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Hillary Clarifies Position On Same-Sex Marriage; Marco Rubio's Plan To Raise Cash; Man Flies Into Protected Airspace Near U.S. Capitol; Demanding $15 An Hour. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 16, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new report claims that supervisors were ordered to falsify records of a Tulsa reserve deputy who shot and killed an unarmed man. "Tulsa World," the newspaper there, reports that Robert Bates received certifications for training that he never earned.

They reported at least three of the supervisors were reassigned for not signing off on those allegedly bogus certifications. The sheriff's department is denying these new reports.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Authorities now preparing to double the search zone size for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Senior ministers from Malaysia, Australia, and China are now agreeing to expand the search from 60 to 120,000 square kilometers, doubling the size.

If the plane is not found in the coming months, a search of the current zone in the Southern Indian Ocean should be completed by May. That will certainly be welcome news from the families who want answers.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Gisele Bundchen gets paid to walk because she does it well, but she's also done it for the last time. Here she is going down the runway. This is marking the end of her 20-year career since 14 she's been in it, one final stroll down the runway during a Sao Paolo fashion week in her native Brazil.

Husband, Tom Brady, front row for the farewell. Bundchen called it a privilege to be doing her last fashion show by choice. She says she'll still be working in other facets of the business. I read that slowly for your benefit, John Berman.

BERMAN: You know, Tom Brady, my friend, Tom Brady, he had a lovely post on Facebook this morning talking about Gisele and how proud he is for her career and now it is --

CUOMO: In your mind's eye, who is better looking Gisele or Tom Brady?

BERMAN: I don't have to choose.

HARLOW: Let's make Berman answer that.

BERMAN: I do not have to choose. You know who is better looking? John King. Let's go "Inside Politics" to John King right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": I choose Gisele, sorry.

CUOMO: Of course, you would.

KING: It's a pretty easy choice. I'm a big fan of Tom Brady. He's going to win another Super Bowl next year. She'll have less work. She gets to go to more games. Let's get to politics and leave the sports behind. Sorry, Gisele, we'll leave you behind for it now at the moment.

A busy day in politics, with me to share their reporting and their insights, Ed, shake his head, O'Keeffe, a Giants fan, if you can believe or not, a Lions fan, Ron Fournier?

KING: Long suffering son of Detroit and Lions fan. Let's get to the substance on this morning. Hillary Clinton is in Iowa. She is part of this rollout, nothing to do with her events yesterday, we'll get to sort of what they look like and what we think of those in a minute.

But with nothing to do with those her campaign put out a statement yesterday and this is from her campaign spokesperson. "Hillary Clinton supports marriage equality and hopes the Supreme Court will come down on the side of same-sex couples being guaranteed that constitutional right."

The significant part is that constitutional right. You'll remember back in June 2014, almost a year ago now, she did an interview with NPR when she was starting -- she left secretary of state, starting to reemerge politically.

And she talked then in the NPR interview, number one she said she was glad states were looking at this, 37 states now allow same-sex marriage.

[07:35:03] She said she was glad states were going state by state and people were pushing for it and then she had this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I have to say I think you are being very persistent, but you are playing with my words and playing with what is such --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just trying to clarify so I can understand.

CLINTON: No, I don't think you are trying to clarify. I think you're trying to say I used to be opposed and now I'm in favor and I did it for political reasons. And that's just flat wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What is the significance? Is there a significance of what we saw yesterday? She's saying constitutional amendment. In that interview she was applauding the state by state efforts. One big difference is there's actually a case before the Supreme Court right now. So this could happen. Is she changing her position?

ED O'KEEFE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": This is a high profile example of me tooism. She understands that the Supreme Court's decision is coming. Looks like it will probably be favorable to same-sex marriage.

She's trying to clarify this when she's clearly trying to drum up as much base support as she can. She's got to make clear on this number one social issue.

She's clearly trying to make a play for Elizabeth Warren, Democrats as well. This is all part of that and, look, public opinion has shifted. It shifted since she took positions in '08.

KING: The current president of the United States has changed his position. I think millions of Americans have probably changed their positions on this as they watch this and talk to their kids about this. The remarkable part to me about this, Ron, is how fast this has moved in the country.

Remember, George W. Bush 11 years ago won re-election, closed his campaign. The last line of his speeches in the final weeks was re- elect me and I will fight for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage.

RON FOURNIER, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": Right. I don't think we've seen a social issue move this quickly. And Hillary Clinton like a lot of politicians is finally getting herself on the right side of history. The reason why this is a particular problem for her and not someone like Barack Obama who is also involved is because of the way she handles things like this.

Terry Gross was right. She wasn't playing with Hillary's words. She was trying to clarify a fast evolving changing position and Hillary Clinton denied the obvious. So now she looks like a flip-flopper. Now she looks like someone who won't tell us where she really stands on issues.

Now she looks like somebody who's only being an opportunist. That's not Terry Gross's fault, not Barack Obama's fault, not the media fault, that's Hillary Clinton's fault.

KING: I'm not sure I completely agree with you --

FOURNIER: I'm stun.

