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Rancher Becomes Oddity for GOP to Overcome; Search for MH370 to Expand; Cell Phone Data Could Solve MH370 Mystery; Obama Offers Solace to South Korea.
Aired April 25, 2014 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN.
Returning now to this rogue rancher who has become an oddity for the Republican Party to try to overcome. He is Cliven Bundy. Hear more of his comments from specifically "The New York Times." He said, quote, "They abort their young children. They put their young men in jail because they never learned how to pick cotton." Referring to African-Americans here. "And I have often wondered are they better off as slaves." Soon after, some politicians who rallied behind this man in his refusal to pay the federal government, they have very quickly denounced Bundy's words. Senator Rand Paul twitted that Bundy's, quote, "Remarks on race are offensive and I wholeheartedly disagree with him."
So will condemning the rancher be enough for the GOP to move past this?
Joining me now, CNN senior media correspondent, how of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter; and political commentator, Paul Begala.
So, gentlemen, Mr. Begala, I would like to begin with you with your op-ed with CNN.com. And listen, I don't want to give too much oxygen really to the racist rant, OK? Bigger picture, was this whole thing really a stunt and the right wing fell for it?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. You almost wonder. I don't think it was a stunt. I think the guy actually believes the things he says he believes. It's not all that big of news that there is a tiny fringe in America that still has these views. But why successful Main Street politicians and pundits leapt to his defense. He had not yet said these racist things. You should have known the guy is a nut case. And he's the latest in a series of these kind of overnight folk heroes that the right has found. It was Joe the Plumber, who turned out to not be Joe or a plumber. It was Ted Nugent, and then the "Duck Dynasty" guy. More dangerously, it was George Zimmerman for some ultra-right wingers. They should have known. Rand Paul, Senator from Kentucky; Ted Cruz, senator from Texas; Steve Heller (ph), Senator from Nevada, these are successful politicians. Successful politicians, they should have known better than to embrace this guy. He had whack-job written all over him. BALDWIN: You write that is what is so interesting. Not about this racist moron but about the Republicans who supported him until he revealed his views on slavery. Bundy should have never been portrayed as a hero or a victim or anything other than a lawbreaker and a moocher.
But, Brian Stelter, taking away the racist element of this story, this man's views definitely reflects the views of a lot of conservatives, the notion of bloated government and the desire to repeal Obamacare, state's rights.
Let me just play some sounds. We'll get to you.
Even FOX's Sean Hannity has now condemned Bundy's comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX HOST, HANNITY: Allow me to make myself abundantly clear. I believe the comments are racist, repugnant, bigoted and it's beyond disturbing. I find the comments to be deplorable and I think it is extremely unfortunate that Cliven Bundy holds those views.
However, I also want to say this. The ranch stand off that took place out in Nevada was not about a man named Cliven Bundy. At the heart of this issue is my belief that our government is simply out of control. To me, this was about a federal agency's dangerous response to a situation that could have resulted in a catastrophe, and that means people dying and being shot, comparable to what we saw in Waco, Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Brian, what's your take on this?
BRIAN STELTER, HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: The most important thing about that clip is that the logo behind Hannity, it says "Government gone wild." That is part of a narrative that he broadcasts on his show all the time, and Bundy was just the late example of what is a genuine feeling about government overreach and government gone wild.
Now I sometimes think that television shows like Hannity's boil it down and make it entertaining but they were genuine feelings and disagreements about government that were driving a lot of this. That has gone to the wayside ever since "The New York Times" published those racist remarks.
BALDWIN: A lot of people watch that show and agree with him.
But, Paul Begala, I love your point. If you flip the script and, let's say, this was not a white rancher in Nevada, what if it is the leader of the new Black Panther Party, or what if this was a Muslim, this would have been a different outcome, don't you think?
BEGALA: If you apply the conservative anti-government principles, which I don't share, but they are honorable principles in our culture and politics, perfectly honorable, you ought not be a defender of Mr. Bundy since he was found by the courts to be freeloading. He was a moocher. If it had been food stamps or the New Black Panther Party, which is like three guys in Philadelphia -- and FOX seems to cover them ever five minutes -- they would, I dare say, not have sent Mr. Hannity rallying to his defense. I don't think Sean is a bad guy, certainly not a racist. But he's a dupe because he fell for it and he will fall for it again. So will some of these politicians.
Now a lot of smart Republicans stayed away from this. They had better sense. But this is going to happen again and again because -- maybe Brian can tell us -- maybe it's a search for ratings. The politicians, they're trying to get that fringe vote without embracing the fringe views, and that's a dance that they cannot pull off.
BALDWIN: A lot of people are guilty to a degree.
Go ahead, Stelter.
STELTER: There is a search for ratings sometimes. There is something else going on today, and that is soul searching, trying to talk about, within conservative circles, how to avoid this from happening again. One of the messages that I have been hearing a lot on FOX News in the last 24 hours is people who hear stories like this, like Cliven Bundy, have got to take more time and do more research and not be so eager to embrace somebody like him so quickly.
