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New Day

Security Troubles at Clinton Correctional Institute; Sanders Surging?; Donald Trump Second in GOP Primary Polls. Aired 7:30-8:00a ET.

Aired July 02, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:28:23] BERMAN: All right. New this morning, rising concerns that security troubles at Clinton Correctional Facility, they go back far longer than the escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat. Information first reported by "The Albany Times-Union" indicates that lapses, they were well-known and that little was done to make any changes after they were discussed.

Joining us to talk about this this morning are Keshia Clukey. She is the reporter who filed that story for "The Albany Times-Union," and Daniel Genis, a columnist for "Vice." He served ten years for armed robbery and is writing a new memoir about his time behind bars.

Keshia, let me go to you first for this new report you have out this morning. There were security concerns raised at Clinton a long time ago. What were those concerns, and what was done about them?

KESHIA CLUKEY, REPORTER, "ALBANY TIMES-UNION": Well, by the documents uncovered by "The Times-Union," we found that there were a number of issues that the staff was having and had reported to the administration, including what to -- how to pat down employees and what they could and could not bring in.

There were also some issues with the staff being allowed into facilities such as the tailor shop, where Joyce Mitchell had worked with the inmates, about an hour or so before they were actually to begin the start.

BERMAN: So some of these concerns were about the actual inflection point where now officials do have some issues. How was contraband smuggled past metal detectors? How was that relative freedom of movement involved inside that tailor shop. Is that why this is raising so many red flags right now?

CLUKEY: Yes, definitely. I think that the escape raised the red flags, but there were a number of issues that were going on before an inmate had, and it probably led to their ability to escape so easily.

BERMAN: All right. Daniel, you have a little bit of a dimmer view of these concerns at Clinton. What you say is that you know, whatever concerns they may have had about what was going on there, that's exactly goes on in prisons everywhere?

DANIEL GENIS, SERVED 10 YEARS FOR ARMED ROBBERY: Everywhere. I have visited 12 of them and you can find identical documents for each and every one. Security always wants more, it's their nature, it's what they do, they want it safe, they want the prisoners in. They always ask for more. So...

BERMAN: So, so there are, though, new security measures being put in place -

GENIS: Yes.

BERMAN: - at Clinton, let's discuss the honor block, as of now there is no honor block at Clinton anymore.

GENIS: Very unfortunate thing.

BERMAN: They are going to be more checks, you know, more bed checks. They are going to check the tunnels more often in there. Do you think this will change anything?

GENIS: Absolutely not unless human nature changes along with it. Human beings see each other as human beings and not numbers. And that's the real problem here, not tunnel checks not - destroying honor block. That, that actually will end up kicking a bunch of very old people into regular population where it might be a little unsafe for them.

BERMAN: So you don't think despite the fact of this honor block seem to have been abused rather fascinated.

GENIS: It was not an honor block abused it was human nature.

BERMAN: You're, you're suggesting that human nature then is to try to escape from prison.

GENIS: No, I'm suggesting human nature is to fall in love and do things for it. And actually the guard as well. We saw them as friends. He was a bit naive bringing the tools - that is beyond the pale. I have never heard of such a thing. But bringing in a snack for somebody who hasn't had one in 20 years, that's not that uncommon.

BERMAN: The concern isn't a snack, the concern is breaking down the walls and tunneling through the tunnel. And how do you keep it from being bringing a snack? Where do you stop that for the snack becomes the tunneling out of a manhole?

GENIS: The problem would be solved - by security being less in touch with the prisoners. It's a problem of people and not measures taken. Because nothing that they did could have happened without Joyce and without Gene. Nothing. It could have been nothing without the friendship and relationships that were involved.

BERMAN: So to create a level of separation there. Keisha what's...

GENIS: It's a very hard thing to do. BERMAN: Obviously running a prison like this is an incredibly hard

thing to do. So Keisha, the question and I think a lot of people are asking this morning is, could this escape, could this brazen breakout and could these somewhat salacious, twisted relationships that existed there, do they exist at every prison or was something inherently wrong with what was going on at Clinton?

CLUKEY: Well, I, I think that is really the question. And the administration will be addressing that by having a lot of the outcomes of the investigation here go across all state prisons from what I'm hearing. So whether it was unique here or whether it is going on at other prisons across the state, I think it will be addressed and hopefully won't happen again in the future.

BERMAN: What, what is the feeling among the people there? You know, it's a small town that revolves to a certain extent around this correctional facility. Now, a number of people, 12 people including the superintendent at least taken off the job temporarily. The people, the who are still there, do they feel victimized?

