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Obama Unveils Environmental Plan; Biden Presidential Run?; Plane Debris Analysis; Search Continues for MH-370 Debris Near Reunion Island; Second American Accused of Illegally Killing A Lion. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 03, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Said, you know, we have energy plans. We don't have environmental plans as a party. You know, when you look back to 2012, the issue of climate change didn't come up in a debate. We've got a big debate on Thursday. Does this force the issue?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean just from what we're hearing already, the president is going to do this now right when we're really in the early throes of this campaigning. So of course those questions were going to come up and that's just adding fuel to the fire, so to speak. Is that a bad pun? But it -- but it is a big issue. I mean it's something that this White House has cared about very much. It's something that I think has grown and grown as we've seen natural disasters and, you know, especially hot summers. The fires that are going on in California, well, those things, too, have just generated more debate over this. And it's just like oil and water there. I mean those who say the facts show that climate change is real and it's manmade, and then the other side who says -- who say the facts show just the opposite, Poppy.

HARLOW: What about this as part of Obama's -- President Obama's legacy building, Michelle?

KOSINSKI: Yes, I mean, this is one of those big things that he's wanted to accomplish. And we've seen him in the past act unilaterally generally on climate change, on pollution, but clearly this is something that he really wanted to get done and do it in this kind of big unveiling sort of way. So we are going to hear from him this afternoon, in just a couple of hours, and I'm curious, too, to hear how strongly he's going put it out there. Is he going to directly confront some of those climate change doubts that out there as we've seen him do in the past year. And as we all know, he's been speaking extremely boldly and seemingly sometimes off the cuff or speaking more to his state of mind than we've heard him do in the past couple of years. So it could be a pretty interesting statement today. But again, we're also going to hear the strong views from the other side on this, Poppy.

HARLOW: I would safely assume this is going to be a debate that rages on and on. Michelle Kosinski, thank you, at the White House for us.

Well, some political observers have called Joe Biden the most influential vice president in U.S. history. But now members of his inner circle are urging Biden to make an attempt at the top spot. A race -- to jump in the race for the White House. One of his biggest supporters was his late son Beau, you see him there embracing his father at the 2008 convention. Beau Biden died of brain cancer two months ago. But "The New York Times" reporting over the weekend that shortly before that, Beau Biden sat down with his father and urged him to run. And here is what a friend of the vice president, who's known him for a very long time, told my colleague Chris Cuomo about a bid this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY CAREY FOLEY, FRIEND OF JOE BIDEN: I sincerely believe Beau Biden did have that discussion with his father. And I -- maybe Beau worried that his father, after leaving the White House, would not find something challenging for him. He worried about his father maybe mourning him. And -- and I know that Beau and I and Hunter and the entire family -- Joe Biden -- my bucket list, which is supposed to be for me, on my bucket list is Joe Biden being president of the United States. And my passion for that is so strong. I can't write him a big check if he decides to run, but I'll match my passion for that money any day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining me now to discuss, CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, who has covered the White House extensively. Also with me, CNN senior political report Nia-Malika Henderson.

Thank you, Ladies, for being here.

Suzanne, to you first. Several Democrats telling us here at CNN that Biden has yet to rule out a campaign, may wait until after this month to decide. A spokeswoman, though, for the White House calling all this speculation over the weekend about 2016 bid, quote, "premature and inappropriate." What's your take on whether -- when it gets too late to jump in?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is getting pretty close to that time, Poppy. But I have to tell you just a brief story here. I had a chance to talk with the late Beau Biden when there was a -- at a Obama inauguration celebration. And it was a time when Joe Biden had actually made a gaffe, a public gaffe referring to himself as the president instead of the vice president. I mean it is very clear that he has wanted this for a very long time with two former attempts and that Beau has been very supportive of -- as well as his son Hunter, of making that happen for their father. And it's been very, very special and intimate in their family.

And what I've been told by a source, a Biden source, is that it's going to be a family decision. That Joe Biden is not there yet. He has not yet decided or made that decision, but they will get together with his wife Jill and with his son Hunter and other relatives and make that decision within a month, month and a half or so.

This is something that is very close to all of them. As you know, his sister was the campaign manager, and his niece, the political director. We've also seen one of Beau's staffers jumping in on this draft Biden movement.

[09:35:14] HARLOW: Right.

MALVEAUX: But it is getting very close and we know that a lot of the people who would have supported Biden have already been gobbled up by the Clinton machine in terms of fundraising, in terms of building that staff, that team, and even quietly some of those commitments that have not been made public by people who will be public about it later saying they will vote and go ahead and support Hillary Clinton. He doesn't have those people anymore.

