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New Day

Search for Escaped Killers Shifts; Charleston Unites in Healing; Should Confederate Flag Be Removed?; Suicide Bombers Attack Afghan President. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard Matt and David Sweat now on the U.S. Marshals' most wanted list.

[05:58:43] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just hours ago, there was a possible new sighting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will continue to search this area until all leads have been exhausted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They told us, "Stay home and lock your doors and windows."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A manifesto captures the 21-year-old's troubling words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The focus here in Charleston remains those nine lives who were lost.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was as if they touched on the tragedy, but did not dwell on the tragedy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take it down! Take it down!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take it down! Take it down!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take it down! Take it down!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That symbol has to come down. That symbol must be removed from our state capitol.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're proud of being who we are and where we're from.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, June 22, 6 a.m. in the east. We do have breaking news. A potential sighting for the two escaped convicted killers in New York. The map showing the search range, and it was like 300 miles now from the prison up to one border in Vermont, the other one edging Pennsylvania. But it is all about this new tip.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So for more than two weeks, the fugitives have eluded police, but investigators may be closing in this morning. So we begin with CNN's Sara Ganim. She's at the site of the latest surge of police activity. That's in Owl's Head, New York.

What's happening there, Sara?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. Overnight, police setting up a perimeter here, moving in their search teams to an area about 32 miles due west of where the prison facility is.

You can see from the vehicle check behind me, this road actually runs directly into the town of Dannemora. And that's where the prison facility is. We saw a flurry of police activity here last night, also hearing that they were also searching in a town called Standish, which is also along this road in between here and the prison. Last night, we saw a lot more activity: about 100 police vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, tactical teams, as well.

Now things have seemed to die down. But we do know that they were focused -- they are certainly focused on the wooded areas. This is a ski resort town. This is in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. So there are a lot of hiking trails, biking trails. Unoccupied homes, vacation homes. And we know that from the start, those are the places the police were focused on searching for these two escaped inmates.

Now, as the search continues here and elsewhere, we also know the investigation is continuing. Over the weekend, a 57-year-old corrections officer placed on administrative, paid leave from the prison. His attorney telling us he's cooperating. He was one of the guards on the block where Richard Matt and David Sweat were housed, who had daily contact with the two men, also knew and had daily contact with Joyce Mitchell. And we know that part of the focus on him was because he received one of the paintings that Richard Matt was making behind bars. We already know that Richard Matt gave one of his paintings to Joyce Mitchell, the prison seamstress who has now been charged with helping those two inmates escape.

But this man's lawyer, telling us that 100 percent. He did not know about this escape before it happened and feels manipulated by these two men. Take a listen to what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW BROCKWAY, REPRESENTS GENE PALMER: I can 100 percent confirm that he did not know that they were planning to break out of the prison. These two people are psychopaths. They are master manipulators. They're obviously in prison for life, so they have nothing but time to develop schemes to take advantage of innocent people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM: Now over the weekend, police did search his home, and they also interviewed him at length. But his attorney telling us he was on vacation the night of the escape. He wasn't even working at the prison -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Sara Ganim, thank you so much for all those developments. Investigators receiving a slew of tips of the possible whereabouts of Matt and Sweat, including a credible sighting over the weekend around the town of Friendship, New York. That's near the Pennsylvania border.

CNN's Alexandra Field is there with more. Tell us about this sighting.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Police are making it clear that every good lead is worth a good look. So in the fervor to find Richard Matt and David Sweat, police redirected their resources to an area some 300 miles southwest of the prison that they broke out of.

Allegheny County becoming the focus of the search over the weekend. Some 300 law enforcement officers descending on the area at the New York/Pennsylvania area, scouring the woods, looking at railroad tracks, setting up roadblocks, even entering homes. All of this is based on the tip that they call credible though unconfirmed. It came from a woman in Friendship, New York, who believed that she had spotted both of the men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see a man wearing a dark blue hoody. He has a reddish brown, scruffy beard and is coming up the railroad tracks. There was another person with dark hair, buzz cut, bigger build. My first instinct was fugitives that are on the run. My heart kind of dropped to my toes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: After two days of searching through Allegheny County, police say they have concluded their search in this county. However, they are leaving extra patrols in place as a precaution. Chris, as we see this search once again, re-shift, focus again to the north. We understand that extra resources are being brought in, yet again. Vermont's tactical team now saying that they are being brought in to support New York state police in the search -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alexandra. Thank you very much.

