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New Day

Good News for Obama, Good for Hillary?; Dr. Oz to Answer His Critics; U.S. Warships Sent to Block Iran Off Yemen. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 21, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:35] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. We have brand new numbers that show optimism about the economy, the country, even the president, all in this just-released CNN/ORC poll. Forty-eight percent of Americans now approve of the way the president is handling his job, 47 percent disapprove.

Why celebrate? Well, it's a sad commentary in what passes for progress these days. Nevertheless these numbers will affect the state of play in the race especially for Clinton. So, let's figure out how.

We want to bring in CNN political analyst --

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Let's do it.

CUOMO: -- and editor of "The Daily Beast", Mr. John Avlon, and CNN political commentator and Republican consultant Margaret Hoover, today known as Hoovalon as every day.

So, let's deal with why the Democrats may be drawing some energy from these numbers, John? What do we see in them? Forty-eight, forty- seven the average person says -- why are you happy about that?

Context, why are they happy?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Context is whenever the president in the second term gets his head above water in the polling is a good day for administration. Second of all, it seems to be buoyed about the economy. It's always the economy, stupid. When the economy improves, approval ratings improve, and it also sets up something fairly positive for potentially the next Democratic nominee.

So, Democrats feel good about it. Sentiment seems to be rising in the country.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Margaret?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You would think, though, that then Hillary Clinton would take this as ammunition to run on the Obama record.

She hasn't. She's in New Hampshire saying the economy has stalled out. She wants to get it going again. The middle class isn't working. There's really a stagnation in the middle class. She sounds like a Republican running against the Obama economy rather

than a member of President Obama's cabinet defending his record.

CAMEROTA: Have we shown the numbers yet on the economy?

CUOMO: Not yet. Came out as a banner. But put up the poll. There you go.

CAMEROTA: What's interesting is you haven't seen this level since September of 2007. So, 52 percent today believe that the economy is good, 48 percent believe it's poor.

So did she just not get the memo yet? I mean, why isn't she touting this more?

AVLON: If you dig deep into the numbers while failures of small businesses are nowhere near where they were during the start of the great recession, there's still a stagnation, better said a squeeze on small businesses. And they haven't really received the kind of relief or bailouts or support that big businesses have.

HOOVER: I'm shocked --

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: I'm shocked to hear John Avlon saying that.

CUOMO: Are you shocked and appalled or just shocked?

HOOVER: Because it's been Democrats and John Avlon and all of you folks who have been saying the economy is doing great --

AVLON: It is.

HOOVER: -- the president is doing better, and it's been Republicans who said comparatively this has been a sluggish recovery.

CUOMO: What do you say?

HOOVER: People -- I say that people actually had been on the sidelines, capital is on the sideline, investment is not what it was, recovery isn't nearly as strong as it should have been, yes, it's finally recovering and that's great. All says Hillary Clinton has a totally tenure to the economy and I'm not sure what her strategy is.

The other thing interesting about this poll to me, while finally for the first time his numbers are -- they're better than they are worse.

CUOMO: He being the president.

HOOVER: The president. It doesn't ask about foreign policy. And the average of foreign policy numbers has the president way down. Well, that's the thing, ISIS hasn't been in the news, Iran hasn't been in the news in the last week, at least during the time --

CUOMO: Don't you watch NEW DAY, Margaret Hoover? HOOVER: In the time that this poll was taken, Iran wasn't top of the

news, foreign policy wasn't top of the news. I do think those numbers are impacted by foreign policy when there are ISIS videos are out and things like that happen.

AVLON: If you look at why these numbers improve, there are a couple key indicators.

[06:35:01] First of all, the president is doing better among his base. Now, that is not always translate to a general election stability for a next nominee, but that's significant. That would indicate certain policy positions and a policy second half of his term that are appealing to his base.

The other key thing is follow the independents. And if you look for example on what Michelle called the sad trombone at the poll, which I thought was funny, in Congress where there are 28 percent approval ratings, 21 percent among independents. So that's half of what it was when Democrats first took over Congress back in 2006, which is the parallel point.

