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CNN Analysis Of FAA Data Raises Questions About 737 MAX Jets; Study Shows Kids Can Be Reliably Diagnosed With Autism At 14 Months; CNN Reality Check: Can Elizabeth Warren Solve The College Debt Crisis? Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 01, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:33:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN investigation is raising new safety concerns about Boeing 737 MAX jets. The fleet is grounded in the wake of two recent crashes in which 346 people died.

CNN's Drew Griffin is live in Chicago with details. What have you learned, Drew?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this goes back to the very design of the plane, questions relating to flight safety, and how the design was improved.

One government official telling me this all has very serious implications for Boeing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN (voice-over): A CNN analysis of FAA data is raising questions about how Boeing could have designed a flight safety system on its 737 MAX centered on just one sensor with a history of failures.

The MCAS system is designed to prevent a plane from stalling. It's triggered by one of two AOA sensors which read the plane's angle and flight. But if that AOA sensor gives an incorrect reading the MCAS could activate, automatically pitching the nose of the plane down repeatedly as the pilots struggle for control.

Investigators in the crashes of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes suspect that scenario started a chain of events that led to both tragedies.

Just why Boeing would have no backup for a single sensor with a terrible track record has aviation experts baffled.

PETER GOETZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: This is a fairly simple external device. It can get damaged on a regular basis.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): In fact, a CNN review of FAA records shows AOA sensors had problems on at least 216 flights since 2004, sometimes forcing pilots to make emergency landings or abort takeoffs. Forty- two of them happened on Boeing planes.

And here's proof Boeing knew these sensors were prone to problems. Two separate FAA airworthiness directives involved Boeing planes in 2013 and 2016, before the 737 MAX crashes ordered inspections or changes to AOA sensors because of an unsafe condition that could lead to problems with control of the airplane.

[07:35:01] GOETZ: Far too often, it takes a tragedy to connect the dots and say you know, we really ought to take a hard look at the design of this piece of equipment.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Boeing says its new software fix includes input from two AOA sensors being in agreement before the system would activate, though Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg says that is not an admission of an initial design flaw.

DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, BOEING: We haven't seen a technical slip or gap in terms of the fundamental design and certification.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): But, CNN has learned Boeing never flight-tested a scenario in which the AOA sensor malfunctioned. A former Boeing test pilot tells CNN, "Apparently, we missed the ramifications of the failure of that AOA probe."

Potential failure conditions were, instead, analyzed in the design and certification according to another source familiar with the testing, and it was determined trained pilots would have been able to handle the failure.

PETER LEMME, AVIATION EXPERT: It should have been in the test program right up front to expose that problem.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Aviation expert Peter Lemme, who was subpoenaed by a grand jury in an investigation into the 737 MAX, says he doesn't understand why it took to fatal crashes for Boeing to make changes.

LEMME: This is the part that I find almost incredible because AOA vanes have been on airplanes for many, many years. It's a well-known failure.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Boeing's CEO says the 737 MAX was designed safely but that the proper procedures were not completely followed by the pilots.

MUILENBURG: When we design a system, understand that these airplanes are flown in the hands of pilots. And in some cases, our system safety analysis includes not only the engineering design but also the actions that pilots would take.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): But when pressed on why Boeing is admitting no flaws in its design, the CEO walked out of the press conference.

REPORTER: Three hundred forty-six people died. Can you answer a few questions here about that?

(END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFIN: John, the FAA, the Department of Justice, and Congress have all opened investigations looking into just how this plane was designed and how Boeing was able to get proper government clearance with what now appears to be a plane with a safety flaw -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: These questions remain open and remain very concerning.

Drew Griffin, thank you so much for your reporting on this.

So this is the first full week of Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. Is he making the grade? Chris Cillizza's midweek grades -- they're out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:00] CAMEROTA: All right. Joe Biden has officially been in the race for less than a week and already it's time for his first report card.

So says Chris Cillizza. He is here with the midweek grades. He is our CNN politics reporter and editor-at-large and a very tough grader, normally, I find.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes. I mean, tough but fair.

CAMEROTA: OK. Joe Biden -- you give him a what?

CILLIZZA: I give him an A -- and I've got a lot of grades to get through so I'm going to go quick. But I give him an A -- simple, Alisyn.

He raises the most money in his first 24 hours -- $6.3 million -- of any candidate. Impressive, particularly for someone we are a little bit worried about in terms of his ability to raise money, particularly online.

He is number one by 24 points in our most recent poll. That's a big yield.

And, Donald Trump has sent five tweets about him in the last 36-ish hours. All of those --

CAMEROTA: And that inflates the grade for you?

