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Storms Hit Midwest; Wildfires Threaten Large Parts of California; White House to Issue Executive Order on Carbon Reduction in Power Plants; Joe Biden May Run for Democratic Presidential Nomination; Manhunt for Memphis Cop Killer Intensifies; Is Debris from Flight 370?. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 03, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:04] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: These storms are not letting up. Chad Myers is tracking all the developments in 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, 110 reports of hail yesterday, 97 reports of wind damage, and six tornados. We have the pictures from overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, look at that. That's something else.

MYERS: A stark white tornado against a black sky, evidence of what has been slamming the Midwest. Illinois bearing the major brunt of these storms, one man killed, three seriously injured, and more than a dozen hospitalized. After large hail and 60 miles per hour winds whipped through a festival in Wooddale, Illinois, uprooting a commercialized tent and toppling it onto the crowd.

In Chicago's Grand Park, severe weather forced a temporary evacuation of the famous Lollapalooza music festival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's crazy right now. There's so many people here that just abandoned the whole situation. It's pretty wild.

MYERS: Tens of thousands of concert goers spilling out of the streets of downtown Chicago to only three emergency shelters. The festival resuming performances an hour later.

In Michigan a tornado touching down north of Detroit, large hail, torrential downpours, and wind gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour pounding several communities there. Wide spread power outages across the state leaving tens of thousands in the dark. The dramatic video of this tornado near Nevinville, Iowa, a reminder of nature's destructive power. The residents here got lucky. No one was hurt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS: So the potential today goes all the way from Montreal all the way back down to Louisville and northern Kentucky. We'll watch it for you here. Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Chad.

And 21 wild fires are burning out of control in California right now. The worst of them is called the rocky fire. It's 100 miles north of San Francisco and it's only at five percent containment. It already destroyed two dozen homes and threatens thousands more. So let's get live to CNN's Stephanie Elam live in Colusa County, California. We know it's a state of emergency there. But the one thing they need most, obviously, is water, and they're not going to get that.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If only we could get water for so many reasons, Chris. Good morning to you. We are standing here in Colusa County right at the intersection of two of these highways where they have evacuated people. We actually drove down this road yesterday to get a better look at the fire and see the active fire line. And while we were out there, our satellite truck operator -- we can't talk to each other because there's no cell signal out here, but he was able to hear people in a home as a fire changed directions and started coming toward them trying to pack up. That's what the people here are dealing with.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: Flames crackling, spreading into the night. Overnight lightning, winds, and low humidity further fuelling the flames at a time when firefighters normally gain some ground. At least 21 wildfires are burning across California, exacerbated by the state's drought. More than 9,000 firefighters battling those flames. The state's largest wildfire, the rocky fire, ravaging counties north of San Francisco, this inferno already incinerating more than 50,000 acres.

CAPT. STEVE KAUFMANN, CAL FIRE: There are firefighters that have 20, 25, 30 years on the job that have never seen fire behavior like we've seen here the last couple of days here in the rocky fire.

ELAM: Firefighters using many resources to try to tame the fire. Some crews actually using tools to set fires, this to prevent the progress of a fire by taking away the fuel.

We're standing along highway 16, California 16, and what they want to do is contain this fire so it doesn't jump across this road. So a lot of fires backfires being built on the opposite side. But as you take a look at the active fire here, you can see the wind is really pushing it.

Thousands of people and structures under evacuation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got out of the meeting and it looked like a bomb had went off over here.

ELAM: As dozens of residences and buildings are now left smoldering.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All hell broke loose so fast. Everyone we know, their houses are ashes right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ELAM: And what makes this fire so different from other fires is the

fact that on Saturday it was about 20,000 acres and it ballooned up to them mid 40,000 acre overnight. That's weird because that's when humidity usually comes up and that helps the firefighters. It didn't happen in this case. And that's what makes this fire so scary, Michaela.

You wish mother nature gives you a break in that instance and it certainly did not. All right, Steph, we'll be watching it with you. And do take care out there.

Several political showdowns brewing on Capitol Hill this morning. Republicans are threatening legal action to block President Obama's new plan to combat climate change before it's even unveiled while the Senate prepares for a vote to halt federal funding for Planned Parenthood. We have every angle covered for you beginning with CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. Michelle?

