Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Iran Deal Discussions in Congress; Trump Leads New Poll; EMT Responder Finds Sister at Lafayette Shooting Scene; Orangutan with Eye for Pregnant Ladies. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 28, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[7:30:01] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: One of the coins minted in 1715 is worth half a million dollars alone.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: These treasure seekers are something else. Apparently, according to Orlando Sentinel, the last two summers they've made news by finding Spanish gold in the water there but this is -- this one is a big find.

CAMEROTA: So it is finder's keepers? That's it? There's no historical...

BERMAN: Why would you ...

PEREIRA: I like the way you're looking at me like I really had some of them on me.

CAMEROTA: Yes. With this your pirate expertise.

PEREIRA: With my -- thank you for asking Alisyn. I do believe it is. I do believe they get to keep it.

CAMEROTA: That's awesome. Let's get to Inside Politics on NEW DAY with John King. He's sort of a pirate, org?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Finder's keepers? I got to go. Can you handle this one for me? I'm going to go find it.

CAMEROTA: Sure. No problem.

PEREIRA: He's our John King.

KING: I got to go look for something. I'll be back in a couple of days.

CAMEROTA: OK.

KING: Good morning, Alisyn, John, and Michaela. Let's go Inside Politics this morning. A very busy day, an action-packed day.

A lot of polling to talk about including the president's poll numbers they are going to make a bit of a connection to the Donald Trump surge. With me, to share their reporting and their insights this morning, CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson, Ron Fournier of National Journal.

Let's start with the President. He's above water as they say in politics. His approval rating is 49 percent in our brand new CNN/ORC poll. Disapproval at 47 percent. So you say, "Hey, you know, a country evenly divided," but if you look back over the last few months, he's sort of in a holding pattern here, 49 now, 50 in June, 45, 48, 46 if you go back to April and March. Heading it to the final year and a half of the presidency, he's in good shape, not great shape. What does that mean?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I think it means something good for Hillary Clinton. You want a president you're trying to succeed at the same party to be in a good place in terms of those favorability ratings.

And also, you know, the President himself seems to be enjoying the job. He's sort of radiating a sort of confidence. I think he's got sort of an extra kick in his step over these last couple of months and I think the poll show that good news for Hillary Clinton. We'll see if it lasts for him.

Iran discussions coming up and folks are not on his side in terms of wanting that deal.

KING: Right. And to that point, Ronald Reagan, exactly the same place in July of "87, a 49 percent. George H. W. Bush was able to hold the White House. It's very hard, very hard after two-term president for the same party to hold the White House. Our history says it happens very rarely George H. W. Bush who was successful in that regard.

George W. Bush was at 36 percent at this point, Bill Clinton up at 61 percent and of course that was the Bush v. Gore race that happened there. But, Ron, decent numbers for the President, and Hillary Clinton has to be happy with that. The higher Obama is, the happier Democrats are.

However, there's a sharp turn in our poll by how people feel about the economy. People feel OK about their personal economic condition but they ask how's the country's economy doing right now? Four in 10, 41 percent say good, six in 10, 59 percent say bad, poor. The economy is doing poorly. That has to present your opening for Republicans to say we need change.

RON FOURNIER, NATIONAL JOURNAL: Well, not just Republicans, but also a guy like, well (inaudible) he claims to be a Republican Donald Trump. And that's what he's speeding into is his feeling that most people think the country is on the wrong track. Most people think the economy isn't turning around.

A majority of the people in this country don't think their children are going to do better than they have. That's the American dream and that's what a guy like Donald Trump, even though he's not qualified to be president of the United States, I think by any measure. There are a lot of people who really have very good reason, very justifiable reason to be getting behind a message like that because they see that the wheels are coming off, I think.

KING: And he cease it, making America great again. It's his...

FOURNIER: That's what it's all about.

KING: He ceased the anxiety about the economy. He also ceased and he's tapping into, perhaps much better than many of us anticipated he would, to discuss the Republican base has with its own leadership. They're not just mad at President Obama, they don't like speaker Boehner. They don't like leader McConnell.

FOURNIER: And even broader, we live in a country where all of our institutions were losing trust in them and there's a fabric of society is falling apart and a candidate like that will replace him.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

KING: Replace to it and let's look another poll this morning. Monmouth University Poll in New Hampshire, these numbers don't lie. Trump has legs in this race, 24 percent in New Hampshire to 12 percent, double.

Donald Trump is double, Jeb Bush, I almost said George Bush, Jeb Bush in this state of New Hampshire. And then you see, here's the surprising number. John Kasich, the Ohio Governor has gone from nowhere to 7 percent. He's in third place there. He's been up there, he's been active. He has the former Senator John Sununu on his side, he's put together network. His town halls are well received and he's also spent a couple million dollars (inaudible) his template, watch Red Sox games. You watch the cable package, very smartly spent money, not just on the new shows in New England, but on the cable shows to get attention.

