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At This Hour

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Announces His Presidential Bid; Top Prison Officials At Clinton Correctional Placed On Administrative Leave; Americans On High Alert At Possibility Of Terrorist Attack On July 4th. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 30, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00] BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: So let the speculation begin about who else might be the host in the future. Mark Cuban, Martha Stewart, Warren Buffett. Lots of names out there of millionaires and billionaires that might be great hosts but for now all we know is it won't be Donald Trump. Back to you.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Brian Stelter, thank you so much for that. And "At This Hour with Berman and Bolduan" starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. It is 11:00 A.M. in the east which means someone somewhere is announcing they are running for president. Laugh not, more candidates have officially entered the race during the 11:00 A.M. hour than any other hour of the day.

BOLDUAN: We have done the research.

BERMAN: Making it the most presidential 60 minutes on television before Iowa, before New Hampshire there is the "At This Hour" primary. 16 or 17 will enter, one will leave.

BOLDUAN: Just moments from now, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey will officially join 13 other Republicans in the field, always unpredictable, almost always brash. Christie is launching his tell it like it is campaign. He was once not too long ago considered a potential front-runner but now Christie's star has fallen following the Bridgegate scandal and a pretty troubled economy back home in New Jersey.

BERMAN: He's obviously hoping for a resurgence, especially in New Hampshire which is now really a make or break state for his campaign. We will take his big announcement when it happens in a few minutes live.

BOLDUAN: But first right now we have breaking news out of Upstate, New York. CNN has learned that top prison officials, including the superintendent of the Clinton Correctional Facility, have been placed on administrative leave, this as the investigation into that breakout picks up steam.

BERMAN: Yes. How did Richard Matt and David Sweat get the tools and the know-how to escape that maximum security prison? Two prison workers are already charged with helping the killers escape, but these latest developments suggest a wider systemic problem behind those walls, and we now know that the FBI is investigating corruption and alleged drug trafficking there.

Our Jean Casarez is in Dannemora with the new breaking news. Prison officials on ice.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We're right here at the prison, and you know, we've watched prison employees and correctional officers walk into the prison. A normal day seemingly, but now we were able to, to confirm a state official has been briefed that the superintendent, which New York gives the name to the warden.

So that's the head of the prison, the superintendent is the warden of the prison, and the deputy superintendent. Both have been placed on administrative leave from Clinton Correctional right behind me. And this at the same time this is happening a law enforcement source has confirmed with CNN that the FBI is conducting an investigation inside the prison to see if, in fact, there is any type of drug trafficking going on. They have talked to employees, employees have said they know about heroin, that inmates have been using.

So the question is how did they get it? And that question of course, will be the focus of the investigation. Also looking at employees to see if they could be a part of any drug trafficking network. But the news that we have just confirmed, a state official has been briefed that the superintendent and the deputy superintendent of Clinton maximum security prison has been placed on administrative leave.

BERMAN: Perhaps not surprising given the scope of the issues now being investigated. Jean Casarez, thanks so much.

BOLDUAN: And the scope of the investigation in that, -

BERMAN: Indeed.

BOLDUAN: - in that facility is now facing. Let's discuss this and much more with Edward Gavin, former deputy warden with the New York City Department of Corrections. It's always great to have you. Thank you so much for joining us.

So first, let's get at - I want to get your reaction to this news. The fact that the superintendent, the deputy superintendent of Cli - Clinton Correctional, they are now put on administrative leave in light of this investigation, a federal investigation included. Does this surprise you?

EDWARD GAVIN, FORMER DEPUTY WARDEN, NYC DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: No, it doesn't. As I said in an earlier broadcast, there's a directive control and search for contraband, 4910, and that directive is promulgated to ensure that corrections staff search inmate living quarters at least once a week and submit reports in writing to the superintendent. It would appear to me that, that wasn't done, unfortunately.

BERMAN: Look, that's obviously a rule that, that may have been broken, but look at the big picture here. The big picture here is that a high-profile prison escape of two convicted killers, you had an accusations now that people may have helped with that and now, you have an investigation of possible drug trafficking not just among the prisoners, but among the guards as well. This seems extraordinarily unusual.

GAVIN: Well, that's why we have redundancies built into the system, and those redundancies come from the directive. You have tour commanders, sergeants, and officers. Had they been doing their job, this wouldn't have happened. This great escape, as you call it, wouldn't have happened in the first place, and that's what I, I keep getting back to. It's - you have to - it, it al - it always comes back to the basics.

BOLDUAN: Now, what that you are looking at, you're not only looking at this drug trafficking investigation, I think the big - folks know that drugs get into prisons, right?

