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U.S. Ambassador Attacked in South Korea; Clinton Asks State Department to Release E-mails; Snow & Ice to Impact Millions; No Federal Charges Against Darren Wilson; Should Ferguson Police Chief Resign?

Aired March 05, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMB. MARK LIPPERT, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: I'm bleeding here. I need an ambulance, fast.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. ambassador to South Korea recovering this morning after a knife attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The host country is responsible for the security of the ambassador.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton speaking out.

UNIDENTIFIEID MALE: She wants the public to see her emails.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For some reason, she thinks that those emails are hers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over 90 million Americans are under some sort of winter storm watch, warning or advisory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The roads look pretty bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Darren Wilson will not face federal civil rights violations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm outraged; you're targeting people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ferguson police officers routinely violate the Fourth Amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Periera.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, March 5th, 6:00 in the East. Alisyn is on assignment; John Berman joins us this morning.

And the U.S. ambassador to South Korea slashed in a bloody knife attack. Adding insult to injury, North Korea state media saying he deserved punishment, calling it quote, "a knife shower of justice" for military drills the U.S. is conducting with South Korea.

Ambassador Mark Lippert was preparing to give a lecture when a man with a knife shouting anti-American slogans attacked him.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: The ambassador is now recovering after two and a half hours in surgery. He received 80 stitches to close a four-inch gash to his face, as well as cuts to his left arm and hand. The president of South Korea calling it an intolerable attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

Our coverage begins now with Andrew Stevens live in Hong Kong -- Andrew.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, this was supposed to be a pretty routine start to a routine day for the U.S. ambassador to South Korea. Mr. Lippert, Mark Lippert, was due to give that speech to the Korean Council of Reconciliation and Cooperation, which is basically aimed at a peaceful reunification. But he became the victim of a vicious and apparently politically-motivated attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS (voice-over): A horrifying scene, blood dripping down the face of U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert. The diplomat undergoing nearly three hours of surgery overnight, receiving more than 80 stitches on his face alone.

LIPPERT: I'm bleeding here. I'm bleeding here.

STEVENS: Lippert slashed by a ten-inch knife in the face and arms moments before delivering a speech in Seoul Wednesday. The weapon slicing open his left forearm, damaging the nerve system for his fingers. The gash on his right cheek four inches long and an inch deep. South Korean surgeons say if the facial injury was any deeper, it could have been life-threatening.

MARIE HARF, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON, STATE DEPARTMENT: He's one of our top Asia policy experts in the U.S. government.

STEVENS: According to witnesses, the suspect, 55-year-old Kim Ki- jong, pushed the diplomat from behind onto a table before assaulting him, bystanders tackling him to the ground as police rushed him out of the conference room.

Witnesses say they heard Kim yelling anti-U.S. sentiments, shouting, "The South Korea-U.S. Military drills must stop," a reference to the annual war games which North Korea sees as a provocation.

Authorities say the assailant has a history of similar attacks. In 2010 Kim received a suspended two-year prison sentence for throwing a piece of concrete at a Japanese ambassador to South Korea.

President Obama calling Ambassador Lippert, wishing him a speedy recovery, the two close since Obama started in the Senate in 2005. Lippert tweeting from the hospital, "Doing well and in great spirits. Will be back ASAP to advance U.S.-South Korean alliance." (END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: And certainly, that was a brave and plucky tweet, Chris, for him to do.

Interesting, it does raise questions about security in South Korea. The police saying that the U.S. embassy did not ask for any additional security. You have to say, though, Mark Lippert looking remarkably cool in the face of that attack.

CUOMO: I could not agree with you more. I mean, it's just spot-on how he handled this. But it does raise some significant issues. Thank you for the reporting.

Let's talk about the issues here. We have CNN global affairs analyst and managing editor of "Quartz," Mr. Bobby Ghosh; and Daniel Pinkston with the International Crisis Group in South Korea. Gentlemen, thank you both.

Certainly, beyond debate is how Mr. Lippert seems to have handled this; cool under pressure. You're saying no surprise given his background.

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, yes. He served in Iraq. He served with the Navy SEALs. He's a strong guy and a tough guy.

It is -- it is -- it would have been a shock, because you don't really expect this in South Korea, a country where he is well-liked. He walks his dog in the street among the public. His dog has its own Twitter account. He's a popular figure there, although he's only been there for a few months.

CUOMO: You dismiss it as a madman.

GHOSH: Well, he's -- this is clearly a madman. There are questions to be asked about why the American ambassador was allowed to go to place without protection where the -- somebody in the intelligence -- the embassy intelligence should have seen a guest list. This guy's name should have brought up -- would have set off a flag, an alarm or some kind.

