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Minnesota Cops on ISIS List; Sea World: Current Orcas Will Be Our Last; Author: Single Women "The Most Powerful Voter". Aired 9:30- 10a ET

Aired March 17, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] HILARY ROSEN, ADVISER TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATL. COMMITTEE: To try and attack Donald Trump. And if he goes at substance, if he goes at credibility, if he goes at morals and ethics, you know, he has a history of business practices that will be significant fodder. And I think at this stage the Clinton campaign has to be somewhat respectful directly to Bernie Sanders and not only deal with Trump but people have to be ready. Trump is going to have a significant, aggressive campaign and I don't think that claiming sexism is going to be our answer every time. It's not going to work. The people we're trying to appeal to aren't going to be attracted to that. We already have the people who are most offended by sexist comments.

What we need to do is make sure that there's a counter balance about Trump's negatives. Every candidate has negatives, but elections are about choices and that's why we have to make this choice very clear. Not -- it's not a referendum on Hillary Clinton. Everybody knows Hillary Clinton. They know what she stands for. They know what she's fought for her whole career. It might end up being a referendum on Donald Trump, but it's clearly a choice.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK. So I just want to go back to Senator Warren for just a second because --

ROSEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: She is the only female Democratic senator that has not endorsed Clinton. She told CBS she has no timeline to endorse anyone. So, Tom, what do you think the holdup is?

TOM BEVAN, CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR, REALCLEARPOLITICS.COM: Well, the holdup is, I think Elizabeth Warren feels that Hillary Clinton is too close to Wall Street, and that's something -- a feeling that I think Bernie Sanders and a lot of his supporters share. And that -- I mean Hilary makes a great point, this general election, you are going to have two candidates that have significant vulnerabilities and weaknesses and high negatives, but at the same time you also have a candidate in Donald Trump who is breaking all the political rules and who could really scramble the political map. I mean he's going to do very well with works class whites, with men in particular. That's Hillary Clinton's biggest weakness. And so it could be a fascinating general election to watch.

COSTELLO: I'm sure it will be that.

Hilary Rosen, Tom Bevan, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a chilling ISIS-linked hit -- a chilling ISIS-linked hit list targets at least 30 Minnesota police officers. Now the FBI is involved.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:36:22] COSTELLO: Right now the FBI is investigating an ISIS-linked kill list targeting at least 32 Minnesota police officers. The list was apparently compiled by a cyber group called the Caliphate Cyber Army. It includes personal information like the officers' full names, their home and e-mail addresses and personal phone numbers.

CNN's Ryan Young is covers this for us.

Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Look, this is obviously a scary story. We're told it could be up to as many as 36 members of police departments all across Minnesota and that this list has been posted online. They call this a kill list. And so far we know the FBI is investigating. But we know, like you just said, the phone number, the e-mail addresses, the personal home addresses to these officers.

Now, we do believe, we learned from an affiliate, that this e-mail list may have been gathered through a hack of the Minnesota Police Officers Association, where officers were trying to get auto quotes and that information fell into the hands of these hackers who posted it online. Obviously, the FBI is concerned and, in fact, they talked about this investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLE LOVEN, FBI SPOKESMAN: We know we have a unique situation where we've had several young people who have left the state in order to join terrorist organizations. It's something that factors into our calculous as we go about our business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Carol, of course, we've been to Minnesota a couple of times to talk about the idea there's heavy recruitment in that area. There's a large population of people from obviously who have moved all over the world to Minnesota. So they're looking at this and they're trying to talk with that community just about what's going on.

Now, so far we do know that they're looking into this case, but what they're worried about is lone wolf actors who could take this information and try to go out and kind of do something that obviously nobody wants to see. I was talking to several officer groups offline yesterday just about the idea of this. One officer telling me, look, this is their worst fear because you're publishing home addresses here, so now you're putting their family at play. This is something that everyone, obviously, is taking very seriously. COSTELLO: All right, Ryan Young -- Ryan Young reporting live from

Chicago. Thank you.

I want to bring you back to Capitol Hill now. The Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, is testifying on Capitol Hill about the Flint water crisis. Let's listen.

REP. MATT CARTWRIGHT (D), PENNSYLVANIA: More combined. Do you admit that?

GOV. RICK SNYDER, MICHIGAN: Yes, and that's why I provided a table that shows a number of these cases were at healthcare facilities.

CARTWRIGHT: You do?

SNYDER: In terms of the numbers, there were 87 cases between that period.

CARTWRIGHT: You admit here today that even after the whole world knew that Flint residents --

SNYDER: (INAUDIBLE) --

CARTWRIGHT: Were exposed to unimaginable levels of lead, you did not declare a state of emergency until January 2016. Isn't that true?

