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New Day

6 Dead in Texas, Oklahoma Flooding; Iraqis Launch Operation to Reclaim Anbar Province; War of Words over ISIS Fight; Baltimore Reeling from Deadly Weekend. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 26, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: ...including three children trapped in a rental cabin in southeast Oklahoma.

[07:00:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water came up quicker than expected. Road washed out, and we couldn't pass by it.

GRAY: In Wimberley, Texas, around a dozen people are still missing, including two families with children.

JULIE SHIELDS, SISTER MISSING: When she wasn't there, I knew something was very, very wrong.

GRAY: Julie Shields recalls the last phone call she received from her sister, Laura McComb.

SHIELDS: "Call Mom and Dad. I love you. And pray."

GRAY: Along with her husband and two children inside, McComb's vacation home was swept away by the flood waters. Her husband, found 12 miles away, says he tried desperately to save his family, but the cabin split in two.

SHIELDS: She is with her babies, and she will be with her babies always in heaven. And we know that as a family.

GRAY: The death toll in both southern states continues to rise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was at prom with her date. And laughing, dancing next to her.

GRAY: Eighteen-year-old Alyssa Ramirez was on her way back from prom just south of San Antonio, her car stalling out in high waters just a couple miles away from her home.

She called 911 and her father, but it was too late.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were unable to find her until this morning when -- when crews were out there. She has her place in heaven, and they'll meet her again soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRAY: The stories coming out of this area are unimaginable. The river has crested. It did on Sunday. So we should be improving. No rain in the forecast today and tomorrow. We could see a few isolated showers, but nothing, the widespread rain like we saw.

All of this, though, flowing downstream. Bad news for Houston. The water filling up the rivers there. And in addition, 8 to 9 inches of rain the past 24 hours. We're seeing major flooding in the Houston area. The rain continuing there. It's also pushing into south Louisiana. So flood watches and warnings still in effect. Those rivers still running high across a lot of southeast Texas.

But, Chris, the cleanup here will continue for days, weeks. The search still continues for those 12 missing as families try to figure out what to do next.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jennifer, we do understand that reports for help, requests for help are on the way up as you're heading down into these major metropolis areas. So let's bring on Rick Flanagan, the emergency management coordinator for Houston, Texas.

And we were just hearing, sir, that the need is great, and it's heading your way. What is the latest?

RICK FLANAGAN, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR (VIA PHONE): Well, right now I can honestly tell you overnight we got hammered. It was a tremendous amount of rainfall. We had high waters that were inundated in our streets. We had cars that were stranded, mobility was stopped, power went out, signal lights didn't work. It was just a mess.

CUOMO: There is no way to prepare for this, obviously. Do you have the resources that you need? What is the biggest urgency right now you're dealing with?

FLANAGAN: Well, the biggest urgency right now is to get back to our new normal. We can't supply the normal level of service. We do have the resources, but right now the call volume and requests are so high law enforcement and police, they have calls that are backed up.

So we're trying to make sure we can get units responding. We've reorganized the response profile so we're not sending the same amount of emergency units on some events, because there are so many that we have to respond to.

But we want to make sure and reassure the public, hey, we're going to get out here and make sure that we can assist and help you out. One thing we want to say to everyone if you don't have to be outside, please, please stay at home.

CUOMO: And what are you finding in terms of the ease of rescue in these situations? Obviously, you can't move around very well. You can't send out the same number of reinforcements that you usually would. But are people able to be extracted from these situations? What's your success rate?

FLANAGAN: There's a management process to it. It slows things down quite a bit. We want to safely get them out, get them assessed. Some of them have to be treated at the hospital. In some of the residences we're rescuing, we have to move them to shelters. Make sure that they can provide -- so it's just an ongoing cycle.

The big bad part of course right now is that we're getting into the morning traffic. So that's why we want to have the forecast out. If you don't have to be out, please don't.