BALDWIN: Do the reading and due diligence.
Brian Stelter, thank you so much.
Paul Begala, thank you very much as well.
Read Paul's piece, cnn.com/opinon.
Let's switch gears and talk about that plane. The black box is not the only thing that can help solve the mystery of missing flight 370. Cell phones could provide other clues if their secrets can be unlocked. We're bringing this part of the narrative back as a possibility.
And also ahead how long it will take to find the plane. At first people were talking weeks, now months, but now we're hearing the word years. Is years a possibility? We'll talk about that coming up on CNN.
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BALDWIN: In the hunt to find flight 370, the question now, what secrets and truths could possibly lie in this preliminary report soon to be released by the Malaysian government?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIA PRIME MINISTER: Next week, we will release a preliminary report that we sent to ICAO, but the most important information that they want and sadly the one that we cannot provide is where is the plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The best hope of answering that question is currently sitting somewhere deep in the Southern Indian Ocean. The U.S. Navy underwater drone here, the Bluefin-21, about to hit the limits of that narrowed-down search area. It is now 95 percent finished with its underwater scan with nothing to show for it. What is Plan B? Good question. We have learned that the search for flight 370 is set to expand. For days it has been focused on the six-mile radius. You see that little yellow dot there on the top? That was the search area. Now the radius may shift and grow. What does an expanded search area look like?
Let me bring in CNN's Jennifer Gray.
If we know there is remaining 5 percent to search, and that's more challenging than any previous part of the search, why is that?
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The main reason is the topography is more challenging. You have divots in the ocean floor and so the Bluefin is going to go around those. And it's really challenging because these are not real-time images. You're not going to know until it gets back on the ship. It's going to be quite the delay. One good thing is to see that this area is a little bit shallower. We have been searching 75,000 feet. The last 5 percent is about 13,000 feet.
BALDWIN: That's good. That's interesting seeing that graphic and how that may happen. But experts are saying that this could continue expanding. How big of an expansion could we be talking here?
GRAY: We have been talking about the little pings and we have been searching a six-mile radius. It's about 120 square miles and that's taken, what, about a week and a half? If we make up for all of this area that we have missed in between, you're looking at roughly the size of Los Angeles. That's 484 square miles. And at the rate that the Bluefin is going, you're looking at anywhere from 47 to 50 days. That doesn't even take into account the days you can't get out there because of bad weather.
BALDWIN: Possibly 50 more days and possibly longer than that.
Jennifer Gray, thank you so much.
If the plane's flight data and cockpit voice records, the black box, are found, it could solve this major aviation mystery. But they are not the only source of potentially vital information. Cell phones are as well. We have learned that data, the information on these phones that many of those 239 passengers and crew members were likely carrying, could be retrieved even now. It's fascinating.
Watch. Ted Rowlands shows us how it could be done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some of the final messages from passengers on flight 370 could be with the missing plane at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, unsent texts, emails and photos to loved ones. But could they be retrieved if the plane is found?
CHAD GOUGH, DIRECTOR OF CYBER OPERATIONS, CES: Absolutely. It's a matter of finding the devices, determining the kind of damage that was associated with handling them properly.
ROWLANDS: We decided to see if it's possible by putting this cell phone in salt water.
(on camera): We turned off the transmission on this phone and tried to send e-mails and texts. Right now, I'm going to take video of the Chicago River and some stills, and we will see if those survive.
(voice-over): We took our phone to Chicago's Shed Aquarium and met chemist, Allen LaPointe, and fish biologist, George Parsons. Using water from the aquariums ocean floor exhibit, they prepared this pressure chamber for our phone.
ALLEN LAPOINTE, CHEMIST, SHAD AQUARIUM: We have the salt compositions right. We have the temperature very cold, not as cold as it will be in the Indian Ocean but pretty close. And now we have got a pressure chamber.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): The plan is to leave our phone in water for a week and see if our test e-mail, text, video and photos can be retrieved.
LAPOINTE: It's 2:30 on April 8th, and we're going to place it into our chamber right now. This is going directly into salt water that simulates the Indian Ocean.
ROWLANDS: Within seconds, salt water fills the inside of the phone. Eight days later, two of our computer experts come to the aquarium to remove the phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could see the salt corrosion building up on the outside of the phone. It's whether or not it made its way inside and built up on top of the electronics and whether or not it corroded the data chip.
LAPOINTE: That's going to overflow.
ROWLANDS: Because oxygen will quickly increase corrosion, our phone is kept in water.
LAPOINTE: We will keep it in the same water until we can get it to the lab and clean it up.
ROWLANDS: A few hours later, at the Ford Discovery Lab.
JOSH FAZIO, GILLWARE'S DATA RECOVERY: Look at how it just ate the plastic.