So, while, you know, Margaret makes passionate points which I think there are real issues for the middle class and for small businesses which haven't recovered as fast, there's no doubt there's improved sentiment. And Hillary Clinton has a very difficult line to walk, both distancing herself from simply not running as a carbon copy of the president and saying I'm going to continue all those policies, but folks need relief and middle class has been squeezed for administrations, plural, not just this one.

CAMEROTA: Let's give the numbers historical context so we can see how presidents normally are, where they are at this point in their second term. So as you can see President Obama's at 48 percent, President Bush at this point was at 36 percent. President Clinton was at 60 percent.

CUOMO: After being impeached.

CAMEROTA: Yes. But many think this was backlash. This was the because he was impeached.

And then Ronald Reagan exactly the same as President Obama, 48 percent.

HOOVER: George Bush just needed a good impeachment.

CUOMO: The same numbers are not always the same circumstances. What do you see as context?

AVLON: Well, look, first of all, I mean, Iran Contra at this point was really pulling down the Reagan presidency. He ended at around 60 percent --

CUOMO: To your point about foreign policy.

AVLON: Yes. But in terms of really heavy scandal weighing down administration. But, you know, for a long time until recent months conservatives have been crowing about how Obama and Bush are running in parallel. At this point in the administration you see a strong divergence. It wasn't just the unpopularity of Iraq, is that he'd lost the center of the country at this point, George W. Bush.

HOOVER: And George W. Bush had begun to lose his base. He had lost the fiscal conservatives and even the faith-based conservatives started to break away and that was the before the surge in Iraq. Numbers continued to go down.

CUOMO: You see this kind -- this perilous path for Hillary, figuring what she wants to do, even though these numbers are promising. Look at congressional numbers. Republican Congress now 28 percent.

HOOVER: It doubled.

CAMEROTA: Good news.

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: There's a pony in here somewhere.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: When you look at the Republican versus Democrat.

HOOVER: The last Republican Congress polling was 13 percent, Chris. They've truly doubled the number.

CUOMO: Twenty-eight percent is bad. You have the Democrats in '07 were 49 percent, do you see that as a relevant comparison?

HOOVER: Do I see Democrats --

CUOMO: Get past your partisan jaundice, Hoover, and just take --

HOOVER: Look, the country is more polarized. The country is more polarized now and that's what you see reflected in those numbers.

CAMEROTA: What does this mean for the Republican candidates?

CUOMO: Thank you, Alisyn.

HOOVER: There is Republican brand damage.

CUOMO: Brain damage? What did you say?

HOOVER: Brand damage.

CUOMO: You've got to be clear here.

HOOVER: I want to make sure all of our listeners know that you said brain damage.

CUOMO: I thought that was I heard from you, which I was very surprised. HOOVER: Republicans have to know this is a strong headwind. Nobody's signing up to be a Republican. Very few people are signing up to be Republicans right now. I mean, the tried and true people like me, but we even know if you're smart enough to know, you can't just run on being a Republican. You've got to be for ideas and you got to appeal way more broadly.

AVLON: That's why there's a fundamental problem with three first-term senators running right now. They're directly associated with this Congress which is not popular. Most young Americans are identified as independent yet the whole primary process about playing to the base, very narrow constituency. That disconnect is what drives the discussion.

CUOMO: Although I must say, I am meeting more and more Margaret Hoovers, literally. People by the exact same name.

AVLON: That's creepy.

CUOMO: I'm meeting Republicans who are saying to me they are so open to ideas from their own. They don't want to hear it from the Democrats. You've had your eight years. We're not happy where we are. What do you have for me within my own party?

HOOVER: This is an opportunity for Republicans to win over independents and to win over centrists.

CUOMO: They're ready.

CAMEROTA: John, Margaret, we have to go. We're on the rush, because there's only 566 days left until the election. So, we have got to go.

AVLON: Giddy up.

