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FBI: Clinton Was "Extremely Careless" With E-mails; FBI: Possible "Hostile Actors" Hacked Clinton E-mails; Ryan: Republicans Want FBI Director To Testify; Trump: Clinton Bribed U.S. Attorney General; EgyptAir Voice Recorder Indicates Fire Before Crash; Terror Attack On Prophet Muhammad's Grave; Moghul: ISIS Attacks Stem From "Demented Theology."; Researching Zika. Olympic Concerns In Brazil. Aired 1-2 ET.
Aired July 06, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:15] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hit the campaign trail just hours after the FBI recommends no charges over her e-mail scandal.
SESAY: Plus, the changing face of ISIS. Research shows new terrorist recruits don't always fit the stereotype.
VAUSE: And one healthy twin, the younger with the Zika virus. How this case could help other parents learn if their babies are at risk.
SESAY: Hello and thank you for joining us. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.
Big day in U.S. politics with President Barack Obama hitting the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for the first time.
SESAY: Yes indeed. At a rally in North Carolina, Mr. Obama explained why he's supporting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee so strongly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have run my last campaign. And I couldn't be prouder of the things we've done together, but I'm ready to pass the baton. And I know that Hillary Clinton is going to take it, and I know she can run that race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The joint appearance came just hours after FBI director, James Comey, said Clinton and her aides were extremely careless with classified information.
SESAY: But the FBI still won't recommend criminal charges. Senior Washington Correspondent, Joe Johns, has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The long awaited results of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of private e- mail servers, no FBI recommendation of criminal charges to the Justice Department.
JAMES COMEY, DIRECTOR, FBI: We believe our investigation has been sufficient to give us reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct.
JOHNS: While the announcement all but assures the presumptive Democratic nominee is free from the threat of prosecution, she got no free pass from the FBI.
COMEY: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.
JOHNS: Comey slamming Clinton for failing to exercise good judgment in one of the most sensitive government jobs in the world.
COMEY: There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about those matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.
JOHNS: Comey's announcement coming just days after FBI investigators interviewed Clinton this past weekend, and less than a week after a political (inaudible) after former president Bill Clinton met privately with Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. The FBI director publicly rebutting what Clinton has been saying since last March, about those classified e-mails.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e-mail. There is no classified material.
COMEY: 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received.
JOHNS: Whether Clinton's private e-mail system was secure enough.
CLINTON: Well, the system we used was set up for President Clinton's office and it had numerous safeguards. It was on property, guarded by the secret service, and there were no security breeches.
COMEY: She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States including sending and receiving work related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal e-mail account.
JOHNS: But ultimately concluding charges were not warranted.
COMEY: Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.
JOHNS: With the announcement, the FBI director lifted a legal cloud that has hung over Hillary Clinton's campaign since she first entered the race. But the public rebuke that came along with it was so harsh that it could follow the candidate all the way to November. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Not surprisingly, Clinton's campaign says it's pleased the matter is now resolved.
SESAY: But House Speaker Paul Ryan told Fox News, Republicans now want to hear from FBI director James Comey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:05] REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're going to have hearings. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, is going to be calling up James Comey to ask questions. He didn't answer any questions with the press and our Judiciary Committee has sent a number of questions. There are a lot of unanswered questions here, Megyn, that need to get answered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Round two now with Democratic strategist Matthew Littman and conservative analyst and radio talk show host, Larry Elder. What we heard from Donald Trump, he did go after the FBI. He says that this decision by the FBI not to pursue criminal charges is proof that the system is rigged. Then he went even further, suggesting that the Attorney General may have been paid off by Hillary Clinton in some way. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She said today that we may consider the Attorney General to go forward. That's like a bribe, isn't it? Isn't that sort of a bribe? I think it's a bribe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Is that going a bit too far when you say the Attorney General may have been paid off in return for a VP slot?
LARRY ELDER, CONSERVATIVE ANALYST: I think it is a reflection of how astonished he is at the case that Comey laid out. I mean, it was as thorough and persuasive an opening argument in a criminal case as I've ever seen. And then all of a sudden, I'm not going to recommend criminal charges? I think what Donald Trump is saying is that I am just astounded. We're talking about --
VAUSE: No, he's saying the attorney general was bribed.
ELDER: We're talking about a case of the Secretary of State who had a private server, who sent and received classified information even though she denied that she did. He laid it out, basically called her a liar, and then all of a sudden, now she's guilty of what did he call it? Extreme carelessness. And the statute requires gross negligence? They're the same to me. And so Donald Trump and I are in the same camp. I'm just amazed that she got away with it.
