Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

U.S. Marshals Arrest Ex-Convict In D.C. Murders; Historic Same- Sex Marriage Vote In Ireland; Hillary Clinton's Low-Key Campaign Style; Jeb Bush Criticizes George W. Bush Spending; Airbag Fix Could Take Five Years. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 22, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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


ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So when we went to bed last night at 8 p.m., it seemed as though the suspect, the police were looking for him in Brooklyn.

[07:30:03] And then, lo and behold, they found him at a Howard Johnsons in College Park, Maryland. Just fascinating policework how quickly you guys can put these things together.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. Well, incredible job done by the police in and around the community in which this investigation was going on. But it's no doubt in my mind, Alisyn, that for a number of days, number of hours were put into this investigation and tracking and following information I'm quite certain it led to this arrest.

But more importantly they were able to get this guy off the street. And I think as time go by we're going to learn more about this case in regards to what was the reason for it and what was some of the things led up to this and what occurred afterwards.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what we know about this suspect. I just had an interview with his attorney, the attorney who had represented him in some 2006 cases. And that attorney said that he basically just has had a string of bad luck.

The police are always targeting him. That he's charged with things, but he's never convicted. That has turned out to be wrong. We have now fact checked that and confirmed that he was actually convicted in 2009 of second-degree assault, which was a domestic battery case.

But let's look at this rap sheet, Cedric, because I want you to tell me his family files a restraining order in 2005. In 2006, he's charged with second-degree assault but not convicted. In 2009, he's charged with second-degree assault and sex offense, not convicted of the sex offense, but convicted of the second-degree assault.

In 2010 charged with burglary and property destruction, not convicted. His attorney says like there are no -- usually he is not convicted. So are they just targeted him?

ALEXANDER: No, they're not targeting him. Whatever led up to those arrests regardless whether he was found guilty or not there clearly had to be some probable cause. And of course, the court system did what it was supposed to do.

But I think what's important to remember here is that this particular case in and of itself regardless of what his history is, if there's evidence to support the fact that he was involved in these heinous crimes, in these deaths, in these murders, then of course he will -- the court will do what the court does.

However, I think it's important to keep in mind here, Alisyn, that, yes, there are some people who have criminal history that would suggest that they're involved in other things beyond that. But we also know too you may not have ever had a past before at all, a criminal past at all, and you also could be subject to a crime itself.

CAMEROTA: Is that right, because his case is particularly heinous. I mean, this case if the -- going into a family's home, holding them hostage for hours on end, torturing them.

ALEXANDER: Right.

CAMEROTA: Torturing a 10-year-old.

ALEXANDER: A horrible crime.

CAMEROTA: A 10-year-old boy, eating pizza during the course of the commission of this and then torching the house. I mean, that is a crime that is a crime that is in a different --

ALEXANDER: It comes from a whole different place and of course, over time, and they have the evidence I'm quite sure to affect their arrests that were made last night, and I think in this particular case here this was just absolute horrible, the way that that family was victimized and killed, and a 10-year-old child on top of that.

And I'm quite sure that's what really drove law enforcement in this case, the fact that you have a family here that was killed in such a violent way, and tortured on top of that as well as evidence suggests.

So kudos to police in going after this subject and anyone who was involved in it, anyone who planned it, anyone who knew about it and didn't do anything about it at all, hopefully law enforcement bring them into that web also.

CAMEROTA: As I said, we just talked to his attorney, who says that they do not have -- he does not believe that the police have evidence linking this suspect to the crime. Let me play for you what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN FICKER, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR DARON DYLON WINT: Why wouldn't the police mention DNA in the house at the crime scene? We're told that the pizza was delivered outside the house and then the crust was found in a dumpster, not in the house.

Why aren't the police coming out with some really damning evidence rather than this circumstantial evidence that doesn't come close to proving that he committed these murders? (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Why don't police mention DNA inside the house?

ALEXANDER: Well, let's think about it in this way, Alisyn. In all fairness, OK, if the police have identified him as a subject, they're operating on a certain amount of information at this point. Maybe we're not privy to.

But I think as the days and weeks go by this case is going to reveal itself. Those who were involved, those who had any connection knew about this, planned it, whatever the case going to be it's going to come about too.

