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Horse Owner to File Appeal After Disqualification; U.S. Markets to Plunge Today; Trump Tweets About North Korea. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 06, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:13] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, there was this shocking upset at the Kentucky Derby after the horse that crossed the finish line first was disqualified for drifting on the track. The owner of the disqualified horse says he is planning to file an appeal today.

Joining us now is Mark Ament, he's a retired equine attorney, and Mike Battaglia, he is the Churchill Downs oddsmaker and a horse racing announcer who has called 19 Kentucky Derbys.

Great to see both of you.

So, Mr. Battaglia, let me start with you.

Was this -- I mean you've called 19 of these. Was this obvious to you that the horse was drifting as it was happening?

MIKE BATTAGLIA, CHURCHILL DOWNS ODDSMAKER: Well, first, I want to say that Maximum Security was the best horse in the race. I've talked to several people. I've heard, you know, conflicting opinions as to whether he should have been disqualified, whether he shouldn't have been disqualified.

His owners, Gary and Mary West, they've been great for the industry. They're big supporters. Trainer John Servis, great guy, got the horse ready. I was actually sick when they took his number down. And I can't imagine how those -- the connections felt.

But, saying that, I've seen literally thousands of foul claims. And, in my eyes, the stewards did the right thing on this one.

CAMEROTA: Why? Why was it -- I mean, again, did you see this happening in real-time where you thought, uh-oh, he's drifting? I mean was it -- was it that obvious to you as somebody with a trained eye?

BATTAGLIA: No, not in real-time. But looking at it afterwards, looking at it the way the stewards looked at it with the head-on cameras, Maximum Security started a chain reaction. This is what happened. When he drifted out, he came across three or four paths. And he hit War of Will, who went sideways, Bodexpress was affected, and Long Range Toddy. And the rider of Long Range Toddy, Jon Court, he also claimed foul. He finished 17th. But he also claimed foul on the race. So the stewards were not just looking at the claim of foul by Flavien

Prat. They were looking at the whole -- the whole situation that happened. And the horse did come out. There were three horses that I think were bothered. And I know -- I know these stewards. I know they were up there, they were just -- they did not want to take this horse down.

They know the same thing. They know Maximum Security was the best. They know that he did come out --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BATTAGLIA: He did commit a foul. But -- and they could have taken the easy way out, I think, and just said, you know, no harm, no foul.

But he may have cost horses a placing, and it could have caused an accident.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BATTAGLIA: So I think they did what was best. They showed some real courage and integrity to take this horse down. And it was a hard decision.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BATTAGLIA: A very, very hard decision.

CAMEROTA: It's -- yes.

BATTAGLIA: I know the enormity of what they -- they know the enormity of what they were doing and --

CAMEROTA: Yes, so --

BATTAGLIA: And they had to do it.

CAMEROTA: So, Mr. Ament, does Maximum Security's owner have a case? I mean you represent owners and breeders. Do you think that he can file some sort of legitimate appeal?

MARK S. AMENT, RETIRED EQUINE ATTORNEY: Anybody can file a claim. I think it's highly unlikely that any judge anywhere is going to overturn the decision of the stewards. It would set a worldwide precedent to overturn the decision of a game official after a game has concluded. I don't think that's ever happened anywhere. And the ramifications of that extend far beyond horse racing.

If you think about what would happen if you overturned a decision of a game official once a game has concluded, it -- you would never have a final conclusion of any sporting contest. Think about the New Orleans Saints/Philadelphia Eagles contest. If that went into court --

[08:35:17] CAMEROTA: Yes.

AMENT: It could take months, maybe years for that decision to finally be concluded. We could have the Super Bowl that wouldn't take place for three years after the -- that Eagles/Saints contest was concluded.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I hear you. I mean --

AMENT: You'd never know when it would be done.

CAMEROTA: Yes, let me just play for you -- because this morning the owner of Maximum Security was on a morning show trying to explain why he thinks he has a case.

So, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY WEST, MAXIMUM SECURITY OWNER: The thing that is kind of mystifying to me is that the stewards were either looking at a high definition television or looking at it with binoculars. Our horse was in the lead the entire way around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So he's saying his horse was in the lead the entire way around. They shouldn't have to, I guess, rely on high def TV. I guess my point, Mr. Ament, is, that if he came to you as an attorney today, you wouldn't take that case?

AMENT: I would suggest to him that he is not likely to win. And that he -- it would be mostly a futile claim.

CAMEROTA: So, Mike, do you think that -- I mean having covered so many of these, as you have, did it surprise you that it took 22 agonizing minutes for the decision to come down?

BATTAGLIA: You know, Alisyn, you know, I worked with these stewards. When I was the announcer, I worked with these stewards. And I know what -- what -- what pressure they were under. And they wanted to make sure that they got it right. I don't think they cared about how long it took.

I knew after -- after about ten minutes and seeing some different angles that this horse would probably have to come down. But -- and I'll be honest with you, there is kind of an unwritten law about the Kentucky Derby. And the unwritten law is that, you know, you can give them a little bit more leeway. And so I know they were thinking about this.

But, you know, this -- what happened -- by the way, this was not Luis Saez's fault. This horse ducked out. Maybe because of the crowd nose, for whatever. He straightened the horse back up, got him on a path straight and won the race. He's definitely the best horse in the race.

But you can't erase the fact that he did come over and hinder other horse's chances. And the stewards were going by the rule of racing. If you don't follow the rule, if you don't have that integrity, I think it's going to hurt, you know, the whole sport.

If this was a normal race on a Tuesday afternoon, there would be no controversy about this.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BATTAGLIA: This horse claimed a foul -- I mean this horse committed a foul and he's going to come down. But, you know, I -- being a veteran myself, they've taken my number down. It's the worst feeling in the world. They've put my number up before.

But, you know, like I said, I don't always agree with the -- with the stewards. But these are three human beings. And they're doing their best. And I just know -- I just felt so sorry for them, for the connections of Maximum Security because I knew what they were going through, and the whole thing was agonizing.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes. Understood.

Mike Battaglia, Mark Ament, thank you very much for all of the expertise and sharing it with us.

John.

BATTAGLIA: Thank you.

AMENT: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, an investigation is underway in Russia to determine what prompted this plane -- look at that -- to burst into a ball of flames, killing 41 people. We have the latest ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:43:18] CAMEROTA: Time now for the "5 Things to Know for Your New Day."

Number one, President Trump deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to Iran's doorstep in response to, quote, troubling threats against U.S. forces in the Middle East. There is no indication that any action by Iran is eminent.

BERMAN: Russia has launched a criminal investigation into what may have caused the deadly plane fire on a Moscow runway. Look at that. Forty-one people were killed when the plane burst into a ball of flames while making an emergency landing.

CAMEROTA: Brunei now backing down on enforcing death by stoning on those convicted of having gay sex. The reversal follows worldwide backlash and boycotts over the country's decision to roll out a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

BERMAN: Fresh reports.

Military honors at a memorial service Sunday for Riley Howell, the hero student from UNC-Charlotte. The 21-year-old died as he tackled the gunman in last week's campus shooting.

CAMEROTA: Eagle-eyed "Game of Thrones" viewers spotted something out of place in Winterfell. Yes, that appears to be someone's Starbucks cup in the shot. The cup is now a trending topic on Twitter.

Is Starbucks everywhere, John?

BERMAN: The Starbucks is coming, as they say, in Winterfell.

Oh, wow, that's amazing.

CAMEROTA: That is amazing.

BERMAN: That is totally amazing.

CAMEROTA: Product placement.

BERMAN: Roose Bolton set it up before he left.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

BERMAN: For more on the "5 Things to Know, go to cnn.com/newday for the very latest.

CAMEROTA: All right, Dow futures are signaling a rough day ahead for Wall Street after President Trump threatened more tariffs on Chinese goods. So what impact could that threat have on this week's trade negotiations? We'll discuss right after the break.