SNYDER: I took immediate action as soon as I learned there was a lead issue. We started issuing filters to people, doing water testing, doing blood testing. And to be open with you --

CARTWRIGHT: Governor Snyder --

SNYDER: I wish more would have been done.

CARTWRIGHT: Plausible deniability only works when it's plausible. And I'm not buying that you didn't know about any of this until October 2015. You were not in a medically induced coma for a year. And I've had about enough of your false contrition and your phony apologies. Susan Hedman from the EPA bears not one tenth of the responsibility of the state of Michigan and your administration and she resigned and there you are, dripping with guilt, but drawing your paycheck, hiring lawyers at the expense of the people and doing your dead-level best to spread accountability to others and not being accountable. It's not appropriate. Pretty soon we will have men who strike their wives saying, I'm sorry, dear, but there were failures at all levels.

People who put dollars over the fundamental safety of the people do not belong in government. And you need to resign, too, Governor Snyder.

[09:40:08] And I yield back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gentlemen yields back.

Now recognize the gentlemen from Michigan, Mr. Amash, for five minutes. REP. JUSTIN AMASH (R), MICHIGAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Administrator McCarthy. And I'd like to welcome you, Governor Snyder, and thank you for your willingness to appear before this committee.

COSTELLO: All right, so you can see the tenor of this -- this Capitol Hill hearing on the Flint water crisis.

You know, in his opening statement, Governor Snyder said that he didn't want to point political fingers, and he said that it was a breakdown of government on all levels, local, state and federal. He didn't want to point fingers and he said that this tragedy weighs on him every single night. But as you can hear -- as you can -- as you heard, the Democrats on that panel aren't buying that. We'll continue to monitor that hearing for you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Sea Word vows to critics the major changes it's making to its killer whale program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:23] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Sea World is making major waves this is morning after announcing it's ending its controversial killer whale program. Sea World says it will no longer breed orcas and the current generation of whales swimming in its parks will be the last. The park has been under pressure to change its orca program since the release of CNN's documentary, "BLACKFISH" in 2013. The film detailed Sea World's treatment of killer whales.

CNN's Martin Savidge has covered what's become really a publicity nightmare for Sea World but now things are changing. Good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well they are. Good morning, Carol. This is absolutely astounding news for animal advocacy groups. They are thrilled and they are overjoyed because this is something, of course, as you mentioned, that they have been fighting Sea World for not just for a couple of years but actually for decades. And so Sea World is essentially saying, OK, we are going to stop breeding these killer whales in captivity.

Well, once you stop the breeding program, then you pretty much have announced that you are ending the whole program of using these animals as displays as using them for entertainment. They say what they plan to do now is focus more on educating the public and also talking about how these creatures live in the wild until eventually those creatures, of course, will live out their naturally lives. Sea World put out a statement this morning, it reads like this.

Sea World has been listening and we are changing. Society is changing and we are changing with it. Sea World is finding new ways to continue to deliver on our purpose to inspire all our guests to take action to protect wild animals and wild places. Now, all of this came to a head pretty much with CNN's documentary, "BLACKFISH". As a result of the airing of that documentary, Sea World saw a dramatic decline in the number of people going to its parks. It saw decline in its revenue, and most important of all, a decline in its stock prices. It got a new CEO a little over a year ago and it appears that these changes are as a result of this new leadership. They were polling people at their parks and they saw that the orca program definitely was a negative in the minds of many of the public, especially children, and it's the children that tend to tell the parents where they want to go and to what parks, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Joining me now, Howard Garrett. He's the co-founder of the Orca Network and a killer whale researcher. He was interviewed for that CNN documentary, "BLACKFISH". Good morning.

HOWARD GARRETT, CO-FOUNDER, THE ORCA NETWORK: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Is this a win for you?

GARRETT: Well, it's very gratifying. It's what we've been asking for for more than two decades so it's great to wake up in the morning and find out Sea World has become an animal welfare organization.

COSTELLO: So Sea World says it's not going to release its current crop of orcas into the wild. Some people might say, well why not?

GARRETT: Well I do think we need to try to push them a little further because it's subtle and it's case by case but there are ways that many, if not all of the captives, even all of the captain-borns, can be transferred to naturally settings, to sea pens, along coastlines where they can actually feel the natural currents and their own natural habitat that they have evolved for for millions of years, and it will be familiar to them. They will be able to survive in various ways, but they won't be able to go out into the wild ocean and bond with any of the wild whales, so there are big limitations, but they could go a whole lot further. And I would also like to see the organization begin to trend toward real realistic educational displays that are also fantastic and fascinating and would bring in big revenues.

COSTELLO: Like what, sir?