CUOMO: Assuming he's on a list.

GHOSH: Well, he is a member of the council that the ambassador was going to address. And all the members of the council were invited. So somewhere...

CUOMO: So they had reason to know that this man, who had had the problem in 2010, was a registrant of the event?

GHOSH: Yes.

CUOMO: That's an interesting point.

Mr. Pinkston, obviously, South Korea is perceived as a friendly to the United States, but given what we've seen in the past, you know, just the word "Benghazi" gives enough context for what has happened to people in the foreign service recently. Is this somewhat of a call that we have to be more careful in the United States about security surrounding our diplomats?

DANIEL PINKSTON, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: Well, before I get to that point, I just wanted to correct the last comments. In fact, the individual, Kim Ki-jong, he was not a member of that organization, the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation. He was representative of this alt group (ph).

CUOMO: There was no reason to know?

PINKSTON: He was not invited.

CUOMO: OK.

PINKSTON: He walked up and was a walk-in guest.

CUOMO: OK.

PINKSTON: They allowed him to go into the event. So there was -- the visitors were not vetted, and they allowed him to go in; and then he took advantage of this.

CUOMO: Important distinction.

PINKSTON: But as far as the -- if you could please repeat the question?

CUOMO: Important distinction. Thank you for that clarification.

The question is, because this happened at all, is this a little bit of a wakeup call that you do need security around diplomats in -- no matter where they are in the world now? It shouldn't be a maybe; it should be a must?

PINKSTON: I think that's correct. I've been to many similar events in South Korea, and with democratization here, it's very common that people allow different voices. There's a feeling that freedom of speech and assembly has to be recognized.

And at many -- occasionally, at academic events, for example, or conferences, someone will come in and will begin shouting statements and so forth, dissidents. And they will let them have their say, and then they will suddenly be escorted out.

But this is very shocking, the violence that occurred in this case. And I think ambassadors have to have tighter security. High-level officials can be subject to these types of deranged attacks.

CUOMO: Right. I mean, just the fact, just because Mr. Lippert handled it, you know, with such strength doesn't mean that he wasn't put at great risk. We heard at least one source on it saying this could have been life-threatening, given the depth of the wound and how close it was to his -- his neck. And a slashing like this is not unheard of among South Korea's elite.

Right? A former leader had the same thing happen. The current leader, right?

GHOSH: Well, the president. The president. President Park, she has, if you look very closely, she has a scar that goes all the way down the right side of her face. She was attacked, I think, in 2006 with a utility knife, 60 stitches. In the ambassador's case, it's 80.

But I should say this is very, very rare. Now there are two incidents, and that's pretty remarkable already.

CUOMO: Right. No trend. It's no trend.

GHOSH: But it's no trend. You know, it is a modern democracy. There's not a huge -- there's not a tradition, a current tradition of political violence, if you like. And so it would have been a shock; it was a shock for everybody.

CUOMO: Mr. Pinkston, the -- what isn't shocking is that North Korea used it as an opportunity to throw some gas on the fire. How should their comments be interpreted?

PINKSTON: Well, it's quite sad, and deplorable. I did see the statement that their news agency released late this afternoon regarding the attack. And it called it a somewhat justified punishment that was delivered to the ambassador, to the American war- mongers. This type of bad outcome is consistent with their state ideology that views the U.S. as an imperialist that seeks to enslave the Koreans.

It's been created by what North Korea says are the greatest geniuses in the history of humanity, so it has extraordinary explanatory power. It explains all of their hardships in North Korea and everything else.

So this type of event, of course, can be explained by their ideology. They claim it's a result of the combined exercises that are going on now with the U.S. and the Republic of Korea and a number of other allies, four or five other allied states, as well.

CUOMO: But quickly, you don't see what happened to Ambassador Lippert as any type of window into instability in South Korea, correct?

PINKSTON: No, I don't think so. There is a small fringe of people like this that will engage in violence or think that violence is justified. There's a slightly larger number that is sympathetic with the North and North Korea's policy positions. But I don't think this is a majority or has any influence on overall policy.

CUOMO: Mr. Pinkston, thank you for the facts and perspective.

Mr. Ghosh, as always -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris. Breaking overnight, new developments in the emerging controversy over Hillary Clinton's use of a personal e- mail account while she served as secretary of state. Clinton herself now speaking out.

CNN's Brianna Keilar has the details from Washington. Speaking out via Twitter.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. She spoke out in a tweet overnight, Michaela. This came shortly before midnight last night. The tweet saying, "I want the public to see my e-mail. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible."

