Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

List of Hastert Accusers Grows; Bonfires & Protests Ahead of G7 Summit; Infant Deaths: Feds Investigate After CNN Report; Man Dies After Losing Consciousness in Police Van; Candidates Fight to Make Top 10 Debate Field; Duggar Scandal: Sisters Break Silence on Molestation. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired June 06, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:03] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: You know, there is so much to talk to you about this morning.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BLACKWELL: The Dennis Hastert scandal grows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think more than any of us will ever know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The Dennis Hastert scandal grows, at least three potential victims of sexual misconduct, millions in hush money. And we're going to tell you what we can expect when the former House speaker faces a judge in just a few days.

Plus --

PAUL: This is what President Obama is going to be confronted with when he heads to Germany tomorrow. Can he cut through the noise at the G7 summit to make progress on Russia, ISIS, and more?

BLACKWELL: And then, nine infants in need of life-saving open-heart surgery. All of them die. Now, a CNN report prompts a federal investigation.

PAUL: We're always so grateful for your company. Thanks for spending some time with us this Saturday morning.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

PAUL: We want to talk about these new accusations in a scandal involving Dennis Hastert this morning. CNN has learned that three people are now accusing the former House speaker of sexual abuse. Remember, Hastert was charged with bank fraud and lying to the FBI about his bank accounts. But that cash was allegedly hush money to keep at least one of his victims quiet.

So, now, we're learning new information from CNN sources that indicate there could be two other alleged victims here.

BLACKWELL: And the sister of one of the alleged victims is speaking out and explaining how she learned of her brother's abuse by Hastert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOLENE BURDGE, SISTER OF STEVE REINBOLDT: I asked him, "Stevie, when was your first same-sex experience?" I mean, he just looked at me and said, "It was with Dennis Hastert." And I just -- I know I was stunned. I said, "Why didn't you ever tell anybody, Stevie? I mean, he was your teacher? Why don't you ever tell anybody?" He just looked at me and said, "Who is ever going to believe me?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us now with more about these three accusers.

Polo, what have you learned?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christi and Victor, good morning.

You know, there are so many parts to this story. So let's try to put all the parts and pieces together here. Keep in mind, there are three alleged victims of Dennis Hastert so far. There's so-called individual A that's named in that federal criminal complaint that was released last weekend. And then there's also a person that CNN sources say was contacted by the FBI, and then there is Steven Reinboldt.

Now, he died in the mid '90s. So, his sister is coming forward for him. Jolene Burdge telling ABC News that her brother opened up to her in the late '70s, saying that he was gay, and as you just heard, that he had sexual contact with Dennis Hastert in the late '60s and '70s.

Now, back then, Hastert was a teacher. He was also a coach in Yorkville, Illinois, for a wrestling team. Reinboldt was actually a high school student and the equipment manager for the team.

Now, Burdge saying he kept the secret to himself, and came forward with the accusations against the man who, keep in mind, was very powerful. At one point, was even in second line for the American presidency. Nobody would believe him.

However, we do know that once Reinboldt died of AIDS in the mid '90s, that Burdge actually came forward and even confronted Hastert at one point during the funeral of her brother.

And this is how she says that day played out in 1995. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BURDGE: I just looked at him and I said, I want to know why you did what you did to my brother. He just stood there and stared at me and I continued to say, I want you to know that your secret didn't die in there with my brother and I want you to remember that I'm out here and that I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: So, really, one can only imagine what that reported confrontation was like. At this point, Hastert has not responded to any repeated request for comment. However, he did deny these allegations when they initially surfaced back in 2006. So, now, the main question here, Christie and Victor, what will he say on Tuesday when he appears in court for his initial court appearance on these federal charges. Will he break his silence in some way? Guys?

BLACKWELL: All right. Polo Sandoval, reporting for us this morning -- Polo, thank you so much.

SANDOVAL: You bet.