So the police have done their job. They did a great job. They identified this subject after this heinous crime. They followed the evidence whatever that evidence may have been whether it was witness evidence, physical evidence, DNA evidence, whatever it is.

So to draw any conclusion like his attorney is drawing at this point and you expect that from anyone's defense attorney.

CAMEROTA: It was his previous defense attorney.

[07:35:05] ALEXANDER: His previous attorney, who very well may represent him in this case as well too. But at this point, police clearly have probable cause to affect that arrest and as we go forward this case will reveal itself even more.

Here again my hat's off, kudos to law enforcement in that community and those that supported it as well too in being able to get this person off the street.

CAMEROTA: We will learn more at 1:00 p.m. today Eastern Time during his first court appearance we've just learned the time of. Cedric Alexander, thank you so much for being on NEW DAY.

ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Alisyn, Hillary Clinton sticking to her plan for a low key campaign. That could be about to change. We'll tell you more "Inside Politics" ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We do have some breaking news to tell you about. This just coming in to us at CNN, an explosion reported at packed Shiite mosque in Eastern Saudi Arabia. The blast going off as worshippers were in the midst of Friday prayers. There are reports of several people killed. We will bring you all the details as they come into our CNN NEWSROOM.

PEREIRA: An historic vote happening right now in Ireland. That country is deciding whether to change its constitution to allow for same-sex marriage.

[07:40:07] If the referendum passes, Ireland will become the first country in the world to adopt same-sex marriage through a popular vote. It would give gay and lesbian couples the right to civil marriage, not the right to wed in a church. This is big.

CAMEROTA: Is it?

PEREIRA: It's big news.

CAMEROTA: Scrabble's official word list keeps growing, 6,500 new words now at your disposal, some straight from the mouths of cool kids, like twerking, emoji and ridic, short for ridiculous, of course.

If you're scoring at home, bezzy, bestfriends, you knew that, Michaela, just added, it's worth 18 points. Shizzel --

PEREIRA: I like shiz better.

CAMEROTA: I think you might have just said a bad word on TV.

PEREIRA: I did not.

CAMEROTA: That's next to Snoop Dogg, that's also worth 18 points, and schvitz --

PEREIRA: She's got the giggles.

CAMEROTA: -- which, of course, means to sweat.

PEREIRA: Bit of controversy brewing here because -- OK, maybe it's my controversy, bezzy for bestfriend? Isn't it bestie?

CAMEROTA: Yes, it should be bestie?

PEREIRA: Hello, Scrabble.

CAMEROTA: You're making me schvitz.

PEREIRA: I know so sound off on that Twitter because I think I've got a little controversy going. We'll ask our "Inside Politics" host today, Sara Murray, who is in for John King. It is bestie. It is not bezzy, agree?

SARA MURRAY, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: It is definitely, bestie, but also I thought abbreviation weren't allowed. All right, so we have a lot to get to today on "Inside Politics."

We have Olivier Knox joining us from Yahoo News and Julie Pace, who is here from the AP. Hillary Clinton has been holding small events. She's been talking to voters. Mostly she's been trying to look like she is not taking the Democratic nomination for granted.

That is all about to change. Olivier, what's about to change and why the change of course? OLIVIER KNOX, "YAHOO NEWS": Well, because she's been on this so- called listening tour where she's talking to small groups of voters in the key states and on June 13th, she's going to do this sort of second roll out of her campaign.

Give us sort of a fuller explanation for the rationale of why she should be president and why she wants the job. Again, you're right, she want to make the point that she's not taking anything for granted. She hears Americans and she's ready for the job.

MURRAY: I didn't realize you get two campaign rollouts, but I guess if you're Hillary Clinton you do. Julie, you have spent some time out there with Hillary Clinton, there have been some complaints that her events might not be so authentic. They might be a little staged. What have you been seeing?

JULIE PACE, "ASSOCIATED PRESS": Yes, so I was with Hillary in Iowa this week. The campaign is saying that they're doing small events. They are putting her in settings where she can be having a conversation, but I think it's important for the public to understand what these conversations really are.

There are with a pre-selected, pre-screened supporters, mainly, and I was at a conversation she was having with small business owners, everyone around the table was very supportive of her agenda.

