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College Admissions Scam Uncovered; California Moratorium on Executions; Millions in the Path of a Storm; Biden And O'Rourke Closer to Run; Huawei Founder on Suing U.S. Government. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired March 13, 2019 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: But how could the colleges not have known? How could the colleges -- the -- the suggestion is that the colleges didn't know that all of this was happening. But how could they have not known if somebody had never rode crew and was suddenly on the crew team or things like that?
FRANK BRUNI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Right. I mean I believe they technically didn't know about these cases. But I can't believe they're any more surprised than I am. And it really shows you they have to do more diligence. They can't just trust when an athletic coach, when the swimming coach or the soccer coach just hands them a list of names and says we're going to let these people in. There needs to be some oversight.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: As we said, Frank Bruni will come back to talk more about this. I think we can talk about this for days.
CAMEROTA: We could.
BERMAN: What a sorry.
Thanks so much, Frank.
All right, we do have break news overnight.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has effectively suspended the death penalty in his state. There have been no executions in California for more than a decade. Still, given the size and influence of California, this move has major national implications.
CNN's Stephanie Elam explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's a conviction Gavin Newsom has long held. Here he is in 2013.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: I think we should repeal the death penalty.
ELAM: Now, California's newly elected governor, Newsom plans to put a moratorium on the death penalty in the golden state. Over the years, he's made his stance on corporal punishment known. First, of the issues of race and mental health.
NEWSOM: It's not a deterrent. There are racial components to that.
ELAM: The governor argues that the death sentence is unequally and unfairly used on the mentally disabled and people of color. Another sticking point for Newsom, the possibility of innocent people being put to death.
NEWSOM: Every year we read about this person, that person, another person that were exonerated. DNA tests prove they were innocent.
ELAM: But the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation says that's an outdated concern.
KENT SCHEIDEGGER, CRIMINAL JUSTICE LEGAL FOUNDATION: It's less today than it was, say, 15 years ago with all the greater scrutiny that we have on forensic science.
ELAM: And then there's the financial impact. The governor's office says the death penalty system has cost California $4 billion since 1978. Of all the states, California has the most people on death row.
NEWSOM: We don't use the death penalty today. We are warehousing folks.
ELAM: Yet death penalty proponents argue that keeping people on death row through several years of appeals is what costs so much.
SCHEIDEGGER: In a capital case, where there is no doubt who did it, which is most capital cases, you can get it done in six years.
ELAM: By signing an executive order, Newsom will join governors of Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Oregon, who also used their power to suspend or delay executions.
JOHN KITZHABER, FORMER OREGON GOVERNOR: I do not believe those executions made us safer.
ELAM: That's a belief Governor Newsom also shares.
Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: OK, now to this.
Tens of millions of Americans will be hit by a severe storm system with hurricane-force winds, blizzard conditions, and a flood threat. Who is in the bullseye? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:37:26] CAMEROTA: All right, more than 70 million people are in the path of a major storm that is set to strike the U.S. heartland.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our forecast. It looks scary, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It really is. Wind damage, tornadoes on the south side and a blizzard on the northwest side of this storm. This is the pressure of a category one hurricane, but it's just not a hurricane because it's over land. Blizzard conditions from Rapid City all the way down to Denver. Wind gusts from Oklahoma, Texas, 80 miles per hour today.
Farther to the north, it's going to rain on frozen ground. There's a flood threat across Omaha, even into Minneapolis for today and more storms right through Memphis, Little Rock, maybe even toward Hot Springs for today, all part of this storm system rolling through Dallas right now into Little Rock later, Memphis 6:00 your time, big storms very close to you. Could be tornadoes around that area, especially south of there, and by morning, things get better.
But if you are on a flight today, 1,100 flights are already canceled, 900 of them, John, in and out of Denver already at 6:38 -- 4:38 their time.
BERMAN: All right, Chad Myers, thank you for this. We know you'll be watching this all day.
MYERS: You're welcome.
BERMAN: Stay with CN for updates because this is a serious system today.
All right, major developments in the Biden and Beto watch. The two Democrats have decided to run for president, almost. New signs that they are running, nearly. We will explain, next.
CAMEROTA: Or will we?
BERMAN: Maybe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:42:51] BERMAN: The big, political news this morning, they are in.
CAMEROTA: No, they're not.
BERMAN: Just about. Not quite.
CAMEROTA: No, not yet.
BERMAN: Yet. No.
CAMEROTA: No.
BERMAN: So a source tells CNN that former Congressman Beto O'Rourke is ready to, quote, push the button.
CAMEROTA: I'm ready to push a button --
BERMAN: To launch his presidential campaign.
