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Officials Hope Sweat Can Help Prison Break Investigation; One Dead, Hundreds Injured in Taiwan Explosion; Supreme Court Plaintiff on his Fight for Equality

Aired June 29, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:36] GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: The nightmare is finally over. It took 22 days, but we can now confirm, as of two days ago, as you know, Mr. Matt is deceased and the other escapee, Mr. Sweat, is in custody.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the manhunt finally over. Fugitive David Sweat back in police custody. He was shot by police Sunday just miles from the Canadian border, two days after fellow escapee Richard Matt was shot and killed. Sweat is alive, but in critical condition this morning.

So let's bring in Terry Turchie. He's a former FBI counterterrorism agent. He led the federal task force that captured the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph.

Terry, great to see you this morning.

TERRY TURCHIE, FORMER FBI COUNTERTERRORISM AGENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So this took longer than anyone expected to get these guys, 22 days. Did the final capture of David Sweat play out as you've imagined it would in your head?

TURCHIE: I think it did. In fact, it was very similar in some ways to the capture, eventually, of Eric Rudolph, five years after he was on the run. You have a police officer, in this case, Sergeant Cook, showing up there in Constable and seeing someone and seeing something suspicious. And suddenly ends up in pursuit and all of this ends in a couple shots of his pistol.

And with Eric Rudolph, it was a rookie police officer, Jeff Postell, who showed up at a trash dumpster. And that was the end of Rudolph's five-year run.

CAMEROTA: There are other similarities as well. In terms of how they were able to elude capture and stay alive for these 22 days. What do we know about their life on the run now? TURCHIE: Well, we know a lot. And we are learning more each day. And, hopefully, we'll learn more from him. But we learned that they have to break into cabins. They have to steal food. They are not maybe as much of a survivalist, in the case of Rudolph, as we might have thought.

They need to make sure that they are keeping dry and not drinking bad water. And all the things that are the creature comforts that you have when you are in your house or your place that you don't have when you head into the wilderness. And they find that out the hard way and end up with a lot of problems.

CAMEROTA: As we said, this fugitive this morning is in critical condition. And many investigators need him to stay alive because he can connect the dots for them in terms of exactly how they broke out, who helped them.

I mean, one theory is that the Department of Corrections may not want him to stay alive because he will, you know, hypothetically, reveal to them that there was corruption and that people on the inside were helping him.

TURCHIE: Well, we do hope that we get a chance to talk to him. And I know that they are putting as much of a time and strategy into the planning of the interview as they did in finding him.

And I know that in Rudolph and in other cases similar to this, we actually hand pick people so that their personalities would commiserate with the people they're going to interview. And then put a lot of time into figuring out how and best and what environment to conduct that interview in.

CAMEROTA: Oh, that's interesting.

TURCHIE: So let's hope that --

CAMEROTA: I mean, that's interesting --

TURCHIE: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That they hand pick people who they think can elicit information from him because, frankly, what is his incentive to talk? He was in prison for life. He's going back to prison for life. Why would he cooperate with authorities?

TURCHIE: Well, that's a great question. And everyone is different. And I'm sure that's the question that they are trying to answer now. How best to leverage what they have? What he might want to negotiate? What they might want to negotiate, if anything, to get him to talk about that escape and how they did this.

Because as we talked about early on, the escape is a big part of this investigation as well. And now, it's comes full circle back to this. And there are more questions, of course, right now than answers.

CAMEROTA: If he doesn't talk, can investigators still figure out what happened so that they can make changes?

TURCHIE: They will work very hard to do that. First of all, we are going to learn about the run, about the fugitive aspect of this itself. And that's going to serve us well in the future.

But in addition to that, they are going to be interviewing many more people, even more than before probably, at the prison. And they will try and get people to talk now that the people there know, the inmates know. One of these guys is dead and one might be talking. So, maybe we'll have some luck that way if he won't talk to the investigators.

CAMEROTA: I mean, what's the answer here? Not let civilians work in prisons, screen them better, not let women work in prison? I mean, we have learned a few things from how -- of what went wrong here. But what do we take away from it?

[06:35:00] TURCHIE: Well, I think, one of the things we take away from it is we have people that man these institutions. And they were going to have problems. The best thing we can do is what we're talking about, try to identify what those problems are and try and resolve them. And try to hire the right people and have the right safeguards in place that -- this won't happen again. Although, we both know it will. But that's one of the lessons we will learn.