[08:05:09] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela. This is another one of those whoa kind of moves that President Obama keeps wanting to do in this, the fourth quarter of his presidency. The administration said if this plan is going to reduce carbon emissions specifically from power plants by 32 percent over 2005 levels by the year 2030. But they say it's also going to have the sweeping effects even medically. It's going to reduce the number of premature death due to emissions by some 90 percent over 2005 levels, child with asthma attacks by 2030. And economically they say it's going to cut energy costs and create jobs because there's a greater emphasis on clean energy. But that is exactly the opposite of what critics say it's going to do. Here is Jeb Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, (R) FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I think it's a disaster. It's taking -- it's typical of the Obama administration -- taking executive power he doesn't have. For the first time they have extended this to require states in a very coercive way, in a very confusing and convoluted way, to deal with this issue. And I believe it unconstitutional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So you have Republicans, you have the mining industry, climate change doubters and deniers jumping all over this. And some states are now threatening to sue the administration over it.

But the White House, as you know, they're giving states more than a year to come up with a plan, years and years to phase it in. They say that is plenty of time to make this happen, Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Michelle, thank you for that.

Also this morning, Hillary Clinton playing nice in her first campaign ad this morning. But as Clinton tries to distance herself from the pack, the field could be getting more crowded with a potential run from vice president Joe Biden. Let's bring in CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny with more on that. Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. Vice President Joe Biden is carefully watching this presidential campaign, and he's still seriously considering whether he should jump in to challenge Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democratic field.

Now, several of his close friends and advisors told me over the weekend they're urging him to do it. They say they believe he would be a stronger and more authentic Democratic nominee. They also worry that Hillary Clinton's favorability and trust ratings have already taken a hit and could continue to fall.

Now, as all of this intrigue grows, Clinton is launching her first campaign ad starting tomorrow, intended, as you said, Michaela, to soften her image and remind voters of her life story, including how she went to a man that defeated her in 2008. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The senator who made sure the heroes and families of 9/11 got the care they need, the secretary of state who joined the cabinet of the man who defeated her, because when your president calls, you serve, and now a new title -- grandma.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I believe that when families are strong America is strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, these ads were filmed two months ago aids tell me, so they're not in direct response to this flurry of speculation about Joe Biden. But one of the reasons he's giving this a careful look is a conversation he had with his son Beau before he died of brain cancer back in May. He urged his father to run for president then.

Now the Clinton campaign is watching all this Biden decision with much, much interest. A top aid tells me this morning, they do not expect him to actually jump in. But even if he did, she has a big start in terms of raising money and building an organization. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Jeff, thank you very much for the reporting, appreciate it.

Let's get a take on these three big items today, what is going on with the clean power, what is going on with Planned Parenthood, and what is going on with Joe Biden. We have White House press secretary Josh Earnest. Josh Earnest, let's see if you can make news for us on all three of these headlines. If you do, I will by you one bottle of whatever it that makes your hair look so good.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: All right, question number one, the clean power proposal that you put out, why do it as executive action? Why not do it the right way, in quotes, and push it as legislation and let the Congress pass the law?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, Chris, we've seen Congress resist these kinds of steps for decades. And the fact is the president is using authority that Congress has already given the administration through the Clean Air Act to implement the most significant, historically important rules to limit carbon pollution. And it means taking on some special interests.

So, look, the fact is we expect that the special interests and the politicians in their pockets are going to squeal. But the fact of the matter is we're putting forward a rule that is in the best interest of our economy. It's going to lower costs for consumers. And it's actually going to do something really important for the public health of our country, particularly those kids that are struggling with asthma.

So the president believes that this is an important rule and the president, frankly, is pleased. When the president in 2007 and 2008 campaigned on change we can believe in, it meant finally confronting the tough issues that for so long Washington had been putting off. And that's exactly what we're doing today.

CUOMO: But the other side will say, yes, except you're doing it the way you always do it, which is excluding them from the process, creating animosity, only caring about the states that are the same color of your tie, because you're going to crush in the red states that are producing this fuel that your friends on the west and east coast benefit from.

[08:10:15] EARNEST: Well, Chris, these are the kinds of arguments that we've heard for decades. And again, this is the special interest squealing. The fact of the matter is we put out an initial proposal a year ago. In that time the EPA heard 4 million comments from people all across the country, and they took to heart that feedback and those comments.