SESAY: Amazed is one thing. But Matt, to bring you in here -- amazed is one thing, but then to go so far as to say that the Attorney General may have been paid off?
MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well there are a lot of conspiracy theories in the Donald Trump world, right? It starts with the anti-vaccination stuff, and he goes right through it. There are a lot of things that Donald Trump says to appeal to people that you would be shocked that somebody would want to try to appeal to. The conspiracy theory with Loretta Lynch that Hillary's offering her a job so that's why this happens, obviously just part of the game that Trump has been playing all along.
ELDER: Conspiracy theory?
LITTMAN: Yes. There are a lot of conspiracy theories --
ELDER: There are a lot of people who believe that tarmac meeting was a violation of the (inaudible) ethics. She shouldn't have done it. Even she said she shouldn't have done it. And by the way --
LITTMAN: Is that what Donald Trump was talking about today?
ELDER: This business about questioning where Barack Obama is from, that he's not from Hawaii, as she tweeted when Hillary made her speech, if you're tweeting, he's from Hawaii, Hillary said -- that started with the Hillary campaign, questioning whether or not he was from Hawaii --
VAUSE: OK, we're going back to 2007 now.
LITTMAN: -- the conspiracy theory stuff where Donald Trump did say that he was --
ELDER: Republicans are racists, Republicans are homophobes, many of these kinds of things start with Democrats. In 2008, Matthew, it was the Hillary campaign that raised the issue that he was not from Hawaii --
VAUSE: Actually, it started with "Inside" magazine and it actually did not come from the Clinton camp because I remember going to Indonesia and going to the school where he went to as a boy. So let's --
ELDER: John Heilemann is the co-author of "Game Change". He said so on the "Morning Joe" show that it came from the Clinton camp.
VAUSE: That's been settled. Let's move on.
LITTMAN: You're trying to say that Donald Trump is not a conspiracy theorist?
ELDER: I didn't say he didn't take it to another level. I'm just saying it started with Clinton.
SESAY: Let's move forward --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just stipulate it started with Clinton.
ELDER: He didn't realize he did but he did.
VAUSE: First time Obama hit the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton. He said he's happy to hand the baton over to the former secretary of state but not before he took that baton and beat up Donald Trump with it. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We were in a hole before I came into office but right now the rest of the world thinks we're pretty darn great. And by the way, you can look that up. That's a fact. That's not like just something I just made up and tweeted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LITTMAN: Well you know what's interesting is, Bill Clinton didn't campaign with Al Gore, right? Presidents -- the people running for president, the President usually doesn't get involved. Ronald Reagan and George Bush -- the President usually doesn't get involved. One thing that Hillary has going for her in this case, aside from the fact that the latest poll has her up by 13 points, is that Barack Obama's popularity is really high right now for a sitting president, where it was when Osama bin Laden was killed. That is very high, it's about 55 percent, 56 percent. So there's no wonder. But I will say this, today -- I don't think Hillary's going to be campaigning with Obama that much because he was fantastic today and he kind of outshined her.
SESAY: And to that point, Larry, to pick up on what he was saying about the President's performance, is this the day that Republicans have dreaded or have been looking forward to? Because, I mean, the President is a gifted orator. His charisma on the campaign trail is well known. Your feelings now that he's firmly in the race with both feet?
[01:10:05] ELDER: Well, I certainly assume that he wanted to make sure that his predecessor carried on his legacy and that person is Hillary. But regarding his popularity, he's not nearly as popular as Bill Clinton was, for example, at this juncture in his second term. Obama still has records that show that most Americans feel that we're on the wrong track economically, we're on the wrong track in terms of foreign policy, and given the fact that Hillary has not made any major criticism, or even minor criticism, of his economic policy, the question is, what gives her the right to have four more years in the minds of a lot of voters?
VAUSE: You bring that up. A lot of Obama's speech focused on what Democrats have done overt last couple years, everything from climate change to immigration, and also this on the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: And over the past six years, our businesses have created more than 14 million new jobs. We cut the unemployment rate in half. Manufacturing jobs have grown for the first time since another President Clinton was in office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, Matt, those numbers are right, but as Larry was saying, the vast majority of Americans believe this country's going in the wrong direction, and you bring that up, and most people sort of say, I don't get it, I don't agree with it.
LITTMAN: Well there are two things happening here. One is Barack Obama's popularity is very high. Number one.
ELDER: Compared to his popularity or lack thereof before, yes.
LITTMAN: No, actually, 55 percent, 56 percent. Where was George Bush's popularity?