The other lesson we are going to be learning from this is, that we talked about before as well, is that there isn't anything comparable to the alliance between the public and independent law enforcement and the media. And that's how all this came together and that's how it all ended. And, fortunately, it ended without any other innocent people being killed.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. That is a powerful alliance. Terry Turchie, thanks so much. Great to rely on your expertise during these 22 days.

TURCHIE: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go back to Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Alisyn, there's news of just a horrible disaster at a water park in Taiwan. Witnesses calling it hell-ish. Nearly 500 people injured. Now the first fatality this morning. What went wrong? We have a live report for you, next.

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[06:40:00] CUOMO: They could not escape the long arm of the law. David Sweat, the second of two escaped prisoners in upstate New York, spotted by a lone sergeant on patrol, chased on foot, and finally shot. Now in critical condition this morning at a hospital in Albany. Investigators anxious to talk to him. Sweat's capture comes just two days after his partner, Richard Matt, was shot and killed by police.

CAMEROTA: Greece taking drastic measures to prevent its financial system from going under. Government officials confirming banks will be closed all week. There's also a withdrawal limit at ATMs. This action comes after the decision by European Central Bank not to extend emergency funding to Greece. The country could see a default as early as tomorrow and possibly get the boot from the Euro zone.

CUOMO: New developments this morning in Taiwan. The first death confirmed now following an explosion at a water park over the weekend. Police naming two workers as suspects and three others are being questioned.

Let's get to CNN correspondent Kathy Novak. She is live in Taipei. The numbers alone here are just jaw dropping.

KATHY NOVAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, about 500 people were injured. And of that, about 200 in critical condition, injured in this massive fire ball that ripped through a party at the water park behind me. And the powder that was being used as part of the theme of this event is being blamed. Investigations are continuing.

But I can tell you that CNN has spoken to the vice president of one of the companies that recently sold that powder to the organizers of this event. And the vice president has told us that there are warnings on the box of the powder that say there is a risk that this powder can become flammable.

Now as you mentioned, the organizer and the hardware manager have been arrested. They are out on bail. They have not been charged. But now that someone had died, they could be facing a penalty for negligence causing death that carries its term of up to five years in prison. The person who has passed away is a 20-year-old woman. She suffered 90 percent burns through her body. And those people who are in critical condition are in similar situations. Very grave fears for them as they try to make it through this critical week. And then after that, even if they survive, it will take months for them to recover.

Alisyn?

CUOMO: All right, Kathy, so, we do know that they are expecting more, very difficult medical treatment there. You said that people have been arrested. They are asking them, why would they be arrested and given that level of criminal scrutiny for using this powder?

NOVAK: It's because people are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong here. This powder has been used at events in the past and there has been no problem at all. So they are trying to get to the bottom of whether or not this people knew that this could happen, that it could cause such major damage, such major injuries because we have seen it in two events, where people throw this powder at each other as sort of part of the fun. And this has never happened.

But what we are being told by fire investigators is that when this powder reaches the high density levels that we were seeing when the organizers were actually shooting it on the crowd, that's when it caught on fire. So they are now looking into what caused the ignition. If it was perhaps faulty wiring, if it was the lighting or maybe just someone smoking that caused all of this. But what is the result is that people are suffering major burns and they have also inhaled this powder, which is flammable.

CAMEROTA: Oh, so scary. All right, Kathy, thank you so much for that update.

Well, a 17-year-old boy is the latest victim in a wave of shark attacks off North Carolina's coast. Officials say he was swimming Saturday when he was bitten. It's the second attack in as many days. And at least five others had been reported this month.

A 47-year-old man was injured in a separate shark attack in the same area on Friday morning. Here's an example of whatnot to do.

This is video uploaded to YouTube. And it shows two people purposely getting close to two sharks off the coast of California. They even dunked the camera under water as you can see there to get a shot of the sharks.

CUOMO: That's because sharks are not there to eat you. And they generally run away.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but they are not there to be toyed with, either.

CUOMO: You should not try to ride them and do other things like we saw that guy. I don't know what he was riding. He was riding a whale or something, the one we're watching the other day.

But, you know, this happens every year. The sharks come. They bite some people. We say it's the next "Jaws."

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: But the numbers don't really change over year.

CAMEROTA: Well, I will take your word for that.

CUOMO: Yes.

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CAMEROTA: But it does feel like it's happening with more regularity.

