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Officials Investigating Synagogue Shooting as Hate Crime; 1 Dead, 7 Hurt in Baltimore Shooting; Five Men Rescued After Being Trapped in Virginia Cave; Joe Biden to Hold First Campaign Rally in Pittsburgh. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2019 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard six or seven shots. It went quiet. I ran in and called 911.

[05:59:06] RABBI YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, CHABAD OF POWAY SYNAGOGUE: Here's a young man with a rifle pointing right at me. I couldn't see his eyes. I couldn't see his soul.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not Poway. We will walk through this tragedy with our arms around each other.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe Biden kicks off his 2020 presidential campaign in Pittsburgh today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biden has a chance to run a campaign of things people are actually for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's never been in this position before. He's about to prove if he is a frontrunner or not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to your viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, April 29, 6 a.m. here in New York. And a new attack on a House of worship. A new murder based on hate. A new reason to ask, what is happening in this country and around the world and why?

An investigation is underway after a teenager stormed into a California synagogue, armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle, and opened fire on innocent people celebrating the end of Passover.

A funeral is planned today for Lori Gilbert Kaye, who was killed in the attack. According to her friends and authorities, the 60-year-old stepped in front of the bullets aimed at her long-time friend and rabbi as he raced to evacuate children. Three others were also hurt, including that rabbi.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We'll be speaking to her daughter later in the program.

Officials say a motive remains unclear, but the gunman's own reported words suggest a hate crime. An anonymous letter posted online from someone claiming to be the gunman referenced recent attacks on houses of worship, including the massacre at the Pittsburgh synagogue and at mosques at New Zealand.

President Trump denounced the attack and anti-Semitism at a rally over the weekend. The president, however, is still defending and trying to explain his controversial response to the deadly Charlottesville white supremacist rally after former vice president, Joe Biden, criticized that in his campaign launch video.

The rising tide of white nationalism is now an issue in the 2020 race. So let's begin with CNN's Dan Simon. He is live in Poway, California, with more -- Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

The victim, Lori Gilbert Kaye, actually died while her husband, who happens to be a physician, tried to revive her. In fact, at first, the husband didn't realize that it was his wife. And once he did, he fainted.

Meantime, we are also hearing from the rabbi, who says this all began when he was in the banquet hall, heard what he thought was a loud bang, and then the next thing he knew, he was face to face with the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOLDSTEIN: Terrorism like this will not take us down.

SIMON (voice-over): His hands wrapped in blue casts, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein recalling the horrifying moment his congregation became the latest target of a deadly attack at a place of worship, following massacres in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

GOLDSTEIN: I hear a loud bang. I turn around, and I see a sight that I can't -- undescribable. Here is a young man standing with a rifle pointing right at me. He had sunglasses on. I couldn't see his eyes. I couldn't see his soul.

SIMON: Rabbi Goldstein, one of four people shot at the Chabad of Poway Synagogue in Southern California, a lone gunman armed with an assault-style rifle opening fire upon worshippers celebrating the last day of Passover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting like crazy. He was just focused to kill.

SIMON: Rabbi Goldstein was shot in both hands, losing his right index finger. Sixty-year-old congregant Lori Gilbert Kaye was killed in the attack, police identifying the suspect as 19-year-old John Earnest.

SHERIFF BILL GORE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY: As the suspect was fleeing the temple, an off-duty Border Patrol agent opened fire on the suspect, but it apparently did not hit him.

SIMON: Earnest eventually surrendering to the police. He's now charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Authorities say they believe Earnest acted alone. Investigators looking into an anti-Semitic letter posted online by someone claiming to be Earnest before the attack.

GORE: We are in the process of reviewing to determine its validity and authenticity.

SIMON: San Diego police and the FBI now examining whether Earnest is linked to arson at a nearby mosque last month. President Trump swiftly condemning the attack.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.

ALMOG PERETZ, SHOT IN LEG BY SHOOTER: I need to warn (ph) all the kids.

SIMON: We are learning more stories of heroism inside the synagogue, like Almog Peretz, visiting his family from Israel. The 34-year-old shot in the leg before helping children escape the gunfire.