We also want to tell you this morning that thousands of people in Charleston, South Carolina came together to remember nine souls, the victims who were at a Bible study standing contrast to the hate-filled 21-year-old who hunted them.

The unsatisfying search for why he did this finding its end at a website registered in his name with a manifesto explaining everything that's wrong with him. Let's get right to CNN's Alina Machado, live in Charleston -- Alina.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, the focus here, as you mentioned, in Charleston all weekend has been on remembrance and healing, even as that hateful manifesto surfaced.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO (voice-over): Lone-wolf mass murderer Dylann Roof behind bars this morning, awaiting his bail hearing for murder charges, set for October.

[06:05:10] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your age?

DYLANN ROOF, MASS MURDER SUSPECT: Twenty-one.

MACHADO: This, as investigators are looking into a 2,000-word racist manifesto on a website registered to the suspect, written before Roof killed nine people during a Bible study inside Charleston, South Carolina's historic Emanuel AME Church, the author writing he became fixated on the idea of, quote, "black on white crime" after Trayvon Martin's death. His online search led him to the online propaganda of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

There, he found, quote, "pages upon pages of these brutal black on white murders." It's not clear what incidents he was referring to.

The manifesto continues, quote, "Someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world. And I guess that has to be me."

MAYOR JOE RILEY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: We've got to use this heartbreak in the most positive way, how we can be better, how we can do more.

MACHADO: In Charleston, Sunday, marchers joined hands to form a unity chain in memory of the nine victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only love can drive out hate.

MACHADO: On Sunday morning, church bells rang throughout the historic city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): You can lean on me.

MACHADO: Inside the Emanuel AME Church, the theme was healing, not hate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, as a group of people, can come together and pray and work out things that needs to be worked out to make our community and our state a better place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO: Funeral services for all nine victims are expected to take place at some point this week. Meanwhile, it's worth noting the Council of Conservative Citizens condemned the killings, but still stands by its inflammatory content on its website -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Powerful images coming out of Charleston over the weekend. Thank you for that, Alina. Now, in the wake of the Charleston church massacre, there is a strong

debate raging as to why the Confederate flag is still flying at South Carolina's capitol. Is it a symbol of heritage or of hate? CNN's Ana Cabrera is following that part of the story for us live in Columbia, South Carolina.

Good morning to you.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

You can see the Confederate flag flying right over my shoulder here next to the Confederate war memorial in front of the capitol building. It was moved here back in 2000 after heated debate when the flag that was flying over the capitol dome, a much larger flag, was brought down.

But now, after what happened in the Charleston church shootings and new pictures emerging with the suspect, Dylann Roof, holding a Confederate flag in one hand and a gun in the other, the calls to get rid of the flag altogether are growing much louder.

There was a rally here over the weekend. Some 1,500 people showed up protesting the flag, saying it represents slavery and segregation and promotes racism and hatred.

And now the 2016 presidential candidates are feeling some pressure to take a stance on this issue. Democrats like Hillary Clinton have largely said the flag should go, while Republicans have been a little bit more dodgy in their answers to questions. Jeb Bush had said he believes the flag belongs in a museum, while other candidates have said, "We don't need to take a stance on this issue, because it's all about the states."

So I want you to see what some of the candidates said on the Sunday shows yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think the opinion of people here in South Carolina, having them work through this difficulty is much more important.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your opinion?

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For those of us running for president, everyone is being baited with this question, as if somehow that has anything to do whatsoever with running for president. And my position is it most certainly does not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Bottom line: for the flag to be removed, it would take an act of the state legislature, which is not in session right now, and it would require the vote of two-thirds' majority. The governor calling for patience on the issue, saying right now, the state needs time to heal -- Chris. CUOMO: That's right. They wrote it in as a supermajority, as needed to deal with this flag.