And what the rule has actually done is actually given states a year to submit their plan to comply. It has given them two additional years before they have to start implementing that plan. And essentially this is a proposal that sets targets and then allows states to make their own decisions about how they want to achieve them. That's exactly the kind of flexibility we want if we want this proposal to succeed.

But, ultimately, at some point our policy makers are going to have to start making the tough decisions to confront carbon pollution, to confront climate change, and do it in a way that is both good for our economy and good for middle class families. That's exactly what this rule has done.

CUOMO: Would you acknowledge that it would be better if you can do it through the legislative process?

EARNEST: We would love to have some more cooperation from members of Congress. But, look, Chis, it's not just since President Obama took off we've seen Congress resist taking forceful action to prevent climate change. These are tough issues. There's no immediate short- term payoff for confronting these issues.

But over the long-term what we can do, what we're talking about is reducing carbon pollution by 32 percent by 2030. This is a longer term goal. But in that time what we can do is we can turbo charge our investment in clean energy. It's going to be good for our economy. We can improve efficiency measures that are actually going to save consumers money at the pump. We can actually reduce the number of children who contract asthma. And we can make it -- make the air cleaner for our children breathing the air. And that means children suffering from asthma are going to have fewer asthma attacks.

So, look, there are a variety of benefits associated with this. But this is not a short term, easy deal. This is a longer term thing that is clearly in the best interest of our country and our planet.

CUOMO: Next topic -- you can't get the 60 votes in all likelihood in the Senate because you won't get enough lefties to join on to turn over the funding for Planned Parenthood. Let's say it's not a government shutdown. But is this a moment in time to take a look at what Planned Parenthood does and say selling fetal baby parts for science or for whatever reason is not good, because that's what the other side is saying.

EARNEST: Well, Chris, I don't have a whole lot of insight into the specific policies and procedures that Planned Parenthood follows. But what they say is they say they follow the highest ethical standards in the industry.

CUOMO: You saw the videos. No high ethical standards in play there. Base stuff, ugly stuff.

EARNEST: Chris, there's no denying the fact that the organization that is clearly anti-Planned Parenthood that put out the videos put them out not because of news value but because of shock value. And I haven't seen the videos, but even based on the news coverage, those videos are shocking.

But those who have taken a look at the videos have raised concerns about whether or not those videos are authentic, about whether or not they have been selectively edited in a way to misconstrue or even distort or mislead about what it is that Planned Parenthood actually does.

So I haven't seen the videos. I can't render my own judgment on that. But people who have looked at the videos have raised significant concerns about that. And I think anybody would question the source. I think that's legitimate.

What the president has said is that Planned Parenthood provides valuable services, health care services, for men and women all across the country. And he would veto any legislation that tried to advance wholesale defunding for Planned Parenthood because federal rules already require that Planned Parenthood they cannot use federal money to perform abortions. But what they do is they do use federal funding to provide health care services for men and women all across the country. That is a valuable service. And it would be a shame if we saw Republicans once again trying to take a step that would limit women's access to health care.

CUOMO: All right, last issue, Josh Earnest. Is it true that you're thinking about leaving early from the administration to work on Joe Biden's campaign? Is it true? Is it true?

EARNEST: Listen, Joe Biden has served this administration admirably. The president has often described choosing Joe Biden to be his running mate as the smartest decision he has ever made in politics.

And despite all of that hype, Vice President Biden has actually exceeded that hype. He is somebody who has a strong track record of fighting for the middle class. That's exactly what he's done as vice president. For decades when he was in the Congress he built important foreign policy relationships around the globe and has advanced the interests of the United States. He has used those relationships as vice president of the United States to continue it to advance our interest.

So there is no denying that Vice President Biden has been a terrific vice president, but ultimately he has his own personal decision to make about whether or not he wants to run for the presidency of the United States.

[08:15:02] And I think that there are a lot of people in Washington, D.C., that if -- certainly a lot of Democrats -- that if he made the decision, that they would be -- that they'd be honored to work with him. But the fact is, we've got some great candidates on the Democratic side already, and but ultimately each of the candidates will have to make up their own mind about whether or not they want to be a candidate.