PERETZ: He's like had a vest. He's coming like the soldier. He's standing in the door like the focus, and he's staying like that. And he's staying that way, relaxed and shooting.

SIMON: Peretz tried to protect his 8-year-old niece, Noya Dahan, who was injured by shrapnel.

NOYA DAHAN, INJURED BY SHRAPNEL: The world isn't supposed to be like this.

(SINGING)

SIMON: Poway, the latest American city trying to heal from another hate-filled attack.

GOLDSTEIN: No matter how dark the world is, we need to think of light. A little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness.

SIMON: While honoring those like its youngest victim, Noya, sitting tall on her father's shoulders at a vigil Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was wounded yesterday. And today she's here with us. This is bravery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: Well, it's not clear if the suspect had any formal weapons training. We also don't know how he obtained the gun. But what we do know is that at some point during the shooting, he gun apparently jammed; and that obviously prevented a lot more people from dying -- John.

BERMAN: Imagine what might have happened had it not. Dan Simon for us in Poway, California. Dan, thank you very much.

Want to bring in George Selim, George the senior vice president of programs for the Anti-Defamation League. George, thank you so much for being with us.

[06:05:04] We learned as part of this investigation that this killer, in his writings, had referenced the attacks on the Pittsburgh synagogue six months ago, the attacks on the mosque in New Zealand just a few weeks ago at this point. I suppose this comes as no surprise to you.

GEORGE SELIM, SVP OF PROGRAMS, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Unfortunately, John, it does not. And let me just start out by saying the most heartfelt -- expressing the most heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families and victims of all those who were affected in Poway.

And to your question, no, this does not come as a surprise. We know that, in 2018 alone, domestic extremists killed at least 50 people in the United States. And the year before that, in 2017, we saw anti- Semitic incidents have a 57 percent increase across the United States.

So the spikes that we're seeing in both extremist-related murders and homicides, coupled with anti-Semitic incidents across the country, are really a troubling trend.

BERMAN: How is this happening, George? What are we doing wrong here?

SELIM: So it's really a combination of things. The way that extremists and white supremacists share information, disseminate their propaganda continues to be an accelerant on various social media platforms.

We know that the shooter in Poway posted materials and used a social media platform called 8chan as a place where he posted information. And we know that other extremists have used those platforms, as well. So it's really a combination of a -- of a polarized political environment, coupled with platforms where extremists and individuals who are wanting to commit acts of violence have the means to express and share their ideas, really, at a moment's notice.

BERMAN: You have taken note of the fact that a White House aspirant, Joe Biden, has made white nationalism, the attacks in Charlottesville, really a centerpiece of his campaign. Why do you think that's important?

SELIM: Well, a couple reasons. The first is that, you know, I wrote an op-ed today in "The USA Today" that really points to the fact that, in my former role in government, at the Department of Homeland Security, there were dozens of staff and, you know, tens of millions of dollars going into the issue of preventing and intervening in the process of radicalization and recruitment domestically.

In the past two years, those resources have been decimated by this administration. The amount of grant funding going out, the amount of people working on this issue, continue to see a downward trend. And that's extremely troubling to me as a former federal official. BERMAN: We have to care about this from the top to bottom; and we have to be vigilant every second of the day, which is why I want to bring up this cartoon that was published, apparently, in the international paper edition of "The New York Times" over the weekend.

And it shows Donald Trump, the president of the United States, holding a dog in the form of Benjamin Netanyahu there. This is an anti- Semitic cartoon. I mean, pure and simple. There's no other way to look at this. "The New York Times" has apologized for the fact that this was published.

But how is it that a cartoon like this even gets to a single newspaper?

SELIM: To start with, I can't even call it a cartoon. This is really anti-Semitic propaganda. We've seen this across the globe. ADL tracks propaganda like this across the globe. It's great that "The New York Times" you know, retracted it and published an apology.

But the key theme here is that there's no one industry or no one political party that has a monopoly on anti-Semitism. It's across the board. Whether it's journalism and papers like "The New York Times," whether it's political parties or whether it's any industry, social media, et cetera. Anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in all facets of American life.

