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Sadiq Khan Elected Mayor of London; Pakistan Girl Murdered for Helping Couple Elope; Alberta Wildfire Could Double by Late Saturday; Trump Proposed Ban on Muslim Travel to U.S.; Comedians Take on Trump Veepstakes. Aired 12-12:30a ET
Aired May 07, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): An Oxford educated Conservative will be succeeded by the son of a Muslim bus driver. The times are changing in London as the U.K. capital elects its new mayor.
Donald Trump is still riling many of his fellow Republicans as he closes down on the party's presidential nomination. We'll tell you who's got the knives out now.
And thousands of Canadians flee wildfires that are growing by the day. We'll bring you a report from the affected areas in Alberta.
It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.
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ALLEN: And we begin with an historic election. For the first time ever, London has a Muslim mayor. Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan defeated Conservative challenger Zac Goldsmith. The campaign was bitter. Goldsmith sought to link Khan to extremism but Khan prevailed, vowing to rein in London's soaring housing and transportation costs.
CNN's Phil Black has more from London.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This hasn't happened in London before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I therefore declare Sadiq Khan to be elected as the new mayor of London.
BLACK (voice-over): A Muslim election as the city's new mayor.
SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON: I never dreamt that someone like me could be elected as mayor of London. And I want to say thank you to every single Londoner for making the impossible possible today. BLACK (voice-over): Sadiq Khan is the son of a London bus driver. He mentioned that a few times through his campaign. His parents were Pakistani immigrants; they lived in public housing. He went to state schools. He then became a lawyer, member of Parliament and government minister. More than 12 percent of Londoner are Muslims and many are thrilled about Khan's new job.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a big victory and I'm feeling proud as a Muslim because you see the situation has gone on with Muslims and all around the world and everything.
BLACK (voice-over): Khan's win defies a political trend dividing Western nations.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
BLACK (voice-over): Across America and Europe, Islam has become an emotive, often fearful political issue after large terror strikes in the U.S., France and Belgium.
BLACK: Londoners have also known terrorism and live with its constant threat. Sadiq Khan's supporters say his win in this election shows many people here are very comfortable with the clear difference between those who murder in the name of Islam and the rest of the Muslim community.
BLACK (voice-over): But extremism was still an issue in this political race. Khan's oppositions, his cultural and political opposite, the wealthy white Conservative Party candidate, Zac Goldsmith, tried to link Khan to people said to support radical Islam. Fellow Conservatives David Cameron repeated the claims in Parliament.
DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: Well, he stood on a platform with people who wanted an Islamic state.
BLACK (voice-over): The effort was dismissed as dog whistle racism by people on all sides of politics and it did little to change voters' thinking. Perhaps difficult to smear Khan with extremism after he voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage.
KHAN: And I'm so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division.
BLACK (voice-over): The mayor of London manages day-to-day issues like planning, transport, housing and police. It's a big job. But it's not the stuff of big political vision. Sadiq Khan's election marks an historic and cultural milestone for an international city long proud of its diversity -- Phil Black, CNN, London.
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ALLEN: Coming up a bit later here, we'll hear from a comedian and commentator who says the election of Sadiq Khan can serve as a lesson to Americans backing the presidential bid of Donald Trump. Stay with us for that in just a bit.
We turn now to Pakistan, a country in shock after the barbaric murder of a 15-year-old girl. She spent her last moments inside a burning van. It was no accident but a punishment for helping a friend to elope. Our senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward has more.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A horrific crime committed in some warped idea of honor, a 15-year-old girl murdered, her charred skeleton found in a village in Northern Pakistan last week.
Authorities say the girl, whose name was Ambreen, helped a female friend elope with --
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WARD (voice-over): -- her boyfriend. The couple escaped. Police say a local tribal council or Jirga ordered Ambreen's execution.
SAEED WAZIR, DISTRICT POLICE CHIEF (through translator): This was not a Jirga of elders, it was a Jirga of local hoodlums and ruffians who wanted to take revenge for the dishonor of the family.
WARD: Authorities say many of those council members carried out the killing, sedating and suffocating the girl, then tying her body to a van and setting it on fire.
More than a dozen people are now under arrest, including the victim's mother, who investigators say knew about the orders to kill her daughter but did nothing to stop it or call police.
