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Clinton Hits TV Airwaves; "Biden" His Time; Trump Attacks As Rivals Court Kochs; Second American Sought For Killing Lion; Protecting Lions In The Wild. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 03, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:32:05] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY. Time for "Inside Politics" with our friend, John King. Happy Monday my friend, you have a busy week ahead of you.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Happy Monday to you. It is a busy week. Never a slow summer week this year, there must be a presidential campaign --

PEREIRA: I'm sensing it.

KING: Sensing a big debate. Michaela, back to you in a couple minutes. Let's go "Inside Politics" this morning. With me to share their reporting and their insights, Julie Pace of "The Associated Press" and Olivier Knox of "Yahoo! News."

Let's start now with the debate. We'll get to that in a minute, but Hillary Clinton coming out with new ads in Iowa and New Hampshire. You might say, wait a minute, they don't vote there until early next year. Why is she advertising this year?

But we have seen, number one, she's getting a stiff challenge from Bernie Sanders. Number two, the vice president is considering getting into the race. We'll get to that in a moment.

Number three, if you look at the polling numbers, this is what it's about. We have seen her honesty and trustworthy numbers are pretty low and so she needs to improve the underlying as they say.

Here is a little sample here of one of Hillary Clinton's new ads playing up on the childhood struggles of her mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When she needed a champion, someone was there. I think about all the Dorothys all over America who fight for their families, who never give up. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I have always done this, for all the Dorothys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is the empathy factor. I'm on your side. If maybe you have some doubts about her, maybe you think she's been in politics too long, the Republicans are going to hit her saying her e-mails, she's a Clinton, can't trust her. She wants to say, I'll fight for you.

JULIE PACE, "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS": Yes, it's interesting because if you look back at the start of Hillary Clinton's campaign, which is just a couple months ago, the theme is what they said the campaign would be about. The e-mails and Bernie Sanders pushing her shifted the focus.

I think this is them trying to get back to the core of the campaign, get on the airways at a time they will not be flooded even with Republicans at this point and try to almost reset in a way, get back to what they want to talk about.

KING: She that has money. Is this a sign of weakness or is it smart knowing that Thursday night in the first Republican debate in addition to Donald Trump being the center of attention? I'm guessing a whole lot of the time of those ten candidates is going to be spent saying Hillary Clinton is terrible.

OLIVIER KNOX, "YAHOO! NEWS": Yes, you're right. They are going to do that. This is part of a process of reintroducing her to voters. They are going to try to recapture the moments from the 2007-2008 campaign. It's trust. It's bringing in the gender part a little bit. Yeah, it's making her say, yes, I understand your struggles. All these things address her underlying strengths and weaknesses.

KING: Let's talk for a moment about the conversation in Washington right now, which is the vice president. A lot of talk over the weekend, we were told by people close to him, look for a decision in early August. We are told it may go until September or so.

He's looking at it. He's not sure, yet. You know, in his heart, he would love to run and be part of the campaign. He's still grieving. He just lost his son.

[07:35:04] And we know Hillary Clinton has a boatload of money, has the infrastructure of the Democratic Party and has most of the people who worked on the Obama-Biden campaigns are on her side. Doable, does it matter?

KNOX: Well, it is going to be extremely difficult. I did a dive into how hard he worked for Democrats in 2014, how many speeches, rallies and fundraisers. One of the Democrats that he actually campaigned for told me, the problem is he's got an A for effort campaign in a ready for Hillary world.

That's to say he is a warm campaigner. You know, he loves the fight. You know he would love to get into it. It's just really hard for him I think to build up the kind of infrastructure that she already has on the ground.

KING: So is he waiting to see if she collapses in the polls? It may not happen anytime, but seems unlikely it is going to happen in the next month or so when he has to make a decision. PACE: I think there are a couple of things going on right now. One, Biden has never taken the idea of running for president off the table. What did happen, though, was his son got sick and passed away and discussions about 2016 basically stopped.

They are reviving those discussions now. It's set off speculation that he's taking it more seriously. He's getting lot of people who support him and supported him for a long time say you are the right person for the job and look at the weaknesses we are seeing from Hillary Clinton.

To Olivier's points, we know the positives of Joe Biden and the weaknesses of Joe Biden. I think the combination of those will eventually lead to him not doing this.