This is just another example that we should denounce and speak out strongly against. And that more leaders across the country need to do more to stand up and speak out against this type of heinous propaganda.

BERMAN: George Selim from the Anti-Defamation League, thanks for waking up early with us this morning and helping us understand what we are seeing and what, apparently, is getting worse.

SELIM: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Thanks for being with us.

Ahead on NEW DAY, we are going to speak with Lori Gilbert Kaye's daughter. Lori Kaye was killed in the attack in Poway. Her daughter Hannah was with her when she was shot and killed.

CAMEROTA: Now another bleak story on breaking news that we're following. Baltimore's police commissioner appealing to the public for help identifying the gunman for what he calls a, quote, "tragic and cowardly shooting."

The suspect opened fire in the middle of a Sunday cookout in West Baltimore, killing one person and wounding seven others.

BERMAN: Also breaking overnight, five men are now free after being trapped in a cave in Virginia since Friday night. Rescue crews worked around the clock to get them out after a heavy downpour.

CNN's Alexander Field is live in Cleveland, Virginia, with the latest on this. It's a good ending. It was a harrowing weekend, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning to you. A very good morning for those five men who found themselves trapped inside the cave.

There was a total of six men who went in on Friday night, as you mentioned. They were planning on spending some time camping down there.

We're talking about Cyclops Cave. It has about 7 miles of passageway. It's on private property. The group quickly realized they didn't have enough food, they didn't have enough water. They weren't anticipating a heavy downpour over the weekend.

Soon they were battling exhaustion and trying to fight off hypothermia. One of the men made it out. He called for help. That's when the rescue teams went in. The five who were trapped certainly feeling a sense of gratitude now.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lord watched over us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lord watched over us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: They are also, of course, grateful to those rescue teams. State and local cave rescue officials came together to work out the plan. They also had teams on standby across the East Coast.

This was delicate work. Officials say there were some technical issues with this cave. There was also restricted access. But they were able to get the teams in there to bring some food, to bring some water to warm the men up.

And we're told that all of the men were in good spirits at the time that the rescuers arrived. Certainly, you can imagine they had smiles on their faces. All five were taken to the hospitals for treatment -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: My God. Thank God for those rescuers. Alexandra, thank you very much for that.

Now there's some stunning video to show you from Seattle that we warn you is very upsetting to watch. There's this construction crane --

BERMAN: Oh, goodness.

CAMEROTA: That collapses from a building into one of the city's busiest downtown streets. This was over the weekend. Four people were killed. Two of the victims, including a freshman at Seattle Pacific University were in vehicles that were crushed by the crane. The other two were crane operators.

CNN affiliate KOMO reports that it fell from a building under construction on the new Google Seattle campus. Investigators are trying to determine a cause.

BERMAN: Cranes are everywhere in Seattle right now. I mean, every city. Seattle, there are dozens and dozens of them all over the place.

CAMEROTA: It's really scary.

BERMAN: I saw them this morning.

CAMEROTA: Me, too. Me, too. You can't help but look up and worry now when you see a towering crane after accidents like that.

BERMAN: All right. In just a few hours, former vice president Joe Biden will hold his first campaign rally in Pittsburgh. This comes as the former vice president's campaign reports that he raised more than $6 million in the first 24 hours of his launch. That top his rivals in the crowded Democratic Field.

CNN's Arlette Saenz, live in Pittsburgh. This will be where the first rally is held. This is a big moment for the former vice president, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. Joe Biden is kicking things off here in Pittsburgh today. Later this afternoon, he'll be speaking at a union hall, where his campaign says he'll be discuss rebuilding the middle class.

And this morning, Biden is picking up an endorsement from a key labor group. The International Association of Firefighters announced in a video that they will be supporting Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The first major labor group to endorse in this presidential contest.

Now, Biden is here in Pennsylvania. It's a state that's late in the primary process but is going to be key in the general election. This is one of those states that Donald Trump picked up in 2016, and Democrats want to bring it back to the blue column in 2020.

