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New Day

Fmr. Vice President Joe Biden defends his interactions with women after complaint, Facebook CEO calls for government regulation, Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle killed in shooting, Technical issue causes massive flight delays nationwide. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 01, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:00]

[07:32:02] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Former Vice President Joe Biden is in damage control defending his interactions with women after a Nevada politician came forward saying he once made her feel uneasy by smelling her hair and kissing the back of her head. Many of Biden's 2020 rivals say Lucy Flores's claim should be taken seriously, so let's talk about it.

Joining us now is Anna Navarro, she is a CNN Political Commentator, we also have, Kirsten Powers, she's the USA Today Columnist and CNN Political Analyst, and Jess McIntosh, she is the former Director of Communications Outreach for Hillary Clinton's campaign and currently Executive Editor of Share Blue Media.

Lady's, I have been looking forward to this to get all your takes, they're all different, and I think that this is a tough one. I mean, this doesn't -- this one obviously doesn't fall into the black and white Harvey Weinstein category. So, Jess, Joe Biden has long been known as a demonstrative politician. This was in 2014 before everybody's awareness was as raised to MeToo, and this woman felt uncomfortable. What are we to take of this?

JESS MCINTOSH, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS OUTREACH, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN: I mean, we have seen photos and videos of Joe Biden doing to women exactly what Lucy Flores says he did to her. So I think her claim is obviously compelling.

There is a disconnect here where I need to understand that Biden realizes that women might not find public displays of intimate affection appropriate in a workplace setting. And we keep going back to these words, it's grandpa Joe, it's avuncular. Well, when you're talking about a professional setting, when you're talking about being on the job, you don't really want a man treating you like he is an older family member. It's demeaning if it doesn't rise to sexual harassment. And that's what I really need to feel that he understand at this point.

CAMEROTA: Well, here's a statement, and you all can tell me if you think that he is understanding anything. He says, I may not recall these moments the same way and I may be surprised at what I hear. But we have arrived at an important time when women can feel they -- sorry, when women feel they can and should relate their experiences and men should pay attention, and I will. Anna, does that go far enough?

ANNA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that's exactly the right tone. And I think he not only needs to say it and write it, but I think he needs to live it. And from now on, Joe Biden is a guy who has many, many public interactions, he has got to be far more careful about respecting a woman's boundary and a woman's personal space. Let's remember, even Lucy Flores has made this allegation, who's the one who's brought up this entire issue, has said this was not sexual harassment. But she felt he had invaded her personal space.

So Joe needs to figure out how to not do this anymore. He's been doing it his entire life in an affectionate way. He's touchy-feely. He is emotional. He is encouraging of people. I've seen them rub the shoulders of women and men. I have seen them whisper into the ears of women and men.

[07:35:03]

This is the way he is. And perhaps before MeToo, before this entire era, nobody would have told him before. Look, you know what, we're feeling uncomfortable. Now, he's heard that he made at least one woman feel uncomfortable and that should be enough for him to stop it.

But can't treat Joe Biden like if we were talking about a sexual harassment allegation. I haven't heard one person yet make that allegation that they felt that it was sexually motivated, that it was perverse. It was Joe Biden being way too demonstrative and he needs to stop that.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Kirsten, is that smoke I see coming out of your ears?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, not at all. No. I think that -- so one thing I don't like is when people are saying, well, we didn't know because it was pre-MeToo. I think that -- I think a lot of people knew a lot of things were wrong and they were still doing it. I don't think Joe Biden thought that what he was wrong because he obviously was doing it a lot. There's the video compilations of it.

I don't love him saying like sort of not acknowledging that it's inappropriate. It's sort of that he didn't feel it was inappropriate, but it wasn't inappropriate. And it wasn't inappropriate in every situation. I think that's important to point out that Ash Carter's wife has come out. One of the main pictures that sort of goes around of him leaning in and whispering and smelling her hair. And she says they are good friends. And that's obviously very different when somebody you know does something like that versus the Lucy Flores situation, where she didn't know him.

And so we need to not conflate these two issues. And I think there may be stories behind other pictures that are floating around as well. But I think he should just acknowledge that it's inappropriate to do that to a stranger.

CAMEROTA: And then if he does acknowledge it, then, Kirsten, you think he can survive this politically?