So, let's bring in Republican state representative from South Carolina, Doug Brannon. He actually represents a conservative district, and he is now proposing legislation to remove the Confederate flag from capitol grounds.

And Representative, what is interesting is that not only are you proposing it now, but you are saying you should be ashamed for not having proposed it sooner. Explain.

REP. DOUG BRANNON (R), SOUTH CAROLINA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I can't, Chris. All I can do is apologize. I should have done it -- it shouldn't have taken this to bring that flag down.

CUOMO: What is the revelation? What moved you, just the event itself? What wound up making it such a necessary move?

Well, obviously, the event, the death of my friend and his eight parishioners. It's tragic. And it shouldn't have taken that and, again, I apologize.

[06:10:02] CUOMO: I know that Reverend Pinckney was a friend of yours, and I'm sorry for your loss. But you have opposition on your hands here. There are large groups of your state that believe that this flag represents who they are. What do you make of that statement?

BRANNON: I think that's just a form of denial. The flag needs to come down. And any heritage argument, while it's going to be a strong argument, and I'm aware of the political divisiveness of this nature, I'm ready for the -- I'm ready for the debate. And I'm ready for the fight to bring the flag down.

CUOMO: What do you see as the strength of the argument? We know where the flag comes from. We know when it was reintroduced, which I think is very instructive and often ignored, which was in the late '40s, as you started to see more support of civil rights. That's when the flag came back. Right? That was its reintroduction as the state's symbol, very telling.

What do you see as the strength of the argument to keep it?

BRANNON: I don't have an answer to that question, Chris. I mean, I find it hard to rationalize irrational thought. We're talking about a flag that hangs on state ground, land owned by the people of this state and, in my opinion, if even one South Carolinian finds it to be offensive, it shouldn't be on state land. It should not be on land where progress is supposed to take place but yet, with that symbol, we're actually backing up.

CUOMO: "It's not just a symbol of hate. It's actually a symbol of pride in one's hatred." You put it very well there, representing the objection to this flag. You seem to be somewhat of a minority in your party right now. Is that an accurate statement? BRANNON: Well, I hope not, but I would say yes, but I hope not. I

have had communication with many fellow Republican members of the legislature. And so, I'm certainly hopeful that I'm not a distinct minority and that we can come up with the supermajority vote and do the right thing for the state of South Carolina.

CUOMO: Well, if you look at the current situation, the flag is flying, right? That's one indication. It was a compromised vote in 2000. Your party was heavily on the side of keeping the flag. You've got people in the state, white ones, at about 70/30 to keep the flag. You have the presidential candidates who are dancing around it like it was a hot coal. They don't want to answer this question.

John McCain looks back on his decision to skirt this question as one of the worst in his political career. What do you make of this reluctance to take this on what seems so obvious to you now?

BRANNON: From the perspective of a presidential candidate, I understand that. I mean...

CUOMO: Why?

BRANNON: You know, there's 49 other states that they've got to win. I understand that. I do not understand it from the position of an elected official in the state of South Carolina. This is our issue. It's now. The time to address it is now.

The governor said the other day, we need to have a conversation. No, we don't need to have a conversation; we need to take action. We need to take action now.

CUOMO: I get that it's a state move. It's, you know, something that you would have to do in there in South Carolina proper. But how is it not relevant, as Mike Huckabee said, to running for president? This is what started the Civil War, popular sovereignty versus Abraham Lincoln saying that it's about moral responsibility and that there are certain things that are bigger than just a popular vote. How is this not relevant to a leader decision?

BRANNON: I don't have a good answer for that. I'm an elected official in South Carolina. If I were running for president, I'd like to tell you that I would have a position and I would take a position, but I can't answer for the 20 or 30 people who are running for president right now.

CUOMO: But you're going to have to deal with it if you want to win this proposition when it comes up. Arguments will be made. And it's always good to understand the resistance. We know this is coming from a good place, and a place of pain. We're sorry for your loss, Representative. And we will follow this and your efforts very closely. And again, we're sorry that you had to come to it this way.

