new gains by ISIS and new concerns for the U.S. strategy there. Washington says it's looking at ways to support Iraqi forces in recapturing Ramadi. The city is just 70 miles from Baghdad and this morning militants are marching eastward. They are trying to capture new cities as stepping stones toward the capital.

The U.S. says it will not mobilize special forces to enter the battlefield but could be willing to step up the training and arming of local tribes. That's drawing howls from critics who accuse the White House of a half-hearted response.

Let's bring in our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns to tell us more.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Administration official are saying there's no major change of approach on the way the United States deals with this after the fall of Ramadi. But what we have seen is an increase in tempo. Airstrikes in and around Ramadi are expected to continue.

Also the administration has expressed some new support of plans by the Iraqi government to finally put some fresh intention behind efforts to bring the Sunni tribesmen in the area into the fight for Ramadi, along with Iraq's largely Shia security units. That would mean accelerated recruiting, training and arming of the tribesmen.

The Iraqi Council of Ministers announced this plan within the last 24 hours. This is critical because the danger is if the tribesmen aren't fighting with the Iraqi forces, they might switch sides and join ISIS. The U.S. says it is now helping Iraqis consolidate forces and hold eastward lines which is important because Ramadi is so close to Baghdad.

Really a continuation of U.S. policy which calls on Iraq to solve Iraq's problems. White House press secretary Josh Earnest addressed this during a briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there's a setback in the campaign against ISIL or are we going to take very seriously our responsibility to evaluate those areas where we succeed and evaluate where steps are necessary for us to change our strategy where we've sustained setbacks?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: But the administration's critics are saying this is not enough. House Speaker John Boehner has said flatly that the administration's plan is not working, even some Democrats are questioning where it's headed. The administration, including Secretary of State John Kerry, continues to say the ISIS victory in Ramadi will be reversed in the coming days -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll see. Joe Johns reporting live from Washington this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as you heard Joe say the Secretary of State John Kerry says he is confident that we can turn this Ramadi situation around. Is he right? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:12:04] COSTELLO: As ISIS captures another town just 70 miles from Baghdad, the White House comes under fire. Why is it not stepping up its strategy to beat back the militants' advance?

With me now to talk about that is Michael Weiss, a CNN contributor and co-author of the book, "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Welcome, Michael, and thanks for being here. MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Sure.

COSTELLO: So the secretary of state, John Kerry, says he's absolutely confident the ISIS victory in Ramadi will be reversed in the days ahead. That's what he said.

Here's how the former CIA-NSA director Michael Hayden responded. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: I actually think the secretary of state's comments have no foundation in reality. I don't think the Iraqi government will be able to mount a force. Any time in the foreseeable future to recapture the town. It could even be worse than that.

If they do recapture the town they're almost certainly going use Shia militia as the spearhead, as the bulk of the force they use to take over an overwhelmingly Sunni town. That's not a solution. That's actually part of the problem. And will make the situation even worse over the long-term. So I agree with Secretary Gates, politically, psychically and militarily, it's a very serious thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, Michael, help us out here. Who is right?

WEISS: I think Michael Hayden is right. I'm absolutely terrified that John Kerry is so sanguine about the prospect of recapturing Ramadi. Ramadi is, in addition to Mosul, the most difficult, strategic and military challenge facing the coalition and the Iraqi government. This is not going to be like Tikrit. This is not going to be like towns in Diyalah Province which are mixed.

This -- we're talking about the sort of geostrategic center of gravity in Iraq, Al Anbar Province. The fact that ISIS now controls the provincial capital of that, to my mind, this is the de facto partition of the country.

Regaining it, as Michael Hayden said, will be -- this is an effort. Let's put away all illusions here. The Pentagon is going to say, we're working with the ISF, the Iraqi Security Forces, and a multi- sectarian, multi-ethnic endeavor. This is nonsense. OK. The main actor on the ground militarily and even politically now is the Hashd al-Shaabi, Popular Mobilization Units. This is an Iranian backed consortium of Shia militias.