HARLOW: Right. Right. Nia-Malika, to you. When you look at some of the latest national polling, what it shows is, is Hillary Clinton at 51 percent unfavorable versus Joe Biden at just 39 percent unfavorable. So some might say, do those sort of stubbornly negative numbers on the unfavorability rating for Clinton mean that there's room here?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. And I talked to some sources in this sort of riden with Biden movement and they talked about how -- how Biden compares to Clinton and what kind of run he would make vis-a-vis Hillary Clinton. They used words like honest, trustworthy, humble. Someone said that Joe Biden is one of us. And they also used a phrase, "Biden family values." They see Biden as being able to run in a way that is much different from Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, of course, has those negative numbers when it comes to being viewed as trustworthy. People say that they don't quite know her.

And she has had some problems, obviously, taking on watering (ph) her campaign in generating that enthusiasm and generating a sense of connection. If you look at some of these internal poll numbers, they also say that people don't think that Hillary Clinton represents or relates to people like them. So that's another thing. I think in some ways Joe Biden's candidacy was also -- always seen as sort of, if something happened with the Hillary Clinton campaign, then he would always be sort of on the shelf there and able to jump in. And that's looks -- that looks like what they're thinking about. I think the issue there is everything that Suzanne laid out there and it's also, sure, the family certainly might want him to run, but there isn't a real kind of groundswell of support among Democratic grassroots activists.

HARLOW: Right. And how do you excite -- excite people to get out and excite people to get on board, especially the later you jump in.

Suzanne, to you. Talking about Hillary Clinton, she has now released her first ad for 2016. In one of them she pays tribute to her late mother Dorothy. I want to play part of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When she needed a champion, someone was there. I think about all the Dorothys all over America who fight for their families, who never give up. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I've always done this. For all the Dorothys. I'm Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Suzanne, you covered the Clinton White House. What are your thoughts on the ad?

MALVEAUX: Well, you know, Hillary Clinton really hasn't changed all that much since I covered her as first lady in 2008 when she was running before. It's all in the packaging and the emphasis here. We actually did see her mother, Dorothy, the last time she ran and she was a special part of the campaign. But I have to say, she wasn't a big, large part of the campaign or the messaging for that matter. We actually saw something that was more the emphasis of the diplomatic leader, the traveler as first lady, the person who was ready to take that 2:00 in the morning phone call, the really the can-do person ready to lead at a moment's notice. It was not the mom, the grandmom, that kind of image. And so it's very clear that, yes, of course, she is trying to appeal to women, she's trying to appeal to the moderates, to the independents and those who really she needs. She needs those people to feel that she is trustworthy and that she is somebody that they can count on and depend on and is not going to kind of knock you over the head with -- with her message there. And that is very different than what we saw in 2008.

HARLOW: Yes, it certainly is. Suzanne Malveaux, Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you both.

MALVEAUX: Thanks.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

HARLOW: Still to come, the large piece of debris that was found on an island beach is now in a French laboratory, but why are they waiting days to examine it if it could be part of MH-370?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:35] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIOW TRONG LAI, MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: The wreckage found earlier is confirmed to be the flaperon from a Boeing 777.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That was the Malaysian transport minister earlier this morning confirming that the debris found on a remote island in the Indian Ocean is in fact from a Boeing 777 plane. That is the same type of plane that went missing 17 months ago, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Now the clock is ticking for French officials who have been given the object and tasked with determining if it did come from that doomed flight. CNN's senior European correspondent Jim Bittermann is live in Paris this morning with the details.

And, Jim, I think what's been surprising to many of us is that the experts who are vowing to get the work done, quote, "quickly," are waiting until Wednesday to start. Why?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that they want to take their time, make a very meticulous look at this -- take a very meticulous look at this flaperon that they found. I don't think there's any expert that has any doubt that this is part of MH- 370 basically because these things just don't fall off airplanes. There's only been one crash of a 777 in that part of the world and it was MH-370. So I don't think there's really any real doubt about that.

[09:44:50] I think more of what they're looking into and their expertise is going to be concerned with is exactly what the part -- what the damaged part can tell about the crash itself. One of the things that's happened here among French investigators, and they remember very well, is Flight 44, that was the Air France flight on its way from Brazil to Brazil that mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the Atlantic. And in that crash, one of the very first pieces of debris picked out of the ocean was a food service cart. And the food service cart had trays inside that were collapsed on top of each other. Later, after they found the cockpit voice recorder, they discovered that, in fact, that was because the plane pancaked into the ocean. It had no forward speed and it basically stalled at altitude. But that was not something that was confirmed by the food service cart; it was certainly suggested by it but it was not confirmed until they found the data recorders later on.