POWERS: Yes. I mean, I think that he is going to -- yes, I think he can survive it politically. I think he's got other problems that are bigger. I think the Anita Hill stuff is going to actually be probably a much bigger problem for him in particular because he hasn't -- well, he's never apologized to her despite saying repeatedly that he should. And he still sort of talks about himself like he was this passive person even though he was chairman of the committee.

And so I think that it fits into like maybe a bigger narrative and it's going to dog him if he just doesn't acknowledge that you shouldn't go up to woman you don't know and do this. It's not -- you know, it's obviously, as other people pointed out here, it's not sexual harassment, it's not obviously sexual assault. But that doesn't mean that it's okay.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And so, I mean, I think that the question, Jess, is what's next? What does he do next? Because, obviously, we've seen different high profile people handle it in different ways. Brett Kavanaugh completely denied. He is now on the Supreme Court. President Trump completely denied, though 15 women have come forward with accusation of sexual harassment and or assault, so worst than what Joe Biden is being is being accused of.

MCINTOSH: You also have his own admissions on tape that he engages in that behavior. So that's sort of an extra level of denial that republicans managed to get through.

CAMEROTA: So that's one option, is deny. But it doesn't sound like that's the direction that Joe Biden is going.

MCINTOSH: Well, I think he can't. It's the kind of thing where there is too much video and photographic evidence and he's been doing it for too many decades in order to say that just never happened. You have to have to have a level of cognitive dissidence and intellectual dishonesty that only the President has to be able to look at that kind of evidence and say, no, no, that just didn't happen.

But I agree with, Kirsten, that the Anita Hill situation is going to be a bigger deal with women voters. He has to take responsibility for his role in that. He gets to these odd moments every now and then, the unsolicited touching, the total rewrite of his role in Anita Hill, that weird time that he challenged President Trump to a fistfight. He has these moments every now and then where he just reminds women that this is a very throwback generational thing. And I don't think that, that's the kind of leadership that most of us are looking for now, especially like last weekend's stunt where he said that he wanted to take Stacey Abrams as his VP before she could rule out a run for President herself. It's those kind of moments that he's just got to buckle up, and it's early, so I think he can. But that really has to get cleared up.

CAMEROTA: Anna, last word on what you think he should do next. NAVARRO: Look, first of all, I think it's hellishly unfair. I mean, in this segment we have mentioned Harvey Weinstein, we've mentioned Donald Trump, we've mentioned Brett Kavanaugh. Joe Biden didn't do anything that's anywhere near to that. What he did was inappropriate and violates somebody's personal space. I think he needs to pick up the phone and I think he needs to make two phone calls.

Number one, he needs to call Anita Hill. They need to have a private conversation and they need to hash it out. And Joe Biden needs to respect and understand how she felt then and how she feels now. She is one of the most even keeled serious human beings. I have met her. She is incredibly impressive and I think she is incredibly graceful gracious.

[07:40:01]

And he needs to pick up the phone and he needs call Lucy Flores. And he needs to say, look, you know what, I was there to campaign for you. I was there to support you. I was there to encourage you. I am sorry that I made you feel this way. It was inappropriate and I am glad you have spoken up and I'm glad you told me so and I'm going to take it into account.

So Joe Biden needs to reach out and touch two someones, but not actually touch them. Talk to them, okay, Joe? Just talk to them. Put your hands down and call them, maybe Facetime.

CAMEROTA: Reach out and touch them through the phone lines. Okay.

NAVARRO: Reach out and don't touch someone, right.

CAMEROTA: That's awesome. Kirsten, Anna, Jess, thank you all very much.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: And just adding, the most phones do have the hands-free feature. I'm just saying, just finishing that conversation.

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is asking for regulation. He is asking for regulation by the U.S. government. What's going on here and what help does he want? That's next.

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[07:45:00]

[07:45:24] BERMAN: It is time for CNN Business now. So Facebook has been under fire for being a platform that allowed foreign influence on campaigns during the 2016 election and live streaming a mass murder in New Zealand. Now, Mark Zuckerberg is asking for government's help.

Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with that.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, guys. Amid growing criticism that Facebook simply has to do better, Mark Zuckerberg is calling for the government to take a more active role and craft new rules for the internet. In an op-ed over the weekend, he asked for stricter regulation of harmful content, election integrity privacy and data portability. He wrote this, by updating the the rules for the internet, we can preserve what's best about it, the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things while protecting society from broader harms.