I think that the challenge for her is going to be, if you want to do small events how do you do small events and actually get a diversity of opinion? How do you actually make sure that you are hearing from all voices not just those people who support you?

MURRAY: By the way this is not what it looks like when Jeb Bush is out on the trail campaigning, even he's having a town hall event it's normal voters, who show up and ask him questions. Does she miss out on something as a candidate by not having whoever is around, whoever wants to show up and ask her questions?

KNOX: Yes, I think so. If you're only talking to reporters, you're obviously getting a certain look at politics, a certain attitude. You're not getting quite the same breadth of American concerns and so, yes, there's a concern there.

Also you know Jeb Bush taking a lot of questions is very interesting because that also sends the message I'm not taking this for granted.

MURRAY: One more quick thing because I think there are a lot of people who are watching this at home and saying this is just the press whining about how they don't get to talk to the candidate.

You know, they don't get their questions in. Why does it matter for the process, Julie? Why does it matter for Hillary to be taking questions on what's going on, on a daily basis?

MURRAY: Yes, I think this is a really important point. A lot of the candidates come across as though the national press is complaining, but this how I look at it. The point of the national press or the local press or voters who can ask her unfiltered questions is to actually try to understand what this person would do as president.

And that means getting pressed on issues that aren't necessarily what you want to be talking about that day, getting asked about the situation in the Middle East right now, how would you handle that?

Getting asked about the Patriot Act debate on Capitol Hill, and unless we have an opportunity both the press and the public to press a candidate on these questions, we really don't know the answer.

MURRAY: Now, so far Hillary Clinton has been content to let her Republican rivals struggle out there on her own. And for Jeb Bush the big struggle has been how do you deal with your brother, President George W. Bush?

He offered his sharpest criticism of his brother yet at a campaign event in New Hampshire. Let's take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I think that in Washington during my brother's time, Republicans spent too much money. I think he could have use the veto power. He could have brought budget discipline to Washington, D.C.

[07:45:03] Now that seems kind of quaint right now given the fact that after he left budget deficits and spending just like went up astronomically, but having constraints on spending across the board during his time would have been a good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: So Olivier, Jeb going after his brother about spending. How important is it going to be for him to draw specific differences between himself and George W. Bush?

KNOX: It's very important. That was a pretty mild -- totally clear here. He might have been able to use his veto power a little more isn't exactly a repudiation of his brother's time in office. It's going to be important, you know.

And George W. Bush had the same experience in 2008 when he was saying sometimes the best way I can help John McCain is by just taking the punches, by letting him criticize me, that's a reality.

In 2000, it was a similar dynamic where Al Gore famously with the key lines of his acceptance speech was, you know, I stand before you tonight my own man. So there's a pattern to this.

You know, we forget we've only really had a third term for a party I think once in the last 60 years. You know, we've had -- it was the Reagan to H.W. Bush handover. This kind of break with the previous guy even when the previous guy is in the same party is really important.

MURRAY: So the interesting now is that we're going to have something like two dozen candidates on the Republican side. We're trying to cram them onto a debate stage. The question is how do you do that? We're starting to get an inkling of that.

So Fox News says it's only going to be the top ten candidates in the polls, who are going to be on the debate stage. CNN is doing it different. We'll have essentially two debates.

One will have the top ten that will come after. A debate will be earlier with people who are sort of lower in the polls all happening on the same night, but everyone will get a shot at the stage.

Julie, what do you think? Even with ten candidates on the stage, do you get a good vigorous debate?

PACE: Look, this is really uncharted territory. I actually think it's fascinating to watch how we figure out who's going to be on the stage, who's not going to be on the stage. Ten candidates is a lot. It just is.

But I think that in a big wide open Republican field it's important to have a wide representation of candidates because that just represents what the field is going to be.

But a lot of these candidates who are in this lower tier of the party right now are going to be pretty unhappy.

MURRAY: Olivier, I'll give you one quick second. Rick Santorum is really upset that he's not going to be involved in the debates. Do you think this whole thing is basically a sham anyway? I'll give it to you.