KING: It's a tough decision. You have to assume going in that you are mostly going to lose to Hillary Clinton, which he has done in the past. We'll have to see how that works out.

A lot of attention will be focused Thursday night on the first Republican presidential debate, ten candidates on stage in the prime time debate. Donald Trump will be at center stage. He leads the national polls. He's second in the Iowa polls. He will be the center of attention, but he says he won't be throwing punches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): I don't think I'm going to be throwing punches. I'm not looking to attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have been attacking.

TRUMP: Every attack I made was a counter punch. They attacked me first. I have been attacked viciously by some of these guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I found that interesting. As this happened over the weekend, several of the Republican candidates including Jeb Bush went out to the Koch brothers, some are out in California.

Donald Trump tweeted, "I wish good luck to all the Republican candidates to travel to California to beg for money, et cetera, from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?"

Do you want a poke in the eye the one faction of the conservative movement that might be able to spend as much money as you on TV ads against you?

PACE: I think what Donald Trump is getting at with the tweet is voters who support him like that he comes into the race with money. He doesn't need to go out and get the Koch Brothers or woo anyone. He could self-fund his own campaign. I think he's trying to play into some of what has gotten him this 20 percent of support.

KING: Did they throw a punch at him before he threw that one? He said he only throws counter punches.

KNOX: I'm skeptical of the idea that Donald Trump has scripted every play between now and November 2016, John.

KING: You think maybe some of this is ad hoc?

KNOX: Might be a little impulsive. Might be a little off the cuff.

KING: What do you expect from the debate? Are you expecting him to be well-mannered and presidential or expect him to be freewheeling? He's a force in the race right now. I don't know what to expect.

KNOX: That's a great question. I think one of the issues, is he going to go to the issue that is catapulted him into this unusual odd limelight? Is he going back to immigration? Is he going back to Washington is broken? Is he going to hit the issues to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton? He may not throw punches at his fellow Republicans, but throwing punches for sure.

PACE: I think one of the difficulties for his fellow Republicans is that Trump may not know his strategy is going through this debate. How do you prepare for a candidate when you really can't predict what is going to happen 60 minutes into the debate?

KING: I think for all of them you make a key point that if have a clear strategy, once it starts, things change. We are going to see who is good on their feet, who reacts, because you might be expecting I'm going to get the first chance at Trump and someone else does, first.

To me, that is one of the things we are going to learn more. As we close and get back to Mr. Cuomo in New York, I got to have fun last night. They did a Sunday night special saying goodbye to Jon Stewart. They were making fun of CNN and the graphics we use. I got a quick cameo to say, stop it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not as easy as it looks is it, pretty boy?

[07:40:03] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, John King. Learn easy lesson, keep your hands off our (inaudible).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: You see that punk? When you stepped at him, he backed up. That's the difference.

KING: He's a good actor, A, and B, I'll keep my day job.

CUOMO: You are not joking around. If I can't get into the debate coverage if you, here is a point about the difference between strategy and practicality. Mike Tyson. Everybody's got a strategy until they get punched in the face and that's what plays out on that debate state guaranteed.

KING: Maybe I should bring you and Mike in on Thursday.

CUOMO: All right, so here is our tease to commercial. A second American is wanted in connection with the killing of a lion in Zimbabwe. Who is really to blame for these incidents? What is going on? What is legal and what isn't? And how do they get prevented and should they? All answered ahead.

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PEREIRA: Officials in Zimbabwe are searching for a second American accused of illegally hunting and killing a lion. A Pennsylvania-based doctor allegedly hunted it in April in an area where it is not permitted on the border of a national park.

[07:45:11] This of course is following the fire storm surrounding the death of Cecil, the lion, who was reportedly lured off of the same reserve by a Minnesota dentist.

Jeff Corwin is the host of ABC's "Ocean Mystery" and an animal expert joining us now. Good morning to you, Jeff. Here we are, again, talking about an illegal hunt, surprising to you, probably not.

JEFF CORWIN, ANIMAL EXPERT: It is very surprising. It's incredible these people are making fumbles and not following the laws of these regions. It is black and white. You do not hunt in the national park or lure an animal from the national park.

PEREIRA: You know, there is an environmental group called "The International Union for Conservation of Nature, they estimate the number of animals killed in these sorts of tourist hunts at 105,000 a year. That's got to impact conservation efforts.