Now, after Pittsburgh here in Pennsylvania, today, Biden sets off on this little bit of a whirlwind tour over the next week. Tomorrow and Wednesday, he'll be out in Iowa for his first visit to the caucus state as a presidential candidate. And then this weekend he'll be heading down to South Carolina.

Biden announced his campaign on Thursday. And we've already heard those fundraising figures that you mentioned. His campaign announcing that, in the first 24 hours, he raised $6.3 million, more than any of his Democratic primary rivals did in their first 24-hour period. More than $4 million of that online.

And over the weekend, Biden, on Twitter, said that he is going to reject any super PACs that come out in support of him. There's already one that's reportedly forming. And that's a stance that many of the other Democratic contenders have also taken this Democratic primary season.

Today in a few hours, we'll see Joe Biden, as he's going to make his pitch to the middle class here in Pittsburgh -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Arlette, thank you very much. Obviously, we will dive into how these first days have gone with the former vice president coming up in the show.

So he also has expressed regret for how Anita Hill was treated when she testified during the Clarence Thomas hearings. But he has not apologized directly for his actions. Do voters prioritize this issue? What, if any, impact will this have an Biden's campaign?

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[06:18:06] BERMAN: In just hours, former vice president Joe Biden will hold his first campaign rally in this race. It happens in Pittsburgh. His campaign says it raised $6.3 million in the first 24 hours of his launch. That is the largest one-day haul among the Democratic candidates.

The $6 million figure is so important, obviously, in this cycle.

Want to bring back CNN political reporter Arlette Saenz, who's in Pittsburgh; and bring in CNN political correspondent M.J. Lee; and Alex Burns, national political correspondent for "The New York Times" and a CNN political analyst.

Let me lay out where Joe Biden is going this week. Today it is Pennsylvania. He's doing Iowa tomorrow and Wednesday. And then South Carolina Saturday and Sunday. I think we even have a snazzy graphic representation of that.

CAMEROTA: Come on. Do we have that technology?

BERMAN: All right. We're going to wait on that. We'll keep talking as we wait for that to pop up here.

But Alex, my question to you is you have noted there are five questions -- I'm holding in my hands here an article -- five questions you and Jonathan Martin have written about that will determine if Joe Biden can succeed. As we look forward to this afternoon and these campaign swings this week, what are you looking for?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think the biggest thing that we're watching for today and the rest of this week is just what kind of a performer is he on the campaign trail? And I mean physically. I mean verbally.

I mean, the substance of his remarks that, you know, the first 48 hours of his campaign last week, we got some important information about what kind of fundraiser he can be. We got some important information about what he wants, sort of the big moral and political frame of the campaign to be.

We didn't get a lot about what he would want to do as president. Right? And we didn't get much of a sense of how his age will play out in practice on the campaign trail. We heard him say on "The View" on Friday this is a show-me business, and people who are concerned about his age or who are concerned about his vision, you know, "Just watch me." And that's exactly what we're going to start to do today.

CAMEROTA: So Arlette, what is the feeling on the campaign, I mean, of the first few days of how this has gone? But the numbers are great. The reviews for him on "The View," I'd say, were mixed. So what's the thinking on the campaign?

[06:20:16] Well, I think the campaign has been happy with how things have come right out of the gate. You had that video that was released on Thursday that they really felt set the frame for his campaign. And also, those fundraising figures were impressive and, you know, kind of quelled some of the concerns that people had been raising leading up to Biden's announcement about whether or not he could actually raise the money to run a viable campaign.

The moment on "The View," while there were tricky spots when it came to Anita Hill or his comments about how he made women feel in their interactions.

There were also some other touching moments that the campaign has pointed to, like that moment when he talked about Beau Biden and how he hopes that he is making him proud.

But I think in these coming days, we're really going to get this first glimpse of how Joe Biden is going to adapt to the campaign trail. This on his third run for president. You know, he didn't fare so well back in 1987 and 2008 when he got just less than 1 percent in the Iowa caucuses.

And so now he's going to be out there campaigning for the first time on his own in almost a decade of campaigning for himself, when in the past, he'd just been campaigning alongside with President Obama. And then also over the midterms with those Democratic candidates back in the fall.