CLUKEY: What I'm hearing from locals is that there's a lot of fear amongst corrections officers. You know, it seems to be sort of a lackadaisical culture that was going on. And people with human nature fall into that, whether they think it is right or not, if everyone else is doing it, it seems to be

OK. So I think I have heard there are a number of officer who is have just put in for retirement and are just trying to get out and, and hopefully start over with new staff.

BERMAN: The battle against the institutional inertia. Keisha Clukey, Daniel Genis, thanks so much or being with us. We really appreciate it.

Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, John. Back to politics, Bernie Sanders is drawing big crowds to his latest campaign event. The democrat is looking to topple Hillary Clinton of course. Can David beat Goliath? Inside Politics, next.

[07:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A new warden now in charge of the New York prison from which Richard Matt and David Sweat made their getaway. He's basing up measures including step up searches of cells and adding gates in the facilities tunnels. David Sweat reportedly telling investigators that Richard Matt found a sledgehammer in the prison tunnels and they used that to breakout. He also claims that prison worker Joyce Mitchell was the one who wanted to kill her husband, but that's a claim her lawyer denies.

BERMAN: A 68 year old man was attacked by shark up in North Carolina this is now the state's seventh attack in just three weeks. Officials say the man suffered severe laceration to his rib cage, hip, lower leg and hands. He is now in fair condition. Another shark attack was reported in South Carolina, that victim is expected to be OK.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Engine problems could be to blame for that military transport plane that crashed in Indonesia and the airport's chief says a sensor on the propeller indicated that the engine stalled. The officials say the plane was flying at a lower than normal speed which also suggest engine failure. 141 people were killed when the plane crashed into a residential neighborhood.

CAMEROTA: All right. We want to get to Inside Politics on "New Day" now with John King back in his natural habitat inside the beltway. Hi, John.

PEREIRA: We missed you already.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I enjoyed, I enjoyed my time there and will come back and visit soon. But yes, I'm back in my natural

habitat we want to tall is, that's in Washington, D.C. and I'm lucky.

We'll go Inside Politics. A busy day to do it. I would do it a little different this morning. With me to share their reporting, and their insights, Ed O'Keeffe of "The Washington Post." And we usually do two reporters but the esteemed democratic strategist Paul Begala, is in the house this morning. You run a pro Hillary Clinton super PAC we want to make that clear, you support Hillary Clinton for president. You are raising money to support her. So that's great to have you here this morning.

So I want to know, what do you make of this? Look at this picture of Bernie Sanders in Madison, Wisconsin last night. He had a huge crowd a week or so in Colorado. Look at this, estimated ballpark 10,000 people in Madison, Wisconsin. The largest crowd so far in the campaign this cycle, we think, and when he walked out on stage, let's just say the Senator Sanders

was impressed.

[07:40:00] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In case you haven't noticed, a lot of people here.

KING: So Paul and Ed, let's look at these numbers. In our new national poll, Clinton, 57 percent. That's still great. Bernie Sanders at 14

percent up from 10 percent in May. So the next national poll you see momentum, but

there's a new Quinnipiac poll out in Iowa this morning. Bernie Sanders is now at 33 percent, Hillary Clinton at 52 and if you look at the trajectory, Bernie Sanders was at five in February, 15 in May, he is at 33 now.

Forgive me, I'll get to the reporting in a minute. If, if you are - you, you cannot talk to the Clinton campaign, right? But you are running Hillary Clinton super PAC. Are you going to have to spend money attacking Bernie Sanders?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I'm going to say it's no. And certainly now in our plan. No. This is real, though. There's energy there. you know, there's enormous energy in my party on the populist left. Bernie Sanders is tapping into that.

KING: She saw the whole pro-Elizabeth Warren movement beforehand, the trap war movement, the energy, so how has she not been able to get out ahead of it?

BEGALA: Because you never - I have said this from the beginning and I'll say it again, you're never going to have a coronation in my party. Never. Never. Senator Sanders has tapped into something that is real. That's not just a one-hit wonder. That's not the last time he'll going to have a rally with 10,000 people. OK. It is real. So - you know, I think it is actually a good thing in my party that we don't want a coronation. I'm all for Hillary as you know, and I work with the PAC trying to elect her.

It's better for the party to have a tougher primary. I was saying this from the beginning, you are right to ignore these national polls. We don't nominate our president nationally. You begin with Iowa this guy has gone from let's say from five to 33?

KING: Right five to 33.

BEGALA: In a couple of weeks.

KING: In a couple of - in, in two months. Yes. In two months, eight weeks or so.

BEGALA: This is - you know, it doesn't mean it has to be negative. So Hillary has I think as good as claim as Bernie to the populist economic message. I'm old enough to remember when the very moderate Clinton economic team used to call Hillary and her staff the Bolsheviks inside the White House. That was the rise of the term. So Hillary will have - she will have to make that case.