Facebook, of course, has been criticized for not regulating itself a little better in the first place. Last month, it failed to stop a live stream by the suspect in the New Zealand terrorist attack that killed 50 people. There has been scandal after scandal, from hate speech to piracy and criticism over the spread of fake news especially during national elections.

Also this weekend, Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in the New Zealand Herald that Facebook had to get better at policing its platform, adding it was considering restricting who can stream live video on it after the New Zealand attack. Buy, guys, a company that's $16 billion, almost $17 billion in revenue last year, a lot of folks think it needs to do better with or without more government regulation.

CAMEROTA: I mean, those are such glaring problems that they have not figured out how to address.

ROMANS: Yes. Most industries want self-regulation. So the fact they are out there saying, hey, regulate us, means they know it's coming.

CAMEROTA: Christine, thank you very much.

All right. a new law takes effect Wednesday in Brunei. It punishes homosexuality and adultery with death by stoning. Despite massive international condemnation, the Sultan of Brunei says he has no plans to reconsider.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now with more. What have you learned, Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, it is hard to believe, but there are no signs that the government in Brunei will change course. They put out a statement over the weekend reaffirming the fact they are a sovereign country with the right to enforce their own laws. But the international outreach is mounting before these laws become enshrined on Wednesday.

George Clooney has been leading the charge, calling for a boycott of nine hotels, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. These are all hotels that are owned by the Brunei Investment Group which is controlled by the Sultan of Brunei.

Here is what Clooney had to say. He says, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of the nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery. Powerful words there.

We have had responses from some of the hotels not directly responding to the boycott but reaffirming that they uphold values of diversity. One hotel is saying that they value LGBTQ rights.

As for the LGBTQ community in Brunei, I have spoken to some who live in Brunei and some who have left, afraid for their lives. They said they believe the laws will, in fact, be imposed Wednesday but they do not know how strictly those laws will be enforced. It is reason to fear for their safety and they are speaking up right now at a time where they are looking for the world to help.

We are now hearing from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights who is also calling on Brunei to stop this before it starts.

BERMAN: All right. Alexandra Field, you can understand why people there are scared. You can also understand why people here are calling for action. And decisions people make in the United States could affect this discussion. Alexandra Field, thank you so much for this.

So the technical term for it is the I'm rubber, you're glue defense, not to be confused with the I know you are, but what am I defense.

CAMEROTA: That's different?

BERMAN: Well, they can be used in conjunction. In this case, I just sort of think they are. This is about President Trump's talent for taking anything that's said about him and saying it back only louder. The Reality Check is next.

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[07:50:00]

[07:5:] CAMEROTA: President Trump has a talent for taking any attack no matter what it is and no matter who said it and deflecting, sometimes back on them. John Avlon has our Reality Check. What have you learned about this one, John?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This is a fascinating move. So the technical term for it could be projection deflection. The not so technical term for it is the I'm rubber, you're glue defense, A.K.A, the I know you are but what am I. I'm taking about President Trump's killer instinct for taking his opponent's attacks on him and immediately flipping them around. Here is one recent example.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Evil things, very bad things, I would say, treasonous things.

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AVLON: Now, President Trump throwing around the word treason is pretty interesting considering that his team has been full of righteous fury of people who use the T word about him.

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SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They literally accused the President of the United States of being an agent for a foreign government. That's equivalent to treason. That is punishable by death.

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AVLON: But treason seems to be very much on the menu when it comes to President Trump's political opponents, and the new calls to, quote, investigate the investigators.

Now, Trump's powers of deflection have been a hallmark of his political rise. For example, during the 2016 campaign, you might remember that PolitiFact found that an astounding 78 percent of all Trump's fact check claims were not true. In fact, he earned more than twice the number of pants on fire claims than all the other candidates combined. So, of course, he called his opponents liars.

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TRUMP: Lying Ted Cruz, Lying Ted, lies, oh, he lies.

Hillary Clinton, she's a world class liar.

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AVLON: Now, speaking of the campaign, who can forget this instant classic?

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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE United States: He'd rather have a puppet as President of the United States.

TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.

CLINTON: And it's pretty clear --

TRUMP: You are the puppet.

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AVLON: No puppet, you're the puppet. Now, this was after the intelligence community told us that Russia was meddling with the election in ways that helped candidate Trump. Trump's response, basically, I'm rubber, you're glue.