And we've heard from the State Department that they are going to do this. We don't know, obviously, how much, how all of these will be released. Some of them no doubt will be redacted. We expect that this will take some time, and the State Department says that.

But this comes after two days of controversy as we learned that Hillary Clinton used solely a private e-mail account while she was secretary of state. And also that she owns the server that all of her e-mails were housed on, really allowing some protection from records requests. Things that experts say were designed to protect her and really make sure that she had a tight control on some of these communications.

So this is obviously Hillary Clinton and her team after a couple of days, trying to ratchet down the controversy that really seemed to be going on, and it was just going on unrelenting. So -- and it also really speaks, Michaela, to this deep scrutiny that we see Hillary Clinton in.

You know, John, when you look at this, this gives us a preview of what we're going to see, as Hillary Clinton is very much the Democratic front-runner. And we expect that she is just a few weeks out from declaring her candidacy for president of the United States.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And faces questions from Republicans but also some Democrats around the country, too.

KEILAR: Sure.

BERMAN: Brianna Keilar, thanks so much.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's big speech to U.S. Congress, it barely seemed to budge the needle back in his home, Israel. A lot of analysts said this was politics. He faces an election in less than two weeks. But look at this poll by Israel's Channel 2 news: 44 percent of Israelis think the speech strengthened support for the prime minister; 43 percent said it had no effect; 12 percent say it weakened support for the Israeli prime minister.

CUOMO: Another case of radicalization here in the United States. A 17-year-old Virginia student accused of being an ISIS recruiter. The "Washington Post" reports investigators tracked him for more than a month before arresting him. Right now he is charged as a juvenile, but prosecutors want to try him as an adult. Federal investigators say he helped a man travel to Syria, where it is believed that man joined ISIS. PEREIRA: Some scary moments aboard a U.S. Airways flight from

Charlotte to Denver. Smoke reported in the plane's cockpit. You can see the passengers using emergency chutes to evacuate the plane as soon as it landed safely at Denver International Airport. The flight's 164 passengers and crew were, thankfully, unharmed; and they don't know what caused that smoke. But you don't want smoke in the cockpit or anywhere inside the plane.

BERMAN: It's always encouraging, you know, when people -- you see people doing what they're supposed to do in a situation like that.

PEREIRA: Yes. Calmly, right? Yes, yes. Agreed.

BERMAN: And everyone getting out safely. I'm always impressed by the crew and the passengers on board.

CUOMO: Absolutely. Absolutely.

CUOMO: All right. Winter's grip is packing a new punch, so it's gripping and punching at the same time. A monster storm is slamming much of the nation today from Texas all the way to Massachusetts, 90 million people in the path. Getting around this morning is awfully tough.

Let's get right to meteorologist Chad Myers with more.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, if Ali is -- is holding and punching, I'm rope-a-doping, because I'm just -- oh, man, this is 90 million people in the grips of this warning today. And it is going to continue all the way from New York City. What you see in New York right now is nothing like what it's going to look like as you drive home tonight. Because the rain has been here all night, but the cold air is pushing in. And the cold air is changing the rain over to sleet and eventually over to snow.

This is downtown Memphis right now. Not too many people walking the streets today, I'm afraid. It's going to be an ugly day there. Just like it's going to be in New York. Because you're changing over to snow now, and it snows at least four inches.

The same story for Philadelphia, for Baltimore, for D.C. D.C. still raining right now, but it's going to change over to sleet for a minute and then over to all snow.

Still snowing in Memphis; still snowing in Little Rock. About to change over to all snow there in Nashville. The roads are slick. They have been wet all night. Now it's getting down below 32, and now everything is going to freeze up. Even though it's getting to be the daylight hours, it's getting colder, because the cold front is moving to the southeast, taking that cold air with it. By the time we get to rush hour tonight, D.C., Baltimore, Philly, New York all getting snow. And it finally goes away late, late tonight.

Airports are a mess. Over 30 percent of the flights in and out of the U.S. this morning are canceled. There are the numbers; there are the official numbers. Dallas had about two and a half inches of snow on top of the ice, so they're at 538 right now. Those are cancellations in and out of Dallas. If you are flying today, log on or call ahead, because this is going to be a tough day to get in and out of almost anywhere, Northeast included.

PEREIRA: Yes, I woke up this morning feeling like, hmm, maybe Chad Everett got it wrong. Nope. Right on time. All right. Today, the end of the day will be a mess. We're prepared. Thanks, Chad.