VAUSE: 33 percent.
LITTMAN: OK. That's 33 percent versus 55 percent, 56 percent --
ELDER: Iraq war.
LITTMAN: Right. OK. That's the last Republican president. But getting back into where Barack Obama is now, very popular as far as presidents go. You go into Donald Trump, no one wants to campaign with Donald Trump. We're getting into the Republican Convention time.
ELDER: Oh, come on.
LITTMAN: People don't want to show up at the Republican convention. I was on Capitol Hill a couple weeks ago, these Republican offices, Republicans from Ohio saying, I'm too busy campaigning for my own seat to go to the Republican Convention.
SESAY: Is that true?
ELDER: Despite all the things that Matt is saying, it's amazing to me that some polls show this race within the margin of error. Despite all the things said -- Clinton has very high negatives. People don't trust her. Again -- the economy. This is the worst economic recovery of a lifetime for most people watching this show right now --
LITTMAN: It came off the worst economy since the Great Depression.
ELDER: Oh, come on. LITTMAN: Well you can say oh, come on, but that is what happened.
ELDER: The economy that Reagan had, higher unemployment, higher inflation --
LITTMAN: This is the worst economy since the depression. You don't know that? Can I ask you something?
ELDER: Higher unemployment, higher inflation, higher interest rates --
LITTMAN: Larry Elder. He's going to be at the Republican convention. That's about it.
ELDER: The worst that unemployment got under Obama was --
LITTMAN: Are you telling me that people want to campaign with Donald Trump?
ELDER: May I finish? The worst unemployment got under Ronald Reagan was 10.8. 13.5 percent inflation. Interest rates, 21.5 percent. This is nothing like that. And it's unfair for the media to call this the great recession. They should have called Ronald Reagan the greatest recession but they don't because of media bias.
VAUSE: It was an eight percent contraction in the economy, the biggest since the Great Depression.
LITTMAN: Are you saying people want to campaign with --
ELDER: I'm saying they will.
LITTMAN: When? We've got 3.5 months left. They could all campaign with him now. Why aren't they?
ELDER: They will. You've already had Marco Rubio come out and support him.
LITTMAN: Is he campaigning with him?
ELDER: We'll see.
VAUSE: We will see. Who knows. And there are people who do want to be Trump's vice president. There are people who will turn up.
ELDER: Most people will not turn down the offer if it's made, despite what they say.
VAUSE: Larry Elder, Matt Littman. It was great having you guys.
SESAY: Always a pleasure. Thank you.
VAUSE: Thanks, Larry.
See? All's well that ends well. SESAY: You should see what happens when they leave the room. Time
for a quick break. Next on NEWSROOM L.A., during a string of terror attacks around the world, a different picture of the militants is forming. Coming up, a closer look at who's joining ISIS.
VAUSE: Also ahead, a long-awaited report into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war being released shortly. What it could mean to the U.K.'s already troubled politics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KATE RILEY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN WORLD SPORT headlines. We are under 24 hours away from the first semifinal of the European Championships. Portugal just one step away from the final, but they haven't made it easy for themselves. They've yet to win a match in 90 minutes so far. Opponents, Wales, are on their best ever run in a major tournament. They meet in Lyon on Wednesday. All the prematch talk has inevitably been about the Real Madrid teammates, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale going up against each other in what surely represents their best opportunity to win some silverware for their country.
The Williams sisters have both advanced in the Wimbledon semifinals. Serena, who needs another major triumph to equal Steffi Graf's all- time mark of 22, made easy work of Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She took the match in straight sets. The 36-year-old Venus needed a tiebreak to take the opening set against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova before cruising to the second (ph) 16.
German rival, Marcel Kittle, has won stage four of the Tour de France in a dramatic photo finish. The margin between Kittle and the Frenchman behind him on the line looks like a matter of inches. The Slovakian Peter Sagan made third and retains the overall lead. And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: And welcome back. The cockpit voice recorder on EgyptAir flight 804 is revealing new clues about the plane's final moments.
SESAY: It shows there was a fire on the plane before it went down and an attempt to put it out. Investigators are trying to figure out what caused the fire. The plane crashed in the Mediterranean Sea in May, killing all 66 people on board.
VAUSE: Iraq's interior minister is stepping down just days after the deadliest single terror attack since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
SESAY: About 250 people were killed when a suicide truck bomb blew up in a crowded Baghdad shopping area Saturday. People had gathered to celebrate Ramadan.
VAUSE: More details are emerging about what went on during that deadly standoff in a Bangladesh cafe on Friday.