KING: You - she was the Bolshevik, she also was responsible for getting you and Mr. Carmel into the campaign back in those days. I have drowned here in those days. If you are Joe Biden and you're saying, you know, I'm going to think about this in August. Do you look at that and say, there's an

opening for me, that, that I can make the case that I'm more of a president than Bernie Sanders? Or so you say this is unique to the liberal populist left

and I don't want to get involved in this mess?

ED O'KEEFE, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, it depends on how long it takes into sort of you know, recover from that assignment. But certainly, there have been calls for it. He remains somewhat popular in the party, he still polls decently. And you're right, if he really wanted to and, and then continued to be vulnerability, he could step in almost immediately and probably start siphoning up some of that support.

I still think that part of this with Sanders is rhetoric, that this progressives who are out there curious to see somebody realize that Hillary will probably will inevitably be the nominee, but they want to hear a little bit of it. They want to sort of pressure her to move a little bit more to the left, much like we're seeing on the republican side some of these conservatives. But this is the Wisconsin I think a lot of us are familiar with. And it's no surprise that he can get 10,000 to show up there.

KING: If she manages it right, he could be a benefit, he brings new people out of the party, he excites them. And then, he endorses her if she handles it right. But what if he comes really close second and her speech in Iowa, I think there's a lot that could change but let's move to the Republican race and I'm going to ask you to behave as we move on to the Republican race.

You know, Donald Trump has inferiorated the Republican establishment. It is just a fact that the Republicans have a huge problem with Latino voters in the last two presidential elections. One of the reasons, President Obama won the two big electorates college victory taken the states like Nevada, and New Mexico move them from battle ground into blue state. The state of Florida pretty critical to winning the presidency a lot of Latino votes there.

We could go on to six other states where the Latino votes matter. Donald Trump has made the establishment furious by talking about it in its announcement speech, they send us rapist, they send us drug dealers. He was with CNN's Don Lemon last night and he is not backing down. Listen.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL DANDIDATE: Don, all you have to do is go to Fusion and pick up the stories on rape and it's unbelievable when you look at what's going on. So all I'm doing is telling the truth.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I've read the, I've read the Washington Post, I've read the Fusion, I've read the Huffington Post and that's about women being raped, it's not about criminals coming across the border or entering the country.

TRUMP: Somebody is doing the raping, Don. I mean, somebody is doing it. Just say that women are being raped. Well, who is doing the raping?

KING: Some people laugh about this, some people roll their eyes, most people who do politics for a living think this is going to flame out in some fabulous way. But, but you spent a lot of time covering the Bush campaign. Donald Trump is now second in the national poll, second in New Hampshire and second in Iowa. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker are going down in those polls as Trump goes up.

[07:45:00] He's having an impact on the race. Yes, it is only July but it matters. Especially in such a crowded field where a lot of credible candidates are going to disappear like that if they can't win in the early states. What is the conversation inside the campaign about whether to take him on or step back and just hope as plain?

O'KEEFE: I think it is more that. There's concern about becoming the guy that ends up in some kind of a boxing match with them. We saw a little of this yesterday with George Pataki, the former new York governor who's now

trying to get everyone else to sign on to the pledges to denounce them. And, and what does Trump do? He does what he did the Macy, NBC and Univision suddenly disparages their character and suggests that they are not worth to the - you know, the paper that they are printed on.

And they don't want that to happen. Because you know, he's clearly drawing hard core conservative support right now from Republicans who again, I think are being a little cathartic and trying to just have a moment with this guy and have to move on. But the damage is done. Anyone who suggests that he has the potential or risk ruining the party's image, it has been ruined. Watch the Spanish language television, read the Spanish language newspapers, this is dominating the conversation. The damage has been done.

And if you're a Republican candidate, who wants to be the nominee and win, you should be very worried about this. You should try to do something about it.

KING: He's got from 3 percent of our national poll in May Paul to 12 percent, now in the second place. Again, the trend is clear, you don't like the message but if you were - you - the campaign strategy for a living. If you were advising the other candidate you just hope for a flame out or do you try to see the opportunity and be the guy to beat David that takes on I don't overcome Goliath because that gives them stature. But be the guy to takes them up.

BEGALA: I think, I think they need to take him on. I would be advising especially Jeb Bush my goodness he is married to a woman in Colombo, a woman who happen to be born in Mexico, his children is Mexican-American. He could do that and he - you know, he wants his family. OK. We mean...

KING: But that he exacerbate his problem with the Republican base by sounding like he's you know, he wants legal status for the undocumented. He says there's no way to round up let's deal with the reality. But that he heard himself with his own chances in a place like Iowa in a place like South Carolina takes on trial by immigration.