We're all working with ISD, so they've closed for today. That helps to keep some of the traffic flow out of the way. A lot of cars there have been submerged. We have to get those off the roadways, get the roadways opened back up. Signal lights are not working. We've lost power. It's a major task.

CUOMO: You know, looking at the pictures, there just seems to be so many frozen moments where people were obviously caught unaware of what they were getting into, and that's why you're cautioning people to stay home. And you're going to do the best that you can to get there.

We know the governor has declared a state of emergency. We'll stay in touch with you, so you can let us know what the needs are for people as they're being rescued; and we'll spread the word.

Thank you very much for joining us. We'll let you get back to the very important tasks ahead.

FLANAGAN: God bless.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

[07:05:03] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. And more breaking news this morning. A major operation now under way in Iraq as forces look to take back territory under the control of ISIS. Iraqi forces surrounding key areas in Anbar province, including Ramadi.

CNN has complete coverage, starting with senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. He's live for us in Baghdad. What's happening there, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, we're at the station now, trying to see these announcements by a number of Iraqi officials translates into hard action on the ground.

First of all, we really heard the major announcement to this from the Shia militia backed by Iran, who gave a press conference saying they will be moving into Anbar to push ISIS out but also going through a supply route north of Anbar, which ISIS use there, as well.

That was subsequently backed up by statements on state television read out by the prime minister and defense ministry, saying that the Iraqi military and police, and potentially, also we're hearing now, as well, maybe hundreds of Sunni tribesmen could also be involved in this fighting, too.

Now, the exact makeup of these forces is so key because of the sectarian divide in Iraq, the Sunni-Shia tensions that have always been here. Fortunately, now I think many observers have seen that the name of the this operation that the Shia militia announced is, in fact, calling 00 called "Answering the Call of Hussein." That's very redolent of Shia culture, Hussein was the son of Ali, the founder of Shiism. Many are wondering perhaps the initial signals of this aren't particularly about embracing Iraqi nationalism.

But we have to see if this violence actually translates -- this announcement translates into progress on the ground. We are hearing from those Shia militia at this stage they don't think they need coalition assistance. They might be able to do it on their own. A tough fight ahead though, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly there will be. All right, Nick, thank you.

This operation launching just as the U.S. and Iraq get into a war of words over ISIS, following harsh comments about the Iraqis from the defense secretary made exclusively to CNN. Want to turn to senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Is this new operation Iraq's response to Carter's comments, do you think?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't know about that, Michaela, but the White House is certainly doing some fence mending with the Iraqis after Defense Secretary Ash Carter questioned their will to fight in the battle against ISIS within hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi responded to Carter's response by saying it was basically flat wrong about their will to fight. Vice President Joe Biden called the Iraqi leader to praise the bravery of his country's forces.

Here's that comment from Carter to my CNN colleague Barbara Starr that kicked off this controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And of course, Carter made that comment after the Iraqi military withdrew from Ramadi, turning over another key territory to ISIS. The Obama administration now claims Carter was only talking about that one battle and was not issuing a sweeping indictment of their will to fight.

Here's how one senior administration official is putting it and put it up on screen for you. It says the Iraqis have suffered setbacks before and were able to retake territory from ISIL. The United States will continue to support these efforts and do all we can to help the brave Iraqi forces, including the tribes of Anbar, to secure this province from ISIL terrorists.

But these comments from the administration all but previewed this operation that is getting under way. But, Alisyn, certainly it seems defense secretary Carter he was saying what people were thinking here in Washington, but it is very apparent now that these sides need each other. They're going to have to put this war of words aside for the moment.

CAMEROTA: Right. In Washington sometimes people don't always say publicly what they're thinking.

Meanwhile, we do have some more breaking news to tell you about. CNN learning that a person of interest is now in custody in connection with the murder of a New Mexico police officer. Officials in the town of Rio Rancho say the officer, a four-year veteran, was gunned down while on duty last night. The officer has not yet been publicly identified, but the department says he was an Air Force veteran.