GARRETT: Well, I'm thinking holograms and virtual realities and all kinds of sort of digitally enhanced experiences that attendees could have that are available. The wizards of Hollywood can certainly create these kind of experiences that could be truly educational, actually place the viewer into the natural habitats in a wraparound world with sounds and spray and smells and the whole world of being in the ocean could be replicated in these parks and I think that would be a beautiful thing.

[09:50:01] COSTELLO: I think it's a fascinating idea but you know, you still have to wonder, Sea World, without the whales, without the shows, you know, once -- once the whales that Sea World have right now die, right? So it's hard to think that Sea World will manage to survive after that.

GARRETT: Well, it is true, they will have to completely revamp their business model and they're doing that. I mean, today's announcement seems to be a sign that they have turned a big corner and they have begun to bend with the winds that have been blowing them down. They have been breaking for half a dozen years since the whole "Blackfish" experience began to come out. And they are going to have to go a little further, I think. But they are going to resurrect their brand and their image and credibility with this announcement today and I think they can do a whole lot more in years to come.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Howard Garrett, Orca Network co-founder. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. Still to come in the news room, single women, why one author says they could be the most powerful political force this election season.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:20] COSTELLO: They could end up being the most powerful voter in this year's presidential election. I'm talking about single women, and Hillary Clinton knows that. It's why she turned up on comedy central's broad city, a show about two single women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Holy --

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to drum up some excitement for the campaign, do everything that we possibly can. You know what I'll do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is that?

CLINTON: I thought this would be really good for office morale.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That's pretty funny. All right, that's right, this year's presidential election could come down to the single American woman.

According to -- Rebecca, you're making me laugh. According to writer Rebecca Traister, the author of this powerful New York magazine article, that's because, quote, single women are taking up space in a world that was not designed for them. They make up a new republic, a new kind of category citizen. If the country, is to flourish, we must make room for free women and let go of the economic and social systems built around the presumption that no woman really counts unless she is married. With me now, author of, "All the Single Ladies", Rebecca Traister. Welcome. Nice to have you here.

REBECCA TRAISTER, AUTHOR, ALL THE SINGLE LADIES: Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: You know, we usually hear labels put on women, you know, like soccer moms and welfare queens and Beyonce voters and security moms, we never hear labels being applied to male voters. Why is that?

TRAISTER: Well, because male voters are just voters. In the United States, white manhood is humanity and then everything else is kind of a separate category. COSTELLO: But you're not putting a label on single women voters,

right?

TRAISTER: No, part of what I'm saying is they are also human. They are also a new category of inhabitants in the United States and that they're taking up space and the country really was a system, its economic and social policies have been built around the presumption that we're organized in these hetero married units, and that's simply not the way that most Americans live anymore. And so, one of the things you're seeing reflected in the issues in the presidential election is that we need to rethink our policies in terms of how we would support more women and men living independently of marriage.

COSTELLO: Yes, and I think that we have to change our perception of who the single woman is because in elections past, I think it was assumed that a single woman, she lived with a child and she was on welfare.

TRAISTER: Yes, that is the case for many single women. Well, they live with children, that's increasingly a norm. But singlehood, many years spent outside of marriage, either in advance of it or never getting married, is now is increasingly a norm across classes, across races, across ethnicities, and across the country. It really is increasingly the way that women are living for decades, if not their entire lives.

COSTELLO: So you really think that single women could decide this election?

TRAISTER: Well, they could play a huge part in it. In 2012, they were 23 percent of the electorate, and they voted for Barack Obama, 67 percent to 31 percent over Mitt Romney, and this year, there are projections that suggest there could be more unmarried women voters than married women voters. Getting them to the polls is a challenge. There are all kinds of reasons why single women have trouble voting with the consistency that married women.

COSTELLO: And are you talking about single women across all age groups? Because there's that sentiment out there that young women are gravitating towards Bernie Sanders and they're not appealing to Hillary Clinton, but is that really true?

TRAISTER: Well, what's going to be true in the general election is that they're going to gravitate, probably in enormous numbers, to whichever Democratic candidate is the nominee. And it really depends, in the early states, single women gravitated hugely to Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. Those were, of course, the predominantly white states where he's found so much of his intense support. Unmarried women in South Carolina and some of the Super Tuesday states, especially nonwhite single women, have gravitated towards Hillary Clinton. So it's evened out a little bit, but yes, initially, Bernie had the real advantage, I think because he was offering a more aspirationally left vision, and that is in part something closer to a Nordic model of a social democracy. That is actually something that would be good for the new way in which Americans are organized and I think, whether or not they're politically conscious about it, this is something that unmarried women understand, that some of the social programs and economic benefits that he's imagining --

COSTELLO: So are these women at all attracted to Donald Trump?

TRAISTER: Not so far. There's not a lot of reasons so far for them to be, in fact, he's trafficking in a lot of pretty blatant misogyny in terms of his campaign rhetoric.