CILLIZZA: All of those things help Joe Biden's argument that he's the one Trump's worried about and he's the most electable -- solid A.

BERMAN: All right. The next person you give a grade to Joe Biden is beating by 38 points --

CILLIZZA: Yes.

BERMAN: -- in the CNN poll. So why does Eric Swalwell get a B-plus? CILLIZZA: OK, because Eric Swalwell only has one chance at doing anything in this race and that's getting on the debate stage. Late June-late July, there's going to be a series of debates. Getting on the debate stage and impressing people who have literally never heard of him before, which is honestly, if you look at polling, most people.

Well, this week, his campaign announced that he has got the 65,000 individual donors that allows him to qualify for the debates.

So, let's assume he can get the polling. There's a polling metric, too. He's got to get above one percent in three national polls.

Let's assume he can do that, John. That's a win for Eric Swalwell because he's only got one path to even viability and credibility in this race and it's the debates.

So I give him a B-plus. It's not an A. He's still a long, long, long, long longshot.

CAMEROTA: OK. Kamala Harris is doing better in the polls than Eric Swalwell but you give her a B-minus.

CILLIZZA: Yes, here's why. You've got to compare yourself to yourself.

And in our March poll, Alisyn, she was at 12. In our -- this most recent poll that we literally just released in April -- end of April -- she was at five. Now, it's not all bad. It's April -- well, now it's May 2019.

And there's a piece of that poll -- and this is why she doesn't get anything worse than a B-minus. There's a piece in that poll that I think really matters. One in for voters who are for someone else -- who told our pollsters they support some other candidate -- say they want to learn more about Harris.

She continues to be -- if we were doing this as an NBA draft, she continues to be the high upside candidate. She's someone who a lot of people are interested in, a lot of potential. Taking a little bit of a step back in terms of public opinion polling right now, but nothing to be concerned about.

BERMAN: Elizabeth Warren is right in that same position, too, where she has --

CILLIZZA: Correct.

BERMAN: -- performed better in some polls and people want to know much more about her. They're both sort of on the rise.

Decidedly, on the fall is --

CILLIZZA: Beto O'Rourke. I just -- I don't -- it's not at all clear to me what he's doing. He's -- I didn't give him an F because I didn't really give anybody an F, but a D-minus is the worst grade we have given since we've been doing this. It's not -- again, I just don't know. He's not really anywhere. He did release a climate plan, so that's something. But overall, it just feels like he's not doing much.

There's a "BuzzFeed" story that came out late last night. I recommend people read it. It essentially says there's not a lot of coordination in the staff. People are confused at what's going on.

His polling has dropped. He was at 13 in our March poll -- way down into single digits.

It just feels like Buttigieg -- Mayor Pete -- South Bend mayor -- has taken a lot of the momentum there -- the fresh-face momentum. And, Beto hasn't figured out what his next act is yet. It doesn't mean he can't, but he hasn't yet.

CAMEROTA: All right. I'm not familiar with this next candidate. Maybe it's a new entrant -- Arya.

CILLIZZA: Arya Stark should -- this is the greatest thing ever. When the producers were like can you give some ratings to "GAME OF THRONES" candidates, I was like, good -- do we have the full hour?

OK. Arya Stark -- she killed like 200 of the undead in the Battle of Winterfell.

CAMEROTA: Impressive.

CILLIZZA: And then she did the knife-drop right in the gut bit on the Night King. A -- A-plus-plus.

CAMEROTA: I think we're seeing a different side of Chris Cillizza -- the blood-thirsty side.

[07:45:01] BERMAN: He's underselling it. He's under -- Arya is the most impressive person in like real earth or fake earth. There has never been anyone as impressive as Arya Stark.

CAMEROTA: So she should --

CILLIZZA: Thoros.

CAMEROTA: -- run for president?

BERMAN: All right. Next in line?

CAMEROTA: Jon Snow.

BERMAN: He knows nothing.

CAMEROTA: What does he get?

CILLIZZA: OK, C-minus and that's kind of being kind. So, terrible battle plan, overall. I don't know why they put the whole army outside of the gates of Winterfell. The whole point is -- Anyway, he basically lets the Dothraki run -- be murdered at the beginning. The dragons are flying -- unclear. And then, his plan at the end to an ice dragon -- an undead dragon -- is to stand up and yell at it? He's just very lucky the Arya saved his bacon.

BERMAN: But, better than Daenerys?

CILLIZZA: Daenerys -- no clue what she's doing. I gave her an F. She's just flying around. It's not clear whether she likes Jon Snow -- she thinks he's a threat.