A bloody Memorial Day weekend in Baltimore. Police report 30 people shot, seven fatalities. The murder rate this month is at its highest level in 15 years.

Let's bring in CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. She's live from Baltimore. We're seeing not just an uptick in crime, but you're seeing arrests down. Now, that's a very troubling combination.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is, Chris. And when you think about this Baltimore police tell us just overnight there were two more shootings, a guy who his head grazed by a bullet. You had a 9-year-old boy who was shot in the leg. This is just devastating for the Baltimore community.

And you mentioned those statistics of 30 people who were shot over three-day period, the holiday weekend. Of those seven who died, another very alarming statistic. And that is just if you look at the month of May, 35 homicides in the month of May. That brings to the total 108 people who have died, who have been killed in the city of Baltimore this year throughout the whole city.

[07:10:05] And you bring up this point, which is the number of arrests that are going down while these shootings are going up. A lot of people openly asking, Chris, in this community what is going on? Is it related to the death of Freddie Gray, who died after he was taken into police custody and the indictment of those six officers?

Some people are quietly within the police department saying this is about soft policing. This is about passive policing, because there's a very difficult situation with the community. And they feel like they are gun shy and do not have the back of the leadership -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. We're going to talk about this more coming up in our show. Suzanne, thank you so much for that.

The daughters of blues legend B.B. King claim he was poisoned to death by close aides. In separate affidavits the daughters say they were prevented from visiting their father in his final days. They were prevented by the entertainer's manager and personal assistant.

Well, police say there's no evidence to support their accusations, but they are taking their claim seriously. A lawyer for King's estate, though, calls the accusations ridiculous. Apparently, the preliminary autopsy results don't support those

claims. There is no active homicide investigation going on. But they're going to wait until the final autopsy, which we know takes time, could take up to eight weeks.

CAMEROTA: The last days of people's lives are so painful, especially when there's reaction.

PEREIRA: This is a big estate, a lot of money at play.

CUOMO: Family's desperate for answers.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: We'll have to see what happens with this one.

CAMEROTA: All right. Well, up next, more on that Iraqi military operation that's aimed at driving ISIS out of Anbar province. What role will the U.S. play? We'll hear from two military experts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:48] CAMEROTA: Back to our breaking news this morning. Iraq defense forces say they are launching a major operation to reclaim Anbar province from ISIS. This comes days after U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter exclusively told CNN that he had doubts about the Iraqis' will to fight.

Let's bring in Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, CNN military analyst and former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and 7th Army. And Michael Weiss, our CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Gentlemen, it's great to have you here this morning to try to help explain what we're seeing happen in Iraq. General, I want to start with you, because we had you just yesterday to talk about Ash Carter's comments about Iraqis lacking the will to fight. How do you explain what's happening this morning?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They had already planned an operation in Ramadi, Alisyn. I think this is just a quickening of the tempo associated with that operation.

But you're going to see a combined force of both Iraqi security forces, both army and police. You're going to see several elements of different Shia militias going out to Anbar province. And you're going to see some effects of Sunni tribesmen.

It's going to be somewhat of an uncoordinated action, which we've seen them have difficulty with in the past, but they're going to have a whole lot of mass. They will defeat ISIS. I will predict that today, given good odds for the Iraqis to win back the city.

CAMEROTA: General, so you think that they will get Ramadi back? You think -- you take this seriously enough what's happening on the ground there that you believe that they will in short order get Ramadi?

HERTLING: I said that last week, Alisyn. They can't let Ramadi stay in the hands of ISIS. They have to get it back. But it's not going to be pretty. This is going to be an ugly fight.

CAMEROTA: Michael, do you see it this way?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think they'll eventually get it back. But there's a lot of propaganda and public relations going into this campaign. Much of it, I think, is self-defeating. It's just been announced the operation is called "At Your Service, Hussein," which is a Shia war cry or rallying cry. To put this in context, this would be like going into Ramallah in the West Bank and shouting "Next year in Jerusalem" and hoping that the local population supports you.