BRANNON: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. You take care. So, what do you think? The Confederate flag. Take a look at the poll

numbers before you jump to what you think is an obvious conclusion here. There's a lot of momentum -- or not momentum, but there's a lot of feeling from why the flag's there in the first place. Please tweet us using the hashtag #NewDay, or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay -- Alisyn.

[06:15:01] CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Well, we do have some breaking news overnight in Afghanistan. The Taliban claiming responsibility for a series of suicide bombings at the parliament building in Kabul, the explosions leading to a fierce gunfight. And CNN's Nic Robertson is following all of the developments for us live from London.

What do we know this morning, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, it appears that the Taliban have targeted the Afghan parliament at a time when the lawmakers were voting on the new defense minister, a vote of confidence in the defense minister. This will be a prime target for Taliban, because it shows that they're on the streets; it shows that they're capable of fighting, even as the parliamentarians are voting for the defense chief, they're there attacking the building.

But what happened was the Taliban tried to get a suicide bomber in a car, in a vehicle packed with explosives into that building to kind of break the way to get into that building. It wasn't possible. The car exploded. The parliament itself filled with smoke. The lawmakers were evacuated. The six Taliban gunmen, the suicide attackers who were accompanying that suicide vehicle. They tried to breach the security around the parliament. They weren't able to do that. They took control of another building.

Thirty-one civilians in the area were injured. We're told rocket- propelled grenade fire, AK-47 fire that was heard in the area. But what we now know from Afghan security officials is that all six of those attackers are dead. The Taliban typically attacking soft targets. They're not able to get into the parliament, it seems, because of the tight security around there -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Concerning nonetheless. All right, Nic. Thank you for that.

All right. There are flight delays and then there are flight delays, folks. A 21-hour ordeal for passengers on a United Airlines flight from Chicago. Apparently, the pilot had to land in Belfast because of an unruly passenger. Now, by the time the passengers were taken off the plane, the flight crew had reached their maximum flight time. So while folks waited for a new crew, well, they slept on the airport floor, even the baggage conveyor belt. United is offering those passengers a refund.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PEREIRA: Yes.

(CROSSTALK) PEREIRA: It is. It is. And you try to be as patient as you can be, but it's tough after, what, 21 hours. Bless their hearts.

CUOMO: And then you get, like, the voucher.

PEREIRA: Yes, I know. For lunch.

CAMEROTA: Exactly. From the vending machine.

Cuomo: At least it's over now.

PEREIRA: Yes. Exactly.

CUOMO: All right. So there's some critical rulings, one on same-sex marriage, and the other on Obamacare, expected to come down from the Supreme Court anytime, literally. So the big questions: Do gay couples have the constitutional right to marry, and must states recognize same-sex marriages from other states? The answer to that one may not just shake the law but also culture.

The high court is also debating which states are eligible for Obamacare subsidies. For all the negative politics surrounding the ACA, remember, over 6 million low- and middle-income American families could lose their health coverage based on this decision.

CAMEROTA: So all eyes on the schedule of the Supreme Court. Are we expecting it this week?

CUOMO: It very well could come.

CAMEROTA: Those are -- you know.

CUOMO: It sounds like a really wishy-washy answer. But they don't have a -- they don't have a deadline. They're coming toward the end here now. They have to get these decisions out.

CAMEROTA: Right. I mean, ground-breaking decisions.

PEREIRA: Right. And it's important for them to take time to mull them over. I get that. So I don't mind them taking their time.

CUOMO: They've taken it.

PEREIRA: They have. They have.

CAMEROTA: All right. Well, the killers who broke out of a New York state prison may have had help -- more help, even, on the inside from a corrections officer, and that officer is now on leave. So ahead, we will speak with a man who works in that prison. He knows that officer in question. It's an interview you do not want to miss. Stick around.

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[06:22:32] PEREIRA: As the search for the missing fugitives shifts yet again, the investigation into how they escaped from prison is taking on a new dimension.

On Friday, officials announced that a corrections officer has been placed on paid administrative leave. Our next guest worked at the Clinton Correctional Facility for more than 20 years, and he knows the accused officer.