Pakistan's prime minister condemned the brutal crime in a statement saying, "Such a barbaric act is not only un-Islamic, but inhuman. It is not honor killing, it's just plain murder."
FARZANA BARI, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN GENDER STUDIES, QUAID E-AZAM UNIVERSITY: I think this is the tip of the iceberg because a lot of these numbers are coming out of the reported cases. So I think if you look at the scale of the problem, actually we don't know.
WARD: But hundreds of girls are killed by relatives every year in Pakistan, according to the country's Independent Human Rights Commission and experts believe many of these murders go unreported.
The suspects under arrest for Ambreen's murder now face trial, but human rights advocates caution few of these kinds of cases go to court. For many, justice remains elusive -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.
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ALLEN: And, again, Ambreen's murder was ordered by a tribal council which does not have any legal legitimacy under Pakistani law. Earlier, CNN spoke with women's rights activist, Zainab Salbi about the power of the tribal councils in Pakistan.
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ZAINAB SALBI, WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAWYER: This is part of a systematic agreement by the Pakistani government of allowing the tribal councils to have authorities which is random authority over their own local population.
This is for me no different than terrorism. It's stemming from the exact same roots of traditional men thinking that they can kill anybody who they do not agree with them.
Now today it is a woman; tomorrow, it is a person with a different mindset about Islam or traditions or whatever. The day after, it's a foreigner and the day after it's a terror attack somewhere else. It's stemming, it's coming from the exact same root of allowing traditional tribal councils to rule. And they have the authorities and the chutzpah, the guts to kill whoever they want.
So we have to look at the systematic reason why this is happening.
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ALLEN: And some Pakistanis are now calling for legislation to make it easier to prosecute the suspects behind these so-called "honor killings."
A wildfire raging in Alberta, Canada, is growing so quickly that by the end of Saturday, it could be twice the size it is now. The Fort McMurray fire is just one of 40 burning in the Canadian province. But it's the most intense, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. Dry conditions and wind are frustrating efforts to fight the fires. Here's Dan Simon. He's there.
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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flames and smoke filling the sky as a convoy of desperate residents flee the danger zone.
SIMON: What have these last few days been like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell on Earth. Just like hell.
SIMON: And the scenes are hellish. The fire that started five days ago is still out of control. And for the displaced, it's gone from bad to worse. Because food and water is running low, Canadian authorities moving some 25,000 people from camps, a double evacuation.
What was it like being in the camp?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hard. They rationed food. Low water. People were upset because they don't know what's going on.
SIMON: The fire has burned nearly 250,000 acres, more than ten times the size of Manhattan. In one of the more remarkable surveillance videos ever captured, a homeowner could watching his own house go down in flames only 20 minutes after evacuating.
Sixteen hundred structures, including homes and businesses destroyed. The heaviest damage in Ft. McMurray. A resident films his burned out neighborhood after seeing it for the first time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my house. It was my house. Ashes are cool now. Nothing left. It's gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Our house is going to burn down.
SIMON: In another video, we hear a woman's desperation as she drives by the flames destroying her community. As weary residents clear the area, they are greeted by fuel trucks with gas stations either destroyed or down due to power outages. Fuel is a precious commodity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Makes a guy feel good to help these people because they've been through so much loss and devastation.
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ALLEN: It is just unreal what they're dealing with.
Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is continuing to follow this story for us.
In fact, it is --
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ALLEN: -- going to get worse before it gets better.
How could it be worse than that?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: How could it be worse than that?
That video that we keep seeing over and over again, that dashcam footage, we showed it yesterday. We've showed it in some of our packages just now, it's unreal --
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ALLEN: -- that house burning, the guy had his -- the homeowner had the camera inside. He just watched.
VAN DAM: Twenty minutes earlier, he was inside his house. That's what's stunning about that.
And you're right, when you say that it's going -- has the potential, I should say, to get worse before it gets better and it all happens to do with the weather conditions, as one can imagine.
Let's talk about the sheer size of this fire. You heard it mentioned in the package just a moment ago. The video of trying give it a little bit of comparison to our international audience.
This is comparable to the size of Rome, the square kilometer inch of the fire, just over 1,000 square kilometers. Rome, 1,290 square kilometers. That's 25 percent bigger than New York City. It's bigger than Hong Kong Island. This is a serious, serious fire. No wonder it has topped our weather headlines for the past three days.
