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Lindsey Graham Calls for Confederate Flag to Come Down; Possible DNA Clue in Manhunt for Escaped Convicts; Pressure to Bring Down Confederate Flag in S.C. Grows; Food Stamp Usage Grows in U.S.; Hackers Target Large Polish Airline. Aired 2:30-3p ET>

Aired June 22, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Still more to be done?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We still have so much further to go. And the thing that gets me, when I was in high school with someone or in college with someone the age of this Dylann Roof, we thought we were making progress. I think we need to think about hate groups on the Internet and having access to them and through social media and all of that. Why does it seem to be resurging? Why is it happening when young people aren't supposed to be dealing with this stuff?

HARLOW: What is interesting, one of the producers on the ground was saying that this horrific shooting caused a driven conversation and look what is happening. Look what we're going to see.

LEMON: It's not even that. It's not even a driven conversation, Poppy. We have to give tremendous credit to the people of South Carolina and those who weren't from South Carolina that went down last week and this weekend. As I was there on Friday, I was amazed by the outpouring of people. He did the exact opposite of what he thought he was doing.

HARLOW: Yeah.

LEMON: And that shows, at the very end of the day, we are all -- it's one America. We all want one America. So why do we need two different flags on the state capitol. We need the American flag on the state capitol and that's it. Get rid of the other flag.

HARLOW: Well said, my friend.

Don Lemon, tonight on his show, "CNN Tonight." A lot more on this then.

Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you.

HARLOW: Good to be with you.

Coming up next, it's been two long weeks, more than two weeks since these two men escaped from the prison in New York. The manhunt has been nationwide. Now it's focusing on a town just 20 miles from the prison. Will DNA evidence finally break this case open? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:44] HARLOW: Well, potentially the first big break in the New York prison manhunt case, a law enforcement source telling our Deborah Feyerick that DNA from Richard Matt and David Sweat was found on items in a rural upstate cabin in New York. Also, a witness on Saturday saw someone running into the woods from out of the cabin. This is just 20 miles or so away from the prison where they escaped 17 days ago. State police and search teams have swarmed the area.

Deborah Feyerick is with me on the set.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is significant. State police made it clear that the search focus is and remains on the area, the Dannemora region around the Clinton prison facility. The cabin is 25 miles from the facility and also it appears that the fugitives have essentially blown their cover. Investigators, manhunters were waiting for these two individuals to make some sort of mistake and for almost two weeks they made none. Apparently, a law enforcement personnel off duty was approaching the cabin and saw somebody run from the cabin. When they went inside, they called authorities. Authorities did DNA tests inside the cabin and it did test positive coming back as belonging to both Richard Matt and David Sweat. So the fact that they now, now that these two men appeared to be on foot, had their plan, A, to get a ride from the area fell apart and they didn't have another plan. All that is meaningful in terms of the search and what investigators are really now trying to do is contain these individuals in that area. But this is absolutely the best lead and if they can contain that area, sort of choke them off, then their chances of getting them are good but, again, these guys are laying as low as they possibly can. And they are still together.

HARLOW: And they've been able to do it 17 days.

FEYERICK: Yeah.

HARLOW: What are we not seeing from this investigation?

FEYERICK: Well, it's interesting, because this is operating on two different levels. You've got the search.

HARLOW: Right.

FEYERICK: And these stops that we're seeing because they can find these two men. That's the foot search. We're being told now from a source familiar with this, that investigators are looking at hotels in that area, that they are searching guest registries over the last six to eight months to see who may have stayed at the hotels and who may have possibly helped them. Right now there's no apparent evidence suggesting that these two individuals had any extensive support network, that is, anybody from outside that region who was effectively helping them. If they did, the thinking is they would be much farther away than they are right now.

HARLOW: You have to think, how can they be just 20 miles from where they escaped. FEYERICK: Exactly right.

HARLOW: Deborah Feyerick, there's breaking news every day on this story.

Deb, thank you very much.

Ahead, more on this, our breaking story at this hour, the Confederate Flag removal. Should it be the start of more change in our society? We'll talk about that.