CUOMO: We should have jack on the scale of where will the sun be when the actual election is. Be sitting there throwing a baseball in a mitt.

HOOVER: Where are my --

CAMEROTA: Thanks, guys. Great to see you.

Let's get over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We can track Baby Hoovalon's growth with the calendar somehow. I think there's a way we can do that.

All right, guys. TV's Dr. Oz going on the offensive against a group of physicians calling his credentials rather into questions. He plans to answer his critics on his show later this week. What exactly is he going to say? We'll discuss it, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:31] CAMEROTA: American warships could be on the brink of conflict with Iran. This is off the coast of Yemen. The U.S. now deploying ships trying to stop Iran from supplying weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen who have sent Yemen into a downward spiral.

American allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, already have ships off Yemen with crews prepared to board Iranian ships. Something the U.S. crews are not authorized to do.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, the captain and crew member of the boat packed with migrants capsizing in the Mediterranean Sea, they've been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking. European officials are working now on a proposal to address the ongoing crisis. We are learning the boat may have capsized after being touched or bumped by a cargo ship that had come to its aid.

CUOMO: There's new video of a Baltimore police action that left 25- year-old Freddie Gray dead. And there's new info as well. An autopsy shows the 25-year-old Gray suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in custody.

And the video shows the handling of the limp young man and his fueling outrage. The circumstances surrounding his death however still a mystery. Six officers have been arrested and suspended. Baltimore's mayor and police chief have promised a thorough and transparent investigation.

CAMEROTA: In a few hours the same jury that convicted Boston marathon bombers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will decide if he will spend the rest of his life in prison or die by lethal injection. His lawyers and federal prosecutors presenting their opening statements in the trial's penalty phase.

[06:45:00] Prosecutors expected to say that the attack was well- planned and cruel. His defense will argue he was only 19 at the time and under his brother's influence. And several bombing victims have voiced their belief that Tsarnaev should get life in prison, not death. That's interesting.

CUOMO: All about why, right? Why are they saying it?

CAMEROTA: Are they philosophically opposed?

I mean, they believe that he will be caught in appeals forever with the death penalty and they want to put him out of their minds. They think going to prison will be the best way to do that.

PEREIRA: Yes, that one couple said they don't want to give him the opportunity to have this story told on his terms instead of theirs. And they feel that a death penalty would give that, which is really interesting. I never really considered that.

CAMEROTA: Those victim impact statements are really powerful and it's a great thing that they are included in the sentencing process.

CUOMO: Well, I mean, that's what the death penalty really is about at the end of the day, is giving some sense of closure or satisfaction to victims' families.

CAMEROTA: Ideally. CUOMO: But that satisfaction is a function of time too. You want

your life to move on, preserve your memories of your loved ones a certain way. So, it becomes a practice -- this is not a moral argument they're making. It's a practical one.

PEREIRA: Will impact a little bit with our legal analyst coming up next hour of course.

But, right now, we're going to talk about let's talk about weather. We have situation going on with Mother Nature -- a wildfire burning nearly 2,000 acres in south Florida west of Miami. Fire officials say the fire right now is 50 percent contained. We know a school in the area has been closed as a precaution.

Jennifer Gray, our meteorologist is on standby looking at this watching the conditions there.

What do we know, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, those fires about half a mile from structures and due to the wind direction we have seen smoke in portions of Metro Miami-Dade. Once this front passes through later today, the wind direction's going to change. Some of that smoke could spill a little bit more south.

We are still soggy across much of the Northeast. You should get a little bit of a break from the rain today, but then another round of showers coming on Wednesday. And much cooler air behind that second front. In fact, places like Minneapolis already running about 20 degrees below normal.

So temperatures are going to stay pretty close to average over the next couple of days. We really take that dip on Thursday where temperatures will drop about 10 or 15 degrees for your high temperatures. Of course, across the south we are still warm.

