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Joyce Mitchell Manipulated Prison Guard?; Confederate Flag Controversy Spreads to Other Issues; Boston Bomber Faces Victims, Families at Sentencing; Obama to Call French President Over Spying Allegations; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 24, 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] RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: And also realize if they lose a golf tournament, it's not the end of the world. So he's taking that attitude with him as he goes forth and tries to accomplish this grand slam. It's really refreshing to talk to him.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's awesome.

Rachel Nichols, many thanks to you.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now on the NEWSROOM, smuggling contraband to killer convicts inside hamburger meat, allegedly manipulating guards with baked treats?

ANDREW BROCKWAY, ATTORNEY FOR GENE PALMER: Miss Mitchell was just as manipulative as these two inmates were.

COSTELLO: A new look at the inner workings of the prison when two killers broke free as hundreds of officers chased their trail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My gut is that if they're here, we're going to find them.

COSTELLO: Also a growing chorus to take down the Confederate flag. But not everyone is on board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we on your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) agenda today? Get the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of the Summerville.

COSTELLO: Plus, four years after his wife Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in a mass shooting, Mark Kelly is speaking out about Charleston.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Bribed with baked goods? We begin with stunning new details about

Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who helped two convicted killers break free. A law enforcement official telling CNN Mitchell traded sweet treats with guards in exchange for favors for inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat.

Also new this morning, we now know Mitchell brought frozen beef laced with hacksaw blades into the main gate of the prison. That's according to the prosecutor Andrew Wylie. She then stored the contraband in the freezer of the tailor shop where she worked.

Now the attorney for the fellow guard who delivered the package says his client is also a victim of manipulation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROCKWAY: She has conned many individuals inside of the prison. She would curry favors amongst the prisoners. She'd bring them baked goods. She was just very good at what she did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And 19 days into the manhunt, major questions about whether more could have been done to prevent a breakaway. Hours from now, a group of prison guards who claim budget cuts are to blame will gather at that manhole where those inmates broke free.

Let's bring in CNN's Boris Sanchez, he's on the ground in Cadyville, New York, where police have set up a makeshift command.

Good morning, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, we've seen a big law enforcement presence at this command post all morning. Helicopters with armed troops coming in and out just about all morning. This as law enforcement gets ready for a press briefing at noon.

In the meantime we're learning more about exactly how Joyce Mitchell got the tools to these men into their cells. Apparently she hid hacksaw blades and drill bits in a piece of frozen hamburger meat that she brought into the tailor shop and kept in a freezer there. That's when she convinced Gene Palmer to bring the meat to Richard Matt.

She didn't have access to these men in their cells so she convinced Palmer to bring it them without going through a metal detector. Palmer's attorney says his client was duped. He says his biggest mistake was trusting Joyce Mitchell.

You also heard about the pastries. She was apparently trying to convince her colleagues to do favors for these men in exchange for baked goods. She even pushed to have David Sweat's cell move next to Richard Matt's. And we're also learning, a law enforcement source telling CNN she also provided the men with glasses that had lights on them, something that likely aided them in their escape.

Again, there's a press briefing that will be held here at about noon. We'll bring it to you live on CNN -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Boris Sanchez reporting live this morning, thanks so much.

The district attorney, Andrew Wylie, says authorities are now certain that Gene Palmer, the guard who delivered the meat, did not know he was delivering contraband as well to the inmates. Palmer's attorney says his client was duped by Joyce Mitchell. He argues if his client is guilty of anything, it was trusting Mitchell when he shouldn't have.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROCKWAY: He had no knowledge beforehand that there were any kind of tools inside. The only mistake he made was trusting Joyce Mitchell. He could have run it through the metal detector. That was his mistake, Anderson. He didn't run it through the metal detector. He feels extremely guilty about that. He's regretful. He apologizes for that. But Miss Mitchell was just as manipulative as these two inmates were. He trusted her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's talk about this. Let's bring in former senior FBI profiler and former FBI special agent, Mary Ellen O'Toole. I'm also joined on the phone by Jeff Dumas. He's a retired sergeant at the Clinton Correction Facility where those inmates escaped from.

Thank you so much to both of you for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

Jeff, I have to start with you.

JEFF DUMAS, RETIRED SERGEANT, CLINTON CORRECTION FACILITY: OK.

[10:05:03] COSTELLO: Baked goods to bribe fellow employees to smuggle in contraband in frozen meat? What goes through your mind?