[08:44:53] BERMAN: The battle of the baristas. That is a joke "Game of Thrones" will get --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, we're a little more than half an hour away from the opening bell on Wall Street. The U.S. stock futures are down sharply in response to President Trump's threat to increase tariffs on Chinese goods.

So let's bring back Christine Romans, CNN chief business correspondent and "EARLY START" co-anchor.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you.

So, how is it looking for today?

ROMANS: Well, the president called himself tariff man, remember, and now he's threatening to put more tariffs on Chinese goods. He want to raise tariffs, he said, as of Friday, on $200 billion in Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent tariffs. And then he threatened shortly to tax just about every single thing that the United States imports from China. This is clearly a big negotiating tactic because there are Chinese negotiators, a high level, a big group, expected to come this week and they wanted to warp up these trade negotiations.

CAMEROTA: Right. This seems like the 11th hour for a threat like this because they were headed here. They thought they were in the final round of negotiations.

ROMANS: Yes.

[08:50:01] CAMEROTA: And so now they're considering not coming or the negotiations may be off somehow.

ROMANS: And so, for right now, we think negotiations are still on.

But you know what I see here? I see a president who has already waived some deadlines and said that he's got a great relationship with President Xi and he was going to get something done and he's frustrated because the Chinese have not given all the way. The Chinese are still the -- the American negotiators are still concerned about structural issues, like subsidies for its industries that, you know, make its industries more competitive than the United States competition.

So I think this is a president whose saying, look, guys, I'm ready to walk away if I have to walk away and I'm willing to put more tariffs on.

The president also says, in this tweeted, he tweed this weekend and he said that, you know, China is paying these tariffs. China is not paying the tariffs. He tweeted this morning as well, he said that we lose $500 billion a year to China. We don't lose the money to China. We get -- in exchange for the $500 billion that we send to China, we get a bunch of stuff, you know, like all kinds of stuff that the American economy uses.

So the president sort of frames this in ways that economically are a little off. But I think it's really important to know that it looks like he's serious here, that he wants to negotiate hard and maybe walk away from the Chinese.

CAMEROTA: All right, keep us posted on all of this, Christine.

ROMANS: I will.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

ROMANS: The futures are very sharply -- right, so this is going to -- still, this will rattle markets this morning.

CAMEROTA: For sure, worries in the --

ROMANS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right, thank you very much, Christine.

We have some breaking news right now, John.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: OK, the newest royal baby is reportedly almost here. CNN has learned that Meghan Markle, the duchess of Sussex, is now in labor.

CNN's Max Foster is live in Windsor with more.

What do you know, Max?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the line. That's all the information we've got so far. So, some happy news from here. Obviously we knew that she was overdue. But she has gone into labor. So the next thing we're expecting is that she's given birth.

As you know, much privacy around this. They don't want to detail where she's having the baby or what type of birth she's having. They want to keep the information very limited. They want it to be a private occasion. But they obviously understand that the public has a right to know what the process is going to be.

So they've told us that she's in labor, but we're waiting to hear more detail on -- you know, after they've given birth effectively, after she's given birth, about where the birth is, what sex the baby is.

But good news from here in Windsor. I have to say, the city's been on tenterhooks because we know the due date was some days ago. We're expecting this news. It finally appears to be happening. News crews from all around the world rushing around to try to get in position for this big news story.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Max, I'm still on tenterhooks because they -- this is a nerve-racking time that we are going into. But we know that you will bring us the -- all of the developments as soon as there's any more breaking news.

Thank you very much, Max.

All right, John, contain yourself.

BERMAN: They won't even let me be in the same frame with you when you're talking about the royal baby.

CAMEROTA: Because your arched eyebrow takes up the whole frame.

BERMAN: Well, no, look, I wish them nothing but luck. I mean this is something, obviously, that families go through.

CAMEROTA: It's joyous.