Let's first start with Trump, 24 percent. He's here to stay.

HENDERSON: He is here to stay. You saw some stories out from other campaigns sort of questioning this polling, how it was done, if it means anything at this stage. When you're complaining about the polling that means you're losing. Trump is doing quite well and these are white, working class voters, sort of a, you know a Tea Party movement kind of folks who really glommed on to Trump. He all of a sudden seems like he really thinks he can be president. So yeah, he's here to stay and watch for these debates.

FOURNIER: He's a big factor throughout the selection, I think.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

FOURNIER: We want to tap our really long legs, it's not Trump, its the people who are so upset with politics that they're now behind Trump. That movement, this anger which by the way is in both sides of the party, populous movement is kind of overlapping on extremes. It's going to be here for a long time until somebody credible really shows that they can turn the country around and really change these institutions and change the way we govern the campaign. [7:35:03] HENDERSON: Yeah. And you have Bush saying, "Listen, we can't be the angry party," right? He is saying that's not the way we can win but those folks who were backing Trump, they want to see some answers

FOURNIER: But that's not how Bush is doing. He is saying all that and he is saying, "I will be the changed candidate, I want to transform us to the new century." He's trying to have it both ways.

KING: Well, he's going to have to do a better job. That poll at 24 to 12, if you look -- If you look at this, look, there's a lot of people who think Trump is going to implode. I think a lot of people thought he already would, let's just see, clearly the old rules don't apply to him, clearly the climate is right for someone to step in. For someone like him, we're going to see him on a debate station next week, we know he can perform, the question is can he debate and how much policy pressure will be put on him.

But I want to -- look, as we watch the Trump effect, we wait for this debate, no matter what happens, he has dramatically changed the rates this summer because this is when if you're Ben Carson you get attention when you're (inaudible), you get attention if you're Rick Santorum, you try to say look at me again. Has it happened?

And those guys are falling and falling and falling. The other place that we'll look at, the combination of Trump and Kasich, Trump is Mr. Authentic, I'm the blonde speaker, I'd say what I think, John Kasich is trying to gain to that same niche with the New Hampshire focused town hall. The guy we thought would take that lane maybe is Chris Christie, now the governor of New Jersey who was starting to rise, a couple of months ago, you're getting good reviews in New Hampshire, now his numbers are pretty flat, he's at 4 percent of New Hampshire, Kasich almost double him.

Listen to Chris Christie yesterday when a voter asked him about Donald Trump. Chris Christie trying to make the case saying, "Trump's interesting, Trump has appeal but he can't do the job."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R-NJ) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I thought we are talking about actually governing our country and not getting attention. If the...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, right now we're talking about...

CHRISTIE: No, no, listen. If the goal here is defining the person to be president of the United States who can get the most attention, he's going to win hands down. If it is, the person who can most effectively govern our nation and deal with the world? I'd suggest you that I am in this race because I think I'd be better at it than he would.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOURNIER: Interesting. KING: Can he make that case to voters who, again, some of them don't feel government is a good thing. Number one, the conservatives they think there's too much government. Number two, they've been told this, you know, give us a Republican House, give us a Republican Senate and we will govern your way and they simply don't think their leaders are responding to their concerns.

FOURNIER: I think, Christie, he has a lot of promise beyond this. But I will say what he's doing here is interesting and I think that's pretty smart.

He is taking on Trump but he is doing in a way without insulting Trump and without -- more importantly because in my point earlier, without insulting Trump's voters.

KING: His voters, right.

FOURNIER: He is trying not to impart in the political pan here, burn bridges.

HENDERSON: Yeah. But sort of ironic here that the guy who has been a master of getting attention for yelling at folks at press conferences is now criticizing the other guy. Who I think has stolen Chris Christie's thunder? I mean he's been sort of out of Trump's by tramp.

So I think -- but this will be a nice try I think for Christie but we'll see what Trump comes back with because we saw, for instance, what he did with Walker, a distraught, you know, talking about Wisconsin's record.

And to be fair, I mean Christie doesn't have a great record in New Jersey. If you start, you know, sort of digging in the economy there.

FOURNIER: So you think Kasich is coming after Christie's spot now?

HENDERSON: Yeah.

KING: Yeah, I think that -- I catch him, we're using this traffic metaphors, I know I hate to do that, sorry, Governor Christie but it is what it is.

HENDERSON: Great.

KING: But, yeah the Kasich and Trump are kind of blocking the Christie lane, if you will.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

KING: But if it's early, it's in the summertime, we're going to see what happens, we're going to have most likely Christie and Kasich, perhaps Kasich is on the bubble at the National Debate stage, very interesting to watch a week away, a week away from the first debate of this one (inaudible).