[11:05:00] GAVIN: That's true.

BOLDUAN: That's the unfortunate truth, but it involves - the potential involvement of guards, is that, is that have to happen in order for there to be drugs in the prison?

GAVIN: No. Sometimes the contraband can be introduced by the visitors.

BOLDUAN: But - do you think in this case would it surprise you if guards were involved? When we're talking about a potential drug ring that they are investigating?

GAVIN: I, I think there's a handful of bad apples who want to be profiteers, -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GAVIN: - and they may be civilian or uniformed employees, but also it's important to remember that the contraband can come in when an inmate has a visit.

BOLDUAN: Have you seen that before?

GAVIN: Oh, absolutely. I had a case in 1997 where a woman came in with her baby to visit an inmate, and they secreted cocaine on the child. And when we tested the white substance, it was a - it was cocaine, and she was visiting another inmate who happened to be charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance. What I, I kind - I analyzed it and I said to myself maybe she was bringing in drugs to this inmate because she was the supplier, that was her salesperson and she wanted to silence her.

So we wind up locking up the visitor who was dressed in the nines. We locked her up for criminal possession of a controlled substance, promoting prison contraband and endangering the welfare of a child. And her husband was on the other side of the (Rikers Almond Bridges) his brand new Mercedes and I told them, you know, you're not going to get your kid back.

I wind up calling the Scarsdale Police Department. They told me that this particular family was living in a $2 million home. They eventually - the feds were actually brought in. They made a case and they did a RICO case and they seized that house and all the cars.

BOLDUAN: It's account unraveling.

GAVIN: So it's - again, a simple thing like that leading to...

BOLDUAN: A huge bust.

GAVIN: Yes.

BERMAN: So there are corruption charges. Now, or at least a corruption investigation from the FBI looking into this. And, and again, I'm taken by the fact that the superintendent is now on administrative leave. In a prison, in a prison system, is it a case where the buck stops here? Can you have something, a mishap like what happened inside Clinton Correctional, without the superintendent being at least minimally culpable?

GAVIN: I believe as I, as I said earlier, the culpability lies because the, the, the failures here were catastrophic. The searches weren't conducted and the tours of inspection on the midnight tour weren't conducted. It's just those two things. Now, the superintendent...

BERMAN: If there's drug trafficking it's way beyond those two things.

GAVIN: No. No, it's not. The superintendent, the deputy superintendent set, set the, set the, the, the, the tone for the entire institution, and my philosophy, is just very simple, security is number one. Number one. And obviously they failed at that mission.

BOLDUAN: And they should be looking at a lot of changes coming to that - coming to Clinton Correctional and maybe New York statewide as they are looking into this. Edward Gavin, it's great to have you.

GAVIN: Thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: Thanks a lot. Thank you. Coming up for us, Americans on high alert as officials warn that terrorists could be plotting an attack around the Fourth of July holiday. The head of the House Homeland Security Committee, he told us - he joins - he's joining us, and he told us to expect a big announcement soon.

BERMAN: Plus, he has no prompter, no written speech, so what will Chris Christie say other than he's running for president? That announcement happens At This Hour, coming up.

[00:11:10] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Deadline extended. We're now learning that from the U.S. State Department that they have announced nuclear negotiations with Iran will continue beyond today's deadline. The extension of course, gives more time for diplomats to try to reach a long-term solution on the very sensitive nuclear issue.

BERMAN: That new deadline is July 7th. So an extra week there. Yes, the other news you were watching right now, you can see it right there on the screen happening now, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he will take the stage any moment right now in his former high school in his childhood hometown of Livingston, New Jersey, and will announce that he is running for president.

BOLDUAN: CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash is there at the event with a little preview. So Dana, we're waiting for the introduction, but what are you already expecting and hearing about the speech?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me just sort of tell you what's going on behind me. There's a woman by the name of Lynn Groney who was Chris Christie's classmate here at Livingston High School and at - classmate of his - and his wife at the University of Delaware. So it just kind of speaks to the kind of event that they're trying to create here, somebody who is not famous, not well known but somebody who can speak to his bio, speak to the kind of person he was when he was a baseball player here in the '80s, when he was class president here. They're just talking about behind me when he was in Livingston High School.

That's the kind of feel and the vibe that they're trying to put forward about who he is. And, and if you see the kind of setting where this is, they tried to make it look and feel as much like a town hall setting as is possible for a presidential announcement because that is what Chris Christie believes he is known for here in New Jersey. He's gone around the state in his one and a half terms here and talked to the people. He is banking on that ability, the ability to spar with voters, to kind of answer questions as much as possible to come back from where he is right now, which is much, much lower than he ever expected to be let's say a year and a half ago to do that in New Hampshire, and that's where he's going to go after he gives his big announcement speech in a few minutes, Kate and John.