(LAUGHTER)

DUMAS: Yes, that -- I don't believe it's an actual bribe. It's just a fellow employee asking for somebody to do something. I can totally see Officer Palmer trusting Joyce Mitchell. I mean, nobody would ever think that she would take sides with a convicted murderer. I mean, that just doesn't happen. So if she asked --

COSTELLO: But what else, Jess -- why else, Jeff, would she -- why else would this prison guard not put this frozen meat through the metal detector? Why would he trust Joyce Mitchell that far?

DUMAS: Right. Well, the policies that are in place allow for the inmates to cook and to do all that. So it's not out of the norm for one of those convicts or a lot of the convicts to be able to cook bacon, be able to cook all that stuff. So for her to say, hey, Matt left this meat behind in the freezer, whatever the case may be, you know, you wouldn't think any big deal about a chunk of frozen hamburger and bring it over there.

The metal detector is in a certain area. But there's other ways for officers to go through the facility that are shorter so in the course of his day, if he just went by, he could have dropped it off, no big deal, and gone back to his duties. So -- I mean, she really -- that was just a big manipulation on her part.

COSTELLO: OK. So why didn't anyone notice, Jeff, that Joyce Mitchell was bringing in baked goods and giving some of the baked goods to the prisoners? That's not allowed, is it?

DUMAS: No. That should not be allowed at all. But a lot of the -- a lot of these civilian people will bring in food, stuff like that. It's usually shared amongst the workers. And then I mean civilian workers. And then every now and then, they may have given them, like, whatever's left over. Hey, nobody's eating this, you know, whatever. But I just don't see that she did that a lot. If she did that a lot, then somebody missed it.

COSTELLO: So, Jeff, you worked in that prison. What is going on there?

DUMAS: It's just -- it's been over time. And I said it before. The liberal policies that they keep instituting to keep the inmates appeased has just come back to, you know, kind of bite them in the rear end. It shouldn't be happening. The convicts should be treated like convicts. I mean, they're murderers, rapists, child molesters. They should be treated like that. But they -- you know, they give them civilian clothing inside. They let them cook. They -- I mean, it's just crazy.

COSTELLO: Well, Mary Ellen, do you know --

DUMAS: And now hopefully it goes back to being a prison.

COSTELLO: I think many are with you, Jeff, there.

So, Mary Ellen, do you know why these liberal policies started? Where they came from? Why they were instituted?

MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE, FORMER SENIOR FBI PROFILER: I wouldn't know specific to this institution where these policies came from. But I can say that when you analyze behavior, especially Joyce's behavior, what you look at is this, you say, is this a one or a two-time infraction of the rules or was this ongoing behavior so that here's a person who could lower the suspicions of the officers there or other people because she had done it in the past and had done it repeatedly and just doesn't seem to be the kind of person, at least in their eyes, who would be coordinating this on behalf of a very violent offender.

And I -- so she was very manipulative. And as she gained more and more power within the institution and within those lax laws and policies, she probably was actually making decisions on her own how to get around the system and not necessarily even at the request of either Richard Matt or David Sweat. COSTELLO: And I guess I would suppose maybe it's easy to manipulate a

fellow employee to do something to skirt the rules, right, because it happens in many businesses across the country?

O'TOOLE: Well --

DUMAS: Yes, absolutely.

COSTELLO: Go on, Jeff.

DUMAS: Yes, the -- I mean, when you walk inside that place, you're talking about dealing with 3,000 violent inmates. So there is a camaraderie between security staffs and the civilian staff. I mean, we look out for them. We make sure that they're safe throughout the day.

[10:10:06] So there is a huge trust factor that comes about through the years of working with somebody and you don't ever think that somebody is going to betray that trust and take the side of these inmates.

COSTELLO: Mary Ellen, are you with that?

O'TOOLE: I can see that dynamic happening. And if that did occur where it went over time and people's attitudes became too soft, too trusting, certainly I can see that happening. And then you have someone who comes in and is able to really exploit that by asking them meat to come in and by bringing them sweet goods. So it does sound like what Joyce did was she manipulated a system where -- that had a culture of being too lax, too trusting, which is probably the last thing that you want in a facility like that.

COSTELLO: A maximum security prison, you're right.

Mary Ellen O'Toole, Jeff Dumas, thanks to you both. I appreciate it.