SESAY: In an exclusive interview, the cafe's owner described what his employees told him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what we hear from our staff accounts, that they stood with their backs to each other and then were firing at the foreigners and a couple of people, also others there who they weren't sure about. Said they were unusually calm, like almost like army officers, that they seemed to be very at ease with weapons. They seemed to know what they're doing. They asked one of our staff for the wi-fi password. That's when they used a torch and they took pictures. Apparently, they were very keen to get this message out, that the mission was accomplished, to their -- whoever their higher chain of command or whatever was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but Bangladeshi authorities say they were homegrown terrorists instead. Kyung Lah has more on the shifting makeup of ISIS-inspired recruits.
KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Isha, Bangladeshi officials say that the profile here of these killers is so puzzling because they seem so ordinary. But global experts say increasingly, ordinary is the profile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: The chaos in a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 23 innocent victims brutally murdered. Investigators describe the five killers as normal young men. Like Meer Sameh Mubashir. He attended a private university and had an upper middle-class family who loved him, a family who did not know their 18-year-old son had a role in the attack until they saw this picture -- Mubashir holding a gun, posted online by ISIS, the terror group naming the killers as theirs.
[01:20:11] MEER HAYET KABIR, FATHER OF DHAKA ATTACKER: This is not my son. He's only 18. He's caring boy. He's a family boy. We have been very close family. Somebody has picked him up. It is not his own decision.
LAH: Homegrown militants inspired by ISIS increasingly defying stereotypes of radicalization.
TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Politicians like to say oh, they're disadvantaged youth and they're disaffected and all of that kind of stuff. And in many, many cases, that's not true.
LAH: Recent studies show more than 70 percent of ISIS recruits come from middle-class or wealthier families, and that's a trend that's been growing since 9/11. Osama bin Laden inherited millions before forming al-Qaeda. His number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was an eye surgeon. 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, an architect.
The Boston marathon bombing, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was a UMass Dartmouth student. His brother Tamerlan was a golden gloves boxing champion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This knife will become your nightmare.
LAH: The once masked face of ISIS who the world would call Jihadi John, graduated in computing from a British university. He was eventually killed in a drone strike.
And in San Bernardino and Orlando, the killers in both attacks had children and steady jobs. Experts say, to understand why educated, middle-class people become homegrown terrorists, think of ISIS not just as a criminal organization but a cult, like the branch Davidians. Many members ordinary Americans, brainwashed, who died wanting to belong to something greater, drawn by a charismatic leader with a powerful message. Today, ISIS has its message shared on social media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't stop the messaging, that's got to be priority number one. Those messages go out to the world, to their cult of zombies who are out there, and basically the message is, kill, and they do it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: So how do you fight it? You have to isolate the source of the message that you see with the fight on the ground in Iraq and Syria with ISIS, but there's also a societal challenge to stop thinking that there's a particular profile when it comes to education or income. John, Isha --
SESAY: Thanks to Kyung Lah for that.
Well, one of the most symbolically shocking attacks during Ramadan was a suicide bombing in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
VAUSE: It's the resting place of the prophet Muhammad and the second holiest site in Islam. Four people were killed in a parking lot outside the prophet's mosque.
SESAY: Joining me now is Haroon Moghul. He is a senior fellow and director of development at the Center for Global Policy. Haroon, welcome, and thank you so much for joining us. Now, while ISIS hasn't claimed responsibility for the attack in Medina, Saudi Arabia, it is widely believed that they are behind what happened. So let me ask you this -- why would ISIS, the self-proclaimed defenders of Islam, strike the prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina, one of the holiest sites in Islam, during Ramadan?
HAROON MOGHUL, SENIOR FELLOW AND DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, CENTER FOR GLOBAL POLICY: It seems to me like ISIS operates basically on two principles. One is, they exaggerate their strength through shocking displays of brutality. So sex slavery, attempting genocide, burning people alive, throwing people off of buildings. They continue to really outdo themselves in the enormities that they practice and pursue and then videotape and share with the rest of the world. But also, a lot of it appears to be emerging from their own demented theology and I can see that they're so far gone now that they basically find the entire Islamic world to be their enemy. I don't know how exactly you convince someone who is ostensibly Muslim to attempt to blow up the tomb of the prophet Muhammad, but I can certainly see how their logic leads in that direction, unfortunately.
SESAY: So what do you anticipate will be Saudi's response to this? Obviously as the custodians of the holy site, they're going to want to hit back. But what are their options here?
