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Police Chiefs to Discuss Violent Crime Rise; Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore Enters Republican Presidential Race; Drones Fly Close to Jets at JFK Airport; Wing Piece Verified from Boeing 777 as U.S. NTSB Investigators Head to France. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 03, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] KATHY LANIER, CHIEF, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Things like gun control laws are just a small part of all of the things that are coming up here today in terms of accountability for violent offenders and those repeat violent offenders is a key part of this.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So when you talk about that, Chief, accountability for violent offenders, how are they being treated now and how do you think they need to be treated?

LANIER: Well, you look at the statistics that come out city after city after city in Atlanta, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., our top 50 violent gun offenders account for 847 arrests. That's a staggering number. We're hearing it from city after city after city. And when you hear about the high numbers with gun offenses, the percentage of those persons that spend time in jail is hovering between 2 percent and 6 percent. So clearly there's a disconnect. When you have that small number accounting for that large number of violent crimes and such a small amount of time or percentage going and spending time in jail, there's a problem. So I think that is one of the big focuses for today.

KEILAR: I imagine, suspect, it's quite an experience to get together with other people in your position as you're dealing with similar problems.

What do you think can done, Superintendent, in terms of working together to find a solution to this problem?

GARY MCCARTHY, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: First of all, we do this frequently. We're all members of something known as Major City Chief's Association. What we did differently this time was we convened the individuals having this problem right now and we brought -- we invited elected officials. We only got the mayor St. Louis to come because of their schedules but we have prosecutors in the room speaking the same talk, if you will. And what we hope to make a point is that, like Kathy points out, it's not just happening in Chicago or St. Louis. Until the priorities of the criminal justice system come in line with what the policing world is doing, this is going to continue. So we have to get some solutions out there that are practical. We have to have middle-of-the-road conversations and, at the end of the day, we can improve our police performance. As I talked going into the Fourth of July weekend, I was able to put a third more police officers on the street. People asked what was going to happen, I said we're going to seize more guns and nothing is going to change. And guess what? I was correct.

KEILAR: That's a lesson for all of you at this conference today.

Thanks to both of you for joining us, Chicago police superintendent, Gary McCarthy; and Chief Kathy Lanier, the Metropolitan Police Department here in Washington, D.C.

MCCARTHY: Thanks, Brianna.

LANIER: Thank you.

KEILAR: Up next, he arrived relatively late to the presidential race and he won't be part of prime-time debate on Thursday night or of this GOP forum going on tonight. So we'll ask former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore how he plans to compete for the Republican nomination for president. We have him live with us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:37] KEILAR: Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore is the latest Republican to join the presidential race. He joins a very crowded lineup of contenders. You have 17 GOP candidates in all now. And Gilmore says he has experience with national security and the economy that other Republican candidates lack. Gilmore served as Virginia governor from 1998 to 2002. He's also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee and chairman of the congressional panel to assess America's capabilities to respond to a terrorist attack. This is a panel known as the Gilmore Commission. And he is a U.S. Army veteran. He's also here to talk about some of this.

Governor, thank you so much for being with me.

JIM GILMORE, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: Thank you.

KEILAR: There's this forum tonight in New Hampshire. You won't be there. You Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, won't be in attendance. Why not?

GILMORE: I think we got into the race so late they could not make the preparations for us to be there tonight. But I've been to New Hampshire eight times, I visited every county in New Hampshire, I've been there multiple days on each trip and continue to go back because New Hampshire is important.

KEILAR: You ran briefly in 2008. You struggled with fund-raising. You're back at it again. I wonder what lessons you learned and what do you think you bring to a crowded field that other candidates don't?

GILMORE: I think it's the entire package, Brianna. I am a governor and governors are considered legitimate for this debate in this presidential campaign. A governor has run a state. He understands what is going on. But I have an additional component. The fact that I'm a United States Army veteran, a degree in Soviet affairs, that I chaired the National Commission on the Homeland Security for the United States, I was during t governor during the 9/11 attack so I have foreign policy credentials to go along with gubernatorial credentials and that combination doesn't exist elsewhere in the field.

KEILAR: The Monmouth University poll of Republican voters, you have 77 percent of people who said they don't have an opinion of you. That means they don't know you. You have an uphill battle when you look at the numbers. And the fact that you aren't polling in the top 10, so you won't be in the main debate stage Thursday night, creates another challenge. How do you get people to have an opinion of you?