A stunning indictment of Ferguson, Missouri, police, the Justice Department uncovering systemic racism and a range of abuse against black citizens; three members of the force now under investigation, one of them already fired. What comes next for that embattled Missouri town?

CUOMO: And lawyers for the Boston bomber say -- he did it. Mistrial? No, strategy. Why they would say this, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. There will be no federal criminal charges against Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. So Wilson is in the clear from the Department of Justice.

But the Ferguson Police Department is not. The pattern of discrimination the Department of Justice pronounced is pathetic.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Ferguson with more.

Ed, what are the details?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Chris.

Because of the findings in this investigation, three police department employees were put on administrative leave. One has already been fired. Two others, we're told, will likely not survive the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Seven months after the shooting death of Michael Brown, federal officials have cleared Police Officer Darren Wilson of any civil rights violations.

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Michael Brown's death, though a tragedy, did not involve prosecutable conduct on the part of Officer Wilson.

LAVANDERA: The decision, outlined in an 86-page Justice Department report, states that Wilson acted in self-defense, giving legitimacy to Officer Wilson's account that 18-year-old Brown had reached into Wilson's car in an attempt to grab his gun.

Investigators also agreed that forensic evidence supported Officer Wilson's testimony that, after fleeing the confrontation, Brown turned around and refused to stop charging at him, discrediting witness accounts of a "hands up, don't shoot" scenario, in which the teenager was peacefully surrendering.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up! Don't shoot!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up! Don't shoot!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up! Don't shoot!

LAVANDERA: The searing report also uncovered extensive racism and a highly toxic environment within the Ferguson Police Department, citing a disturbing pattern of discriminatory and excessive force by police against black residents.

HOLDER: Our review of the evidence found no -- no -- alternative explanation for the disproportionate impact on African-American residents other than implicit and explicit racial bias.

LAVANDERA: The report says officers singled out and targeted blacks for various petty violations and, even more troubling? Racist remarks in e-mails involving supervisors about the president and first lady. And disparaging comments about African-Americans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And the mayor of Ferguson addressed the report, the findings in this investigation late yesterday afternoon, but interestingly enough, Michaela, the police chief did not attend the press conference late yesterday -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Very interesting. Conspicuous by his absence. All right, Ed. Thanks so much.

Let's discuss this further. Let's look ahead. Mo Ivory, an attorney and radio host joins me. And Pastor Robert White with the Peace of Mind Church of Happiness. He's a member of the Clergy United, a group that helped protesters communicate with law enforcement during the protests in Ferguson.

Good morning to the two of you. I know you've each had a chance to go over this report.

Pastor, in fact, I know you were on the call that Attorney General Eric Holder had with some of the community leaders. I'm curious what your sense is of the report and what your fellow community leaders are saying this morning?

PASTOR ROBERT WHITE, PEACE OF MIND CHURCH OF HAPPINESS: Well, good morning, Michaela, and thank you for having us.

Primarily, as was stated in the attorney general comments yesterday, is what this report has done is basically put ink and paper to what we've already known, those of us in this community. That this police department, along with other municipal police in court, have disproportionately attacked, basically, the African-American community in the St. Louis County area. PEREIRA: So validation from the community members and community

leaders there; not a surprise as the pastor mentions, Mo. So what now is the big question, right? Where does the city go? Where does the community go? Do you think it's a question of cleaning house, structural change? What do you think needs to happen?

MO IVORY, ATTORNEY/RADIO PERSONALITY: Yes, Michaela, good morning.

I think it's all of those things. I mean, I think it starts at the top. And I feel that there's already been a certain amount of disrespect for the report by us not even hearing from the police chief, Jackson. And for -- I would think that such a first step would have been, for him, responsible for all these police officers, 50-plus police officers, responsible for what happened, you know, under his reign with the Michael Brown situation. I would think that he would be the first one to step up and say, "You know what? It is now time for me to resign."

I thought he would then next take steps to deal with the mayor, deal with some of the judges, some of the officials that have been blatantly a part of this racism that has come out in the report. But we haven't seen that.

So I'm hopeful that, you know, only you know -- it's been out only for a day. So I'm hopeful that those are the next steps. There are recommendations, of course, from the Justice Department that they will have to, you know, ultimately, hopefully, sign a consent decree and begin to make those steps.

But what about some of the damage to the residents that this has caused? I'd like to see some of the sentences that, you know, innocent people were sent to jail, lost their jobs, weren't able to feed their families. I'd like to see some damages.

PEREIRA: Right.

IVORY: Maybe some kind of civil class action lawsuit. Something that begins to help people repair their lives.