PAUL: Meanwhile, President Obama is going to be in Wilmington, Delaware, this morning for the funeral mass for Beau Biden. He will deliver the eulogy, in fact, for Vice President Joe Biden's son. Beau Biden died a week ago after a battle with brain cancer, and you know, this is poignant moments we've been seeing. Joe Biden here wiping away his granddaughter's tears as the body of his son lay in honor there at the legislative hall in Dover.

Thousands of people gathered outside St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, where the funeral is going to be held today to pay respects to Delaware's former attorney general.

[07:05:04] They say Beau Biden cared about everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Biden family is an icon here in Delaware. We're here to pay our respects, not just to a great person, but a great family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anybody that wanted to talk to Beau, he took time to talk to you and listen to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is in Wilmington.

I know the funeral mass begins in just about three and a half hours. But I'm sure that a lot of people are sharing some really good memories. I remember seeing a couple of headlines saying "We are all Bidens" today.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You do feel, Christie, the sense in this community and the line is starting to form on the other side of this church. The funeral today really caps an emotional three days worth of ceremonies where you could really just see the agony on the faces of the Biden family members.

It was this moment from the governor of Delaware that caused the vice president to get choked up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JACK MARKELL (D), DELAWARE: Beau had an extraordinary heart. And from that heart, he lived a life that is a model for us all. A model for what a husband should be. His love for Hallie was a source of joy to him and an example to all of us. A model for what a father should be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And the country, of course, hasn't been through something like this in quite some time, seeing an active sitting president so visibly distressed, losing a child. The vice president at times visibly shaken.

PAUL: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Well, after that funeral mass, President Obama will leave for Germany to attend the G7 Summit tomorrow. And this is what he may be greeted with -- thousands of protesters. They're on the streets demonstrating against the gathering of world leaders. They say the global leaders have failed to act on pressing issues.

Listen to part of CNN's international correspondent Karl Penhaul's report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is one of those demonstrations that really needs no explanation. It's against military spending, against the military buildup of NATO, and as you can imagine, that is hot as hell now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Karl joins us now from Berlin. And, Karl, is that the singular message from these protesters, or are there a myriad of reasons that they're there?

PENHAUL: Well, Victor and Christi, good morning.

I just want you to take a look around here right now. These are some of the thousands of anti-G7 protesters gathered here, hoping to give President Obama and other world leaders a very hostile reception. Why? Because they believe that the Group of Seven, the world's most industrialized, richest leaders are simply a club of elite fat cats dividing up world politics and world economies for their own benefits, not for the benefits of their citizens or for the benefits of the world community.

And so here, there are a lot of different groups, there are greens, there are anarchists, there are leftists of different stripes. They have a common dream, that of trying to create a better world. And beneath all that umbrella, there's a myriad of different ideas, how to fight world poverty, how to solve the refugee crisis, how to cut military spending and divert that to more social programs. So many different ideas, but they are all joined together, rejecting the ideas of the G7. Their idea is to try and shut down the G7, trying to stop it from happening.

Today is one of many demonstrations that they've been holding. And when those G7 leaders, including President Obama arrive tomorrow, these protesters say they will try and march on the castle where they're meeting and try and disrupt that meeting.

However, 17,000 police on duty to try and stop that happening, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Seventeen thousand in Berlin. Our thanks to Karl, thank you so much.

PAUL: Up next, the CNN report into the deaths of nine infants at a Florida hospital now prompts a federal investigation. Why did these babies die after surgery at this hospital?

BLACKWELL: Then, are there too many candidates to fit on a stage at one time? What's the key to cracking the top ten and earning a spot on the debate stage?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:12:32] PAUL: Twelve minutes after the hour.

And new this morning, after an investigation by CNN, a federal agency is now launching an inquiry into the West Palm Beach, Florida hospital, where at least nine babies have died after open-heart surgery. This has been since 2011, and includes nearly 2-month-old Davi Brandao who died this past Tuesday.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the investigation for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Davi Ricardo Brandao, born March 3rd. He died Tuesday. His mother posting on her Facebook page, "Luto", Portuguese for mourning.

