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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Separatists Reject Ukraine Deal; Avalanche Kills 12 On Mount Everest; Fallen MIT Officer Remembered; "An Investigation On Steroids"; Interview with Bob Corker
Aired April 18, 2014 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- it's our mission to find it and we want to be the crew that does find it but it takes time.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, this plane has actually spotted a few things out there on the South Indian Ocean. They have been able to direct ships to them. So far they have not found anything substantial. Obviously the one thing that they did find that they thought they had a hit on turned out to be a large, red basket or bread holder or some sort. They thought they had something there. At the end of the day, it wasn't. It took hours for them to get the ship and there have been smaller boats to get to that little piece in order to check it out. It's an unbelievable task that they have at hand -- Jake.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Miguel Marquez, thank you so much.
When we come back, what agreement? The self-declared leader of protesters in Ukraine says he hasn't signed anything and his team isn't going anywhere. So will Russia use its influence to convince them to put down their weapons and leave those Ukrainian government buildings?
Plus, without them most climbers would not have a shot at the top of world, but after an avalanche killed a dozen sherpas today, will anything change?
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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In world news, you know that big deal that diplomats struck in Geneva yesterday to stop the violence in Ukraine? Well, the pro-Russia protesters in Eastern Ukraine say, we never signed that thing. The agreement was hashed out after a 7-hour meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterparts from Russia, Ukraine and the European Union and it was supposed to mean that the protesters would pull out of Ukraine's government buildings and that disputed border area in exchange for a hold on more sanctions from the west against Russia.
Well, here we are 24 hours later and the protesters have not budged. In fact, the separatist leader in Donetsk says they will not leave until the interim government in Kiev resigns. Meanwhile, those 40,000 Russian troops are still sitting on the other side of the border. They are not calming anybody's nerves.
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee joins me now from Chattanooga. Senator, thanks for being here. Throughout this crisis, it seems Russia has said one thing and done another. They've the White House they were not trying to annex Crimea and then they annexed Crimea.
They said they weren't sending operatives into Eastern Ukraine and of course we saw how that played out. Now they of course are making promises on behalf of the protesters. Do you think the U.S. is getting played here?
SENATOR BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: I've never seen a more confusing statement be issued where in essence everybody agrees to something and then people in Ukraine are understanding it in a different way and obviously the actions on the ground, as you're mentioning, have nothing to do with what was agreed to yesterday. So look, I think the administration has created this air of permissiveness.
I've said this time and time again. What we did in Syria by jumping into Russia's lap and letting them drive policy there after the chemical weapons issue came to the forefront is really been informative, I think, to the people of Russia and candidly our allies and I think they are in fact playing us instead of us moving ahead with sectoral sanctions, which we've been urging them to do to push back on Russia.
Instead, we continue to watch what they are doing and try to respond to that. But it seems that in doing so we create a policy that is always a day late and a dollar short and we don't have the desired outcome that we'd like to see happen for our nation and our nation's interest.
TAPPER: Senator, as the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I just have to ask, your leader, Mitch McConnell, said that we should be providing, the U.S. should be providing lethal aid, arms to the Ukrainians. Should we?
CORKER: I have to tell you, Jake, you know, we signed the Bucharest memorandum and said we would support their sovereignty when they gave up nuclear weapons back in 1994. It does appear right now I saw someone else refer to this that we are holding their coat while they are dealing with this issue and I think it's time for us to consider anti-tank weaponry, anti-aircraft weaponry. Obviously Russia is going to far out-man them. We understand that.
But we need to make sure that they understand they are going to pay a price if they do come in and I do think it's time for us to look at doing that. As a matter of fact, we are developing some language on that front right now. Yes, I think it's time for us to be doing that.
TAPPER: Senator Bob Corker, thank you so much. CORKER: Thank you.
TAPPER: Also in world news, a tragedy near the top of the world. An avalanche on Mt. Everest that killed a dozen sherpas guides and seriously wounded three today. Four others are still missing at this hour. It's already the deadliest day ever on the famed peak. The victims of the disaster, the native Nepalese people who have been guiding climbers to the summit since the days of Edmond Hillary, the first explorer to make it up and back down alive.
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TAPPER (voice-over): The name is synonymous with challenge and all too often with death. Today's avalanche is the single deadliest incident on Everest in history. Despite the danger, the icy peak that rises more than 29,000 feet into the heavens still tantalizes adventurers who come for any number of reasons. The guides or sherpas are often the victims paving the way, carrying supplies and taking real risk for what are lucrative wages in Nepal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not only the money that I'm after right now but even from my inner heart I always wanted to be on the top.