MOGHUL: Well, they don't have a lot of options because ISIS is an exaggeration of their own theology. Now it's an unfortunate fact for many people who try to defend Wahhabism from this, that the only country's textbooks that ISIS uses in its educational institutions are Saudi Arabian. There's a reason for that. ISIS is basically challenging Saudi Arabia on its own ideology. It's a more exaggerated and more -- purer version of that ideology. So the problem Saudi Arabia has is that you can't really fight someone who claims to be a more honest and sincere version of you. The only way you're going to get change in the region is if you see some element of opening up of meritocracy, of tolerance, of pluralism, and I can't see that happening. And so for a lot of Muslims right now and a lot of people in the region, you're stuck between ISIS and a hard place. You're stuck between radical extremists and then radical dictatorships. And people are basically throwing up their hands. But that doesn't spare them from the kind of violence we're seeing. And now it's reached the point where it's struck the second holiest city in Islam.
[01:25:05] SESAY: Yes. I mean we have seen an outpouring of condemnation across the Muslim world. Is this the moment, though, as people try to grapple with truly what ISIS has become, is this the moment where we see Shia Iran on the same page with Sunni Saudi Arabia and a united Muslim front against ISIS, at least militarily?
MOGHUL: I would hope so. Look, the only way that this is going to be defeated is if people in these different parts of the world, from Bangladesh to Turkey to Pakistan, to Iraq, to Saudi Arabia, all these different people can come together and say that they need to construct institutions and mechanisms and policies that are big enough to face what is in effect a global threat. So you're going to need to see the development of a global Muslim consciousness. Now I think that's some way off, but I think you're actually exactly right, that this is that moment. I mean, there have been so many attacks in the last few weeks, and this one right before the conclusion of Ramadan is really I think for many people the proof that ISIS isn't just evil and dangerous but that it's committed to the destruction of Islam as we know it, understand it, and practice it.
Now, the response to it I think is twofold. The first is, there are some people for whom ISIS is an authentic expression of Islam. That is, on the face of it, absurd, because I cannot imagine a single definition of Islam that can justify the murder of innocent people. The means do not justify the ends in Islam, period. That is not allowed. The second is, ISIS is sort of a Muslim nationalist movement, this sort of attempt to defend Muslims as an ethnic category so they bring in Muslims from all over the world. But that on the face of it as well is false because the majority of their victims are Muslims and they've literally done nothing for the Muslim world except bring death, destruction, and despair to the Muslim world. They've not done a single thing positive like pretty much every radical movement in the Muslim world, to actually alleviate the suffering or concerns of Muslims. They're actually a bigger burden on the Muslim world than the people they claim to be fighting against.
SESAY: Haroon Moghul, we must leave it. Appreciate your time this evening. Thank you so much for the insight.
MOGHUL: Thank you.
VAUSE: Good point right at the end. Next here on NEWSROOM L.A., a set of twins in Brazil could hold the key to helping scientists find a cure for the Zika virus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
ISHA SESAY, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour:
VAUSE: The FBI recommends no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of private email servers while she was Secretary of State, but the bureau's director called Clinton and her aides extremely careless with classified information. Clinton's republican rival Donald Trump said the decision proves the system is rigged.
Data from the cockpit voice recorder on Egyptair flight 804 shows someone on board trying to put out a fire just moments before the plane went down. Investigators are trying to figure out what caused that crash. The plane crashed into the Mediterranean in May, killing 66 people.
SESAY: The death toll in the suicide bombing in Bagdad has risen to 250, 200 others are wounded. Iraq's interior minister resigned Tuesday. There is growing anger that terror attacks continue despite government's assurances it would end when ISIS was forced from Fallujah.
VAUSE: Brazil is just a month away from hosting the 2016 Olympic games, but fears of the Zika virus are keeping a number of high profile athletes at home.
SESAY: the mosquito borne illness is linked to birth defects. Now researchers hope that a set of twins could help find new ways to fight the disease. Nick Paton Walsh explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Inside this tiny home may be an answer to unraveling the horror of Zika. Jacqueline and her twins born exactly at the same time of the same mother into different lives. Lucas, six months, is huge and unstoppable, full of energy, full of new wonder at life. Yet Laura, his twin, has microcephaly. She hasn't grown as fast, and even her cries are silent. She cannot breastfeed.
JACQUELINE (VIA TRANSLATOR): She can't crawl, sit, hold her neck up or grab objects. WALSH: Jacqueline didn't know she caught Zika until three months
after they were born. Laura had the virus in her blood, but Lucas didn't at all. Doctors think their genes may contain a vital discovery about why Laura was susceptible to the disease.