Davi was born with a severe heart defect called truncus arteriosus, his mother says. Instead of having two main blood vessels coming out of his heart, Davi had only one. Nationally, 90 percent of babies survive the surgery to correct this defect. Davi's surgery in March didn't go as well as expected, his mother says, and so, he had a second surgery later that month.

In April, St. Mary's Medical Center told us the patient is recovering well and the prognosis is good. It's not known why Davi died.

What we do know is this -- last year an expert panel sent in by the state of Florida reviewed the St. Mary's program. The head of the team, Dr. Jeffrey Jacobs, advised St. Mary's to stop doing heart surgery on babies like Davi under 6 months old. But St. Mary's continued, saying that was just a recommendation, not a mandate.

Davi's now the ninth baby to die after heart surgery at St. Mary's since the program started at the end of 2011.

Amelia Campbell died in 2012 after heart surgery at St. Mary's. Her mother Nneka heard the news about Davi today.

NNEKA CAMPBELL, DAUGHTER DIED AFTER OPEN HEART SURGERY: I feel horrible. I feel saddened. I feel disgusted.

COHEN: She thinks St. Mary's is doing these lucrative surgeries for the money and wants them to stop.

CAMPBELL: How are you justifying this in your mind? I mean, what are you -- find something else to do. You're not good at this.

COHEN: Using data St. Mary's submitted to the state of Florida, CNN calculates that from 2011 through 2013, the program's mortality rate for pediatric open-heart surgeries was 12.5 percent. That's more than three times higher than the national average.

Safety experts say St. Mary's does too few pediatric heart surgeries, not getting enough practice to get good at them.

[07:15:04] The hospital's own data shows it undertook 27 pediatric open-heart surgeries in 2012, 20 in 2013, and just 18 last year.

DR. PETER PRONOVOST, SR. V.P. OF PATIENT SAFETY, JOHNS HOPKINS: These volumes are quite low. Practice makes perfect, or at least makes it better.

COHEN: St. Mary's disputes CNN's calculation of its mortality rate, but refuses to provide what it considers the correct death rate. In the letter to employees Tuesday, Carbone said, "Over the past year, our mortality rate has been consistent with national average and does not significantly exceed the mortality rate of other programs as the CNN story alleges."

But the hospital declined to provide CNN any evidence to support that claim. That leaves parents like these infuriated and grieving for their own babies and for the most recent baby who never left St. Mary's Medical Center following his surgeries.

(END VIDEOTAP)

COHEN: The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services is investigating this hospital. Most of the babies who have open surgery there are on Medicaid. We reached out to Tenet Healthcare, which owns St. Mary's, for a response to the federal inquiry. We did not hear back.

PAUL: You know, it's interesting, Elizabeth, we were talking during the story, that you found out about this from moms --

COHEN: Right, exactly.

PAUL: -- a network of mothers who said you need to check this out.

So, Joey, I want to bring in HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson with us.

How will a fed investigation affect these families?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure. Good morning, Christie. Good morning, Elizabeth. Excellent reporting on this.

The reality is this, is that there needs to be an investigation because of the fact that you have babies that are dying, and when you have babies that are dying at a rate which the report suggests is three times above the national average, something may be amiss. And so, the families at this point, you know, you're not going to get your child back, and that's horrific.

The question becomes, should they have been doing it in the first instance? Now, of course, there are civil measures Christi that is civil litigation, civil lawsuits for wrongful death, and as much as, was there medical malpractice? If so, should the company be compensated? But that does little. You want your child, you want your pride and joy. You want your life.

And so, it won't have the affect on these families. Unfortunately, it could have perhaps the findings for their civil litigation. I think the real issue, Christi, is for the future. Should they be doing this? Do they have the competence? Do they have the facilities? Do they have the wherewithal?

And if they don't, and are they doing it for the motivation of money? I mean, it's obviously very lucrative. Half a million dollars, that certainly would provide an incentive. But if they don't belong in the business, they should not be. So I think the real people affected will be the people who would not go to this hospital because of what's happening to their children when they bring them there.