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CUOMO: Which reminds me, for your birthday, I bought you a tortuous- flavoured bathing suit, which is to say the rage this morning. Sea turtles, you know.

CAMEROTA: Really?

CUOMO: And it has little seal skin tracks on it.

CAMEROTA: I see where we are going. For a while I didn't know where we are going. But now --

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[06:45:00] CUOMO: You were just disgusted I got you a bathing suit, but now that you know I'm trying to get you killed by a shark.

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CAMEROTA: That's better.

I feel better.

Thank you.

OK, fantastic.

CUOMO: Take us to the wildfire, if you would.

CAMEROTA: Oh, I will.

There's a massive wildfire burning. Dozens of homes in central Washington state. It's forcing thousands to evacuate. So let's get right to CNN's meteorologist Chad Myers for an update.

How's it looking up there, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Incredible pictures out there, guys. The temperature around the fire, the air temperature, not including the heat from the fire was 109 degrees yesterday. It was the hottest day in 64 years in Spokane and Lewiston yesterday. And we have some rain, but it's not enough.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CAMEROTA: OK, good to know. Thanks so much, Chad.

All right. He was a plaintiff in the Supreme Court marriage equality case. We will ask the lead plaintiff for his reaction to the challenges that are already bubbling up as a result.

And what it was like to receive this phone call from President Obama that was captured live on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, your leadership on this has changed the country.

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[06:50:51] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it is, Mr. President.

OBAMA: I figured when I saw you that we were hoping for some good news and we did. And I just wanted to say congratulations.

JIM OBERGEFELL, PLAINTIFF IN SUPREME COURT MARRIAGE EQUALITY CASE: Thank you so much, sir.

(CROSSTALK) OBAMA: You know, your leadership on this has changed the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That was exactly what it looks and sounds like. President Obama calling the plaintiff in this historic same-sex marriage case broadcast by CNN as it happened.

We have the plaintiff with us right now along with Chad Griffin, president of the advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign.

Of course, Mr. Obergefell, you have your own name, but you are known as the plaintiff. You are known as history now.

What does it mean to you and your bow tie?

OBERGEFELL: Thanks, Chris. This is just been a momentous, incredible experience for me. And, you know, I did this because of my love for my husband. And to have it now impact people across the country is just an indescribable experience for me. It's been just wonderful. It's the easiest way to put it.

CUOMO: Well, you got the outcome you wanted. But the name Obergefell will always be connected with this for better and for worse.

How do you deal with the second part of that proposition?

OBERGEFELL: Well, I concentrate on the fact that on Friday, our country became a better place. And I concentrate on the love and support that I received from around the country. I know what I did was the right thing.

And our Supreme Court affirmed that on Friday. So I concentrate on that. And I know that there will be bad things that happen and bad things that people say. But I'm confident that I did the right thing.

CUOMO: Chad Griffin, good to see you, sir.

You have said many times, --

(CROSSTALK)

CHAD GRIFFIN, PRESIDENT, HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN: Good to see you.

CUOMO: This is not the end of the battle for equality. It is just a new battle line. What do you make of the reaction to the decision thus far? And what do you think we will see to come?

GRIFFIN: Well, look, Chris, we are actually talking to you from Texas, from Austin, Texas. This is a state where there are no statewide, non-discrimination protections for LGBT folks.

So in the majority of states in this country, even after this historic opinion, you know, that a couple can get married at 10:00 a.m. They can be fired by noon. They can be evicted from their homes by 2:00 p.m., simply because there are no explicit protections in Federal Law when it comes to non-discrimination. That is the next forefront of this battle. And that is certainly the next forefront in Congress.

CUOMO: You know the law very well around this area. What happens if I am the local clerk or attorney general in Texas, and I say I'm not doing this because of religious objection grounds as my attorney general directed?

What are the possible remedies?

GRIFFIN: Well, I think what is important to note is religious freedom is alive and well in this country. That's why we have the First Amendment as you know, Chris.

Now hen it comes to law, when it comes to law, the order and the decision by the United States Supreme Court, by a justice who is a Republican appointed by President Ronald Reagan, that order is very clear.

Public officials have to move forward and execute marriage licenses in every single state equally. Equally to straight couples as they do same-sex couples. I expect that's going to happen.

There are certainly politicians around this country, certainly one here in this state that's trying to score some cheap political points. History will not be kind to those folks. But I do expect that very soon and very quickly, in a matter of days, those marriage licenses will be issued equally. It might take a few days, but days, not weeks.