According to the United Nations, when they come in to a town after having booted ISIS out, they leave in their path, and I'm quoting, "a trail of death and destruction." That does not sound like a very cuddly or friendly actor much less a viable partner for the United States.

COSTELLO: So is Iraq essentially gone as we know it? WEISS: I have very, very pessimistic views of the future of this

country and indeed the future of this strategy and this war. I think the American people are not being told the truth about what is at stake and what is going to be -- what is entailed in actually degrading and ultimately destroying ISIS.

What I am seeing is this sort of creeping march toward a kind of U.S. intervention without the acknowledgment of effect. So there will be more U.S. soldiers, there will be more JSOC style raids like the one that killed Abu Sayyaf last weekend but you know, we have to be honest about what we're facing here. You know, the idea that we're winning this war, this is false.

[10:15:07] It reminds me nothing so much, by the way, of what the Bush administration's Defense Department was saying in the early days of the Iraq occupation. Remember, the death rows of the insurgency? By the way, just to add an even more depressing cast to this conversation, ISIS isn't the only insurgency group in Iraq. There are other Sunni militias and Sunni insurgents that are partnering with them.

COSTELLO: OK.

WEISS: How did they take Ramadi? They had sleeper cells in the city that had cultivated the local population and turned the tide in ISIS' favor before they even sent their convoys in.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about what can be done. You heard Senator Lindsey Graham the other day, he said we need to send in 10,000 American troops. George Pataki came out and said something similar. Let's listen.

WEISS: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE PATAKI (R), FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: I would not be adverse to putting American boots on the ground to destroy their training centers and planning centers. I don't want us to put in a million soldiers, spend 10 years, a trillion dollars trying to create a democracy where one hasn't existed. But send in troops. Destroy their training centers, destroy their recruitment centers.

Destroy the area where they are looking to plan to attack us here and then get out and leave a little note behind. You come back, so will we. No 10-year war. No massive casualties. Protect American lives before we get attacked here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It sounds so simple, right?

WEISS: Look, let me not offer a prescription, just an analysis. The way the tide was turned in Iraq in 2006, 2007, 2008. We talk about the surge. What the surge really was about was solidifying gains that had been made at the political level in the country. The so-called Sunni awakening.

Where did it get started, by the way? Ramadi. The city that now belongs to ISIS. How did it get started? Sunni tribal sheikhs and its tribal leaders essentially got so disgusted and disillusioned with Al Qaeda in Iraq which is ISIS' predecessor. They had partnered with them and they were acquiesce to their rule that they became so disgusted led by them that they turned against them and they begged the United States for weapons.

They begged the United States for weapons knowing that the U.S. military doesn't go about ethnically cleansing or won't conduct sectarian retaliatory violence against those Sunnis. There is no such actor on the ground in Iraq today. There is no 101st Airborne. There's no First Division. There is no American military presence. This is the sort of Hobson's Choice facing the country.

Who do you rely with? And this is the reason Sunnis have not, in any kind of grassroots or groundswell manner, risen up against ISIS. You know, this is game of political pragmatism for them.

COSTELLO: I have to leave it there. Michael Weiss, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

WEISS: Sure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a history making vote in Los Angeles. The city looking to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:21:11] COSTELLO: Los Angeles makes history after voting to raise its minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour by 2020. The minimum wage there now is $9 an hour. Los Angeles joins other big cities across the country including Seattle and San Francisco and raising that minimum wage.

The $15 is more than double that of the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has not budged since 2009. And Congress really isn't doing much about that. On top of that, Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are pushing for a raise of their own. After all they live in one big expensive city. No, not Los Angeles. Washington D.C.

CNN's Samuel Burke is here to break down the numbers. Good morning.