And then, the main advantage of a dragon is that it flies, so why would you land it among an army of the undead so they could all get on him and start stabbing the poor dragon?

CAMEROTA: How many times have I asked that?

CILLIZZA: Oh, gosh. We've been over this, Alisyn.

BERMAN: She does benefit from the low expectations, though, going forward. I will note that. She and Beto O'Rourke both have that going for them.

CILLIZZA: High upside, Daenerys Targaryen -- high upside.

BERMAN: Thank you very much, Chris Cillizza. Alisyn has never watched an episode right now.

CILLIZZA: Oh gosh, sorry, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: No, that's all right. I mean, I hope that there were no spoilers in there. It sounded like there may have been.

CILLIZZA: Oh my gosh. They told me to do this. But, OK, wait -- I'm done.

CAMEROTA: Who cares?

CILLIZZA: I know we're out of time but I'm doing my rant on spoiler alerts. They did tell me to say spoiler alert. I didn't do it and I'll tell you why.

It's like the Super Bowl. You've got to watch it live.

I'm not apologizing. This is a huge event. It's been three days.

BERMAN: Very controversial.

CILLIZZA: Come on, people.

CAMEROTA: Cue you, Chris Cillizza.

BERMAN: Very controversial.

Chris Cillizza, thank you.

CILLIZZA: Take that, America.

BERMAN: Thank you very much for being with us.

CAMEROTA: Thank you -- all right.

Can Elizabeth Warren solve the student debt crisis and make four years of college free? We break it down in the reality check, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:15] CAMEROTA: These are staggering numbers. One in 59 children has autism. Most will not be diagnosed until they're three or four years old. But a new study suggests that kids can be screened and diagnosed much earlier, which would mean the possibility of therapies much sooner.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live with more. Sanjay, this sounds like a game changer.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It could be. I mean, you think about autism and the diagnosis right now, there's no specific blood test or biomarker or scan to be sure that someone has autism -- that a child has autism.

And so, as you mentioned, typically, the diagnosis happens around three or four, sometimes as early as two. But I think for some time now, researchers have been saying well look, how early can we -- can we reliably diagnose a child with autism and that's what this study really focused on. They looked at over 1,000 children.

And the conclusion that they arrived at here Alisyn -- I think the headline was that as early as 14 months -- 14 months of age they could make a stable diagnosis of autism, meaning that they would make the diagnosis of autism and then that child at three or four years old, they had autism. And there was about an 84 percent likelihood that that diagnosis was going to be consistent and stable.

So, earlier diagnosis, more consistent diagnosis possibly leading to earlier intervention -- that's the significance here.

CAMEROTA: What would you do for a 14-month-old --

GUPTA: Well --

CAMEROTA: -- if you determine they have autism?

GUPTA: I think -- you know, we talked to some of the scientists specifically about that because look, if you just diagnose something and there's nothing to do about it then that obviously doesn't really do the patient or the family any good.

There's a couple of ways that they sort of break it down.

First of all, earlier diagnosis might mean avoiding what they refer to as more challenging behaviors. So, for a child who is not communicating, for example, and instead, they're trying to get attention in other ways by head banging or things like that. Could you start to intervene -- prevent -- you know, develop other skills to prevent that sort of behavior. Prevent isolating behavior.

Provide skills for not only the child but also the family. The family now knows the diagnosis. They know what they're dealing with. Could they develop skills to better cope?

But then there are other interventions and I think we have sort of a list of the things that people sort of focus on here. Everything from family training, obviously, but speech therapy, hearing impairment services, physical and nutrition services.

It comes under this umbrella of applied behavioral analysis, as well, really trying to understand what are the behaviors, how are the behaviors impacted by the environment, and how can you subsequently change the behaviors.

No one is saying look, earlier intervention is going to lead to an absolute treatment or certainly, cure, but the idea of -- the idea of better adaptive behaviors for both child and family, I think is what people point to as a benefit of earlier intervention.

But again, 14 months is very young. I mean, think about a 14-month- old and what they typically are able to do. And if you can diagnose earlier that could provide some benefit.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sanjay. Thank you very much for explaining all of that to us.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: John --

BERMAN: It's so important to so many people.

All right. Elizabeth Warren has a one and a quarter trillion -- that's with a "t" -- dollar plan to cancel college debt for almost everyone and make four years of college completely free. Could it work?

John Avlon has our reality check -- John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, guys.

So look, according to a new CNN poll, tuition-free public college is number four on the list of top issues for Democratic voters this year. Free college may sound pretty radical but it's a reaction to rising costs and crippling debt.

