Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Missing Interpol Chief in China; Mystery Deepens Around Missing Journalist; Trump and Kim Second Summit; Florida Under Hurricane Watch. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 08, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:52] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A significant, new twist in the mysterious disappearance of the former head of Interpol. China now says he is being detained and investigated for alleged corruption.

CNN's Sam Kiley live in Hong Kong with the latest on this.

Sam, what's going on here?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the end of September, the president of Interpol, which is the international organization through which countries police forces liaison and issue international arrest warrants, known as red notices, went missing. And he went missing. His wife had no idea where he was. He sent the last text that she received from him, said wait for my call, and then four minutes later followed up with an ominous symbol of a knife, an emoji showing a knife, perhaps indicating that he knew he was in some kind of danger.

The Chinese authorities refuse to discuss his whereabouts at all, notwithstanding the fact that the French authorities and Interpol asked for them to respond to their request for his whereabouts. And just in the last day, they have announced that he is under -- in the custody of the very department that he was the vice minister for, the ministry for public security, facing corruption charges.

[06:35:07] Now, corruption carries -- can carry the death penalty in China. And this is all part, perhaps, of a much wider Chinese campaign to globally and internally wrap up and prosecute officials accused of corruption in that country. There have been many tens of thousands that have been arrested, tried and jailed and a few have even been executed. So he could pay the ultimate price if he's convicted of this very serious crime.

Back to you.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Sam, thank you.

Scientists with the United Nations issuing a stark warning, the world has barely ten years to get climate change under control or the results could be catastrophic. They say the world needs to reduce net greenhouse gases emissions by 45 percent by 2030 or risk reaching a crucial threshold that will lead to extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people. The U.S. is the world's second largest emitter of carbon dioxide. The Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era climate measures and, of course, also pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.

BERMAN: We have new hurricane fears rising in Florida and along the Gulf Coast. Look at that right there. That is Michael. It is heading for a direct hit in the coming days. We have a brand-new forecast ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:18] BERMAN: The mystery around a missing "Washington Post" journalist and an outspoken critic of the Saudi crowned prince is deepening this morning. Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday and he hasn't been seen since. Now, unnamed Turkish officials tell "The Washington Post" and "Reuters" that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, yet no details or proof have been given.

Joining us now is CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour, who knows Khashoggi.

Just give us a sense of your concern over this man this morning.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: John, we're all really concerned. He's a friend to many journalists. He's a friend to me. He's been a collaborator with CNN in terms of many of us have interviewed him in the past all -- going all the way back to the first Gulf War.

It's important to note that he never called himself a dissident. He's a journalists who believed in free speech and in simply pointing out what was going on at home. And when he made the decision that he could no longer speak freely from Saudi Arabia, he applied for a visa for the kind of protection that would get him a U.S. visa. And he's been living in the United States ever since.

So he had thought that he would be OK. He met with friends in London shortly before going to Istanbul to get papers to marry his Turkish fiance. And that was the last time he was seen.

And right now the Saudi government is obviously denying anything to do with any disappearance or indeed the worst allegations, which are that he may have been killed inside that consulate. They're denying it. They opened up the consulate to Reuters over the weekend and apparently purported to show them every room, including cupboards and filing cabinets, and nothing was found.

But the president of Turkey has said that he specifically is following the investigation and that he considered Jamal a friend, a journalist, a colleague, and he's looking very closely into it.

But this is a personal disaster. A disaster for the journalistic community and potentially a geopolitical crisis between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and between Saudi Arabia and the United States and its western friends given that the crowned prince is trying to portray an image as a reformer.

BERMAN: Well, two questions there, and you raised both of them there. Why would Saudi Arabia want to silence this man? And, number two, what has the U.S. response been? I have not heard much over the last few days.

AMANPOUR: Let's take the last one first because it's in my head and, I agree with you, we need to know what the U.S. is going to do because he was legally living in the United States under the immigration situation and had a special visa to be in the United States and his own Congress people from the state of Virginia have tweeted out saying that they are looking at this case very, very carefully and insist on answers.

The U.S. has, according to CNN, according to officials, been look into this but not publicly saying anything at the moment. So we don't really know and we need to ask more questions from U.S. officials because this is a person who was living legally in the United States under the visa requirements that he got from the U.S. And so, to an extent, he's under U.S. protection.

The U.S. has a very close relationship in the Trump administration, even closer than normal U.S. administrations, with the current Saudi administration. You remember President Trump made his very, very first stop abroad to Saudi Arabia, meeting with King Salman, and the power behind the throne, the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. And now they agree on many, many regional things, including, they are together on trying to push back Iran, as we know, hence the issue with the Iran nuclear deal, all of that kind of stuff.

On the other question, what is Saudi doing? Saudi has, over the last few months, been making a huge amount of effort to silence its critics. When any of us ask about it, we're told that this is a matter of national security and it's never about trying to silence journalist or protesters or political activist. We saw a lot of Saudi women and pro-female political activist being arrested just before the driving ban was lifted. So, on the one hand, the crown prince was allowing women to drive. This took place in July. On the other hand, in the months leading up to it, a lot of those women -- many of the women demanding more political rights were arrested.

Over the past few years, and many years, journalists have been arrested, other sort of activist have been arrested and we've seen that even some have been put on death row and threatened with execution and the like, political activist.

So you remember, of course, also the Saudi crown prince put all sorts of quote/unquote economic enemies into the Ritz Carlton and practically, you know, held them upside down till every last dime came out of their pockets. So there is a deep discomfort with what's happening and we need to find out more -- more answers about Jamal and hope that the worst allegations are not true.