Did the U.S. spy on one of its closest allies? That's what France wants to know. A French official says President Obama will be calling French President Francois Hollande today. The French are furious over allegations the NSA spied on Mr. Hollande and two of his predecessors.

Let's get more now from CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty.

Good morning, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, this all stems from WikiLeaks publishing these reports that they say are from the NSA alleging basically that the U.S. was eavesdropping on the last three French presidents as recently at 2012. So of course there's a lot of anger coming from the French on this. As you said, summoning their ambassador back for meetings on this today, calling these allegations unacceptable saying that it's not something that they will tolerate due to the protection of their safety and their own interests.

Now of course France is a longtime ally of the United States, key in international diplomacy and most notable, very key in the nuclear talks going on right now with Iran which are very delicate in reaching that deadline. Now as you said, the president of France's national assembly, they report that President Obama will speak on the phone with the French president today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen Serfaty reporting live from the White House, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, now they're speaking out, Republicans taking a stand on the Confederate flag. But many are asking what took them so long?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:16:50] COSTELLO: The anti-Confederate bandwagon is getting awfully crowded. Not only are there calls to remove Confederate flags from statehouses, but please do uprooting statues of Confederate figures from universities and government buildings.

Listen to this from Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We curiously enough have a statue of Jefferson Davis in the capitol in Frankfort. Davis' sole connection to Kentucky was he was born there. He subsequently moved to Mississippi and Kentucky of course did not secede from the union. So I think it's appropriate certainly in Kentucky to be talking about the appropriateness of continuing to have Jefferson Davis' statue in a very prominent place in our state capitol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: McConnell joining his voice with those of lawmakers in several southern states, some of whom also want the Confederate flag taken off specialty license plates. In the meantime, retailers are removing the Confederate symbol from their shelves, K-Mart joining eBay, Sears, Wal-Mart and Amazon in banning merchandise with the flag, even auto trader is careful not to show the Confederate battle flag on the General Lee, you know, the General Lee from the "Dukes of Hazard."

Wow. With me now, Republican strategist and Jeb Bush supporter Ana Navarro and Democratic strategist and co-chair of a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Paul Begala.

Welcome to both of you.

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Hi, Carol.

PAUL BEGALA, CO-CHAIR, PRO-HILLARY CLINTON SUPER PAC: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi. So, Ana, I have heard some say this is a watershed moment on race in the United States. Seriously? Will it really change anything? NAVARRO: You know, I guess we could take the cynical approach to it

or we could take the optimistic approach. I hope that it does. I actually think, Carol, that that image of the governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, standing there calling for the lowering of that flag and having her being flanked by Jim Clyburn, a top Democrat African-American from South Carolina, Tim Scott, Republican.

We saw people of all colors, of all political stripes, standing together calling for this. So, yes, it is a watershed moment. When was the last time you saw such unity and bipartisanship on an issue like this? And I think we should build on that.

COSTELLO: But -- we should build on it but it seems largely symbolic to me at this moment.

And, Paul, let me put it to you this way. Republicans are taking most of the heat on this topic. Right? But the unemployment rate among African-Americans has been persistently high throughout President Obama's tenure. There has been talk of Democrats taking the black vote for granted.

So could 2016 be a year when more African-Americans cross party lines? Will Democrats try harder? What do you suppose will happen after this moment in our history?

BEGALA: Well, Democrats will have to earn those votes. That's absolutely critical to the Democrats' political success, but frankly it's critical to America's success. I would like to see Republicans do more to compete for these votes. I am glad that they have come to oppose the symbolism of the Confederate flag. It's a good thing. I don't want to criticize them for being late. I was there 22 years ago trying to help Georgia taking it off of its flag. But OK.

The next step, though, is more important. And I think Ana is right. We should be optimistic. But the next step -- Hillary Clinton yesterday went to Florissant, Missouri, just a few miles from where those riots were in Ferguson. She went to an African-American church. She had a roundtable discussion there. One of the people in the discussion was Professor (INAUDIBLE) herself, from Washington University, a social worker professor.

He told about a study he had done, a 10-mile distance in St. Louis area, St. Louis County, between a largely white ZIP code and a largely black ZIP code, that 10 miles was 18 years difference in life expectancy. So it's not just a symbol that -- we should start with the symbolism, fine. But there is a reality here in America, we've got to do better by voting rights, where the Republicans, especially Jeb Bush, have terrible records, he purged voters in Florida. We have to do more about jobs, income, growing the economy, health care, educational opportunities. Let's come together on all of these things now to make life better for all of us.