PAUL: OK. And just to reiterate the point here, Elizabeth, we were talking about the sound from that mother who said basically that you're not good at this. Do something else. This was one doctor. All of these babies were at the hands of one doctor there?

COHEN: Correct. They only have one pediatric heart surgeon at St. Mary's.

But I want to emphasize this, because surgeons emphasized this to me. They say it's a team effort. So not only do you have to have a doctor who is good at this and who does it a lot, so as the doctor said, practice makes perfect. You need a whole team. So, you need nurses who do this a lot, anesthesiologists who do this frequently, perfusionists while the baby is on the bypass machine.

So, it's team effort and the concern here is that when you're doing 18 open-heart surgeries in a year, you're just not getting that much practice.

PAUL: Yes. But I know that parents are looking at this saying, how do I know if a doctor is qualified?

COHEN: You know what? You ask about the institution's experience with it. So you go in and you say how many times have you done my daughter's surgery? The surgery that she needs, how many times have you done it? Don't take oh, we do it a lot. We do it frequently. And that's what a lot of parents tell me --

PAUL: You can ask for hard numbers?

COHEN: You ask for hard numbers, because you know what, a little bit less than half of hospitals, they'll put their numbers right on their Web sites. And if you go to a hospital and they don't have their numbers on their Web sites --

PAUL: That should be a red flag?

COHEN: That should be a red flag. They should be proud of their numbers. They should be putting their numbers out there. St. Mary's doesn't put their numbers out there. It's not on their Web site. They don't publicly report.

The parents I talked to, when they asked for hard numbers, they were given adjectives instead. We do a lot, we do many. We're good at this. We're experienced at this.

You want data. Your baby deserves data.

PAUL: Your baby deserves data. Oh my gosh, what a great reminder. That's something we have to burn into our brain.

COHEN: Absolutely.

PAUL: A baby deserves data.

Real quickly, Joey, I just wanted to ask you, what kind of recourse -- we only have about 30 seconds here -- but recourse for the families?

JACKSON: Sure, Christi. Again, the recourse of the families will be really civil litigation. Unfortunately, that's all our system of justice can do is provide money. But that's insufficient. I think the federal investigation will really look at whether they should be doing them, and if not, looking at cutting off the Medicaid funding so that it's not certainly a business that they're doing just to make money and not to assist those families in need whose babies need care, Christi.

[07:20:05] PAUL: All righty. Joey Jackson, Elizabeth Cohen -- he is right. Great reporting. Thank you so much.

COHEN: Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you both so much.

JACKSON: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Up next, tracking a terror suspect. The man who allegedly plans to behead an activist, then go after cops had been on the FBI's radar for years, and the suspect knew it.

Then, an eight-minute trip in a police transport van for a different man goes horribly wrong. This man goes into the van, he appears to be healthy, but when he arrives at the other end of his trip, he's unresponsive, then slips into a coma and later dies. His friends and family, they want to know what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Twenty-four minutes after the hour now.

New this morning, we're getting new details about the Boston beheading terror plot and a third individual who met with the suspect Usaama Rahim just two days before Rahim was shot and killed by police. Now, this third individual is being called an individual of interest. He's been taken in for questioning and investigators have searched his home. We're also learning the surveillance video of Rahim's shooting will be released to the public. Authorities say that will happen soon.

CNN's Alexandra Field reports the FBI had been tracking Rahim for years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESONDENT: Usaama Rahim, monitored for years by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Now evidence he suspected he was contacted by the FBI as early as 2012.

Under the Abdul Rahim al-Amreeki, law enforcement officials say the 26-year-old wrote this on Facebook, "Damn FBI calling my phone."

[07:25:03] "He wanted to meet up with me and talk. Ha, I said, about what?" "He said, 'Sir, we have some allegations regarding you. I came by your house a few times but kept missing you.'"

The FBI isn't commenting on the post written three years ago. This week, court documents revealed Rahim had purchased three knives and told an associate, I'm just going to go after them, those boys in blue. Police approached Rahim in the parking lot of a CVS on Tuesday, shooting him after they say he lunged at them with a knife. The deadly shots fired on the day they feared he would attack.