PEREIRA: Right.

IVORY: Because I just -- yes. And all the damage that has been caused by this racism.

PEREIRA: You know, Mo brings up a good point. And I think one of your frustrations has been the whole investigation by the DOJ was reactionary and not particularly preventive. In terms of that, what further would you like to see?

WHITE: And we've seen this pattern throughout the country...

PEREIRA: Sure.

WHITE: ... when you look at all the investigations the Department of Justice has done. It's always been in reaction to. Michaela, you talk about moving forward, but it's impossible for this

community to move forward with the same folks in charge that allowed a city to burn. We have a governor who promised to protect the businesses and homes, but blatantly left an entire portion of this community unprotected.

We have a mayor who said there's not a racial problem in Ferguson, and 102 pages in the 86-page report prove that there's a racial bias in this...

PEREIRA: Let me ask you more about that mayor. Because I think that's very interesting. We had -- we had heard him say that he doesn't believe there's a racial divide in Ferguson. A month later he clarified those comments. Yesterday he talked -- spoke very differently after the report came out. Do you have confidence in this mayor in your community?

WHITE: What we have conference in is that our government is positioned that the people must speak. If we want this mayor out, then we have to get to the polls, and we have to make a change from the voting booth. We can't trust someone who comes in one day, and then repeatedly, blatantly disavows himself from the situation.

Yesterday at the press conference, he was late. And then he did not accept any questions from the media. They kept the protesters from being involved at the press conference.

And so he's constantly showing, by his actions and by his words, that he's not interested in what's going on in this city. And so -- with these protesters...

PEREIRA: Hold on, Mo.

WHITE: What the protestors are doing is that we're calling for the police chief to step down, the mayor to step down, the city manager to step down. And for the people of Ferguson and the surrounding municipalities to be able to express themselves through their vote and through the proper representation.

PEREIRA: We know within the police department some employees are already under investigation. And some of them have been suspended. One has been fired already for those heinous racist e-mails, some referring to the president as a chimpanzee. Other really horrific things were said in those e-mails. Mo, you're expecting more people, more heads to roll?

IVORY: Yes, but I mean, one head is not enough, you know.

WHITE: Absolutely.

IVORY: And nor is three. I agree totally what he said about voting. But there also has to be a breakdown of the systemic cooperation between different city offices that allow these things to go on.

So it's not just the reaction of the mayor to say, like, "Oh, now I realize there's racism." He knew that this stuff was going on. PEREIRA: Yes.

IVORY: But there was systemic cooperation between the police force, the courts, the prosecutors, everybody in that city cooperating to keep this system of racism going. That has to -- that takes more than three heads rolling. That takes dismantling.

PEREIRA: Nobody will disagree. That this has to change. And some sort of dismantlement, some societal, some structural change has to happen.

Pastor, we also know that that is not going to happen without a cost. We already know that Ferguson struggles with some finances already. All of this is going to have a cost. Is the community prepared for that?

WHITE: Well, I think we've seen, with some of our local municipalities, they have made the change from just using ticketing to fund themselves.

PEREIRA: Sure.

WHITE: We have the city of Normandy, that has a similar system like Ferguson had, and they have been able to make those changes.

And so yes, there's a cost; yes, there's a taxation on the citizens. But I believe, as a taxpayer, I'm willing to pay an additional cost to have proper policing, proper court procedure, than to continue to allow the situation that's taken place.

And another thing is that, as much as the focus is on Ferguson, there's 91 or 81 other municipalities that need to take focus, that yes, this happened in Ferguson, but the rest of them have to begin to make systemic changes so that this won't be another incident...

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: And this is why so many eyes are on Ferguson, to see how it is handled there. A lot of communities, a lot of cities are watching this.

Mo Ivory, we appreciate it.

Pastor, always a pleasure to have you with us. Thanks so much.

We want to continue the conversation online, so tweet us, @NewDay, or go to Facebook.com/NewDay and add your comments there -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. A lot of outrage there, to be sure, and in full disclosure, Attorney General Holder also said the report proves that Officer Wilson was acting in self-defense. A lot of people are going to pay attention to that part of the findings, as well. And that's why there are no charges against him.

So I wish we could avoid it, but here is the truth: 100 million people from Texas to New England in the eye of yet another damned winter storm; thousands of flights, schools, roads, all shut down. We will tell you what to expect based on where you are.

BERMAN: We have some disturbing new video shown to jurors in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. Capturing just the horror in the moments right after the deadly attacks. A powerful start for the prosecution, but also, a surprising start for the defense.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)