Check this out. College tuition has more than doubled over the past 30 years. America's total student loan debt is more than $1.5 trillion with a per-student average of more than $20,000.

[07:55:03] And at a time of growing income and equality, it's no surprise that progressive politicians are offering alternatives. So -- and out up front is Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Now, she says she can immediately erase debt for more than 95 percent of students. She also wants to boost spending on higher ed, knocking out tuition and fees for all students at public colleges.

And the cost? Glad you asked. A whopping $1.25 trillion over 10 years. Now, to put that in perspective, it's roughly a dozen Marshall Plans but only half the estimated cost of the Trump tax cuts.

So how do we pay for that, you ask? Well, it's a familiar refrain -- tax the superrich.

Now, a two percent tax on wealth above $50 million and three percent tax on wealth about $1 billion, it may seem like a lot. But to Warren, it's a small sacrifice to pay for a new, great society.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Two cents. We can do universal child care for every baby zero to five, universal pre-K, universal college, and knock back the student loan debt burden for 95 percent of our students and still have nearly a trillion dollars left over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: This is a pretty popular idea by polling. Ninety percent of Americans agree that college affordability is a big to very big problem.

And, Democrats have been moving in this direction for a decade.

President Obama first proposed two years of free community college back in 2015. Bernie Sanders, of course, made free college his signature issue in 2016. And, Hillary Clinton followed suit by backing tuition-free bachelor's degrees for families making less than $125,000 a year.

Joe Biden started talking about free college when Obama did and it's still part of his core sell. He wants to pay for it by closing a loophole used by the wealthy to avoid taxes on assets they inherit.

In all, four 2020 hopefuls are all cosponsors of what's known as the Debt-Free College Act.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is pegging her free college program to a promise of public service. Good idea.

But two of the candidates have come out strong against free college for all and one of them, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, has a pretty clear reason why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans who have a college degree earn more on average than the Americans who don't. And as a progressive, I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that a majority who earn less because they didn't go to college would subsidize a minority who earn more because they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Instead, Buttigieg supports expanding Pell Grants and incentivizing states to help out.

Other critics point out that Warren's plan essentially penalizes those folks who have already paid back their college loans, while conservative critics look at progressive plans and say -- if you think college education is expensive now, just wait until it's free.

America needs to strengthen the middle-class and improve social mobility, and increasing access to higher education is one powerful way to do that. So let the policy debates begin. That's what we should be doing.

And that's your reality check.

BERMAN: And those debates are very much on. And when we look at our most recent poll, a lot of Democratic voters want to be talking about just this -- the idea of free college tuition.

AVLON: Ambitious stuff -- big debate.

BERMAN: All right, John. Thanks so much.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, John.

AVLON: Thanks, guys.

BERMAN: So we now know what Robert Mueller told William Barr about the handling of the Mueller report and Barr's going to have to answer for it in just a little bit. He appears before the Senate two hours from now. This will be a dramatic day.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a letter from Mueller expressing objections about how Barr characterized the findings.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Barr put out a misleading summary and Mueller was pissed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The special counsel couldn't conclude Barr was doing what he was supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are looking ahead to two days of the attorney general testifying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an opportunity for him to be completely transparent if he stands by his statements. He should be forthcoming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is going to get tarnished if he just isn't fully cooperative.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: The intense standoff at the heart of the Venezuelan government (ph) is still ongoing.

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There's no way Maduro can stay in a nation he has so decimated. It's time for him to leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CAMEROTA: All right, things are heating up this morning.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, May first, 8:00 in the East.

BERMAN: Are you talking about the news or other things?

CAMEROTA: I'm talking about the news --

BERMAN: OK, good, good --

CAMEROTA: -- because we are just two hours away.

BERMAN: -- because it was awkward for a second.

CAMEROTA: And our chemistry.

Two hours away from Bill Barr settling into a seat that just got hotter, OK, on Capitol Hill. That is going to be a hot seat because the attorney general will have to defend his handling of the Mueller report in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But overnight, we learned that the special counsel Robert Mueller sent a letter to Bill Barr in late March expressing frustration about the attorney general's 4-page summary of his report that he felt mischaracterized the findings. Mueller says it failed to fully capture all of his investigation.

Mueller then called Barr on the phone to share those frustrations.

BERMAN: This raises all kinds of new questions. Did Robert Mueller get played by William Barr? If Mueller meant to send a message to the American people on obstruction, did he fail because he was outmaneuvered?

And when will we hear from Mueller, himself? His testimony really does seem guaranteed at this point and vital because there are serious questions about what.

END