CUOMO: Josh Earnest refusing to say that no, he's not leaving early to work on a Biden campaign. That makes news. That gets you a bottle of whatever it is that makes your hair look so damn good.

Thank you for joining us on NEW DAY, as always, sir.

EARNEST: Good to be with you, Chris. Take care, man.

CUOMO: All right. Mick?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: There is a manhunt underway in Memphis this morning. This is the suspect who allegedly gunned down Officer Sean Bolton Saturday night.

CNN national correspondent Boris Sanchez joins us now with the very latest and what we need to know about this individual.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

That suspect, 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, he's at large and considered armed and dangerous. Officials say he is the man that shot and killed 33-year-old Officer Sean Bolton on Saturday night.

Bolton was apparently approaching a car that was parked illegally and he shun a light on it. That's when Wilbourn confronted him and opened fire killing him. To be clear, Wilbourn was the passenger in the car. The driver took off, later turned himself into police. Officers found a digital scale and a bag of marijuana inside the car, leading them to believe that Bolton interrupted a drug sale. They say Wilbourn acted recklessly and ruined lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONEY ARMSTRONG, DIRECTOR, MEMPHIS POLICE DEPT.: When you look at this individual, you're looking at a coward. He's a coward. He literally destroyed a family. Look at the impact it's had on this department, this community, this city for less than two grams of marijuana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: A very emotional time for the city of Memphis. We should note, there is a $10,000 reward for any information that will lead to the capture of Wilbourn. He was actually on supervised release. He was serving a 10-year sentence for robbery.

CUOMO: So much lost just for so little. Boris, thank you very much. Appreciate the reporting. We'll keep the picture out there.

Secretary of State John Kerry says U.S. ties with Egypt are actually getting stronger despite some pretty hard disagreements over Cairo's human rights record. Kerry was in Cairo for bilateral talks and trying to get Egyptian officials on board with the Iran nuclear deal. Kerry says it will make that country and the region safer.

Now, last week, the U.S. delivered eight fighter jets to Egypt to use against the insurgents in the Sinai Peninsula.

PEREIRA: This is just the saddest story and such tragedy out of Kansas this morning. A 9 year-old bat boy has died after he was hit by a warm upswing. This all happened Saturday during a National Baseball Congress World Series game, essentially a summer league for college players.

Kaiser Carlile, the 9-year-old, was picking up a bat when a batter accidentally swung and hit him in the head. Kaiser was wearing a helmet but it wasn't enough. The team decided to play and continue the game. They thought that is what Kaiser would have wanted.

CUOMO: Well, I mean, look, there's no way to make this anything than it is. It's just horrible. I mean, I have one of these at home, a little 9-year-old who loves baseball.

PEREIRA: Loves the game.

CUOMO: He had the helmet on. It was a practice swing.

PEREIRA: I know.

CUOMO: He took a few steps and he fell down. They thought he was going to make it.

PEREIRA: And that kind of thing can happen so quickly, right?

CUOMO: I know, I mean, almost never does. But they thought he was going to make it this kid, and then he wound up not. Our thoughts and prayers, I mean, you know, we say this all the time, but you can't mean it more than in a situation like this for the family of this little boy.

PEREIRA: And for the team, too, because they're going to feel a tremendous amount of grief.

CUOMO: These are young guys playing the game. Horrible all around. We'll let you know what happens in terms of remembering this little boy and what the team does about it.

PEREIRA: All right. A big week in the search for MH370. Experts are working to confirm if debris belongs to the missing 777. As officials continue to scour the shores of Reunion Island for more clues. But is any of this going to reveal what happened to that plane and its 239 people on board?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:38] PEREIRA: Malaysian officials confirm a wing part found on a remote island in the Indian Ocean last week is from a Boeing 777. There's only one 777 missing in the world unaccounted for, and that's Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Why aren't investigators confirming that debris is indeed from the doomed jet?

Joining me, our CNN aviation analyst David Soucie, a former FAA investigators, and CNN aviation analyst and science correspondent for PBS News, our Mr. Miles O'Brien. I should have said Mr. David Soucie.

Sorry, gentlemen, a little disparity there. Good to have you both.

So many things to wade through. David, I'm going to pepper a few at you --

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: OK.

PEREIRA: -- because I know you have actually been to the very lab that the flaperon is in, in France, where they are very carefully looking at it.