BERMAN: After Pittsburgh tonight, it's four stops in Iowa. It's a busy Iowa trip, M.J. And I will say it is interesting that the vice president announced his campaign in this video focused on white nationalism in Charlottesville. And then we had this attack this weekend.

He didn't really focus on that issue as much on "The View" as he could have. I'm very curious to see if he continues to makes that a centerpiece of his campaign for two reasons: one, subject-wise, it's interesting. And No. 2, it will tell me if he has the campaign discipline we're all wondering about.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He absolutely will, though, because such a big part of his campaign is obviously going to be about drawing a contrast between himself and President Trump.

But also, as an extension of that, drawing a contrast between President Obama and President Trump. Right? For all of the people who are looking at the way that President Trump is conducting himself, the way that he speaks about these issues and feels any kind of nostalgia about the previous era, the era of President Barack Obama.

I think they are going to be looking at former vice president Joe Biden and thinking about sort of what they used to have and what a contrast it is from the way that President Trump has been running this country.

I think it's clear, just based on the video that Biden released on Thursday, the reason that he chose to focus on that single issue is because he wants to draw that contrast and constantly remind people that he served under President Barack Obama. And him as president, that presidency will be very different from the way that President Trump has been conducting himself and running the country.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the rest of the Field. Before Biden got in, we talked about the "B's" of the field: the Biden, Bernie, Beto and Buttigieg. And let's just go with Beto.

He has not been as public or gotten as much buzz as he did after his big "Vanity Fair" launch. So what's happening?

BURNS: Well, the people around him and, I think, Beto himself sort of made this strategic choice that he needed to not look like the celebrity candidate, the "Vanity Fair" candidate. So he needed to get out there and grind it out in the early states and sort of show people that he's a workforce, not just a show horse.

CAMEROTA: So they wanted to dial down the buzz intentionally.

BURNS: Well, how often have we seen him on television?

BERMAN: Zero.

BURNS: Zero. Right, zero.

And I think when you look at that strategic choice, versus the Pete Buttigieg, like, say yes to everything, "I'll go anywhere at any time" approach, I think we see sort of who made the better bet over the last two months.

Look, I think one of the biggest effects that Joe Biden has on everybody else who's running for president. This was already a crowded field. And he is a bigger addition to the crowd than most. If you were not one of those five or six candidates, I would say the four you just mentioned, plus Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.

If you're not one of those top five or six people right now, the ability to be heard over the din of the people who are the loudest voices in the race just got a lot tougher.

BERMAN: I will tell you, there's a strategic choice, maybe, to not go for the national coverage. But you rarely make a strategic choice to have crowds at universities of, you know, some 35 people, which is being written about the last few days. The spate of articles about where have Beto O'Rourke's crowds have gone, not good. BURNS: And it does sort of call into question the mythology of these

early states that you just need to grind it out in these -- you know, people's living rooms and coffee shops, when in fact, it does seem like the crowd size pretty much tracks with who's on television.

BERMAN: Arlette, can I ask, is there any one candidate that the Biden folks talk about, whisper about the most? Can you tell by their body language who their side eye is glancing at?

[06:25:12] SAENZ: Well, I think you have seen, like, over the past few days, you've had both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren coming out and criticizing Biden right out of the gate.

So I think for the campaign, I think they're closely watching what further attacks might be coming their way from Bernie Sanders, who's right behind Biden in the polls, and then also Elizabeth Warren, who really has some philosophical differences with Joe Biden. We've seen them done battle before when it comes to bankruptcy bills.

So I think those are two of the candidates that they're going to be watching very closely in these coming weeks. But for now, Biden is enjoying that frontrunner status.

And it takes with it -- what comes with that is a lot of time and attention that is paid for him. And they are completely aware that he's going to have attacks not just from President Trump but also from his Democratic primary rivals.

BERMAN: All right. Arlette Saenz, we'll be watching Pittsburgh very closely over the next several hours. Thank you for being there. M.J. Lee, Alex Burns, always a pleasure to have you here with us.

So he is scheduled to testify in the House this week. Scheduled. But Attorney General William Barr is now threatening not to show up. What has Barr and House Democrats at a crossroads? That's next.

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