CAMEROTA: To stop this madness.
BERMAN: And former Vice President Joe Biden, he just dropped a big hint about his plans.
I want to bring in John Avlon, CNN's senior political analyst, and Arlette Saenz, CNN political reporter who is covering Joe Biden for CNN and confronted him yesterday, Arlette, after this giant, epic tease when he was speaking to firefighters. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I appreciate the energy you showed when I got up here. Save it a little longer, I may need it in a few weeks.
Be careful what you wish for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: A few weeks? Why do we have to wait that long?
BERMAN: And, Arlette, you actually asked him outright after. So -- so what's going on here?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. I mean Joe Biden has been teasing this presidential run for months now. You'll remember, he came back from the Christmas holiday and told our colleague Randi Kaye at the airport that his decision was coming soon. We're now a few months after that and still he hasn't made his intentions fully clear. I asked him on the rope line after the event when exactly that decision is going to be coming, and he just told me pretty soon.
But those close to him say that it's really getting into crunch time for the former vice president as the field has really taken shape and him and former Congressman Beto O'Rourke are really two of the biggest outstanding factors still in this race.
Now, I'm told that an announcement about his decision could come as soon as April. So, for now, he's still keeping us waiting. But a lot of the attention is going to start to focus on how he would run a campaign if he does decide to get into this presidential race. You saw a little bit of that yesterday when he decided to take on President Trump directly. That could be something that you see him mirror should he launch a presidential campaign.
CAMEROTA: John, what is he waiting for at this point?
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Spring.
[06:45:00] I mean, look, Biden has less urgency than anyone else in the field because of his stature, because he was Barack Obama's VP, because he's got a glide path. And a lot of people expecting him to get in, in recent weeks, have themselves decided not to run. Most notably Michael Bloomberg, Sherrod Brown. So he's got an outsized presence and he can wait.
Beto O'Rourke, on the other hand, former El Paso congressman who lost a race to Ted Cruz, he's got a lot of enthusiasm in the grassroots, but he's been teasing this in a way that, you know, you're starting to run out the statute of limitations a little bit.
BERMAN: He announced -- but he announced yesterday he told us he was going to run yesterday.
CAMEROTA: No, he didn't.
AVLON: Basically.
BERMAN: Nearly. Nearly.
AVLON: (INAUDIBLE).
BERMAN: Let's look -- let's look at his FaceBook post from yesterday.
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: I'm ready to share my plans.
CAMEROTA: When?
AVLON: That sounds sinister.
CAMEROTA: When?
BERMAN: Want to be the first to know?
CAMEROTA: Yesterday.
AVLON: Yesterday.
BERMAN: And that was posted yesterday. He's going to share his plans soon, John.
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: You think he needs to start sharing?
AVLON: I think it's time for him to share and --
BERMAN: Sharing is caring?
AVLON: As much as I like the beat poetry ruminations on running for president. I think it's about time for him to get off the bench because -- and, look, the most significant thing, if you're paying attention to presidential campaigns, or nascent presidential campaigns, are they hiring staff in key states? And what's happening with the apparatus? And Beto is apparently going to Iowa.
BERMAN: A three day trip.
AVLON: He's talking to people. That's a sign of more than a listening tour.
CAMEROTA: But is he hiring staff?
AVLON: He's talking to people. There's one guy who apparently just left the local Democratic Party and seems ready to sign.
BERMAN: Arlette, does Joe Biden have staff ready to go?
SAENZ: I mean Joe Biden's team has been talking to potential staff for months. He already has a little bit of an infrastructure of political advisers who surrounded him. But, yes, they've been talking to perspective staff in the early states, as well as the national scale, really putting together all of the pieces of this puzzle so that once he gives them the official green light, they can basically put everything into movement pretty quickly.
CAMEROTA: But, Arlette, I'm still confused. Given that, why does this tease continue on both Beto and Biden? Why are we doing this if they're showing all the signs and putting in staff, what are we doing this exercise for?
SAENZ: Well, I mean, with Biden, a lot of people say that, you know, he has the room to make this decision. He's been in politics a long time. His supporters think that he can wait a little bit longer with this.
You also have to remember that the end of the fundraising quarter is about to come up at the end of March.
BERMAN: That's it.
SAENZ: And so you could risk potentially posting lower numbers than some of the other candidates have posted with their rollouts and you don't want to come in with a lower figure. So that's something strategically that they might be (INAUDIBLE).
CAMEROTA: Jackpot.
AVLON: Ding, ding, ding. Yes.
CAMEROTA: Ding, ding, ding, jackpot.