Joining us now is former Sergeant Jeff Dumas, who just retired last year. Welcome to retirement. Now you're an expert on all things correctional facility. Jeff, you know of this Gene Palmer. He was an inmate escort. He has not been charged, said to be cooperating. What do you know about this guy? And do you -- what does your gut tell you? Do you think he's involved? Do you think he was complicit?

SGT. JEFF DUMAS, RETIRED FROM CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY: I personally do not believe that. I worked with him as an officer, and then he was an officer underneath me when I was a sergeant. Very good officer. He did what he had to do. He did his job very well. I don't believe that he actually intentionally helped these guys.

My gut feeling is that somehow they may have conned him or taken a shortcut somewhere along the way in procedures during an escort, and that would be about it. I don't believe that Gene Palmer intentionally helped these guys get out of that facility.

PEREIRA: Because we know that they were able to manipulate Joyce Mitchell. So you think manipulation could -- may not be out of the question?

DUMAS: Well, I don't want -- I don't want to say that they manipulated him personally. There's several hundred inmates in that industrial (ph) building every single day for over eight hours. And Gene and one other officer are the only two escorts that bring guys back and forth. So at any given time, he's probably taking 12 or -- 12 -- at least 12 guys a day back and forth from the building to the blocks.

So if, during the course of that, they were let out of the tailor shop. Maybe they told the instructor that, "Hey, I don't feel good. I want to go back to my cell and lay down the rest of the day." That's fine, and Gene would take them back.

PEREIRA: OK.

DUMAS: Maybe at that point in time, that happened and they moved something that she brought in for them. I don't think he did it intentionally.

PEREIRA: You talk about the relationship between inmates and the guards. Obviously, these guys are in there for a long time. You work there for a long time. Some kind of relationship that develops. I don't know that it would be fair to call it a friendship. Do friendships actually form?

[06:25:05] DUMAS: No. There's no friendship there. It's a working relationship. There's respect given and respect taken.

PEREIRA: OK.

DUMAS: That's the way it is. But, there is no -- there's no friendship. You have a working relationship with these guys. They have to do what the facility wants them to do throughout the day, an then -- so, our officers will come in. We do our eight hours, and we go home. That's all it is. It's just a job; it's not a friendship.

PEREIRA: OK. "The New York Times" has done an investigation, and they're shining a light on what they say are a series of lapses and breakdowns in security that contributed to this escape.

Among some of the issues, and I want -- because you've been inside; you know this facility well.

DUMAS: Yes.

PEREIRA: They point to bed checks. The nightly bed checks were not done, rarely done properly. They talk about the catwalks and those intricate set of tunnels. They were no longer inspected regularly. They talk about the fact there were no guards inside these 35-foot- tall guard towers and that there were no cameras on the cell blocks.

You nod sort of knowingly. Is that what you know to be true? And if so, did policy change? Did those things exist prior in this maximum- security facility?

DUMA: Yes. Everything that you stated is pretty -- is true. And what has happened over the years is that the state wants the facility to run with less. So they want -- they want you to do more with less officers. And it's finally come back to bite them.

Those security features that we could have had have all been taken away by Albany. That's how they've run the whole state. So -- and it's not just Clinton. Years ago, 2003, when we had the escape of Morgan and Vail out of Elmira. And I was there for a couple days, tracking those guys in the woods with the rest of the guys.

When that happened, they had money -- the state had money allocated for the big fence with the razor wire and all that around the facility, but the state chose to use the money elsewhere. As soon as Morgan and Vail escaped, up goes the fence. Everything is done in hindsight.

PEREIRA: Well, this certainly has brought -- everything has -- it's interesting to see how much this has put some of those lapses into a very fine focus right now.

Jeff Dumas, we appreciate you coming on and giving us your expertise and insight into what's going on there at Clinton. Thanks so much for your help today.

DUMAS: Thank you, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela. Well, inside the mind of a suspected killer, authorities linking Dylan Roof to a racist online manifesto days after he allegedly went into the church and shot nine people to death. There are very disturbing photos and words. We will show you a couple of them to give you a window into what he was thinking before this.

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