They're going into the provincial capital of the Sunni heartland of Iraq. You know, many of the Sunnis living in Ramadi, they don't necessarily agree with the ISIS ideology, but they have allowed ISIS to come in because of their political grievances and their sense of disenfranchisement with the Iraqi government policies.

I fear that this will be, much like Tikrit, whoever Shia militia- driven efforts really spearheaded by the Revolutionary Guard force, Quds Force of Iraq, led by Qassem Soleimani, who has effectively been the ground commander of this campaign.

And the man who recently yesterday, I believe, had very strong words for the U.S. government, said that essentially, we suck. We haven't done anything to fight ISIS. And more than that, we're an accomplice. We have created ISIS. This is our devil that we've sort of brought into existence.

I take a very, very dim view of how this is going to go. I think there's going to be a lot of bloodshed and a lot of atrocities. Much of it will be hushed up, by the way. The Iraqi government will deny that anything like that has taken place. We've seen it before in other parts of Iraq, where they've come in and liberated these towns and cities.

CAMEROTA: General, what do you think of that take?

HERTLING: I don't take as dire view, as Michael does. I actually think some of that could happen.

I don't put the divide as strongly as many in the west do between the Shia and the Sunnis in this area. You've got to remember, too, some of the Sunni tribesmen and some of the Sunni provincial council from Anbar ask for the Shia militia to come in, because they know it was their saving grace in this case.

I just see that there's a potential for actually a combined effort here. But again, I do agree with Michael completely. This could be ugly. What might be interesting to watch is what happens after the fight. Are there atrocities committed? There were in some fights, like in Amerlie (ph). Tikrit was not as bad. There were some reports of some extrajudicial killings and some Shia atrocities, but not much.

So I think you're seeing maybe an understanding by the Iraqi government that you can combine these forces. Remember, these forces fight, and we don't often get this right in the west. They fight in priority for God, for tribes and then for country. If you can combine some of those things, and that's what I think Mr. Al Abadi's attempting to do, you might have some successful efforts.

[07:20:06] CAMEROTA: Michael, let me lead to you what the spokesperson for the popular mobilization unit, which is a Shia -- a Shia militia.

WEISS: A consortium of all militias.

CAMEROTA: A consortium of all militias. What he said about this fight, he said, "This is a continuation of the Tikrit operation. It is to cut the supply route from Baiji oil refinery in the north to Ramadi. After the call of the prime minister, we answered the call. Our forces are prepared and are surrounding Ramadi in three directions." Why didn't they do this last week?

WEISS: Well, actually, the popular mobilization units had wanted to go in much earlier. And prime minister -- there's a civil war taking place within -- kind of a soft civil war taking place within the Iraqi government.

You have the sovereign actors, the ISF, the Iraqi Security Forces. Prime Minister al-Abadi is considered to be a very moderate- minded guy, a nationalist more than a sectarian.

The difficulty is the PMUs do not see eye-to-eye with him. They have accused him of allowing Ramadi to fall to ISIS, because he didn't let them go in much, much sooner. The U.S. government has made it a priority to enforce command and control. They say that, if Prime Minister Abadi is in control of the PMUs, we can work with them, but there's a lot of skepticism in the Pentagon and in the White House that that is actually taking place. They fear that the Quds Force, Iran, technically a terrorist organization, according to our government, is really behind the PMUs.

CAMEROTA: So General, what I'm trying to figure out is, is this a reaction to all of the Washington talk and what Secretary Carter said? Is this a P.R. move? Or is this truly an impressive military move that we should be watching today?

HERTLING: Well, it's neither, Alisyn. I wouldn't -- it's not an impressive military move, for sure, because, again, I revert back to my earlier statement. This is going to be an ugly fight. It's just mass. It's just pouring a lot of people into Anbar province. I don't think it's a reaction to the words of Secretary Carter. They were planning to do this before. They just didn't have the momentum going.