INSTISAR RABB, FAMILY ATTORNEY: What the family very much is very much is interested having be a full and fair investigation and fully transparent investigation.

FIELD: Rahim's body was taken for burial following a well-attended funeral prayer service. His family is now asking for privacy.

IMAM IBRAHIM RAHIM, BROTHER OF USAAMAH RAHIM: We just need some time to continue the bereavement process today.

FIELD: But the imam who left parts of the funeral service is speaking out. ABDULLAH FARUQ, IMAM: I want to apologize, number one. I want to

apologize because I'm not trying to condemn the police. I do not want to blame the officials or to incite any distrust or hatred.

FIELD: The imam issuing that apology a day after he sharply criticized the police takedown of a long-watched terror suspect, calling their actions poorly constructed, ill-conceived, and reckless.

FARUQ: I ask that God overlook the shortcomings of the people who continue to exist that murdered the young man.

FIELD: Alexandra Field, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right. Our thanks to Alexandra.

Up next, a man in police custody slips into a coma and then dies after a ride in a police transport van. His relatives and his friends want to know what went wrong during this really short trip.

PAUL: Plus, two of the Duggar girls defending their big brother. Yes, the one accused of molesting them. Why they say they need to set the record straight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Mortgage rates inched up this week. Here's your look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: A Florida man died this week after being transported in a police van, but his story isn't making the kind of headlines that a lot of people say we saw with a Baltimore man, Freddie Gray, of course, who also died after being transported back in April.

Mitchell Martinez took just an eight-minute ride from court to the jail, but when police took him out of the van, he was unconscious.

Our Nick Valencia is following this story.

So, you know, first of all, why was he arrested? Because that's the first thing we have to get out there. Because that is different than the Freddie Gray situation in term of the fact that there was definitely no question about the fact that he was in custody.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He was adjudicated. He was arrested based on a parole violation related to a 2013 case where he was accused of running someone off the road. His family says he was just trying to clear his name.

And when they heard about his death, they immediately thought of Baltimore and what happened to Freddie Gray. They say they're planning on launching their own independent autopsy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VALENCIA (voice-over): From a courtroom to a coma in a matter of hours. Last week, Michelle Martinez got into a jail transport van in Vero Beach, Florida. About three miles and eight minutes later, the 35-year-old is in cardiac arrest. He dies four days later.

SHERIFF DERYL LOAR, INDIAN RIVER COUNTY: Upon him entering the van showed zero signs of distress.

VALENCIA: At a press conference on Monday, the Indian River sheriff said there was nothing out of the ordinary about the transfer. He defended his officer's actions.

LOAR: He was segregated into a separate -- if you will call it a cell, you could call it a cell within the van. There was absolutely no indications of anything unusual. There was very light traffic. There were no detours. No stops.

VALENCIA: According to the sheriff's office, there were seven other inmates who were in the van. None of them heard or saw anything.

LOAR: There was no other inmates that could touch him. No officers that could touch him.

VALENCIA: When asked about jail transport protocol, a spokesman for the Indian River sheriff's office told CNN, "We offer the inmates the opportunity to either buckle themselves up, or if they need assistance, we can buckle them in." He says the inmates are "not required to be buckled."

On a memorial Facebook page for Martinez, speculation swirls, specifically how did he end up with these red marks on his neck? Friends also curious about why the video freezes here.

What do you believe in your heart happened?

RYAN MONTO: I believe foul play.

VALENCIA: Ryan Monto has known Martinez since high school. Brad, as he called him, was supposed to be the best man at his upcoming wedding.

MONTO: Brad's been in good health for 27 years and all of a sudden, he has this -- he's dead in eight minutes for no reason. I mean, it's kind of quick and abrupt. It's just a shock for everybody that knows him.

VALENCIA: For Martinez's friends and family, the circumstances surrounding his death don't add up. They say Martinez was burdened by his court date last week, wanting only to clear his name. Now after his death, the family says, it may be the Indian River sheriff's office that's going to have to clear theirs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Family and friends I spoke to very curious about those two red marks on Brad Martinez's neck. They also wonder why the video that you watch in that report, why it froze the moment that Brad Martinez got into the police van. They highlight that on the memorial Facebook page.