Temperatures around 72 in Atlanta, 77 tomorrow, average mid-70s. This is going to be the driest day we've seen. We have seen clouds and rain for the last nine or ten days straight. So it will be nice to get a little bit of a break.

But it's not going to last long. We do have another round of severe weather already tomorrow. We have an enhanced risk. It's about a three on a scale of one to five, and that does include Dallas for Wednesday, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Jen, thank you very much. We'll stick with you to find out how that progresses.

Now, when we come back, Dr. Oz says he is no quack. Doctor's critics say he is a sellout. Oz is now getting ready to defend himself.

We're going to test the situation. We have both sides. You decide, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:52:11] PEREIRA: Celebrity doctor and talk show host Dr. Mehmet Oz is fighting back against a group of physicians, surgeons and group of professors calling for him to lose his position at Columbia University's Medical School because they say he promotes, quote, "quack treatments for financial gain." Dr. Oz's producers say he'll respond to those critics on his show Thursday.

We want to discuss this, though, with Brian Stelter, CNN senior media correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES".

Also, Arthur Caplan, he's the director of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. He's also a professor of bioethics.

This is right in your wheelhouse.

So we'll talk to both of you. Good morning to you.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: Good morning.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

PEREIRA: I think we should probably start this off with bringing people up-to-date with what's going on with this letter. I want to read in part what it says.

"Dr. Oz has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal gain. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz's presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable."

You're like, well, they said it. What do you think?

CAPLAN: Well, look, they're not going to fire him. That isn't going to happen.

But there's a course correction that's appropriate for Dr. Oz. He has been out there a little bit on some of the health food claims, he's been out there too far when he has the psychic surgeon come on, when the guy who talks to the dead appears. It does seem to be me he needs to be reined in.

Is he harming people with what I'll call fairy dust kind of stuff? Yes, because I think sometimes they don't get to the real doctor. They think I'll swallow a pill and this will help me get healthy.

On the other hand, we were just talking about this. Dr. Oz has been on for a while. He's got a lot of shows. How many times are you going to come on and say, lose weight, wear a helmet.

CUOMO: That's what his show is, though. This allegation takes it to the next level, is there any there there on the reporting charge of making money and not disclosing it, you know, that would be the baseline charge?

STELTER: Dr. Oz tries to be on the up and up. You go to his Web site and see his trusted partners listed. That's an example of something some doctors wouldn't do to go that next step and have that relationship.

You know, it seems to me like he's going to go on the offense here. He's been on the defense for several days. Some of these doctors and physicians seem like they've got sketchy pasts, pointing out connections and ties to the GMO industry. They seem to not like the fact that Dr. Oz wants genetically modified foods to be labeled, could be labeled.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. The ten accusing him of quack medicine, he's going to expose something this week about them maybe.

STELTER: At least some of the ten. That's what Dr. Oz's people are saying. Some of the 10 have these industry ties. They say they don't like Dr. Oz's stance on GMOs.

CAPLAN: Although chasing down all the conflicts of interest kind of loses the message here about, is this guy giving us straight answers about health?

STELTER: And I agree with you, he has course corrected, yes.

[06:55:02] CAPLAN: I'm going to say sometimes not as much. He's getting better.

I mean, if you look at the show maybe a year or two back, there was a lot more kind of woo-woo stuff out there. He's doing a little better. But I think he does need a course correction.

I hope we doesn't get lost in the he said/she said and who's paying you kind of thing because the issue is the American people watch this guy. He's the number one doc in the country. That's what they listen to.

STELTER: I don't think he'll say this but I think what he could say privately is the criticism makes me better, criticism makes the show better.

PEREIRA: There will be people that say, look, the fact he is not necessarily promoting everything that Western medicine aligns with, he brings in maybe some older school ideas, some traditional Eastern method --

(CROSSTALK)

CAPLAN: He's got the neti pots and he's got the coffee beans.

PEREIRA: Absolutely. So there will be people saying these are just haters that are trying to sort of say we should steer towards Western medicine. Is there anything there?