KNOX: I hate the giant cattle call debates. I don't know what voters get out of them. I realize that some candidates who may have money, but not a lot of name recognition like them because they can practice that one zinger that they can deliver against the front runner.

Julie made a really important point about Hillary Clinton about this process is people would be like if they got elected president. And I really don't think that our current model of debates serves us well -- primary debates serve us well.

MURRAY: And by the way, Rick Santorum, who has been very critical of the Fox News plan tells "National Journal," if you're a United States senator, if you're governor, if you're a woman who ran a Fortune 500 company and you are running a legitimate campaign for president, you should have the right to be on stage with everybody else.

I have the feeling that this is not going to be the last that we hear about jockeying to get on those debate stages. Back to you, Michaela.

PEREIRA: It kind of reminds me, have you ever been to one of those weddings where there are ten bridesmaids and ten groomsmen always seem like a lot to look at. We're looking forward to it. It will be a robust series of debates.

MURRAY: It's going to be fun.

PEREIRA: Sara, have a great weekend, OK. Be sure to tune in on this weekend to watch John King and his "INSIDE POLITICS" panel. They'll break down the very best political news of the week every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Experts are saying it could take years to fix the problem with those Takata airbags being recalled in millions of cars. We're going to tell you what you need to know about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:46]

CAMEROTA: Time for CNN "Money Now," chief business correspondent, Christine Romans is in our money center. How is it looking, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, we are watching that exploding air bag problem, which led to 34 million recalled vehicles. We could tell you it could take up to five years to fix all of those airbags.

The main issue is making all of the replacement airbags plus finding all the owners and getting them to take their cars to the dealerships. Takata, the company that made the quality airbags, manufactured just 4 million replacements so far, about 30 million to go.

Memorial Day weekend is here and so are some big sales, folks, but what are the real deals this holiday weekend. Retail_Me_Not gave us the "What to Buy" list, the best deals this year, mattresses, patio furniture, and grills.

Here are the sales to avoid. Retail_Me_Not says wait to buy electronics and tools, the best deals for those will be around Father's Day, and hold off on buying swimwear and video games, you'll get better prices on those toward the end of the summer.

Now for today's "NEW DAY, New View," a new study finds high protein snacks have a lot of benefits for teenagers. Researchers at the University of Missouri say midafternoon snacks that are high in soy protein can reduce appetites, delay subsequent eating and make teens less likely to eat unhealthy snacks in the evening.

The study also shows that brain functions were improved and tension and anxiety were reduced. Adults also benefit from high-protein snacks, but in this study, researchers focused on teens due to the lack of research in that particular age group.

One of the favorite snacks of the study was a chocolate, caramel pudding, but researchers added in 26 grams of soy protein. The study was published this month in the "Journal of Nutrition" and those studies make me hungry.

PEREIRA: Yes, pudding. Sign up. Before that you told us not to buy bathing suits, so the pudding kind of all works together.

ROMANS: Kind of works together, video games and pudding. PEREIRA: All right, thanks so much, Christine. Well, the manhunt is over, the suspect wanted in that horrifying murder of a Washington, D.C. family and their housekeeper, he has been caught. We have the very latest on his arrest and the investigation ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:58:57]

CAMEROTA: The man suspected in the murders of four people at that upscale home in Washington, D.C. was captured overnight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we were able to safely pin the vehicle and place him under arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have the wrong guy. I know him to be a kind, nonaggressive person.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: California oil spill is worse than first thought.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seven thousand seven hundred and seventy gallons of an oily water mixture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We deeply regret what has happened.

COOPER: The group of courageous Syrians, who risk their lives every day to try and save their fellow citizens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have all chosen to risk their lives to save others and that makes every single one of them a hero.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, May 22nd, 8:00 in the east. Chris is off this morning. We have breaking news to tell you about because the suspect in the murders of the four people in an upscale home in Washington, D.C. is waking up behind bars this morning. Police capturing Daron Wint after a week-long manhunt stretching from Washington, D.C. and New York City, and back again.

[08:00:03] PEREIRA: U.S. Marshals nab that suspect, leaving a D.C. area hotel with five alleged accomplices. And now we are hearing from the victims' family for the first time. Our coverage begins this morning with CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns, such a difficult time for these families.