But now they've seen a disaster in Ramadi. So they needed to move. And Ramadi has been -- the government in Anbar province has been screaming for help over the last month, and more saying they are about to fall. So I think it's a combination of all those things. And again,

it's also the prime minister trying to keep his country together and trying to as many politicians do console different parties and different actors to try and bring consensus. It's a tough road to hoe in Iraq.

CAMEROTA: All right. General Hertling, Michael Weiss, thanks so much for helping us try to figure it all out this morning.

WEISS: Sure.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. To politics now. They may be polling at 1 percent, but some Republican presidential hopefuls are making quite a huge impression in the early voting states. Should some of the top-tier candidates be concerned? We'll put that to John King, "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:26:41] PEREIRA: Violent storms and flooding in Texas and Oklahoma blamed for at least six deaths. Twelve people remain missing. The governor of Texas says the damage is absolutely devastating. He has declared a state of emergency in 37 counties. Schools in Houston closed this morning. Meanwhile, across the border in Mexico, the same severe storm system spawning a tornado that killed 13 people, destroying some 100 homes.

Also breaking this morning, forces in Iraq making a major move to reclaim Anbar province and their pride. The Iraqis have a key city of Ramadi, which they recently lost to ISIS surrounded on three sides, we're told. They're also trying to reclaim an oil refinery in Baiji. This operation comes as the U.S. and Iraq are engaged in this nasty war of words over the ISIS fight. Defense Secretary Ash Carter accusing the Iraqis of lacking the will to fight in an exclusive interview with CNN.

CAMEROTA: The death toll from a dangerous heat wave in India now reaching a staggering 766 people. The severe heat as high as 118 degrees felt in two southern Indian states and it's been felt the last few days with little relief forecast for the next week. That death toll is higher than expected.

PEREIRA: Dramatic video for you of a spectacular tanker truck explosion on Interstate 75 in Detroit. The truck was carrying 9,000 gallons of fuel. It overturned Sunday. This is a view from a passing car. The driver of that car told police -- or the driver of the truck told police that his wheels locked up, causing his tanker to flip. Officials say some fuel seeped into the sewer system, but it did not contaminate Detroit's water supply. My goodness, look at that.

CUOMO: How does the fuel go in but not have any impact either? Big question, how do they measure?

CUOMO: All right. Let's get to Inside Politics on NEW DAY with Mr. John King. How are you doing, my friend?

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Great on this Tuesday morning. How are you guys doing? We're going to dive right back into the big controversy. A little bad cop, good cop, as I call it.

With me to go "INSIDE POLITICS" this morning and share their reporting and insights, Lisa Lehrer of the Associated Press; Ted O'Keeffe of "The Washington Post." Bad cop, good cop, Joe Biden and Ash Carter, the vice president and the defense secretary.

Here's what the vice president said yesterday. He called the Iraqi prime minister, and the White House put out a read that the vice president recognize the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces over the past 18 months in Ramadi and elsewhere. The vice president pledged full U.S. support in these and other Iraqi efforts to liberate territory from ISIL. That was the good cop, and this is part of Biden's portfolio, which you both well know. And it was a reaction to this secretary of defense, Ash Carter, exclusive conversation with CNN's Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. Now, we can give them training. We can give them equipment. We obviously can't give them the will to fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the vice president was being diplomatic here, because of the Iraqis, who are upset. But Ash Carter is not known as a rogue. He's not saying this on his own. And he's the guy who actually sees all that intel coming in of what actually happened on the ground. So what's happening here?

LISA LEHRER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, I think certainly -- Ash Carter is certainly saying what a lot of people in Washington believe. But I mean, this is a difficult situation. The administration does not want troops on the ground. They're limited in the airstrikes they can do, because they feel that there are too many civilians killed that will sort of give ISIS a propaganda coup. So the politics is really...