GILMORE: I think it will be a long race. There's an opportunity to appear multiple times band in additional debates. Hopefully, I'll be in the debate on Thursday with FOX. It's a chance to talk about issues of importance to the people of the United States. After a while, the people of the country will say, "Look, I'm tired of the circus. I want a candidate who understands my concerns, jobs, opportunities." And my real concern about the international threat. I'm addressing those issues and I'm capable of doing that.

[13:40:23] KEILAR: Your record is going to be looked at. A big legacy for you when you left the state of Virginia was you went in very well as governor, very well received. You got rid of the state vehicle tax, which voters told you they wanted. But when you left, unable to strike a budget deal, there was a big budget shortfall and that was part of your legacy. Knowing that your record will be scrutinized, if you are to gain more attention, what do you say to voters?

GILMORE: I would say if I had -- Virginia only gets one term. If I had a chance to serve in the second term there wouldn't have been a budget shortfall. We would have constructed on a budget that delivered on the promise of the car tax cut. But it wasn't to keep a legacy it was to deliver a value to working people. A real tax cut. I'm telling you now, the problem we're facing in the United States today is that the economy is dragging and people don't the opportunities that they need and represent tax reform policy can revitalize this economy, get our growth up, get our wages up and give people a chance for a future.

KEILAR: How do you take on an opponent like Donald Trump?

GILMORE: I'm not concerned about Donald Trump. I'm more concerned about the opportunity, as you have said, to get my ideas out there, the idea of revitalizing the economy and the deep experience I have to address the international crisis. It's very real. The danger of the United States is serious. We have multiple challenges at this point because of the weakness of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy. The Obama/Clinton foreign policy has made a dangerous world more dangerous. I believe I can reverse the American decline and get America back on the upswing both in terms of jobs and opportunity and foreign policy.

KEILAR: You say your executive experience as governor matters a lot. There's a number of governors in the race, including Jeb Bush. I want to ask you about his immigration proposal just out today. He says he would crack down on sanctuary cities, local cities that don't enforce federal immigration laws. He would beef up security at the border with more bases, new roads for patrol. He would kick out immigrants who have overstayed their visas and have a biometric exit system.

GILMORE: I think he's right about sanctuary cities and I know we have to secure the border. I'm a little taken aback by his position that he wants to deport five million people who have overstayed their visas. His signature issue for years has been amnesty. Jeb has been about amnesty. So I think he's trying to have it both ways. This is both-way Jeb now. If he can take a signature issue he's cared about so much, amnesty for illegal aliens, then turn on a dime, what will he do as president? Can he be trusted to carry out the things he says he'll do? I think he's looking at Trump's numbers and he's seen the light but the light is Trump's poll numbers.

KEILAR: Governor Gilmore, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

GILMORE: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: To learn more about Governor Jim Gilmore and all of the presidential contenders, 16 more of them, head over to CNN politics.com.

Up next, another near-miss reported in New York as a mystery drone flies too close to a packed passenger plane. We'll take a closer look at this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:48:00] KEILAR: For the third time in the last few days, a small drone has come close to a commercial airliner at JFK Airport. Here's what the latest one sounded like from the cockpit.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

PILOT: There's a drone that's on the runway.

TOWER: Location please?

PILOT: Right, roll out of -- behind this -- Perimeter 3, 5911.

TOWER: Altitude?

PILOT: 30 feet.

TOWER: Left or right?

PILOT: Left side. Little black quadcopter.

TOWER: Flight 5911, continue straight ahead on Bravo and monitor the ground to the left.

PILOT: Bravo. That drone is on the edge of the runway.

TOWER: Say again. PILOT: That drone is on the edge of the runway.

(END AUDIO FEED)

KEILAR: Joining me to talk about this is CNN's Jean Casarez. She is in New York for us.

This is so alarming listening to this pilot, Jean, talking about the drone on the edge of the runway. We're talking about multiple incidents now. Do investigators think it's the same drone or the same person operating it?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's probably at the heart of the investigation going on, but in a recent release, Brianna, the Department of Homeland Security bulletin is saying there are numerous risks with drones being so closed to passenger aircraft, but one big concern is that drones could be exploited as terrorist weapons. So now let's look at the facts of what we have here. Three drone sightings in the last three days by commercial aircraft on approach to JFK in New York City. Who is doing this and why?

The latest was last night, shuttle America from Richmond, Virginia, reported an unmanned aircraft off the left side of the embracer E-145 aircraft. Then on Friday two flights once again landing at JFK spotted drones so close to their aircraft. First, according to the FAA, JetBlue flight 1843 noted a drone at 2:24 in the afternoon when approaching the airport. The cockpit audio recording obtained by CNN said the drone was 900 feet below the nose. Next, 5:00 p.m. on Friday, once again, preparing to land at JFK when the cockpit reported seeing a drone under its wing.