Now, of course, that wouldn't be the last time Trump tried to boomerang an attack over Russia. Now, he's insisting that the only real collusion is with the democrats.

But maybe the biggest example of deflection is this.

[07:55:01]

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TRUMP: They are the fake, fake, disgusting news. We are fighting the fake news.

Fake news. Fake, fake news.

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AVLON: Now, don't forget there was an actual thing known as fake news, intentionally false stories that's spread on social media in the last month of the 2016 election, often aiding candidate Trump. Trump flipped the term around to try to tar any news organizations that dare criticize him. Three weeks after inauguration, of example, he literally Tweeted that, quote, any negative polls are fake news.

So where did Trump learn this overall move? Well, it may have come from one of Trump's earliest political mentors, and one time, Joe McCarthy and turned mob lawyer named Roy Cohn. Now, according to author Sam Roberts, Roy worked a three-dimensional strategy, one, never settle, never surrender. Two, counterattack, countersue immediately. Three, no matter what happens, no matter how deeply in the muck you get, claim victory and never admit defeat. Sound familiar?

Now, all of this intentionally blurs the line between fact and fiction. Take so-called low information voter and lowers the information even more, muddies the waters with moral relativism, making it almost impossible for our nation to reason together. So the next time you hear President Trump attack his opponents, listen closely for the sound of projection deflection, because there's a good chance what he's saying was said about him and he's just bouncing it back to confuse you. And that's your Reality Check.

CAMEROTA: I thought that's what was happening, John, but it took a Reality Check to see it in technicolor.

AVLON: One of the many services we provide.

BERMAN: Look, it's in South Park also. For fans of South Park, the character, Towelie, you're a towel, no, you're a towel. Google it. Trust me. It is classic South Park. See? They're laughing. They know what I'm talking about. You're a towel.

AVLON: Hey, even South Park gets the joke.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you very much John.

Police are looking for the gunman who shot and killed Nipsey Hussle. The Grammy nominated rapper was gunned down Sunday in front of his Los Angeles clothing store.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is live in Los Angeles with the very latest on this. Paul, what have you learned?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, Nipsey was considered a ray of light from a tough neighborhood. He was killed at 3:20 in the afternoon outside that clothing store that he's associated with. And perhaps a Tweet by him within a half hour of the shooting indicates something he had said basically in so many terms that having strong enemies is a blessing.

And he also has said on his Facebook page that he was a member of the Rolling 60s Crips. That's a nationally known street game named after 60th street in South Los Angeles. And just today, he was to meet with top LAPD officials about ending gang violence in his neighborhood and people at a growing and makeshift memorial are absolutely crushed.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is someone who put our community on the map. People thought that our community was just about violence. And Nipsey put a change to that. And he let them know that even though we're from underprivileged communities of poverty that we can still become something.

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VERCAMMEN: And the artist Pharrell said, you were about something positive for a community with every chance you had to speak. And because of that, you inspired millions, millions who will uphold your legacy forever. Rest among the stars.

And he was rising in the music business, was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year. He had lost. He worked with all the top artists, including Kendrick Lamar among others and Drake. He was 33 years old or 33 years young. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Well, Paul, this is sending shockwaves throughout the whole music industry. They need to find the suspect behind this. Thank you very much.

So there's breaking news. There are major delays at airports this morning across the country. What we know that's causing it, right now.

BERMAN: Good morning and welcome to your New Day. It is Monday, April 1st, 8:00 o'clock in the east. And we do begin breaking news. Airline passengers across the country are reporting delays, some of them major delays at several airlines. We're told Delta, Southwest and United all involved.

CAMEROTA: It appears there is a technical glitch that is causing this problem.

CNN's Cristina Alesci is one of the people who was stalled by all this. She is at LaGuardia airport for us in New York. So what's the situation there, Cristina?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I talked to one of the pilots who basically said it was a problem with software that gives the pilots all the information they need to fly, everything from their route to the number of passengers to how much luggage is on board, to fuel. Basically, the pilot described it as the Bible needed to take off. And that was delayed. Sorry, I'm on my Skype here. That was -- getting that information was not happening this morning, and that's what delayed all the flights. It impacted three major airlines and airports across the country, Delta, United, Southwest where I am right now, passengers really frustrated because of the lack of information and really understanding.

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