Tell us a little bit about that and are you feeling confident we should get some information in the next 24 hours or so.

SOUCIE: I think it will be Wednesday before we get any information, really any confirmation. But this whole information release we've had from the beginning is going to stop right now. These -- the French investigators are the professionals. These are the best in the world. There's no way they're going to say anything until they know conclusively, forensically what they have of them.

PEREIRA: And you're saying that it's not just confirming that it is from MH370, but there's a lot of other information that we can get from that flaperon and its condition, correct? SOUCIE: Well, one of the things you look at with that flaperon is the

front leading edge has very little damage but the back, the trailing edge, is really just broken up into pieces. And that's indicative --

PEREIRA: What does that say?

SOUCIE: That's indicative of what we call transonic flooder which would indicate above mach 1 or nearly mach 1 speeds.

So, what that indicate is that at point, the aircraft is either gone into a dive and exceeded the mach rating, and that point, the trailing edge flooders, it shakes and it actually breaks up apart and removes itself and ejected from the aircraft. So, that's one of the things I'll be looking at. The other possibility, of course, is that it came off when it hit the water. But that's less likely because of the fact that there's not type of damage.

PEREIRA: Even those two options, and those are just two possibilities that you talked to us about, can that change the search area?

SOUCIE: It certainly can, because one of the assumptions that was made by the investigators into finding the width of that search frame is after the seventh ping, which is when it supposedly ran out of fuel it glided -- it could have glided. That's what they thought. It could have glided.

If it glided, the width of the search path can be wide.

[08:25:01] But if it ran out of fuel and shortly thereafter went into a spiraling dive, then they can narrow the search path smaller and narrow and focus the search a little bit better.

PEREIRA: Miles, let's bring you in, because we know the U.S. intelligence assessment pointed that it was a deliberate action that veered the plane off course, but did not say it was deliberately crashed. Is there a scenario that makes you still believe there's a possibility that it could have been deliberately crashed?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, I think that's where we are right now. When you look at this flight route and you look at the scenario and you look at the loss of communication when it occurred. All of that stacks up to a deliberate action.

Now, who did that whether it was the flight crew itself or someone else in that airplane remains to be seen. It will only be known with certainty once the wreckage is found and ultimately the black box is.

PEREIRA: And there's -- I remember this is a theory we talked about months ago. We talked about the possibility that the electronics bay may not have been secure and that somebody could have access that and commandeered the plane. Thoughts?

O'BRIEN: It's the great Achilles heel of the Boeing 777. The door to the electronics and equipment bay is outside of the cockpit besides the first class galley. And Boeing shifts it unlock. The airline has to ask for a locked kit. Some airlines have done it. Some have not. It is not mandated by regulation.

And this particular door was open. So, there's tremendous possibility to take control literally of the airplane. Everything goes through there. Navigation, flight control all the navigations go in that room. You can stand up and walk around in it.

PEREIRA: I want to ask you this, I think it's something that many of us, it's how I started the premise of the conversation. If the Malaysians are correct and they say this is a 777. We also know by process of elimination that what we know of is there's only one missing 777, one unaccounted 777 in the world. And then, ergo, is this not MH370? Why the reluctance to flat out just say it?

Miles?

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, they want to be systematic about it. But I think you and I and everybody here, we can all agree this is part of MH370. Investigators will take their time and they will go through a process, and it will take them sometime to identify it first of all, that all come a little quicker. But then they'll go through a whole process of analyzing the wreckage which involves things like X-raying it and selectively damaging it to find out what happened. That will take longer.

PEREIRA: You agree, David?

SOUCIE: Yes, I do. And, remember, most accident investigations we wait a year to two years to get any information whatsoever. So, it's not uncommon to wait for a forensic analysis. And that's the difference between a casual observation, which is what we're doing right now, and speculating what might have happened, versus a forensic analysis. Forensic analysis takes time.

PEREIRA: Yes, it really does.

David Soucie, Miles O'Brien, as always, our thanks to you both.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Mick.

Social media is on fire about those Planned Parenthood videos. And so is a big part of the GOP. Some in Congress threatening to shut down the government if funding isn't pulled for the health care provider. We have a woman in Congress pushing for just that. We'll test the case. Please watch and weigh in ahead.

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