JACQUELINE (VIA TRANSLATOR): No one asks God for a special needs child, but we feel privileged that if they find the resistance gene we could help other children.
WALSH: This health team spread across Brazil like in this Rio suburb to clamp down on mosquitoes and stagnant water ahead the Olympics. Doctors are looking at six sets of twins, one each pair with Zika, one without. If these researchers can find the genes, then maybe they will be able to make pregnancy here less terrifying.
UNKNOWN MALE: If we can pinpoint what are the variables, what are the genes involved, we could have a test that could test all the mothers that got pregnant and say you are at risk or you are not risk.
WALSH: In Recife, where the disease has hit hardest, science is racing to catch up. Here they are researching the real enemy, the mosquito, and discovering that perhaps the government is missing something in its war on one breed of the insect. The stagnant water- loving Aedes aegypti.
WALSH, ON TAPE: What is the most important discovery you've made?
UNKNOWN FEMALE: That there are probably other species involved in Zika transmission besides the Aedes aegypti. Another very common mosquito, called the culex.
WALSH: So the government only has part of the picture by saying it's one breed of mosquito. You've found it in another one.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Yes. And this one is much more common than aegypti, and that's the problem.
WALSH: and it's more dangerous, because it breeds anywhere, right?
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Yes, and it's in much more countries, like the United States and Australia and other countries in Europe.
WALSH: Here, she walks into where they've managed to infect the culex with the Zika in the laboratory. By looking to see if it passes the virus to its offspring. And she says that in some places where there has been Zika, there is no Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, but there are culex. Could the Brazilian government's main efforts missed out some key mosquitoes? A frightening journey of discovery where questions mount. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN South Paolo, Brazil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For more on Rio's problems we are joined now by David Wallechinsky, he is president of the International Society of Olympic Historians. And Dave is in the south of France which is nice in summer. Ok, 30 days to go, and the president of the organizing committee, and he is thrilled. This is what he had to say. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNKNOWN MALE: We are exhilarated to reach this very stage, receiving a full support and with the certainty that nothing has changed. The games could even start today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The games could even start today. What can he see that no one else can see? Because even the New York Times is reporting now that the venues are not ready, contrary to what we were told months ago.
WALLECHINSKY: Yes, I think he will be really exhilarated the day after the closing ceremony. That will be the great relief I think to organizers. I can't imagine what he's seeing. For me, somebody going down there, I won't be able to tell just the status of the venues until I get there. Because what you have, as you just heard, is the officials telling you everything is ok, the media telling you everything is terrible, and sometimes one is right and sometimes the other. This will be my seventeenth Olympics. So it's not until you arrive that you really see what's going on.
VAUSE: Ok. There is also the question of security. The police have warned, you know, welcome to hell. They can't guarantee tourists will in fact be safe, and while they won't be officially directly involved in Olympic security, it will be left to the army and the navy to do that. The mayor of Rio did say this about the police to CNN. Here we go:
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNKNOWN MALE: I think they do a terrible job of security. They do a terrible job before the games, during the games and after the games. Fortunately they are not going to be the ones responsible for security during the games.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: What does it say when the mayor of the host city says the police are terrible?
WALLECHINSKY: Yes, that's kind of a bad sign, particularly the mayor. He is obviously having some labor problems there. You've heard that the police, the firefighters and even teachers are complaining that they are not getting paid. So you can understand how they might be upset. I think the one concern that we've seen in other Olympics and certainly even bigger here in Rio, is that you can have 85,000 soldiers at the Olympic venues, but what about the rest of the city? Where there are soft targets or crime? And certainly a lot of us going down there have been warned about street crime. I was there during the World Cup two years ago. I didn't have a problem, but things have gotten a lot worse since then.
VAUSE: And David, we've heard a lot about the Zika virus, now comes word of a drug resistant bacteria which is growing off Rio's beaches. Should visitors and athletes add that to the list of stuff to be worried about?
WALLECHINSKY: The one for the athletes that really concerns me, and I think it is a scandal, is a situation in Guanabara Bay, which is where the sailing water and the rowing is going to be, is polluted. It's awful. And there is no excuse for that. When I was down there two years ago, sailors were telling me just go 50 km in a different direction, we have completely clean water. It's completely a question of corruption about why they're holding these events there. And I would be concerned if I was one of the wind surfers or one of the sailors, definitely.
VAUSE: Ok just to finish off with a number here, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most likely, how likely are these games to be a total disaster?
WALLECHINSKY: Well it depends on what you mean by total. You still have 10,000 athletes out there ready to do their best, so I give it a five, somewhere in the middle.
VAUSE: Oh, you're being generous. David, thank you.