TAPPER: The odyssey has been the subject of countless documentaries and featured filmed such as "Into Thin Air" based on John Krakauer's bestseller about the 1996 tragedy that left eight climbers dead. The dramatic scenes, perhaps, adding to the allure that has turned the dangerous mountain into a tourist destination, but as the altitude increases, reality sets in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can breathe for a while. You're sort of losing ground as you do without oxygen.
TAPPER: In 2012, American Joe Pratt struggled with the lack of oxygen at such a high elevation, though he survived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone who climbs Mt. Everest and survives is lucky.
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TAPPER: The 334 foreign climbers have been given permission to climb this year along with an estimated 400 sherpas to guide them home safely. One can only hope that they all come back.
Coming up, she says she still has not decided if she's will run for president. But Hillary Clinton is ready to talk about the hard choices she's made in her life. Hard choices, what the title of her new book tells us coming up next.
Plus, he was in charge of tracking down the suspects in the Boston marathon bombings. I go back to the scene of the crime with the former police commissioner who shares some secrets from the investigation and the manhunt coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. The politics lead now. We don't know for sure if she is running. We do know she is about to become a grandma. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted out the good news saying, quote, "My most exciting title yet, grandmother-to-be. Bill Clinton and I are thrilled that Chelsea and Marc are expecting their first child."
And whether the child is a girl or a boy, well, the rumored White House hopeful was a message for women, don't hold yourselves back.
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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: There may be little, subtle messages that we're still sending to our girls and to ourselves that prevent us from pursuing certain interests or jobs or opportunities.
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TAPPER: Clinton was speaking with her daughter at the Clinton Foundation's no ceilings event. Whatever Hillary Clinton's plans for the future, she is not the only one pushing women to push themselves.
And joining me now is Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the "Huffington Post" and author of the new book "Thrive, The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well Being, Wisdom and Wonder." So you have some competition coming out soon enough in the book market. We now know that the title of Hillary Clinton's book is "Hard Choices" and we have an image of what the cover is going to look like.
Now we were been debating in the office what that title means, "Hard Choices," is she trying to provoke the 3:00 a.m. phone call, the size of leadership or is it a bit defensive talking about the personal circumstances she's had. You're a well-known progressive pundit. How do you see the title? How do you look at this?
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, CO-FOUNDER, "HUFFINGTON POST": Well, maybe it's kind of my hope but I wish that the title refers to the fact that remember when she left her job as secretary of state and they asked her what was she hoping to do next and she said the most important thing for her was to be untired. Do you remember that?
TAPPER: Yes.
HUFFINGTON: And she paid her own price when she collapsed and ended up in the hospital, et cetera, et cetera. I'm hoping that "Hard Choices" will mean making some hard choices about how she prioritizes her own self, too, and how she deals with stress which, of course, could be incredibly rampant if she chooses to run for president. She's about to be a grandmother. So I think she could be an amazing role model of someone who if she decides to run, even, would run and without completely burning out, as most of them do, and show that there are other ways to do it.
TAPPER: You were talking about how she was going to deal and prioritize. One of the things that we know she's going to be prioritizing that she's going to be a grandmother. Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc, are expecting a child. A lot of pundits talk about what this means for 2016. I have a tough time imagining any potential male presidential candidate who is expecting a grandchild anyone talking about what it will mean for his 2016 race. What do you think?
HUFFINGTON: Well, Jake, it could be worse. We could be asking ourselves whether they are yet to be born grandchild is going to be running for president in 2058 or not. At least we have not moved to that level of hypothetical speculation.
TAPPER: Not yet. But the night is still young. So I want to talk about this book, the idea for it came from your own experience in 2007 when you write in the book right at the front, you were lying on the floor of your home office in a pool of blood and that's when you realized exhaustion was a problem for you and for this society. So what are we supposed to do about it?
HUFFINGTON: So we need to realize that we are living under a collective delusion that equates burnout with success and we have many role models that prove it, but there's another way and why is it such an exciting time, Jake, is that we have scientific evidence to show that you need to do whatever it takes to recharge ourselves and unplug from devices, we're going to be more effective.
TAPPER: Well, to be fair, you, Arianna, are very successful and I have to say that your seven days a week culture of go, go, go is part of how you are so successful?
HUFFINGTON: Well, actually, I've looked back at my life and at many other people's lives and I can say without any hesitation that I could have been just as successful without damage to my health and relationships if I had not fallen into this assumption.
TAPPER: Arianna Huffington, thank you so much. The book is "Thrive." Good luck with it.
HUFFINGTON: Thank you so much.
Coming up next, the bombing and the manhunt. A behind-the-scenes look at the police investigation that tracked down the Tsarnaev brothers with the man in charge of it all, the former Boston police commissioner telling me how they did it. You're not going to want to miss this, coming up.