Nia-Malika Henderson, Ron Fournier, thanks for coming this morning. Michaela, as we get back to New York, fascinating to watch another interesting quickly, we don't have time for the sound but Martin O'Malley went up to Hilary Clinton by name yesterday in a radio interview for the first time saying she's too cozy to Wall Street. To fix the economy, we'll see if the tenor of the Democrat will change a little bit, we'll watch that too.

PEREIRA: We will be watching a lot a week until those debates. You have a certain fitness for regime you adhere to that week before the debates get ready?

KING: Yeah. Caffeine, caffeine and a little extra caffeine.

PEREIRA: Attaboy, just check it. All right, John King, thanks so much.

Quite a story we're going to bring to you. She was one of the first responders who rushed to the scene of that deadly shooting inside of Louisiana movie theatre last week. When she arrived, EMT Kaitlyn Patitjean, she made a quite startling discovery. She'll tell us all about it when she joins us live on NEW DAY after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[7:43:00] PEREIRA: Nearly a dozen first responders raced to the scene during last week's deadly shooting inside that movie theater in Louisiana. EMT Kaitlyn Patitjean was one of them. Imagine her shock. She arrived at the theater and saw her very own sister standing in the middle of all that chaos, covered in blood.

Kaitlyn Patitjean joins us now.

Kaitlyn, what a pleasure to speak to you. How are you doing, first of all? And how is your sister doing? We should mention she was not injured. How are you both doing today?

KAITLYN PATITJEAN, EMT, RUSHED INSIDE THE THEATER AFTER SHOOTING: She was not injured. I 'm doing a lot better than expected. I thought I'd be a lot worse off. She's doing good. She went out of state with family to, you know, get away and kind of unwind and forget -- not forget the situation, but, you know, just try to keep her mind off of things.

PEREIRA: Take a beat, just to sort of pause and reflect a little bit and I know you've done a little bit of the same, too. You're wearing your uniform because you just went back on shift. It was your first shift back at work. I mean, I want you to, if it's OK and if you're not comfortable, you tell me when you can't talk about this anymore. But when you got that first call, the day that this terrible thing happened, tell us about that call. You got a call on the dispatch, what did they tell you?

PATITJEAN: You know, they just needed -- there was a lot more injuries than expected, so they just kind of started sending more trucks slowly. And we got the call and we, you know, it was just like any other call. I mean, a little bit more chaotic because we knew it was a mass shooting and we never expected it to happen here. So, we just, you know, lights and sirens here and tried to be as calm as we could...

PEREIRA: That's when that professionalism kicks in.

PATITJEAN: ... and, you know, remember our task.

PEREIRA: Exactly, remember your task.

PATITJEAN: Yes.

PEREIRA: You arrived on scene. Paint a picture for us what the scene was like. What did you arrive to find? [7:44:59] PATITJEAN: Pulling in, there were so many cops, so many

blue lights all over the place. It was crazy just to see that. So as soon as I'm pulling in, the first thing I see is my sister and -- she lives out of town, about an hour away from here.

So I was really in shock. I was really confused. You know, why is she here? And then I know she was full of blood and I didn't know she was in the shooting. But I knew that she was up. She was talking. She was walking, you know. I knew she was fine. So that's why I could continue on with my job, my training, what I was here to do and, you know, keep on going through what I had to do.

And then, you know, we got on scene and just kept on going. And I just kept in the back of my mind that she was involved somehow because she was full of blood but I knew that she was OK and that's how I was able to get through what I needed to do, and that was my job.

PEREIRA: But I'm sure your heart must have just stopped when you first saw her. So your job was to attend to these people. It's something I know you did. You helped several people.

PATITJEAN: Yeah.

PEREIRA: I want to know at what point did you -- were you made aware that there was no longer a threat, that the shooter was down? Because I can imagine, during the first moments, you don't know if the danger still exists.

PETITJEAN: Yeah. And that's very scary to walk into something. I mean, any day, any job, we always walk into something dangerous but this was very different than any other day. But we knew before we entered the scene that the shooter was down and I didn't realize until after who the shooter was. You know, I think that was better -- best that I didn't know.

PEREIRA: Yeah, just stay focused on the job at hand.

PETITJEAN: Yeah. You know, focus on the injured ones, injured victims that need help to get to the hospital. But, it was much relief to know that the shooter was down before we got there.

PEREIRA: Kaitlyn, I want to ask you a question, as a first responder, because you arrived at scenes often when tragedies happen, when there have been accidents, when people have gotten sick, but oftentimes, when people have been hurt at the hand of someone else. Governor Rick Perry of Texas recently suggested that more theaters should -- theater goers should carry guns.