HARLOW: Yes. So the question becomes what answers will it give and what outstanding questions will there still be for these mourning families of those 239 people on board. Jim Bittermann live for us in Paris, thank you.

The debris continues to wash ashore on Reunion Island, but none of the other objects that were found this weekend have been linked to Flight MH-370. CNN's Erin McLaughlin is on scene with the latest. Good morning, Erin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the search is on not just here at Reunion Island but other islands as well, nearby Maritius, as well as Seychelles, which is over 1,200 miles away. he coast guard combing the water for clues. Now, this morning we heard from Malaysian's transportation minister tweeting out saying that this area is consistent with drift pattern analysis conducted by experts. So they're appealing to authorities for help in identifying any potential debris.

Over the weekend here on Reunion Island, volunteers working the beaches, trying to find any clues of MH-370, but it's difficult, painstaking work, especially when you consider that the ocean is vast and there's plenty of garbage, plenty of room for false alarm. In a nearby town of San Andre where they located that original flaperon, locals brought forward some 10 to 12 items. City officials there though discounting them as having nothing to do with the plane. But, you know, people here aren't discouraged; they're dedicated to helping to solve this mystery.

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Reunion Island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Erin, thank you for that.

Still to come here in the NEWSROOM, outrage continues to grow over the death of Cecil the lion. Now another American now standing accused of killing a second lion illegally in April. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:56] HARLOW: Officials in Zimbabwe now accusing a second American of illegally killing a lion. They say a Pennsylvania doctor took part in a hunt in April similar to the one that led to the death of Cecil, one of the country's most beloved lions. Meanwhile, the country of Zimbabwe pushing the United States to hand over dentist Dr. Palmer from Minnesota to Zimbabwe for trial because they say that he illegally tracked and killed Cecil.

CNN's David McKenzie is live in Johannesburg, South Africa, this morning. And, David, let's first address this second case now coming to light. This is involving an American doctor. Why are we just learning about it now if this hunt allegedly happened back in April?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very good question, Poppy. Good morning.

You know, the Zimbabwean parks authorities are saying that this hunter in April killed a lion illegally. They say they have arrested the safari group owner who was in charge of that hunt and they are using the terminology that it was somehow similar to the issue of Cecil the lion being killed. But it's interesting that it's taken so long for this to come out, because effectively until this past weekend the rules really hadn't changed very much. So if this person had been something illegal, one would have heard about it -- one would think, though, that you'd hear about it a few months ago.

But there's been an enormous amount of attention, spotlight on this country, on this issue of hunting, so that's perhaps why they're going through all their records and now -- and naming this doctor right now. But they haven't, in fact, put out any allegations specifically against this person. Poppy?

HARLOW: Right. Or his full name and identity.

Looking at Dr. Palmer out of Minnesota, the dentist that is wanted in Zimbabwe for killing Cecil the lion, look, there's been a White House petition that has now gotten 200,000 signatures to extradite him. Does it look, David, like the United States will extradite him to stand trial in Zimbabwe?

MCKENZIE: Well, look, never say never, Poppy, but in this case experts say it's probably unlikely that the U.S. will hand over Dr. Palmer to Zimbabwe for a couple reasons. One is the nature of this alleged offense. It is, of course, serious, the fact that it is a poaching offense, could get ten years in Zimbabwe, but, you know, it's not really in the realm of the kind of issues that would get someone sent out of their home country to a foreign country to face trial.

There's also the issue of Zimbabwe proper. The justice system there has been accused of rights abuses in their prisons. There are more than 80 people and institutions on the sanctions list in fact of the U.S. in Zimbabwe. So there is a bit of politics here I think in terms of accusing this second American. Whether it turns out to be that this person was acting legally or not, you know, they are scoring political points in Zimbabwe by pointing the finger to the U.S.

HARLOW: Yeah, it's a very important point.

[09:55:01] You have to think about the sort of ruler, Robert Mugabe there, and whether or not the U.S. wants a U.S. citizen tried in that justice system. There has been this extradition treaty since 2000 but I don't believe anyone from the U.S. has ever been extradited to Zimbabwe. So we'll see what happens in this case. And, again, no one has even heard directly from Dr. Palmer since all of this broke. David McKenzie, thank you.

Well, the next hour of NEWSROOM begins after a quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Good morning. I'm Poppy Harlow in today for Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me.

We begin this Monday morning with a story that is unnerving for any of you that boards an airplane. For the third time in three days, airline pilots are reporting a close call with an unmanned drone. This latest incident from last night once again at New York's JFK airport, one of the busiest air spaces in the nation.

[10:00:00] Let's bring in aviation correspondent Rene Marsh in Washington. Rene, this is an airport I fly in and out of a lot. So many people do.