ROWLANDS: The phone is pulled apart. The board is bathed in an 80 degree ultrasonic cleaner several times and any tiny salt deposits are chipped away.
FAZIO: This is where all the data is held and stored. And so this is actually looking pretty good.
There you go.
ROWLANDS: The chip is actually removed using heat.
SCOTT HOLEWINSKI, GILLWARE'S DATA RECOVERY: It was in pretty good shape. The next step was to put it into an adapter like this.
ROWLANDS: Eventually, there it is, the emails I tried to send, the text message, photos, and a portion of the video we recorded of the Chicago River.
While our experiment is not the same as the Indian Ocean, our experts believe they could also retrieve data from cell phones on flight 370.
HOLEWINSKI: The chips are fairly well protected. We were able to get data off.
ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Ted, thank you for that.
It is difficult to imagine a job as daunting, as gruesome as the one facing off of these divers off the waters of South Korea, retrieving these bodies, knowing they are sons and daughters of parents waiting for words. They will be met with massive grief on the shore. More on the tragedy and an update on that investigation ahead.
And some conservatives and Republicans were pretty quick to embrace this Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy. Was that a massive miscalculation? Think about midterms a couple months away. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: More than a week now after that South Korean ferry capsized and the number of recovered bodies is only rising. Rescue divers have found nearly 50 bodies, all female students in this one single cabin and we can tell you they were all wearing their life vests. Officials say the sunken ship is right side up on the ocean floor.
At a joint press conference in Seoul this morning, President Obama, who is visiting the country on a diplomatic position, presented the South Korean president with the American flag that flew over the White House on the day of that ferry accident. He then paused for a moment of silence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know my visit comes at a time of great sorrow for your nation. And again, on behalf of all Americans, I want to express our deepest condolences, (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). And to all the families who have lost loved ones on the ferry (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), so many were young students with their entire lives ahead of them. I'm a father of two daughters of the same age or close to the same age as those who were lost, so I can only imagine what the parents are going through at this point, the incredible heartache.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: President Obama there in Seoul.
Meantime, the criminal inquiry is shifting to safety certifications. Investigators have now inspected a sister of ship for any clues as to what may have caused the accident in the Yellow Sea. There are also calls to ban expansions to increase cabin space on ferries. Four more crew members were served with arrest warrants today, making that a total of 15 employees now under arrest.
CNN's Paula Hancocks has more -- Paula.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, divers overnight tonight will be trying to get inside a dormitory style cabin where they believe there could be as many as 50 girls who were trapped. This comes after officials say they already 48 girls inside the cabin still wearing their life jackets. As the death toll continues to rise, there have been no survivors found since the day of the sinking, South Korea is a country that is struggling to deal with this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): A silent prayer for those lost at sea. Hundreds gather in the South Korean capital to say sorry to the victims of the ferry disaster, to say sorry they couldn't save them. Yellow ribbons symbolize solidarity are tied to the gates of the school. More of than 300 of the passengers were students here, many of them now dead or missing. Hearses carried the remains of victims for one final visit to the school before their funerals. Past the shrine, many messages say sorry we were not there when you need us.
This is not just a country in mourning. It is a country overwhelmed with guilt, guilt that children were left to die.
This man has no connection to the school but came to pay his respects.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a father with two kids. I just feel that I'm really sorry about it because I can't do anything. Nothing to this family. I just want to come here to say I am very sorry.
KIM KYUNG DONG, KOREAN SOCIOLOGIST, KAIST: The entire nation is going through a period of severe depression because of this, you know, heavy electric board shock upon our site. And people cannot easily overcome this.
HANCOCKS: Tens of thousands of text messages are being shown at this temple and memorial near the school, just one way South Koreans are voicing their sorrow.
For those who lost their children beneath the waves, the pain is raw and unbearable.
(CRYING)
HANCOCKS: For those watching the tragedy unfold, emotions spill over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Divers will be working fast. The weather conditions will become harsher tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, and there are fears that the currents could be very strong, hampering this search operation -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Paula Hancocks, thank you so much.
Many people thought a Nevada rancher had some valid points in his fight with the federal government. But he then went on a racist rant and many people, including certain Republicans who had hailed him as a hero, turned the other way. How might this undermine his cause?
And hopes that the Bluefin-21 will find flight 370 are now dwindling but no one is giving up just yet. More on the search and investigation when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: This just into us here on CNN. A teenager is now charged with 21 counts of attempted homicide, accused in the mass stabbing of his classmates right around homeroom time at that Pennsylvania high school. He told school officials who tried to subdue him -- I'm quoting him from a document -- he said, "My work is not done. I have more people to kill." Again, this coming from documents released in court today. It was also revealed that a note found in the suspect's locker read, "I can't wait to see the priceless and helpless looks on the faces of those students." He now faces 21 counts of attempted homicide.