WALLECHINSKY: Ok thank you.
SESAY: He is being very optimistic. We like that, a little optimism. All right next on Newsroom LA, a report releasing soon into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. And it may provide some answers to families torn apart by the conflict.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Former paralympian Oskar Pistorius will soon be sentenced in South Africa for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. He was initially convicted of manslaughter back in 2014, but that was later upgraded to murder on appeal.
VAUSE: Pistorius could face a minimum of 15 years sentence, but the defense says he should serve less time because of his physical disability as well as emotional distress. Steenkamp was 29 years old when Pistorius shot her in their home on Valentine's Day 2013. He claimed he thought she was an intruder.
SESAY: Well a monumental report on Britain's involvement in the Iraq war will be made public in the next few hours.
VAUSE: It's expected to focus largely on the role of wartime prime minister Tony Blair, as Phil Black explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In September 2005, Matthew Bacon was killed in action by a roadside bomb in Southern Iraq.
UNKNOWN MALE: We are still waiting. We are still waiting. And it hurts. It really does.
BLACK: He is waiting for answers, information, a conclusion that will explain why his son went to war and why he didn't come home.
UNKNOWN MALE: Because when you don't know, when you're just left there hanging, it becomes really, really difficult. So Sir John's got to get on with it.
BLACK: He is talking about Sir John Chilcot.
SIR JOHN CHILCOT: This committee will not shy away from making criticisms.
BLACK: The man in charge of Britain's independent inquiry into the Iraq war.
UNKNOWN MALE: Everybody get back into the wagon now.
BLACK: He has a huge job: examining every aspect of Britain's involvement in the conflict. The political decisions, intelligence, military planning and conduct. What went wrong, what lessons should be learned.
CHILCOT: We are not a court of law.
BLACK: The inquiry started back in 2009 and held regular public hearings questioning key decision makers, including the former prime minister who had championed the case for war.
FORMER PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: I do not regret for removing Saddam Hussein.
BLACK: Those hearings wrapped up in 2011, and the inquiry was expected to present its final report soon after. It was initially delayed by a debate with the public service over secret documents the inquiry wants to publish, including postal notes between Tony Blair and US president George Bush. That was resolved.
UNKNOWN MALE: I am facing a genuine difficulty regarding the maximization process.
BLACK: That's local bureaucratic jargon for allowing a right of reply to those who will be criticized in the final report before it's published. It's supposed to ensure fairness.
UNKNOWN MALE: It's a running sore, and we can't get on with the rest of our lives without having this concluded and out of the way.
BLACK: The expectation of Chilcot's inquiry has always been great because the war has always been deeply unpopular here. Phil Black, CNN London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well join us later for live coverage of release of the Chilcot report. It starts at 10:30 this morning in London, 11:30 in Berlin, right here on CNN.
VAUSE: Well now onto the fallout of the UK's vote to quit the European Union, the race to replace outgoing British prime minister David Cameron now down to three. Theresa May shown here on the left, won the support of most conservative members of parliament on Tuesday. Andrea Leadsom and Michael Gove also qualify for the next round of voting.
SESAY: Steven Crabb here on the left withdrew from the race. He is now supporting Theresa May. Liam Fox was eliminated after finishing last on Tuesday.
VAUSE: And Brexit continues to be a divisive topic among European leaders.
SESAY: During a European parliament meeting Tuesday, the European Commission president accused Brexit leaders of abandoning ship. CNN's Atika Shubert has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not quite business as usual at the EU parliament in Strasbourg this week. the Hounds of Ulster are providing a musical interlude from the impending UK/EU divorce talks. The band is from Northern Ireland, incidentally a part of the UK that voted to stay in the EU.
In a plenary hall 11 days after Brexit, there are still angry outbursts and soul searching among MEPs and perhaps a bit of gloating from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: I don't understand that the Brexit camp needs months before knowing what to do. I would have thought that they would have had a plan. Instead of developing a plan, they are leaving the boat.
SHUBERT: Referring in part to one of the men who spearheaded the Brexit campaign, Nigel Farage. Freshly resigned leader of his UKIP political party, still an MEP adamant that Great Britain holds the trump cards.
NIGEL FARAGE: They need us far more than we need them. And with crucial elections coming up next year, I think common sense that comes from industry, from car makers, from French wine producers, counts for far more than what a few MEPs say 11 or 12 days after Brexit when they're in quite a grumpy mood.
SHUBERT: Others seem less concerned with divorce proceedings than sounding the alarm for immediate EU reform or risk more exits.