The official investigation we should mention is pending toxicology reports, so we'll be waiting on those, Victor and Christie.

PAUL: Very bizarre.

VALENCIA: Very bizarre.

PAUL: Nick, thank you so much.

VALENCIA: You got it. Thanks, guys.

BLACKWELL: So, as we mentioned, there are a lot of questions surrounding the death of Mitchell Brad Martinez. His friends called him Brad. And so, we've really just heard from law enforcement.

But let's bring in a friend of Martinez. We've got Kevin Lyons joining us now via Skype.

Kevin, thank you so much for joining us.

KEVIN LYONS, FRIEND OF MITCHELL "BRAD" MARTINEZ: Thank you for having us.

BLACKWELL: I wanted to start with maybe some medical concerns. Was he a healthy person? Were there any medical reasons that would have contributed to his death that you know of?

LYONS: Brad was always happy, always healthy, always on top of his game.

[07:35:04] He literally had an infectious smile. He was a brilliant man. He had an incredible mind. He was a specialized machinery engineer. And so he was one of only three in the state of Florida that could do his job.

BLACKWELL: So, there was an autopsy on Thursday -- I hate to jump in here, but the autopsy on Thursday, we're waiting for the results of that, and the toxicology report. You believe that there will be nothing that shows at least from what you know of Mr. Martinez that shows that there was some preexisting condition that led to his death after being in that police van?

LYONS: There was no preexisting issues. When he was in the courthouse, dealing with going back to jail, he had no marks on his neck, according to his mother and other people that had seen him.

From the point of where he goes to jail and goes into court is where we have the issues. There's a minute and ten seconds of the video where he goes to step into the van and the video freezes for some reason, even though they say that it's motion detected. From that minute and ten seconds, then there's another eight minutes that we deal with the inmates, for them transporting them to the jail. Then we have another five minutes from wherever they unload them. So, there's a lot of time that's in between this and there's a lot of

time where it shows that these police officers had direct contact. I feel that the Sheriff Loar has stated that, you know, the investigation is still ongoing. But he seems to have already cleared all his deputies. He seemed to have cleared everybody else in the room except for the inmates and everybody else.

I feel that anybody that was in that room is a suspect and they should be taken care of. And --

BLACKWELL: Well, the sheriff here has said that he believes his deputies did nothing wrong, and as it relates to the marks on the neck, the sheriff -- and I watched the news conference. He said that he didn't have those when he was in their custody. I do want to ask you if you think that you're getting transparency from the sheriff's office. They have released the video of the -- from the courtroom, from the jail, and there has been a news conference in which he's taken questions.

Do you believe the sheriff is being transparent in this case?

LYONS: No. I don't. I feel that there's a couple of other issues coming from the past with the Sheriff Loar for him lying about --

BLACKWELL: Well, we want to keep it specific to this case. We don't want to besmirch the man's credibility here.

LYONS: I totally understand. We don't want to talk about hearsay.

BLACKWELL: I just want to keep it on this. Do you believe in in case he's being transparent and forthcoming with the information and details he has at the time?

LYONS: For what he has, no. I feel that there's some missing time on the records. I feel that there's some missing time on the videos. There's a couple of things -- there's a couple of things that are suspicious and the time that's missing and what we're looking for is just not clear.

BLACKWELL: Well, we will continue to ask questions in this case. We've run out of time for this segment, but I thank you so much for taking time to talk with us. Our Nick Valencia is on the story and we'll stay on it.

Kevin Lyons, thank you so much.

LYONS: Thank you.

PAUL: So, up next, presidential politics with a touch of the hunger games. That will make you watch, right?

BLACKWELL: That's a tease.

PAUL: One stage, only ten GOP candidates are going to make the cut. How are they going to determine that? Who's it going to be?