BERMAN: I'm wishing them the best of luck over the next several hours.

All right, there's a lot of other international news, pales in comparison to a royal baby being deliver in the next hour or so. But I want to bring in Susan Glasser, staff writer for "The New Yorkers" and CNN global affairs analyst.

And, Susan, I want to start by talking about North Korea, which test- fired some short range missiles on Friday before the weekend. And the president had a strange response to this. I'm old enough to remember when North Korean missile testing, and then nuclear testing, which this decidedly is not, would receive a very heated response. But, instead, the president says anything in this very interesting world is possible, but I believe that Kim Jong-un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea and will do nothing to interfere or end it. He also knows that I am with him and does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen.

"He knows that I'm with him" is what the president says as North Korea is test firing. That was interesting.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Interesting is one word for it.

Look, "I am with him" is obviously not rhetoric we're -- we're used to from presidents negotiating with North Korea. However, I would say that American is used to this kind of move by the North Koreans. And experts over the weekend, I thought, had a very interesting observations that this is one of the moves that Kim's father undertook basically at the end of the six-party talks during the Bush administration. First, the shorter range missile test, then followed by the longer range ones. So it's in the North Korean playbook even if President Trump's behavior isn't really in the American playbook.

I think it's notable that Kim Jong-un has set a deadline of the end of this year for -- in his view to make progress on the talks for something to come out of them. And it seems to me that after the failed summit in Hanoi, what you're seeing on the North Korean side is an effort to sort of regain leverage, perhaps, with the United States, to bring the U.S. back into talks to say you really need to come back with something different than what we saw in Hanoi. So, to me, it seemed almost like a negotiating tactic.

[08:55:03] BERMAN: I want to ask about Venezuela if I can, because the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, says that Russia is interfering in Venezuela right now, that Russia was going to provide safe passage for Maduro to go to Cuba, that Russia convinced Maduro to stay in Venezuela. John Bolton, the national security adviser, before he yelled at me for asking too many questions about Russia, said that Russia is trying to stick its finger in the eye of the world by being involved in Venezuela.

But then the president, over the weekend, said, after he talked to Vladimir Putin, he's convinced that Russia doesn't want to be involved in Venezuela. This is yet another split between the president and the most senior levels of his own government about something very important.

How do you explain it?

BERMAN: Well, you know, I'm glad you pointed that out because I think it's gotten less attention perhaps than it might, which is to say, the president does seem to disagree with John Bolton and Mike Pompeo on a number of important national security issues. In a way he's been undercutting them, just as much as the previous team of national security advisers that he dumped on a lot and then fired, H.R. McMaster and Rex Tillerson.

This Venezuela/Russia thing is another example. And Russia often seems to be the source of the disagreement. Both Pompeo and Bolton have been very tough in saying that Russia essentially was violating the principle of the Monroe Doctrine and interfering in the hemisphere. Pompeo, I belie, was on CNN saying that Maduro's plane was on the tarmac ready to leave until the Russians convinced him to stay. And then, two days later, the president embarrasses and undercuts both of these advisers by saying, no, no, there's nothing to see here, Russia is really just absolutely fine.

And so I think it's something to watch because clearly they're not on the same page. It breaks out in the open again and again publicly. And I think the real difference is just that Bolton and Pompeo go out of their way to insist that there are no differences with the president, even when what we see with our own eyes is that that's not the case.

BERMAN: Or that the president's very easily convinced in one phone call with Vladimir Putin that something's not going on.

Susan Glasser, great to have you on with us this morning. Thanks so much.

GLASSER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, John, we're going to have much more on the royal baby.

BERMAN: I'm sure we will.

CAMEROTA: "NEWSROOM" is going to pick up this story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good Monday morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

The breaking news this morning, Wall Street rattled, bracing for a nearly 500-point drop when the markets open. This after President Trump renews a tariff threat against China.

[09:00:03] HARLOW: Yes, this is a big deal and all of this is just a few days before the next round of trade talks. But are negotiations.

END