BEGALA: But if he does, he can't that would be president anyway. This is - Ed is right, it is dramatic, the damage has been done. Which is why you know, there's populist on the right, just like there is in my party. The difference is, in the Democratic party right now, it's not ugly, it's not hateful, it's joyful and so even as a Hillary guy I think it's great for Bernie to draw 10,000 on the right and with Mr. Trump at least I think is right. He is doing an enormous damage to the voters they need the most.

KING: It's a factor early on. We'll see some place over the settlement. Michaela, because they do things a little differently.

PEREIRA: I know, I like that. Hey, I got a question for you - before I lose you.

KING: OK. Here we go.

PEREIRA: Use your own feelings about guacamole?

KING: No peas.

PEREIRA: See, I thought you would have been a pro pea guy because you talked about the fitness.

KING: I could eat my peas several - I like peas. I love peas and I love to cook.

PEREIRA: In guacamole.

KING: Not in my guac.

PEREIRA: I hear you. OK. So you sounded off on this, this is a very serious food for thought people, would you? As John King suggested, put peas in your guacamole, simple question and a simple suggestion creating all sorts of debate. It's even bringing political folks inside of the isle, we put the right man on the case though. You know who? My JB. John Berman takes a look.

[07:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Everyone wants Washington to come together. Everyone wants to bridge the divide between Republicans and Democrats. Well, they have finally found some commented with AT is it on social security, no. Healthcare? No. Taxes? No. It's a crucial issue of peas in guacamole. A debate set off by a "New York Times" food columnist. You have to watch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president of the United States.

BERMAN: It is an issue that the leader of the free world feels so passionately about.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Chips and guacamole. I like - basically there's a bowl of good chips and guacamole, I lose my mind. I lose my mind.

BERMAN: The president does not mess around when it comes to his guacamole. On Wednesday the "New York Times" set off a foodie

firestorm with this green pea guacamole recipe, calling for half a pound of sweet peas to then be pureed into green perfection. Pulling of a columnist Melissa Clark calls radical yes completely obvious. But the recipe left a bad taste in the president's mouth.

He tweeted this during his Q&A on Wednesday. Respect the "New York Times," but not buying peas in Guac. Onions, garlic, hot peppers, classic. It turns out that guacagate as I like to call it is the one true bipartisan issue. Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush tweeted you don't put peas in guacamole. It is a position he has held for a while now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ever tried peas in your guacamole?

JEB BUSH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We don't put peas in guacamole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, people are going to freak out. You put English peas in guacamole and mix it up.

BUSH: I'm afraid not.

BERMAN: And the Texas Republican party even crossed the culinary aisle, tweeting the "New York Times" declared war on Texas when they suggested adding green peas to guacamole. But Clark is standing her ground calling for all guacamole lovers to give peas a chance. Tweeting, don't knock it until you try it.

Give peas a chance, the whole reason to do this story. We call Ms. Melissa Clark took to Twitter to clarify and get credit and said the pea guacamole recipe is not hers. She is running from it now. The recipe by ABC Cuchina. But it's a recipe she said she loves.

PEREIRA: How they feel? I'm willing to try, I'm giving peas a chance.

CAMEROTA: I mean, that we are big guacamole eaters at our house. I had it for lunch and dinner last night.

BERMAN: My, my big concern here is that debate distracts from important things like Donald Trump. I, I would hate to see the political

world...

CAMEROTA: He'll be against it, yes.

PEREIRA: I, I think you're right on that one. Thank you for that. For this day. All right. Big changes are following in the prison break in Upstate, New York. Who's in charge and what are inmates in for now? Our top stories are next.

[07:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Welcome back everyone. We do have breaking news at this hour out of Washington. And there appears to be a lockdown at the Washington Navy yard. And this is of course, the same place there was a deadly shooting that occurred in 2013. So we want to get right to CNN's Rene Marsh she's live in D.C. with all the details. Rene, what do we know?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you Alisyn, I literally just getting this information to my phone right now, we're told according to our affiliate WJLA they spoke with Park police and were told police are responding to a report of an active shooter. They are sending crews, we do know that. That's all we know so far, an active shooter.

They are looking at possibly this happening in the area of the Navy yard of course in Washington, D.C. if you remember back in 2013, that was the site of an active shooting situation where 12 victims died. So right now we are working the phones trying to get more information confirmed for ourselves. But again, quoting our affiliate WJLA, they spoke with park police and they are told they are responding to an active shooting situation at the Navy yard in Washington, D.C.

If that is in fact the case, it would be just a troubling, troubling situation, especially for the individuals who work at that site. I was there in 2013 when police responded to shots fired in that area. And it was quite traumatic. So for this to be happening or the possibility of this happening just two years later truly troubling.