BERMAN: You know, Dana, it's interesting. His approval rating in his home state right now is low, it's you know, 30 percent, 55 percent disapprove. You say he's being announced by a high school classmate to, to shine the light on what he was before perhaps he was governor. You know, another high school classmate, David Wildstein, has also shaped perceptions right now. So how was this nascent Christie campaign going to move past the problems that has surrounded him for the last you know, 18 months or so?

BASH: It's not going to be easy. They're going to try to do it kind of one voter at a time, the old-fashioned way, especially in the state of New Hampshire. He's going to be there for five days following this announcement. And, and you mentioned the fact that things have changed so much for him. I mean, it's part to imagine how far Chris Christie has fallen since he won re-election by over 60 percent of the vote. This is a Republican, remember, in a very blue state, and everybody

was looking to him when he did that as kind of the model for somebody who can reach across the aisle, who can beat a democrat, and because of, as you mentioned, the Bridgegate scandal, not just that, the fact the economy is not doing well here, that the credit rating has been downgraded eight times since he's been governor.

[11:15:00] All of those reasons it, it make it very hard for him to come back from where he was before. I'm going to toss it back to you because I hear that they're announcing him behind me.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. You talk about - it's hard to move where he was from before. Now it's hard to even hear you as the music turns on. It looks clearly as they move the podium, move the podium aside, it looks like Chris Christie is making his way up to the stage to make his announcement, official announcement that he will be running for president. He is the 14th Republican that will be joining the field.

BERMAN: Let's watch the announcement. Hopefully he will pop into frame any minute now. Chris Christie with a big task ahead. Again, once a front-runner, even - we have a poll showing him as the front- runner back in 2013. But now, way, way back in his first fight will be the - be among the top 10 in the Republican field. So he gets in these debates in August and September. There he is. Let's watch the announcement.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you New Jersey. Thank you. And thank you, thank you to Livingston. You know lots of people have asked me over the course of last week, why here? Why here? Because everything started here for me. Everything started here for me.

The confidence. The education. The friends. The family. And the love that I've always felt for and from this community. When I decided to make this announcement, there wasn't any choice. I had to come home and Livingston is home for me.

And I want to thank Sheila Goldclang, a dear friend of mine and my mom's and a wonderful representative of this town for welcoming us here today.

And I want to thank my friend Lynn Groney. Now, listen, this is very much - you - some of you might be confused. You know, it, it, it, it may be that you thought she was being booed by her high school classmates. She was not. For reasons that I will not explain, Lynn's nickname in high school was the juice. Hence, it's not a boo, it's the juice. And Lynn, thank you for being here.

I'm also here, because this is where my family raised me. You'll hear a lot, and have heard a lot from me about my mother and father. All of us know that for good and for bad, where we come from is our parents. And so you heard Sheila and Lynn both talked about my mom today. I'm here in Livingston because all those years ago, my mother and father became the first of either of their families to leave the city of Newark and come here and make this home for us. My mom isn't with us today, but I feel her. And my dad is with me here today and I'm really, really privileged to have him.

They raised my brother and I and brought us here to Livingston when we were four years old and two years old. And then our sister Dawn joined us a few years later. And this is where we grew up. These were the fields we played on. These are the playgrounds we played on. This is the school we built our friends with and learned with. And up until I left to share a room with Mary Pat, I shared a room with Todd the entire time. It was a smooth transition. And my sister Dawn and Todd are as big a part of today as anybody else and they're both here and I love them both. Thank you.

[11:20:00] Everyone thinks I'm the politician in the family. We did a coin flip when we got married. I called tails. Tails never fails so I'm the guy who ran. But the politician just as good as me in the family is the woman that I met all those years ago at the University of Delaware. From a family of 10 people. People say why aren't you shine in the crowd, I say you should see the family I married into. My wife has been an indispensable part of everything that I've done with my life over the last 30 years and she is largely responsible for the four amazing people that you see standing with her.

And ever since I've been governor, I've been happy to use the veto at home too. And so far so good I have not been overridden there either. So I'm glad they're here today and for Andrew and Sarah and Patrick and Bridget, I couldn't be prouder of four children than I am of them.