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of the stuff out there is lies. It's not true. And so for truth's sake, we want to come out and set the record straight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Two of the Duggar girls defend their big brother Josh. Why they say he was, quote, "just a little too curious about girls."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You may have heard the phrase sitting is the new smoking. A sedentary lifestyle could increase the risk of all sorts of diseases -- heart disease, diabetes, and even some cancers.

Well, now health authorities in the United Kingdom have come up with recommendations. They say that office workers should be on their feet at least two hours a day, standing, a little light walking, just not sitting. And they hope that people will actually get up to four hours a day.

So, one of the things you can do is get a standing desk, elevate your computer, and stand and move around a little while you work. And also, just take breaks. A little can go a long way, 15 minute here, 15 minutes there. Take a walk with a friend. Have a walking meeting. It's amazing how much you can get done.

But really, Mother Nature never intended us to sit for hours and hours at a time. So, don't do it. Move around as much as you can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:30] BLACKWELL: All right. GOP presidential candidates are on the clock with a little more than 60 days until the first debate. They want a spot in the top ten in national polls. Why?

Well, let's bring in Chris Moody.

Chris, CNN is holding two debates in September, one with the top ten, and a second debate with candidates receiving at least 1 percent in national polling.

Let's start with the top ten in the national CNN/ORC poll released on Tuesday. We've got Marco Rubio, leads a tight field here with 14 percent -- Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Chris Christie, and former governor George Pataki there. You got your top ten.

Then, you've got a second group that includes the winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2012 and the idea that he would not be in the first debate -- I mean, I would imagine that these candidates have a lot of work to do and potential candidates to try to get into the top ten.

CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS, SR. DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. Nothing is certain, of course. The names you see on the top, one of them could possibly be the nominee. But nothing is certain, but still death and taxes in presidential politics. Anything can change.

You look at 2007, the people leading the polls at this time, was Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, neither of them went on to be the nominee. In 2011, Sarah Palin was nipping at Mitt Romney's heels. So, lots can happen.

Look, when it comes to polling, people are being listed.

[07:45:02] A long list of names, and a lot of them are just picking the names they can recognize just because they're a little bit overwhelmed and I think you're going to start to see that weed out over the next several months.

BLACKWELL: So, we'll talk to you about the names people recognize. Let's say that -- there are people that expect Donald Trump might launch a campaign. And as "The New York Times" put it, few believe he'll follow through with an authentic presidential campaign. If he jumps in and bumps one of the other candidates, and then withdraws, I mean, I'd imagine the candidates would have a pretty solid case to call foul.

MOODY: Well, there's going to be I think a lot of outrage, not just from the candidates, but I think from a lot of political observers watching what's happening. Can you imagine being a longtime sitting governor or a congressman and senator, like Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses last year? There's going to be a big conversation if that is the case.

But again, anything could happen. These debates are incredibly important. They give candidates an opportunity to rise up in a way that they might not be able to if they don't have a lot of money. But as we have seen in past elections, people can rise up fairly quickly in these contests.

BLACKWELL: Yes, a good or in some cases a poor debate performance can change the campaign.

Chris Moody, thanks for joining us.

MOODY: Rick Perry.

BLACKWELL: Yes, you said it, I didn't, but now it's been said. Thanks so much.

Christie?

PAUL: Well, two of Josh Duggar's sisters are defending their brother. Yes, the one who molested them more than a decade ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JESSA SEEWALD, SISTER OF JOSH DUGGAR: I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or rapist, some people are saying. I'm like, that is so overboard and a lie, really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: A psychologist is weighing in on this very sensitive interview.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:27] PAUL: Well, two of Josh Duggar's sisters broke their silence last night, defending their brother who's actually molested them more than a decade ago. It was emotional, at times tearful. Jessa admitted her now 27-year-old brother made bad choices as a teenager, but she's touching was mild and he is not a rapist or pedophile.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEEWALD: I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him child molester or a pedophile or rapist, some people are saying. I'm like, that is so overboard and a lie, really.