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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. For 26 years, all he ever wanted to do was to become a police officer. Sean Collier was mere months away from achieving his dream when one year ago today two men ambushed him in his car on MIT's campus. Those two men we would later learn were the Boston marathon bombing suspects. Today, Boston, Cambridge, and the MIT officers with whom Sean served came together to honor his sacrifice.
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JOHN DIFAVA, MIT POLICE CHIEF: Sean was truly one of the brave ones. He made the ultimate sacrifice and he did it for us.
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TAPPER: Sean Collier's death was one of four in a week-long nightmare that ensnared an entire city in terror. Now we are going to let you see a look back at what has happening behind the scenes as the Boston PD worked around the clock to identify and capture the suspects.
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TAPPER (voice-over): The new construction and welcoming storefronts can't make former police commissioner, Ed Davis, forget what happened here last year. As we retrace the steps of the Boston marathon bombing, he shares new details about what he calls an investigation on steroids. The first bomb detonated killing Crystal Campbell and wounding scores of others.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first bomb went off at the beginning of the construction site at the bay of that building.
TAPPER: But it was the second site that proved most destructive, bringing the number of wounded into the hundreds and taking two more lives, Martin Richard and Lingxi Lu.
EDWARD DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: They were still bringing victims from the scene when I arrived here.
TAPPER: Commissioner Davis got to work securing the area and anticipating another bomb at any moment.
DAVIS: Al Qaeda usually hits in three so we expected there to be a third device here.
TAPPER (on camera): So you thought this was al Qaeda?
DAVIS: Sure. You have to think that as a possibility. These devices were clearly made by somebody who wanted to kill and maim a lot of people.
TAPPER (voice-over): Investigators were forced to immediately pour over every potential clue and there was no shortage.
(on camera): So we're in this era where everybody has a camera. There are cameras all over the place. Did you suffer initially at least from too much information, too many photographs?
DAVIS: Yes, I think that was really an issue. They sent so much information in so quickly that our computers crashed. It was overwhelmed.
TAPPER (voice-over): But it was this camera that provided the critical identification of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Investigators then traced his movements in reverse and found Tamerlan.
DAVIS: It was the events leading up to the blast and going back camera by camera, we were able to put them together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspect one and suspect two.
TAPPER: Once police released these images of the suspects, they hoped that the public would identify him but just hours later --
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is reporting gunshots.
TAPPER: The Tsarnaev brothers allegedly killed campus police officer, Sean Collier, and hijacked a vehicle to escape. Then came a second pivotal clue.
DAVIS: Around midnight the whole thing ripped open. The hijacking victim got to the phone and told us that he had been hijacked by two men that said that they were responsible for the bombing. We were able to track that car through a GPS system and very quickly Watertown came up with a vehicle.
TAPPER (on camera): The Boston Police Department is asking residents of Watertown to stay indoors.
DAVIS: The phone call that I got was Commissioner, they are shooting at us and throwing bombs. So I was -- I was shocked. I had never heard that in American policing.
TAPPER (voice-over): In the chaos of the Watertown shootout, brother Tamerlan was shot by the police and was then ran over by Dzhokhar escaping in a stolen vehicle. Tamerlan died.
DAVIS: One of the sergeants from Watertown was actually trying to handcuff Tamerlan on the ground. The sergeant said I tried to drag him out of the way. I knew the car was going to hit him, but he was too big, I couldn't pull him
TAPPER: Dzhokhar was apprehended that night. Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
(on camera): The Boston PD, the FBI, you all reconstructed the bombs that the Tsarnaevs brought here. How complicated was that?
DAVIS: They were complicated devices and the fact that these things went off in such close proximity showed significant planning.
TAPPER (voice-over): Complexity in construction and planning that Davis seems to suspect the two brothers could not have done on their own, especially given their suspected ties to extremists.
DAVIS: The fact that they were able to pull this conspiracy off and kill and hurt so many people, you have to look at that very closely. There's a lot going on here and it needs to be fully vetted.
TAPPER: This year's marathon, this Monday, will be strictly secured and debut a new rule. No backpacks allowed.
(on camera): How do you respond to critics who say, in a way, the terrorists are winning on that one?
DAVIS: Right. There's no question, Jake, that that will be an inconvenience to people. And people are upset about that. But the truth of the matter is, at this particular point, right now, with what we know about what happened last year and the state of the world, it just is a prudent thing to do.
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TAPPER: We'll be going back to Boston on Monday for a much happier marathon day, a special live edition of THE LEAD on Patriot's Day from Boston. Tune in at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Make sure to follow me on twitter @jaketapper and also @theleadcnn. Check our show page at cnn.com/thelead for video blogs and extras. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Have a great weekend. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer. He is right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