I told you my parents moved to Livingston and they moved to Livingston to make this part of their fulfillment of their dream. Of their version of the American dream. They both lost their fathers at a young age and were raised by extraordinarily strong women under really difficult circumstances. My dad, one of the best students in his high school class, admitted to Columbia University. Because his father passed away, he couldn't go. They didn't have the money. He went to work and he got drafted into the army and came home. And went to work at the Breyer's Ice-cream plant in Newark, New Jersey. And then decided after he met my mom that it was time for him to make more with his life and he went to school at night at Rutgers for six years while working at those jobs during the day to get his degree in accounting and my mother, one of the proudest pictures that she ever had was the one she called one of our first family picture. It was my mom and dad on the day that my dad graduated from Rutgers in June of 1962. The first person in either one of their families to get a college degree and it was the first family picture because she was six months pregnant with me.

And the smiles on both of their faces that day were indicative of what - not what they had accomplished, but what they saw coming ahead of them. Their smiles were about the fact that they thought that nothing was out of reach for them now. They had each other, they were building a family, they worked together, and then with the help of both of those strong women they, they gave them $5,000 each, probably all the money they had in the world, to put a down payment on a house in this town to give their children a chance to take the dream they had started to build and to make it even bigger and even better.

So I not only think about my mom and dad today, I think about my two grandmothers. Women who raised children largely on their own. Women who knew how to work hard and who knew that hard work would deliver something for their children. And I know that both of them are watching down today and that part of today is a fulfillment of their dream too. And I'm thinking about both of them.

One of the things my mother always used to say all the time to me was, "Christopher if you work hard enough, you can be anything." She said God's given you so many gifts, if you just work hard enough, you can be anything. And that story is proof. It's proof. Parents who came from nearly nothing, except for that hard work. Parents who brought little to their marriage except for their love for each other and that hard work. And that hard work not only produced a great life for me and my brother and my sister, but think about how amazing this country is that one generation removed from the guy who was working on the floor of the plant of the Breyer's Ice Cream plant, his son is the two term governor of the state where he was born and raised.

[11:25:00] See, see, that's not only what my parents have done for me but what that's what New Jersey has done for us. See this place, this place that represents the most ethnically diverse state in the country. The most densely populated state in the country. We're all different and we're on top of each other like you're on top of each other in this gym. And what has come from that, what has come from that is the absolute belief that not only can all of us achieve whatever dream we want to achieve, because of the place where we live and the opportunities that it gives us, but that we not only can do it together, but we have to do it together. We have no choice but to work together, this country needs to work together again, not against each other.

When I became governor six years ago, we had a state that was in economic calamity an $11 billion deficient on a $29 billion budget. A state that had taxes and fees raised on it one hundred and fifteen times in the eight years before I became governor. A state that no longer believed that any one person could make a difference in the lives of the people of this state and so we rolled up our sleeves and we went to work. And we balanced six budgets in a row. We've refused to raise taxes on the people of this state for six years. We made the hard decisions that had to be made to improve our education system, we reformed tenure for the first time in 105 years.

We made the difficult decisions to reform pension and health benefits and we continue that fight today. We have stood together against each and every person, every cynic who said why are you wasting your time the state is not governable. The last six years we proved not only can you govern this state, you can lead it to a better day and that's what we've done together.

And now, and now we face a country. We face a country that's not angry. When I hear the media say that our country is angry, I know they're wrong. The last year I went to 37 different states across this country in one year. I met people in every corner of America. And they are not angry. Americans are not angry, Americans are filled with anxiety. They're filled with anxiety because they look to Washington D.C. and they see a government that not only doesn't work anymore, it doesn't even talk to each other anymore. It doesn't even try to pretend to work anymore. We have a president in the oval office who ignores the congress and a congress that ignores the president. We need a government in Washington D.C. that remembers you went there to work for us not the other way around.

And both parties. Both parties have failed our country. Both parties have stood in the corner and held their breath and waited to get their own way. Both parties have lead us to believe that in America, a country that was built on compromise, that somehow now compromise is a dirty word. If Washington and Adams and Jefferson believed compromise is a dirty word, we'd still be under the crown of England.

And this, this dysfunction, this lack of leadership, has led to an economy that's weak and hasn't recovered the way it should. It's lead to an educational system that has us 27th in the industrialized world in Math and 24th in Science. It's lead us, it's lead us to weak leadership around the world where our friends can no longer trust us and our adversaries no longer fear us. This weakness and indecisiveness in the oval office has sent a wave of anxiety through our country, but I'm here today to tell you that anxiety can be swept away by strong leadership and decisiveness to lead America again.

We just need, we just need to have the courage to choose. We just need to have the courage to stand up and say enough. We need to have the courage to course a new path for America. America knows that new path, it knows where we needs to go and it must start with this. We must tell each other the truth about the problems we have and the difficulty of the solutions, but if we tell each other the truth everybody, we recognize the truth and the hard decisions today will lead to growth and opportunity tomorrow for every American in this country.