Listen to live cockpit audio as it happened, first from Delta, then JetBlue.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

[13:50:26] TOWER: Delta 407.

DELTA PILOT: Yeah, about a mile back there was a drone flying just under the southwest side of this abandoned airport here.

TOWER: At what altitude would you say that was?

DELTA PILOT: I would say probably about a hundred feet below us just off to the right wing.

JETBLUE PILOT: We, we were on the final 3-1 right. About 800, 900 feet was our altitude. 100 feet below us was a drone.

TOWER: Did you see what color, what shape? And can you give me what direction?

JETBLUE PILOT: It was one of those four-bladed drones but color or direction, I'm not sure, ma'am. It just popped right underneath our nose.

TOWER: JetBlue 1934, Roger. And that was when you were about a mile final, right?

JETBLUE TOWER: Yes, ma'am.

(END AUDIO FEED)

CASAREZ: Senator Chuck Schumer speaking today on the issue says he has an answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D), NEW YORK: There is an elegant solution, which is called geo fencing. You can build into the software of a drone, at nominal costs, a program that doesn't let them fly in certain places, within two miles of an airport, above 500 feet, over the Empire State Building or the Pentagon. It's cheap. It doesn't interfere with hobbyists and others, who want or need drones, and will help solve the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Brianna, the FAA says, in general, across the country, it gets about two reports per day from pilots saying they have spotted an unmanned aerial vehicle.

KEILAR: Wow. Those are staggering statistics.

Jean Casarez, thanks so much. Great report.

And ahead, we may be closer to knowing the fate of MH370. What investigators will be doing in the coming day to try to solve that mystery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:23] KEILAR: Happening right now, U.S. transportation investigators are heading to France and they will be helping French authorities to figure out if this portion of a plane wing found last week off of Reunion Island is from flight MH370.

Earlier today, the Malaysian transport minister confirmed a very valuable piece of information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIOW TIONG LAI, MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: The wreckage found earlier is confirmed to be the flaperon from a Boeing 777.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The Malaysia Airlines plane, a Boeing 777, disappeared last year with 239 souls on board, and until now, no pieces of the plane had been found.

I have David Gallo with me, a CNN contributor, a director of Special Projects at the Oceanographic Institution. It's been a while now, almost a year and a half since this plane

disappeared. If this is from flight 370, what does that tell us about where it went down?

DAVID GALLO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS, OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: Brianna, I think it's going to be tough from this one piece to tell us much about where it went down. Maybe in very general terms, that it went down somewhere in the eastern side of the Indian Ocean. I don't think it's going to change much. However, I do think that it's already had this horrific effect on the family so the emotional impact is huge. The teams that are out there, I think it gives them a boost, because up until now, this is the only piece of evidence that we have that a plane actually impacted the water in the southern Indian Ocean. So at least that's something for them to go on. And they are halfway down so this would give them a boost to continue.

KEILAR: Do we get any clues, I wonder, from the condition of the flaperon, assuming it is from 370? You can see in the video there, there are barnacles on it, it's accumulated that kind of debris along the way. Does that give you a sense of where it might have rested?

GALLO: Yeah, Brianna. Yes. The simple answer, yes, in general terms. I think we'll have to wait until the forensic biologists and the like get their hands on it and see what they can tell us. But I know from the Air France 447 experience, in being looking at that debris, that the BEA will get an awful lot of information about when and how this might have come off the aircraft and they will be able to tell it by looking at the connectors a the metal skin. I think we're about to hear a little bit of a generalized story about how this piece came to be separated from the rest of the plane.

KEILAR: We'll hear maybe a generalized story. And just real quick, before I let you go and your satellite window closes, does this help towards finding that important black box?

GALLO: Again, only a boost for the search teams. I don't think there's going to be enough information from this one piece to change what they are doing already, which is a methodical search of the sea floor.

KEILAR: Dave Gallo, thank you so much. Appreciate you being with us.

President Obama is making yet another bold move today. In just minutes, he'll announce a plan to limit the level of green house gas emissions from power e plants. The will be largest effort ever made to fight the alarming rise in global temperatures over recent years. That's what supporters say. And it will require involvement from state governments. It will likely be a tough fight for the president. Many states have already vowed to resist. And we'll be bringing that to you live when it happens.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on "The Situation Room."

The news continues right now. [14:00:07]BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. You're watching CNN.