CUOMO: And if they don't go with the supreme law land, there's obviously federal remedies that will wind up attaching liability to the individuals directly. So there's a little bit of a high buy-in there.

But, Chad, you have always been very forward looking in terms of how many different fronts there are in this that still needs to be fought. Important perspective without killing the joy of the moment, I understand that.

[06:55:00] Mr. Obergefell, now as you move forward with your life, you got the result you wanted. Were you preparing yourself, just in case it didn't go this way?

OBERGEFELL: Well, Chris, I really tried hard not to think about that possibility because, honestly, it was too painful and too scary to consider that the highest court in the land would say, yes, Jim, you and John are second-class citizens. All couples like you are second- class citizens. I wasn't willing to spend my energy even considering that because it was just simply too scary.

CUOMO: And then I see you sitting in the back of a '60-something Lincoln, in a parade, being celebrated for what it is. There is cache certainly within the community and those who support this law, this finding of law by the Supreme Court.

Do you think it's going to change life for you going forward? OBERGEFELL: It already has, Chris. You know, I discovered over the past year that I am really happy fighting for something that is bigger than I am, bigger than anything I ever thought I could do. And I fully intend to continue that fight. As Chad mentioned, the lack of non-discrimination protections across the country for too many people is something I need to fight for. And I need to help fight to make sure that our transgender brothers and sisters enjoy at least basic protections. So I'm in this fight. It's become too important to me.

CUOMO: Chad, you've been studiously avoiding people believing that this was the big one and now you can relax.

So what is the message? You started by saying you are in Austin, Texas right now because you said you can get married in the morning and fired in the afternoon and both would be legal. So what is the message?

GRIFFIN: The message is we've got to use this historic moment. We've got to take the momentum that we have and catapult ourselves into the victories ahead of us. This was a massive and a giant step forward that's been decades in the making. Now we've got to focus that momentum to achieve these victories that are ahead of us. We've got a long way to go, but it's a great path and a great place to be on that we are today after this historic decision that was brought to us by Jim and by his legal team.

CUOMO: A decision that certainly changed the balance of progress on all the issues involved with the LGBT community.

Chad, thank you very much.

GRIFFIN: No question.

CUOMO: Mr. Obergefell, a name everybody will know now. Good luck to you going forward, sir. Thank you for joining us on NEW DAY.

OBERGEFELL: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: The fight for LGBT rights. And what happens next? A big story for you.

There's a lot of news this morning. What do you say we get to it?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are shifting from manhunt to full-on investigation mode.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terrain is so dense, you can't see five feet in front of you. If Sweat made the tree line, he would have been gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worsening financial crisis crippling Greece.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The situation in Greece will deteriorate very rapidly. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have provided 89 billion Euros so far.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Greek banks simply will not have cash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is fundamentally illegitimate. It is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is wrong.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't make the rights into a political football for this 2016 campaign.

OBAMA: And all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Michaela Pereira.

CAMEROTA: Beautiful sunrise there, good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Michaela is off today.

The long manhunt for two escapees from New York's Clinton Correctional facility now history with the capture of fugitive, David Sweat. A New York state trooper spotted Sweat less than two miles from the Canadian border and shot him.

CUOMO: This all happening just two days after fellow prison escapee Richard Matt was shot and killed. We have team coverage for CNN, beginning with Sara Ganim in Albany. That's where Sweat is right now. We've been told he's in critical condition.

Sara, any other information? And what do the investigators want to have happen as soon as possible?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Chris. Good morning. He is in critical condition here. And that key detail is critical that he is still alive. Investigators are going to want to talk to this man to find out who, if anyone else, may have helped these two escape. Now more than 1300 law enforcement officers were involved in this search. But in the end, it came down to one New York state trooper, who not only spotted David Sweat, but also was able to capture him alive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENNIS MCKENNA, ALBANY MEDICAL DIRECTOR: At this time, his condition is listed as critical.

GANIM (voice-over): This morning, convicted killer David Sweat is in custody and fighting for his life, suffering from two gunshot wounds to his torso.

Cheers from spectators as the escapee's ambulance arrives late Sunday at a hospital in Albany, New York. ANDREW WYLIE, CLINTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTY.: His privileges will be extremely limited. He will be in basically 24/7 lockdown for the rest of his life.