COSTELLO: Yes, and Ana, I was going to bring up voter ID laws because Republican controlled states across the nation have enacted tough voter ID laws when there are very few cases of voter fraud in our nation. To critics, it -- to critics, it seems that they are trying to suppress the black vote. So should candidates focus on things like jobs and education rather than Confederate flags and statues of Jefferson Davis?

NAVARRO: Frankly, they're all important. Symbols are just as important as policy is. And because I think it lends itself to creating a culture where we can all have better race relations. But I do want to respond to Paul when he says what took Republicans so long. I want to tell you, I support a guy, Jeb Bush, who took down the Confederate flag from Florida 14 years ago. Did it not under the national glare, didn't do it as the aftermath of a horrific tragedy.

He did it because it was the right thing to do. He respected the heritage by putting it in a museum. But we can also ask the same question of Democrats. What's taken Democrats so long on this? People like Bill Clinton, where governors of Arkansas, just -- you know, Terry McAuliffe has been governor of Virginia now for, what, over a year and it's just now that he's calling for the repeal of the license plate with the Confederate flag?

BEGALA: Just -- come on.

NAVARRO: So I think we can either point fingers at each other or we can say, you know what, we're here, it is a watershed moment. Let's build on it and let's make something good out of it.

BEGALA: Yes, Jeb did. He needs to be congratulated for this. He took the Confederate flag down. "The Washington Post" today revealed some of his e-mails during that time where he took a lot of static and personally responded to people who were angry with him. People from his own base. I admire that. And nothing can take away from that. I think he did the right thing for the right reasons at the right time, and while he was governor, he did some things of substance that were just terrible for African-American.

He ended affirmative action. He caused enormous pain in the African- American community. He purged voters from the rolls, which the "Miami Herald" and others has said had a hugely disproportionate impact on African-Americans. It made the state close enough so that Catherine Harris and Jeb Bush and Justice Scalia could steal it from Al Gore. So very mixed record there. I'd love to talk more about this.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: I don't know, Paul. He did not -- you know, he replaced Affirmative Action when it came to college quotas with a specific plan to be able to allow the top 20 percent of all Florida students which included a lot of black students to go to college and it has improved the graduation rates of Hispanics, of African-Americans in Florida. Go look at the statistics. I'm proud to stand by that record.

COSTELLO: I think it's only improved the statistics among Hispanics. I don't think it's improved it among African-Americans.

NAVARRO: It has.

COSTELLO: It has? OK. We'll have to look that up and get -- and I'd love to have this conversation again with both of you. Thank you so much, Ana Navarro, Paul Begala.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:27:51] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 27 minutes past the hour.

An inspector's report had found that the collapsed balcony in Berkeley, California, was, quote, extensively rotted where it broke away from the wall and that moisture may be to blame. Six people died when that fourth floor balcony collapsed earlier this month. The county's district attorney is looking into the incident.

A judge has declared a mistrial in the Vanderbilt rape case after it was revealed that the jury foreman was a victim of statutory rape. The defense believed that the -- that affected his judgment. A CNN affiliate reports that both sides will meet today to discuss next steps in the case. The two former Vanderbilt football players were found guilty of rape and sexual battery back in January.

Happening now in a Boston courtroom, speculation swirling over whether or not convicted Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will speak at his sentencing. Right now he's hearing from the men and women whose lives he changed forever as they read impact statements to the judge. One of those statements came from the mother of Krystal Campbell, who told Tsarnaev in part, quote, "I know life is hard but the choices that you made was despicable. I think the jury did the right thing."

Deborah Feyerick live at the courthouse in Boston to tell us more.

Good morning, Deborah. Can you hear me? I don't think her microphone is on.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The jury did the right thing.

COSTELLO: All right. Deborah can't hear me obviously. We'll try to get back to Boston. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sitting in front of that judge and that judge will surely pass down the death sentence as 30 families read impact statements right in front of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. So let's go back to Boston and Deborah Feyerick.

Deborah, can you hear me now?

FEYERICK: Yes, I can hear you, Carol. And I can tell you, inside that courtroom, it is so emotional. There is so much pain and grief and even tension as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev looks at some of the people who he injured as they talk to him, in some cases directly, the mother of Krystal Campbell who lost her life that day looking at him and saying, life is hard but the choices you made are despicable. She said she never understood and never would understand what it is he did but she did say the jury did the right thing.