KING: If even you're being attacked in an interview and I'm not saying she was being attacked, but the gift of a skilled politician is to weave their way out without intensifying the confrontation.

FOURNIER: Instead of pushing back saying here's where I stand now, I've changed like a lot of people, but she wanted to play both ways. O'KEEFE: Things are evolving, but remember one of the largest money constituencies in the Democratic Party remains the gay community. Any wavering on this has the potential to upset her ability to raise money from them.

I covered "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and part of that was driven by the fact that the president and congressional Democrats had to be able to raise money from gay and lesbian donors.

And I think this is probably part of it, sort of saying to them don't worry, I understand, I'm with you. Feel free to support me.

KING: And you mention in this rollout we've watched her, she's laid out some principles for her campaign. She says the details will come, economic plan, a big campaign finance plan, and she says some other issues as well. It's clear she's not allowing a lot of space to her left.

If you think Elizabeth Warren's going to run for president, if you still think the draft war movement is going to work, I think you can probably put the nail in the coffin today. Time every year has the "Time 100."

The 100 most influential people according to "Time" magazine in the country, Elizabeth Warren, is high on that list this year. "Time" asked somebody to write a little blurb for the magazine on the web site about Elizabeth Warren.

Hillary Clinton writes the blurb this year about Elizabeth Warren saying it's always going to take a special kind of leader to pick up Ted Kennedy's mantel, a senior senator from Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget the work of taming Wall Street's irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished. That's a big hug.

FOURNIER: It's also taking up Ted Kennedy's mantle in the Senate, not campaign trail.

KING: Put it right where she wants her there. Is this significant at all? The Clinton Foundation, Hillary Clinton has left the board of the Clinton Foundation to run for president. The foundation has taken some heat for taking foreign donations.

Now they say they're going to stop that almost. They will continue to take money from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, the good guys, democracies if you will. Is that OK?

FOURNIER: No. You can't be a little bit pregnant. She's going to be president of the United States, these are allies, but they also have interests and ways they might want to influence our government. And they're giving money to a potential presidential candidate's family foundation. That should not happen.

KING: Speaking of rollouts, the Hillary campaign is happy with her so far. Sure they were controlled events, sure they control the access, politicians do that, she's entitled to try that just like everybody else. She better do it, that's right, smart politics.

What about Marco Rubio? He's a little different. He came back to Washington to do some Senate business, now he's going to raise a lot of money. What are they thinking?

[07:40:07] O'KEEFE: This is a slow roll for him. I mean, he had that dramatic announcement Monday night in Miami, and now he really has to go out and raise a lot of money. We understand he'll have three events in Florida. There is money for him to be had there despite Jeb Bush.

He will hold two events next week in Texas as well. There is actually a sizable amount of support for him there despite Ted Cruz, Rick Perry and the Bush connection, and then eventually he will be making visits to places like Iowa and South Carolina.

He is in New Hampshire this weekend with everyone else, but they knew they had to get him out there, and make it official, have a nice rollout this week, which they've been having. He's been interviewed by just about everyone. I don't know if you got your interview yet. Have you had yours? He will hit the campaign.

FOURNIER: Real quickly back on Hillary Clinton, I think she's doing the right thing by starting out slow. This is exactly what she's got to do. On Rubio it's interesting. He realizes he's not going to be able to raise a lot of money.

So they're looking for the money ball approach where you use data to be as efficient as you can with your money. They're looking to do that with politics.

Either that's true and it's going to be interesting to see how they kind of change the paradigm or it's spin because they can't raise a lot of money.

KING: Guys, as we get back to you in New York, Mr. Cuomo, another guy out there who we are waiting to see is Chris Christie. He was in New York yesterday. Remember in London he talked about parents having a lot of choices when it comes to vaccinations, tried to pull that back a little bit.

Well, I think he pulled it back a bit more. Let's listen as we get back to you guys in New York, Chris Christie on the trail in New Hampshire yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I cannot be someone who supports voluntary vaccination. I think that would be the wrong step for the public health of our country. I think parents need to be listened to always. But in the end there are some hard decisions we have to make about this. And I would ere on the side of protecting public health through vaccine unless that vaccine was proven to be dangerous. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It will be interesting to watch, Mr. Cuomo, Christie trying to use these town halls to revive his image. He's low in the polls right now, but he says he still got has plenty of time.

Interesting there, yes, parents have some options he says, but much less emphasis on parental choice, much more emphasis on public health from Governor Christie yesterday.

CUOMO: He's on the line on that one. They're on the line when they say, hey, we got to get the money out of politics. Not going to see anybody unilaterally disarm, though. These will be the issues we judge them on. John King, always a pleasure, my brother, see you tomorrow.

KING: Take care.

CUOMO: All right, so you know, that air space over the White House, it's supposed to be like the safest air space in the world, right? We have to protect someone very valuable. Then how did this guy get in? Flying on that go cart or whatever it was. We'll tell you. We've got a reporter who followed the whole thing.

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[07:46:35]

CUOMO: It was bizarre, it was dangerous, but it was interesting to say the least, the gyrocopter, not helicopter, landing in the middle of a lawn near the U.S. capitol. The pilot 61-year-old mailman is trying to make a statement about money and politics.