What are your thoughts? What is your reaction to his comments?

PETITJEAN: My thought is you need some kind of training before you can do that. You know some kind of hand gun safety class because there are a lot of people aren't trained and then they end up hurting themselves, you know, harming themselves than doing good.

That's kind of a tough question, but I mean no, I think we should have the right to carry. I really do feel that and I felt that before this situation.

PEREIRA: Right.

PETITJEAN: Because, nowadays you can't walk around, you know, without an eye over your shoulder.

PEREIRA: So let's talk about Louisiana and your community there real quickly, Lafayette. How is everybody doing? You are back at work. How is your sister doing?

PETITJEAN: As a community, you know, I have heard several people say that we're thankful that the shooter did pull the gun on himself. He didn't, you know, he's not running around town or, you know, we don't have to go -- face through a trial or, you know, we don't have to be reminded with it. You know, it's over with. And the fact that he wasn't from here is...

PEREIRA: Yeah. All right, Kaitlyn. I think it's...

PETITJEAN: I think we were...

PEREIRA: Yeah.

PETITJEAN: Yeah.

PEREIRA: Well, we want to say thank you for joining us today on NEW DAY. I know this is not an easy thing to talk about as a professional but we know that you take your job very seriously. You're going to be back at it tomorrow. We thank you for the work you do in your community. Thank you for sharing a tremendous story of you and your sister and we're certainly glad to know that she is well.

PETITJEAN: Yes.

PEREIRA: All right. Kaitlyn, thanks so much.

John?

BERMAN: All right, a lot of bravery there. Thanks, Michaela.

Joyce Mitchell appears in court today accused of helping two killers make their brazen escape from an upstate New York prison. Could she push for a plea deal? And if not, what kind of sentence might she face?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[7:52:55] BERMAN: You are about to meet a creepy orangutan with an eye for pregnant ladies only. He doesn't care who you are as long as you have a bun in the oven.

CNN's Jeanne Moos shows us the viral video. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Consider these paws (ph) pregnant. Yes, this really is an orangutan at the Colchester zoo in England, kissing a pregnant woman's belly, twice.

Before Jamie Clarke, the father, started recording with his cell phone, a 47-year-old male orangutan named Rajang, actually pointed at Maisie Knight's belly.

JAMIE CLARKE: He started rubbing her belly with his fingers just like that.

MOOS: And then came the kiss which Maisie describes as a nice feeling. It's now gone viral.

MAISIE KNIGHT: I just keep getting texts all over Facebook that my belly's famous.

MOOS: Jamie offered the orangutan his belly but the ape wasn't interested and shoot away his hand.

But pregnant women have repeatedly caught his eye. Posted one, "This is also how I found out I was pregnant. He kept kissing my tummy and pointing so I went home, done a test, which was positive." And a mother posted her daughter's photo, saying, "Rajang kept touching her pregnant stomach through the glass and didn't take his eyes off her baby bump."

The zoo says that when the staff was first issued shorts, Rajang became fixated on legs and knees. He's also intrigued by cuts and bruises. So if you go visit, strip off those band aids.

Maisie is expecting a boy any day.

You're not going to name him Rajang?

CLARKE: No.

MOOS: She may be expecting, but she wasn't expecting this.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: My gosh. She's a psychic orangutan. He knows before they know that they're pregnant. BERMAN: Creepy, psychic orangutan.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. That's what you got out of that.

BERMAN: That's what he got out of that.

CAMEROTA: Well done.

All right. And, meanwhile, back to our top story.

Because this search is expanding at this hour for the two 14-year-old boys whose boat capsized off Florida.

[7:55:00] Coming up, three boaters once lost at sea are here to tell us how they survived.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Two Florida teenagers lost at sea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They could have become disabled. It's dangerous to go to sea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know he's coming home. I just want him now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't give up. This is about our children.

CAMEROTA: President Obama's approval ratings holding in positive territory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it is not all good news for the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the economy is not as good as people want it to be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New details are painting a darker picture of John Houser.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man was certainly have a sound mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no doubt he had his keys on the tire of his car ready to escape. It wasn't a planned suicide.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning everyone, welcome back to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, June 28, 8:00 n the East. Chris is on assignment and John Berman joins us this morning.

It is a race against time to find two Florida teenagers lost at sea. Fourteen-year-old best friends Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos went missing after setting out Friday on a fishing trip.

PEREIRA: The coast guard though still holding on to hope after finding their capsized boat.

[8:00:00] Their search area now expanding off the Florida coast to an area roughly the size of Indiana. CNN's Alina Machado is live in Jupiter, Florida with the very latest for us on the searche efforts, Alina.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, the Coast Guard says that the search for these missing teens is challenging.