SAMUEL BURKE: Well, if you look at Los Angeles, they are looking to increase the minimum wage 67 percent over a number of years until 2020. So it's basically going up a dollar a year. But interesting -- there you go. You see it starts in 2016 all the way to 2020 where it's going to be $15. But it's interesting you mentioned the federal minimum wage. Of course President Obama has pushed for it to be pushed up but that hasn't happened.

Then we have members of Congress pushing for a raise. Alcee Hastings, the representative from Florida, has been pushing for Congress to make more. In all fairness to him, he's also pushing for a federal minimum wage to be increased. He says he doesn't want as many wealthy people serving in Congress, that people who don't make as much should be able to serve.

But I just did a little bit of the math. So let's just start with minimum wage right now in the United States. It's $7.25. So if you take out your phones and start doing $7.25 times 40 hours a week times 52 weeks, you get $15,000 a year. That's not including taxes and that's zero time off.

So I want you to do the same for Congress. So if you take $174,000 a year --

COSTELLO: That's how much every single member of the House of Representatives makes.

BURKE: That's how much they make. Yes.

COSTELLO: $174,000.

BURKE: $174,000. The speaker makes a bit more. But anyway, divide that by 2,080 hours because of course again 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. So I was a congressional page in high school. And I can assure you they don't work 52 weeks a year. But if you do all that math, you get to $84 an hour. That's how much congressmen make right now and congresswomen compared to 7.25 minimum wage.

COSTELLO: OK. So what's to become of this? Because I know that Congress hasn't had a raise for two years because the economy was bad.

BURKE: That's right.

COSTELLO: It looked bad. So there was a freeze in wages.

BURKE: There has been a freeze in wages much like there's been a freeze with the minimum wage since 2010. Well, yesterday they voted. And it doesn't look like anything is going to happen. They're going to stick with the pay. The $174,000.

For now it's interesting. I want to show you the wealthiest members of the House of Representatives. Take a look at this.

COSTELLO: Just for kicks.

BURKE: Just for kicks. Let's start with Representative Darrell Issa. A net worth of $357 million for the congressman from California. Then we have the congressman from Texas there. Number two in the House with near $117 million. And then John DeLaney from Maryland, Democrat, $111 million.

The median worth of Congress, the median net worth, over $1 million. The majority of them are millionaires. The majority here in the United States, the median net worth of a household $56,000. They'll be OK without the raise. But he makes a point that he wants not just the wealthy to be able to serve in congress.

COSTELLO: Yes. Because you have to keep two homes. In fairness, you have to keep a home in Washington, D.C. and then wherever your district is, right? I mean, if you have a family, that's tough. And I get it. But I think most Americans would look at that $174,000 per year --

BURKE: $84 an hour. Not bad.

COSTELLO: Samuel Burke, many thanks. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders slams Hillary Clinton. Up next, why he says her wealth is a problem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. The race for the White House already heating up. Presidential candidate senator Bernie Sanders taking aim at his competition, Hillary Clinton.

Sanders, who was made income inequality a center point of his campaign said the Clinton's wealth is a problem when asked about how they made more than $30 million since 2014.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it's a problem with the more serious problem with what do we do about grotesque level of income inequality in America today. So what do you have to do? What we need to do is create millions of decent paying jobs why we're building. What you need to do is say to the wealthiest people in largest corporations, you know what, you're going to have to start paying your fair share of Taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Do help while criticism on the Clintons, 's going to keep giving speeches, do help quote, "pay the bills." Let's bring stash of cash when former President Bill Clinton says he is going to keep giving speeches to help, quote, "pay the bills."

Let's bring in CNN politics reporter Sara Murray. She's in Washington with more on this.

Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Hi, Carol. Thanks for having me. I do think it's tone deaf comments like that one from Bill Clinton that are going to make this so much harder for Hillary. When you see Bernie Sanders, when you see Elizabeth Warren who isn't even in this need, they clearly want to push Hillary Clinton further to the left. They want to make this an election about income inequality.

And so she's going to have to find a better way to sort of answer these questions about her wealth.

Let's take a look at how she tried to diffuse this issue yesterday in Iowa.