Few people know more about Hughes' intentions than "Tampa Bay Times" writer, Ben Montgomery. Ben actually interviewed Hughes as he was planning the protest flight, live tweeted the incident as it unfolded.

And now he's joining us live once again on NEW DAY this morning. Ben, thank you for coming along to pass along the reportage. How did you get into this and did you think it was going to happen?

BEN MONTGOMERY, WRITER, "TAMPA BAY TIMES": Doug Hughes called me at work maybe a year ago, didn't identify himself, but he said I'm going to commit an act of civil disobedience, nobody's going to get hurt. But I might get shot down or I might get arrested.

And I really need somebody to tell the backstory in the event something bad happens. And so we get calls like that from time to time in the newsroom. And there was something about this guy that I thought maybe we should have a cup of coffee.

So I met him in person. He had this very detailed and interesting plan about trying to bring attention to campaign finance reform, this issue that makes everybody's eyes glaze over.

CUOMO: So did you judge him as sane, you know, of the right mind, motivated by the right things? Did you have any doubts?

MONTGOMERY: Well, Doug himself said, look, no sane person would do what I'm doing. So maybe there's a little something off there, but otherwise, yes, he was completely sane. You know, he held the same job for 11 years, he's raised a beautiful little 12-year-old girl, he's got a wife and a house and a car.

Everything about him is just sort of ho hum normal mailman life except for this big, brazen sort of Paul Revere PT Barnum idea of trying to arrest the news cycle and direct attention to something he feels incredibly passionate about.

CUOMO: Well, he's certainly not alone on the issue. It's about his means that will come under scrutiny. Let's put up the tweet you put up as it was going on that got our attention, "This is one of the craziest stories I've ever done. I so hope nobody gets hurt."

Now it's that second sentence that winds up making it a different kind of story. Did you have any concerns about whether or not he was telling you the truth? That that's what it was and he didn't have some darker motivations about landing there?

MONTGOMERY: Maybe early on, but once I got to know Doug, his plan was entirely designed to be transparent. He was live streaming the entire thing from his gyrocopter. He launched from Gettysburg, P.A., which is about an hour and a half flight time.

On the way in, he alerted the media to his flight plan and to his web site, thedemocracyclub.org, which explains all about his thoughts of how he can reform campaign finance. He alerted the authorities.

And beyond that the authorities investigated him about a year ago. The Secret Service interviewed him twice and interviewed a colleague of his with whom he'd shared his ideas for the plan. So we were comfortable with the idea that Doug had been on the radar of the secret service.

And comfortable, again, with the idea that this guy everything in his plan was intended to be transparent and non-harmful, and truly an act of civil disobedience. He knew he might get shot down. That's where that tweet came from.

I thought for sure -- for sure that is something bad was going to happen to this guy. I was super surprised to see him like so easily without resistance do what he did.

[07:50:07] CUOMO: Yes, and let's get to that as the last point, they had interviewed him before. He was completely transparent. He had this reporter live tweeting about it as it was going on, how did he successfully land in such a sensitive place? How did the authorities let this slip by? Do you have any explanation?

MONTGOMERY: No, your guess is as good as mine, sir. I think because the aircraft is so small and light, you know, 250 pounds, basically a lawn chair with a propeller, you know, it seems like from what I've read he just slipped under the radar. I saw him coming around the Washington monument and ran as fast as I could toward the capitol and got there about 5 minutes after he landed, just in time to see them dragged him off.

And a lot of people in the media have described the sense of panic on the lawn there, and there was no panic when I got there. Everybody was taking cell phone videos and laughing.

I saw a social studies teacher telling a group of about 30 kids about civil disobedience and about protests, and using this as an example, this guy who just flown over their heads and landed safely on the lawn of the capitol building.

CUOMO: Ben Montgomery, bizarre story to be sure. Let's see how much he is laughing when he see what the authorities do to him in the terms of criminal prosecution, but thanks for telling us about it.

MONTGOMERY: Sure enough.

CUOMO: All right, Poppy, over to you.

HARLOW: All right, coming up next, an important story we will tell you about. Thousands of low-wage workers marching from coast-to-coast demanding a significant pay bump, we'll tell you what they want next.

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[07:55:05]

BERMAN: It is time for CNN Money now, chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, in the money center.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, John. About 15,000 low-wage workers marched across the country yesterday. They want a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour.

These are workers from fast-food, retail, home health care, and many more. The last several months, of course, big employers like McDonald's and Wal-Mart, they have raised their wages to $9 and $10, but these protesters say those increases are still not enough to live on.

A major challenge to Google, E.U., the European Union says it is anti- competitive and unfair. The E.U. says Google favors its own search results about competitors. Relevant links are not always listed first on Google search results.

For example, they search running watch. Companies that advertise with Google appear before its competitors, Amazon, for examples appears. Those results appear lower on the page. Google disputes the charge -- John.

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much, Christine. Bombshell reports questioning the training for that reserve deputy who shot and killed the fleeing suspect in Oklahoma, we break it all down next.

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