I mean, people get mad at me for saying that, but I'm like I can say this. You know, I was one of the victims. I can speak out and I can say this and set the record straight here. Like in Josh's case, he was a boy -- young boy in puberty and little too curious about girls and that got him into some trouble and he made some bad choices. But, really, the extent of it was mild inappropriate touching on fully clothed victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Wendy Walsh is joining us now, psychologist and professor at California State University Channel Islands.

So, a lot of people are criticizing this in the sense that it sounds like the family, now the whole family, sisters included, are minimizing what happened. What is your takeaway after watching it?

WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, I think the person you need to listen to are the victims, because you can talk about something as criminal behavior as an outsider. We do know as psychologists that some people who experience these things will come out hugely traumatized while other, not so traumatized at all.

So, I think it's really important that we listen to the victims and we listen to what's happened here. But I think the bigger point here is that the family, in some ways, are responsible for the behavior because of how they repressed normal sexual development. Reports say that these children were taught that they couldn't even hold hands while dating. And kissing didn't come until marriage. And, yet, they have these hormone-driven teenagers in the house who need to be taught about sexual consent and boundaries and auto sexual behavior and finding privacy for that, right? PAUL: But we don't know if those regulations in their house came before or after this molestation came. Maybe that was a result of what the family was dealing with. We don't know.

But you're talking about how we need to listen to the sisters. Let's do a little bit more of that here. We have Jill Duggar who said that, yes, she was angry at first, but she chose to forgive her brother. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILL DILLARD, SISTER OF JOSH DUGGAR: I was angry at first. How could this happen? And then my parents explained to us what happened and then Josh came and asked each of us individually, I know, but he asked me to forgive him. I had to make to choice to forgive him, you know? And it wasn't something that somebody forced. Like, oh, you need to do this. You know, it's like, you have to make that decision for yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, they didn't know it because they said they were sleeping. But he asked for forgiveness.

The parents told them, so, they still knew about the betrayal. The fact that he asked for forgiveness, though, does that help somebody get over and really placate.

WALSH: Absolutely. A lot of healing can come just from the dialogue, just from the talking it out. Generally, when sex crimes happen in a family there is a code of silence around it that causes even greater injury. So, being able to talk, being able to ask for forgiveness, being able to assume responsibility, being able to choose forgiveness or not empowers victims. So, I think all of this was probably very helpful.

Of course, one step more would have been to get counseling for everybody in the family involved at that time. If families do reach out for counseling for the victims, that therapist is then compliant to report, is a mandated reporter. So, then you get law enforcement involved.

So, it sort of forces these things in the closet even more within families who don't want law enforcement involved in something of this nature.

PAUL: And so, real quickly, you think the daughters are doing well emotionally based on what you saw.

WALSH: Well, they seem to. We will see how their long-term relationships are and their romantic relationships because this is usually where sexual abuse comes out and mistrust issues, et cetera.

PAUL: All right. Wendy Walsh, we appreciate it. Thank you so much for sharing your voice.

We'll be right back.

[07:55:00] WALSH: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Will today be the day for jockey Victor Espinosa? Will he win the Triple Crown with is? And they seem to be the crowd favorite of the Belmont Stakes today in New York. He's been there twice before.

But you know the last Triple Crown winner was 37 years ago. We've got Coy Wire here with us.

We asked in our last hour if this is the most difficult accomplishment in sports and people have had a lot to say.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. We're going to get to some of your tweets soon. I appropriate all the interaction. We love when we get the Twitter action.

But American Pharaoh has a chance, as you mentioned today, at Belmont to do what only 11 horses have done, 37 years since Affirmed won the Triple Crown. That got us to thinking, is horse racing's Triple Crown the greatest feat in sports?

In golf, nobody has won four majors in a calendar year. Tiger Woods came close, but that wasn't -- he won them consecutively, but they were over two calendar years.

How about a grand slam in tennis? If Serena Williams today wins the French Open, she will get her 20th grand slam title. The record is held by Margaret Court with 24.

Well, you have spoken -- we have asked what you think the greatest feat in sports was? Using #NewDayCNN, Angie B. said, "Tour de France. Definitely the most grueling." And I think that's a pretty good call.