Also, planes grounded because of hackers. Seriously. This happened in Poland this weekend. Can security be improved so this will not happen again or is this pretty much the state of things? More on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:44] HARLOW: Breaking news here on CNN. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott joining his colleague, Lindsey Graham, and calling for the removal of the Confederate Flag to the statehouse. Graham is expected to appear at a 4:00 news conference right along South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley. The pressure to bring this flag down has been growing and growing as more images come out showing the gunman in the horrible massacre touting the symbol. The governor's news conference comes on the heels of one just held by black and white civic leaders urging the same action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. ELLIOTT SUMMEY, (R), CHAIRMAN, CHARLESTON COUNTY COUNCIL: The time is now. We'd like to wait until everything had settled down. But to be honest, what better way to honor the nine folks that died Wednesday than by making sure that their families know that something extremely positive could come out of their deaths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Keep in mind, this is only the beginning. It still takes an act of the state legislature, two-thirds voting to remove the flag.

State Representative Doug Brannon told me on my show on Sunday that he plans to present a bill that he wishes he had done a long time ago. He was friends with one of the victims of the massacre, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:00] STATE REP. DOUG BRANNON, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I have believed for years that it needed to be in a museum and, in fact, the state has what is called the Confederate relic room. That's where it needs to be. And quite frankly, Poppy, I apologize to the people of South Carolina. I've been in the House for five years. I should have introduced this bill five years ago. I should not have let my friend -- we shouldn't be having this conversation.

HARLOW: So let's talk about why you didn't do it sooner.

BRANNON: I didn't do my job. I don't have a good reason why I didn't introduce the bill the first session that I served -- that I was allowed to serve in the House of Representatives. I don't have a good answer for that. But I do have an apology for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Apologizing to the people of his state.

With me now, social media activist, Shaun King; and Gordon Shea, a Civil War historian.

Thank you for being here.

Shaun, I want to begin with you.

You say, quote -- you wrote this column. You say, "The United States has not come to grips with its racist past." How does this debate over the flag and what we're going to hear announce at 4:00 today, how does that move the ball?

SHAUN KING, SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVIST: It does move the ball a little but I've heard a lot of conservatives and others say that they are really alarmed at the idea of removing the flag because people are then going to call for the removal of statues and other symbols that really mean and bring up racist ideas and thoughts and history. And I think in some ways, it should. At the very least, this is a good start. And while I hate that it took something so extreme to get people to recognize something that African-Americans have been saying for decades, I'm at least glad that we're making the start. But it is only a start. There are so many symbols and monuments that I think we should reconsider.

HARLOW: Gordon, South Carolina is not alone. The Confederate Flag is actually part of the flag in the state of Mississippi. And as "The Washington Post" puts it, take a look at these pictures. Roughly one- third of the nation's black population lives under a state flag that evokes, at least in the eyes of many, the Confederacy. All of those flags have some symbolism of the Confederate Flag, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas. Is this a change across all of these states?

GORDON SHEA, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN: I would urge those states to get rid of that Confederate Flag. I participated in the march several years ago to get it off of South Carolina statehouse. I think it should be taken off all of government properties except museums. The Confederate Flag is a battle flag of a nation dedicated to the proposition of white supremacy, that all men are created equal except some aren't equal. Some could be owned by others and the ones who own the others can split up families, sell children. It is one that has a lot of modern and emotional baggage with it.

I grew up during the civil rights movement and I remember it as the symbol of segregation, of white supremacy. It's no mistake that the killer, Roof, surrounded himself with the Confederate battle flags. He picked them because they stand for his values. People shouldn't live under a flag like that.

I agree with the gentleman that we need to reconsider other symbols and reconsider other items that are in the public domain to determine whether or not we want to keep them but it should be a case-by-case decision.

HARLOW: Shaun, you wrote in your column, "This is a slippery slope but a needed one. This is a painful part of the history but a reminder of what happened to our fellow citizens." So how do you make sure that it's also remembered and lessons are earn willed so it never -- nothing like that ever happens again.

KING: Right. I mean, I think the guest said it right, that there are museums and right places where people can properly learn history. Like if today we visited Germany or Austria or anyplace where awful war crimes and crimes against humanity took place, you can still learn about those. But you won't see monuments to Nazi Germany in Germany. You won't see them on the streets in Austria. It's against the law. It's a crime. It's important for folks to understand, to teach people what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what is not, when you allow these types of symbols and monuments in public squares, not just in Charleston or South Carolina but all throughout the south. I'm here in Atlanta now and I drove past today several monuments to the Confederacy that are just out there in the public domain and I couldn't imagine anybody being forced to see that, who had suffered the crimes against humanity that African-Americans have suffered.