CAPLAN: Well, you know, the British medicine journal said half the stuff Dr. Oz was talking about wasn't valid. We've seen a congressional hearing that called him out and said, you're promoting stuff that isn't legitimate. So I think those criticisms have merit.

CUOMO: Well, does it? Because it's such a squishy area when you're talking nontraditional medicine, now we're calling holistic medical practice. Do they know that these things aren't valid, or they're not sure about other things that they are valid?

CAPLAN: Fair enough. I think the evidence is pretty strong a lot of this stuff isn't going to cure your cancer, a lot of the stuff doesn't get rid of your Parkinsonism. So, it's when you get into these dangerous areas --

CUOMO: But does he come on and say, cure your cancer with this?

CAPLAN: Close -- close enough to make you nervous.

CAMEROTA: He also touts, as you said, things like green coffee extract, raspberry tablets.

CAPLAN: He's big on berries. He loves berries.

CAMEROTA: There's nothing wrong with berries.

CAPLAN: I like berries, too.

CUOMO: I don't know.

CAMEROTA: The thing about these things do work in an alternative way, do we know if he's making money, Brian?

STELTER: Coffee beans is an example where he had to come back last fall and say the study I based my report on has been retracted, more research needs to be done. So, in that case, he stepped from the coffee beans.

CUOMO: But is he getting paid? Does he disclose that? What does trusted partners mean?

CAPLAN: I think he is getting paid for product. What you see is it boosts his ratings. He drives it up, there's something called the Oz effect. He endorses something on that show, the next day they sell out. It helps ratings.

PEREIRA: We understand Thursday, he's going to come out.

STELTER: Yes. People are going to get a preview later today.

PEREIRA: But is this going to end being the he said/she said?

CAPLAN: You know what I don't like, he says he's going to respond to the critics, but I wish he'd have the critics there. You know, you don't like to have a debate with one side.

PEREIRA: That's interesting.

STELTER: He'll be taping it. We'll get a preview tonight. He says he wants this to be about exposing intimidation. He says these doctors are trying to intimidate him into not talking about GMOs. He says he's going to go on his show and talk about it.

That's unusual. People who watch his show trust him. The fact he's going to go on his own show to defend himself.

CUOMO: It will give him the benefit of the doubt. They better make a strong case against him.

STELTER: I'm sure it's totally coincidence that the May sweep season for ratings starts on Thursday.

PEREIRA: Very good point. Not lost on us.

Brian, always a pleasure to have you here. Great topic for us to discuss. If you want to get in on it tweet us your take on this topic by using #newday.

CUOMO: This story is moving, but there's a lot of news for you this morning so let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: American warships are heading to the waters off Yemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepared to intercept any Iranian arm shipments to the Shiite rebels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is more of a message to the Iranians that says be careful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The new book "Clinton Cash".

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are they taking money and potentially getting influence bought?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Republicans seem to be talking only about me. I don't know what they'd talk about if I weren't in the race.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Six police officers suspended in Baltimore.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe that you can have police officers investigating their own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once when Mr. Grey was taken out of that van, he could not talk and he could not breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some marathon bombing survivors have appealed for Tsarnaev to be spared the death penalty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The penalty phase expected to be extremely emotional for all the survivors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to cross the finish line. I just had to. I can't feel sorry for myself for one second. ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and

Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

Weeks after finding their first common ground in decades, the U.S. and Iran staring each other down once again. This time it's in the waters off Yemen where the U.S. is sending military ships to help stop Tehran from arming rebels.

CUOMO: And this is a critical moment. 24 hours is the window for potential action. All this comes as nuclear talks with Iran are set to begin again tomorrow.

More fuel to the fire, Iran now charging a "Washington Post" reporter with espionage. The question is, are they trying to blow up the talks?

Our coverage begins this morning with CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott in Washington.

Elise, what do we know?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, the crisis in Yemen is taking a new turn this morning as U.S. warships joining other nations off the coast of Yemen in a rapidly escalating situation.