CORWIN: The total take from Africa, remember, there's approximate Natalie 11 countries out of 54 in Africa that permit hunting. It seems to be decreasing year by year, and 105,000 trophies are taken across 200 million acres set aside for hunting in Africa.

If you look at the whole statistics, overall hunting, you get about 50 million to 60 million tourists that go to Africa a year. Of that number, maybe 18,000 or 19,000 people are hunting.

PEREIRA: Interesting because you talk to some of the hunters who say, look, we are doing more for conservation efforts, which doesn't make a lick of sense to me. The money they spend for the hunts goes back into conservation efforts. Still, I can't see the rational.

CORWIN: It can be hard to wrap your head around it. You have to separate the emotion to the actual science. I'm going to put my wildlife biology hat on. Let me give you how it works in the United States.

In the United States, we have just at white tail deer hunting. We have between 6 million and 10 million white tail deer hunters. They will take between 4 million and 6 million white tail deer in any given year. Each of the people has to pay for a hunting license, half of the budget to manage just about every state in the United States when it comes to environment and state parks. It comes from the hunting and fishing license and public land use.

In states like New Hampshire, 90 percent of their budget comes from the fishing and hunting license. That is, essentially, the logic of where the money goes.

PEREIRA: Does it translate to Africa? Is it the same functioning of how things are done in those African nations?

CORWIN: Well, it really depends on what part of Africa you are in. In some cases, there is an argument that it does. An area that used to have hunting made it illegal. Why because there is this controversy.

Why is it we are letting people from somewhere else, from America and Europe come to Africa and hunt when local people can't hunt? That's why they made the changes. This one has 140,000 elephants. Once in a while when they have hunting, they put up a permit.

That brings in over $100,000. That money goes to the village. That's the mathematics of it. It is very different from the ethics of how one feels ethically or emotionally when it comes to hunting.

PEREIRA: There's a lot of emotion in this. A lot of people feel a connection to our wildlife into the beautiful creatures. Jeff Corwin, always great to have you. Thanks for joining us on NEW DAY on this Monday.

CORWIN: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Chris.

CUOMO: The stock market in Greece is plunging. Trading for the first time in five weeks amid the country's economic turmoil. What does it mean, especially for you here in the U.S.? Got it for you ahead.

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[07:53:27]

CUOMO: Well, the good news is that the Greek stock market is open for the first time in weeks. Bad news, it is ugly. That's why Christine Romans is in the money center for CNN Money now. What do you see? What does it mean?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is what happens when you close down a stock market for five weeks. It tanks. Investigators have a chance. Greek bank stocks are falling even more for obvious reasons. The stock markets and the banks shut down at the end of June to prevent collapse. They are open and it is difficult going there.

Puerto Rico missed $58 million debt payment to its public finance corporation over the weekend. It's a small piece of Puerto Rico's $70 billion in outstanding debt. That's the market.

Puerto Rico is where a lot of investors have exposure because the bonds are a big income generator for a lot of bond fund so that's where you could see exposure for American investors.

PEREIRA: Very interesting, Christine. Thanks for that.

We know the weather created a deadly weekend for the Midwest. We're going to take a look at the damage left behind and take a look at what is in store for the week.

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[07:58:41]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Major storms slamming the Midwest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. Look at that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wild fires are burning across California.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Obama is outlining his plan for clean power.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's time for America and the world to act.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not everyone is happy about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's unconstitutional.

SENATOR TED CRUZ: Data and facts don't support it.

BERMAN: A possible shake up in the 2016 race.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vice President Joe Biden is considering a run.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton readying a new pitch to voters.

CLINTON: I believe that when families are strong, America is strong.

PEREIRA: The Senate votes on a bill to cut all federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I support any legislation to defund Planned Parenthood.

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE: Selling of fetal body parts is just deplorable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, August 3rd, 8:00 in the east. We do begin with breaking news. That's a real tornado. It's touching down in Iowa. It's one of several monsters that is attacking the Midwest. The worst of it is in Illinois. Tens of thousands forced to evacuate from the music festival in Chicago.

PEREIRA: Meanwhile, the wind and hail also proving deadly when a tent came crashing down at the festival outside of Chicago. These storms are not letting up. Chad Myers is tracking all of the developments at the CNN Weather Center. Chad, today is going to be an important day to watch out for.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are going to move to the east, those storms, Michaela.