[14:50:20] HARLOW: Shaun King and Gordon Shea, thank you both. Appreciate it.

SHEA: Thank you.

KING: Thank you.

HARLOW: Coming up next, could hacking be the weapon that terrorists use against us? Several planes were grounded over the weekend due to hacking.

Also, at the top of the hour, more on the breaking news, one of the most influential politicians in South Carolina calling for the Confederate Flag to be removed completely from the state capitol grounds. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:54:58] HARLOW: One in five children in this country is living on food stamps. How can that be in America? "CNN Money" delves into the issue this week. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW (voice-over): The largest economy on earth, the land of opportunity, and yet too many children are going hungry in America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a big problem in this country. I'm telling you, a lot of kids come to school hungry. It affects everything. You're not going to be productive if you're hungry.

HARLOW: The United States has one of the highest child poverty rates in the industrialized world. One in five children here now rely on food stamps. And right here in Bridgeport, Connecticut, it is double that, 40 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The desperation in a city like Bridgeport is intense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children get up in the morning, many of them don't have food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their grades and their ability to focus on that when they are not having adequate nutrition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to live in a society where we take care of our children. I think most Americans would agree with that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like my neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A low-income neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has to stop somewhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want this struggle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an important part of our culture to feel like we're giving all children a chance to be successful.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: You have to give a lot. You've got to give this a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is their reality. We should step into their shoes so we can understand them. That's why we need to go there and see what is going on.

HARLOW: So we did. We followed a family as their children ate breakfast and lunch in school for free, as 19 million other children do nationwide. We saw how these lunches are made with limited resources and strict guidelines. We went shopping with their single mom on a food stamp budget where healthy food is hard to come by or afford. We had dinner with them at home. It's all happening in one of the wealthiest counties in the country and one of the wealthiest states, Connecticut.

This is a story of how we feed our most vulnerable children for only a few dollars a day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of a society is this? Is this America?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: It is our series of "Feeding America's Most Vulnerable Children" right now at CNNmoney.com.

Next, computer hackers have struck again. This time, the target was an airline, a big airline. Polish carrier, LOT, telling CNN that 20 flights have been canceled. Around 1400 passengers were grounded after hackers jammed the airline's computer system.

Let's talk about it with aviation and government regulations correspondent, Rene Marsh.

Rene, we were talking about a month ago about how big this risk was and it seems like now it has happened.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Right. The problem for passengers in this particular instance started at Warsaw's airport after the airline says that hackers breached its ground computers. And those computers are used to issue flight plans. LOT Airline says, because of the attack, the planes could not take off because they could not generate these flight plans for the outbound traffic. As you know, Poppy, if a pilot cannot file a flight plan, that's a big problem here in the United States. For example, the FAA requires that all aircraft have to file a flight plan. It's used to track aircrafts for its protection and identification purposes. At this point, though, we can tell you it's unclear who was responsible for this particular cyber attack but the airline says, on its website that the situation is now under control and passengers' safety was never at risk.

HARLOW: If I'm somewhere about to get on a plane, I wonder, could this happen to me? Is this poor protection in this case?

MARSH: As more and more aircraft become more technologically advanced, this is becoming the reality. The risk of cyber attacks, it is increasing. The CEO of this Polish airline said in a warning, all airlines are vulnerable, not just lot airlines. It's not just a problem for his airline. It's an industry wide issue. Now what we're finding is the industry is coming together to find a strategy and how they combat this as aircraft becomes more advanced -- Poppy?

HARLOW: Rene Marsh, thank you for the reporting. Appreciate it, as always.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HARLOW: Top of the hour. 3:00 Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow, in today for my friend, Brooke Baldwin.

And we are following breaking news out of South Carolina. It involves the Confederate battle flag and the growing momentum to remove it from the state house grounds. Two of the most powerful elected officials in the state, Republican Governor Nikki Haley and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, have scheduled a news conference one hour from now.

CNN is the first to report, according to our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash, that Lindsey Graham will, indeed, call for that flag to be removed, to be taken down and away from the memorial on state house grounds. South Carolina media outlets also reporting that Governor Haley will make that same appear at the same press conference. And within the past few moments, we have learned that Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina also planning to call for the flag to be taken down.