UNKNOWN MALE: More of the same will not get us out of this crisis, dear colleagues. That is burying our heads in the sand. People want to work on another Europe, an Europe that delivers results. And by not doing that, then what you are doing is sleep walking towards disaster. Towards 27 other referendums in the near future.
SHUBERT: So what kind of reforms and changes? Well, there's been talk about a plan for creating jobs, about bolstering the EU's external borders to stem the flow of illegal migration, things that will produce tangible result the citizens of Europe can see. But this plenary hall at the moment, that's more words than action.
But there is some time for MEPs to enjoy a brief diversion. The UK won't be leaving the EU until a new prime minister is in place, and the EU says a reform plan is in the works to be unveiled by autumn. Atika Shubert, CNN, Strasbourg, France.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Looks like fun. America had their own Brexit a couple hundred years ago and there were some fireworks in Washington to celebrate that, but it was cloudy. But that's not what some people saw on TV, and they're not happy about it. More on that when we come back.
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MICHEAL HOLMES: Hello everyone, I'm Michael Holmes, and this is your Road to Rio update. The Olympic games now just one month away, of course the big question, is Rio ready? Organizing committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman thinks so. He announced that the city is so ready, "the games could start today." He also said they will be in his words a maximum success, but not everyone is so sure.
On top of financial security and Zika concerns, Rio is facing a pollution problem. Sailors complaining that oil slicks in Guanabara Bay, the venue for the sailing competition, are turning their white boats brown and that oil is unavoidable. And oil isn't the most serious thing lurking in Rio's waters. Brazilian scientists have detected drug resistant bacteria growing off several beaches, including two that border Guanabara Bay. They think the bacteria came from sewage being channeled into the bay. So far researchers and Olympic officials not recommending that the sailing venue be moved.
Despite all the obstacles, athletes like the South Korean archery team ready for the games. The women's team has taken home the gold every Olympics since archery became a medal event in 1988 and hopes to continue that streak. That is your Road to Rio update. I'm Michael Holmes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: On Monday Americans were celebrating their Independence Day from the Stars and Stripes to Lady Liberty, it was full of much- beloved American symbols.
SESAY: Including the bald eagle. They were front and center in two incidents during the holiday, one of them right here in Los Angeles. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a tale of two eagles, separately seeking independence on July Fourth weekend. It wasn't as if the Los Angeles Zoo's trained eagles hadn't practiced, a male named Chinook was released from atop Dodger Stadium as part of the pre-game festivities. With "America the Beautiful" blaring and the eagle soaring, you almost expected to hear these words as Chinook headed for his handler. The eagle has landed. Oh no he hadn't.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: He's a wild one.
MOOS: The eagle flew right by his handler and continued over the center field fence to the delight of fans.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Free Willy!
MOOS: Handlers gave pursuit. As one joker Tweeted, like most at Dodger Stadium, he wanted to beat the traffic. He soared into the parking lot. The LA Zoo Tweeted "Although he missed his mark, Chinook waited by the van for his trainer."
From an eagle who had a fling with freedom to an eagle that had to be freed by an eagle-eyed Army vet. For two and a half days a young male eagle dangled upside down from a tree in Rush Lake, Minnesota. The bird's talon caught in a rope. That's when Jason Galvin put his sharpshooting skills to work. Jason had been a helicopter door gunner in Afghanistan.
UNKNOWN MALE: It was kind of weird, actually shooting in the direction of a bald eagle. I was very nervous.
MOOS: He had to shoot through the branches to get to the rope.
UNKNOWN MALE: It took an hour and a half. About 150 shots.
MOOS: The rope obliterated, the eagle fell into the brush and was taken to a raptor center where he's reported to be doing very well. We haven't seen this much eagle action since one named Uncle Sam ruffled Donald Trump's feathers. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Don't touch the hair. Don't touch the hair.
SESAY: One of the biggest Fourth of July fireworks shows in the US wasn't as big and beautiful as it seemed on TV. Here's what viewers saw on the live broadcast. That's what they saw. Fireworks exploding in clear skies.
VAUSE: Ah, but let's look at reality. A cloudy night in DC. Overcast. Pretty awful. This was broadcast by public television, and they admitted using old fireworks footage because at times due to poor weather. The network says it was the patriotic thing to do, but social media lit up in anger; #fakefourth was pretty popular at times.
SESAY: You've got to love the hash tags, how they spring up so quickly.
VAUSE: Fireworks gate. A scandal.
SESAY: It is a scandal. Hold onto your hats. That does it for us this hour. You're watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. We will be back with another hour of news right after this.