[06:45:13] BERMAN: Let's hope. And, again, let's pay attention very closely to what the United States says here because if it bears out that the worst has, in fact, happened, silence is not an acceptable response.

Christiane, while I have you, North Korea, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, met again with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, has reported progress in talks, says perhaps they're very, very close to a second summit with President Trump. But, again, we don't really have details here, not exact details, other than perhaps they might move to some, if not peace treaty, some kind of peace statement on the Korean peninsula. What would the significance there be?

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, if there was ever a peace treaty, that would be a huge, huge step. Of course, President Trump did talk about, you know, wanting to end the state of war when he was having that summit in Singapore with Kim Jong-un.

But you're absolutely right, the short sort of paperwork that came out of that summit had absolutely no details, no significant details on the process of denuclearization. That's the big, big issue. Talk is good, meeting is good because it tries and essentially defuses the situation. But actual concrete steps, even the United States, even President Trump has said it's going to take a lot longer than he had originally thought. And right now the latest seems to be that apparently Pyongyang says, well, we may allow inspectors into the nuclear test site. Well, what kind of inspectors? Are they U.N. inspectors? The IAEA? Are they officials and experts from the five declared nuclear nations, including the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain? We simply do not know.

And we do know that the whole process, the official process of denuclearization, the actual official process, has actually not even got off the ground. So, you know, I guess they're trying to make things happen and move the ball along, but so far concrete results have not happened except that they -- the North Koreans remain committed to what they did even before the summit with President Trump, which was stopping tests at this point.

BERMAN: Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much for being with us. And again, our thoughts are with you and the journalism community and the friends of Jamal Khashoggi. So, thank you.

Erica.

HILL: A tropical storm strengthening, taking aim at Florida. Watches now up along the Gulf Coast. What you need to know, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:28] HILL: The Florida panhandle is now under a hurricane watch. Tropical Storm Michael taking aim at the state. It is expected to strengthen before making landfall this week.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has more on the new forecast because we got some new details this morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. A rapidly intensifying storm right now. Airplane is in it flying around finding deeper pressure, stronger wind, and it's going into the Gulf of Mexico, where the water is very warm. Right now it's a 70-mile-per-hour storm, but this has the potential to be a category three hurricane at landfall. Could be a major hurricane and it is making -- going to make landfall somewhere along that Florida panhandle.

It's raining now in The Keys. Not so much worried about that. We're worried about where it goes. It goes into temperatures here that are well above 80 degrees, certainly warm enough to get stronger. That's 110 miles per hour and it's still in the water. It's still getting stronger and trying to make a run at -- somewhere between Apalachicola/Panama City right now. We'll still watch this cone because it could be a little bit farther to the right towards St. Marks, or maybe to the left. That would be Pensacola. We do know that this is going to have a major impact and you only have about 36 real hours to get things done to get ready for this storm. It was a quick builder, a quick mover. That's what we get in the Gulf of Mexico.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Pay very close attention to this because it is coming, it will hit, just a question of where at this point.

Chad, thanks very much.

Our very own Dana Bash with a cameo sort of on "Saturday Night Live." Here are your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a somber day for many Americans. We now go live to Dana Bash, who's with Senate Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don, I'm here in the GOP locker room where the mood is nothing short of euphoric.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo! We're doing to Kavanaugh dance tonight! Let's ralph (ph) until we vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Senator Kennedy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quite the display, Dana.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right, Don, there are a lot of pacemakers being put to the test tonight. And I see Mitch McConnell here.

Mitch, how are you feeling?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah, that was awesome. Whoo!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel like this is a win you can be proud of?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, hell yeah, Dana. Republicans read the mood of the country and we could tell that people really wanted Kavanaugh. Everyone's pumped from white men over 60 to white men over 70. We did it! (INAUDIBLE) the PJ and Sqee (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Dana Bash will have that forever.

HILL: She will, actually. I was excited to see that there was a Dana Bash on "SNL." I can't stay up that late, but the next day.

BERMAN: That's why we play it in the morning.

HILL: Uh-huh.

It is the final sprint to the midterms. We are getting a clear sense of just how Republicans and Democrats plan to shape their messages to voters. And now Taylor Swift is involved.

BERMAN: So you know it must be serious.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: Also, the deadliest transportation accident in the United States in nearly a decade. What caused this limo crash that killed 20 people? We have a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:37] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty people are dead after a crash involving a limousine in upstate New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard this loud bang and then I heard screaming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not anything anybody should ever have to experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a game changer for the limousine industry.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh is confirmed.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I do not believe that Brett Kavanaugh was her assailant.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: The Republican majority has conducted one of the most biased processes in Senate history.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: I want to thank the other side for the tactics that have allowed us to energize our own voters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A pox on both houses for the way this was conducted. And people in the country are appalled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. BERMAN: All right, good morning, everybody. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me this morning.

We have brand new details about the deadliest transportation accident in the United States in nearly a decade. Think about that, 20 people killed. That is the most since a plane crash in 2009. They died over the weekend in a limo crash. This limo plowed through an intersection and collided with a parked SUV in upstate New York. Witnesses say they heard an explosion. They reported bodies on the ground, broken tree limbs just everywhere.

HILL: The driver and all 17 passengers, among them two newlywed couples, four sisters from one family, all killed in that horrific wreck. The victims were on their way to a 30th birthday celebration for one of the passengers. Two pedestrians were also killed. NTSB officials at this point looking for clues to determine a cause.

[07:00:11] CNN's Polo Sandoval is live near the accident scene. It's Schohaire, New York