BERMAN: But I think that's exactly why Biden's waiting and exactly why Beto might get in now because can he show an impressive number perhaps by the end of March. And Joe Biden has never been a prolific fundraiser. You know, he's never had to be in this case.
AVLON: That's right. No. And that's been part of his sort of, you know, I grew up in Scranton --
BERMAN: Yes.
AVLON: You know, middle class guy kind of claim.
The difference is, you know, when -- during his two previous failed presidential campaigns, he wasn't VP to an enormously popular Democratic president.
BERMAN: Right.
AVLON: And, look, there are a lot of folks in the Democratic Party who are concerned about Biden. Is he too old? Is this his time? Particularly the party's going for the hot hand. It's hard to imagine that being Biden. But matched up with Donald Trump, who can take back the states that the Democrats lost last time? Biden seems better positioned than a lot of the lesser knowns.
BERMAN: You want to talk about technology?
CAMEROTA: I do.
AVLON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: I do.
BERMAN: All right.
CAMEROTA: You know how I feel about technology, the way President Trump does.
AVLON: Yes. Apparently, yes.
CAMEROTA: OK. So the Ethiopian Air crash obviously has -- many countries have grounded the model plane. Here is what President Trump tweeted about this. Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further when often older and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are needed and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great costs yet very little gain. I don't know about you, but I don't want Albert Einstein to be my pilot, I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of the plane.
It's so -- when I -- when I read this, John, honestly, it sounded like something I would tweet after I'm like, ah, my computer's not working, I hate technology. And this is -- the -- the difference is, is that I can't tell the FAA to ground -- if I feel this strongly --
AVLON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: I -- I might take some sort of action rather than just being grumpy grandma about technology.
AVLON: And yet President Trump has opted for grumpy grandpa when he has real powers. But, look, this is stunning because it does -- it is -- it is absurd -- I mean these -- sort of these egghead pilots and the complex modern machinery. But if you add it to the president's previous statements, I don't much care for this e-mail. Computers have made the world more complicated. It really gives an impression of a president whose perfectly in tune to our culture, like in 1986. And that's not -- shouldn't give people a ton of confidence about the president's aptitude with basic technology. Expertise a good thing. Denigrating it from the Oval Office, not a good thing.
BERMAN: Well, look, and Michael Grunwald from "Time" magazine notes that this is, you know, part and parcel of what the president has done in the past, ignore data that prove things have gotten better --
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: Insist things have gotten worse, appealed to nostalgia for mythic era before modernity when things seemed simpler.
[06:50:05] CAMEROTA: For some people.
BERMAN: For some people.
All right, Arlette, John, thank you very much.
CAMEROTA: All right, another top 2020 contender under scrutiny for how she handled a sexual harassment investigation involving her own staff. We have the latest on what Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is saying now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Here's some braking news.
The founder and chairman of Chinese tech giant, Huawei, is giving his first interview since his company sued the U.S. government over a ban on purchase of its equipment.
And CNN's Matt Rivers is live in China for us with that.
Matt.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, it's pretty rare for the founder of Huawei to give interviews, but clearly he feels that his company is under threat from the United States. The U.S., of course, calls Huawei a national security concern because they allege that Huawei is beholden to Beijing and it would allow China's government to more easily engage in espionage if you buy Huawei products.
Now, of course, Huawei completely denies that and they're fighting back with this lawsuit against the U.S. government and they're trying to send a message with that. Here's part of our interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REN ZHENGFEI, HUAWEI CEO: Why is Huawei being singled out? There's no Huawei equipment in the U.S. networks. Has that made the U.S. networks totally safe? If not, how can they tell other countries that your networks would be safer without Huawei? That's why we want to make clear our stance by suing the U.S. government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:55:20] RIVERS: Now, the U.S. government has gone all around the world. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, going around and telling other countries, other governments, if you install Huawei products, your relationship with the United States will get worse. We saw that in Germany just this week when the U.S. said it would limit intelligence sharing with the German government if they went ahead with getting Huawei contracts.
Clearly, Huawei is aware of this. They don't have a huge market share in the U.S., but they do need other markets, other countries like Germany, New Zealand, the U.K. So this lawsuit is clearly a message to other people around the world saying Huawei is safe do business, you should do business with us.
BERMAN: All right, Matt Rivers. Thank you very much, Matt.
Meanwhile, we have breaking news on a major story.
CNN has learned that pilots who flew the 737 Max 8, they raised concerns about safety issues, critical concerns perhaps, before the crash of the Ethiopia Airlines plane. So, why hasn't the FBI (ph) grounded this aircraft when it's been grounded all around the world? The breaking news is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