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VAN DAM: We're starting to see the smoldering ashes starting to push into the forested regions just outside of Fort McMurray. Interesting note as well, some of the visible satellites picking up on this plume of smoke from the fire that has traveled with the jet stream all the way southward, visible today, that being Friday, from Atlanta all the way into St. Louis in the United States.
So unbelievable stuff taking place there. You can actually track the trajectory of the smoke plume as it makes its way from Alberta, Canada. But there it is. I had to end on this image again because that's the dashcam footage, showing people evacuating Fort McMurray, scary moments, a tense situation. Let's hope that it can get under control, 24 hours it's going to be difficult. But 48 hours on, it improves.
ALLEN: Yes, and this caravan that's still leaving, these people are just there for hours and they're without provisions. People are volunteering to give them gas and things like that.
VAN DAM: Imagine how challenging that is.
ALLEN: Yes. I can't.
Thank you, Derek.
Well, another day, another prominent Republican says no to Donald Trump. Next here, which politician is now rejecting the presidential candidate?
And what's the incumbent president have to say about Trump's presumptive nomination?
We'll hear from Barack Obama.
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ALLEN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. We take you now to the race for the White House and on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders has reiterated he plans to stay in the race until the last ballot is cast. There are nine state primaries left and Sanders told CNN he thinks he can win a good majority of remaining delegates.
Sanders says every American has the right to vote for the candidate they want to be president.
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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we do really well in California and that is our intention, if we win in West Virginia and in Kentucky and in Oregon, which we think we can, it is a narrow path to victory. It is a real uphill fight. But I think we do see the opportunity of getting 50 percent of the pledge delegates.
And winning, by the way, half of the states in this country.
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ALLEN: Meantime, protesters hit the streets against Donald Trump Friday night in Eugene, Oregon.
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ALLEN (voice-over): Demonstrators greet the presumptive Republican nominee everywhere he goes these days and Trump is also continuing to get pushback from his own party.
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ALLEN: One day after saying he can't endorse Donald Trump for president, at least not right now, the highest ranking U.S. Republican has invited Trump to a meeting with the House Republican leadership. Paul Ryan is the Speaker of the House. His rejection of Trump Thursday highlights just how fractured the party has become.
President Obama is weighing in on Donald Trump. He made reference to Trump's reality show background and urged voters to closely scrutinize his record.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just want to emphasize the degree to which we are in serious times and this is a really serious job. This is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.
And what means is that every candidate, every nominee needs to be subject to exacting standards and genuine scrutiny. It means that you got to make sure that their budgets add up.
ALLEN (voice-over): For more on the Republican resistance to Donald Trump, watch CNN's "POLITICAL MANN," Saturday, 10:30 pm in Hong Kong.
Donald Trump's rise to the top of the Republican presidential field isn't just ruffling feathers at home. As you may recall, one of his campaign pledges is to ban all prospective Muslim visitors from entering the U.S. And this comes at a time when the city of London has just voted in its first Islamic mayor.
And a Trump victory could prevent Sadiq Khan from setting foot on U.S. soil. Joining me to discuss the ramifications of this is Dean Obeidallah, a comedian and contributor to "The Daily Beast."
Dean, thank you for being with us.
DEAN OBEIDALLAH, "THE DAILY BEAST": Sure.
ALLEN: This is certainly an interesting twist on what has been more than an interesting election season.
What do you make of this?
OBEIDALLAH: Well, I think it's great actually on some level. To the show, hopefully to my fellow Americans, the actual consequences of what Donald Trump's talking about, the idea that the mayor of the third biggest city in Europe can't come to the United States simply because he's Muslim and work with us instead of work on issues like tourist initiatives to countering ISIS is ridiculous. It's outrageous.
So I'm really hoping now that there's a U.N. face involves, maybe it makes some Americans go, well, that Trump idea really didn't make sense. Or the opposite, Donald Trump's concern, talking about the exceptions to his rule, which he already hinted to, so I think we're going to hear exceptions here as well, which also undermines his entire argument, I think.
ALLEN: Right. So this certainly is going to cause a lot more conversations about what's been going on with the tenor of this election.
But what do you think it says about Londoners?
They've also seen an election there --
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ALLEN: -- of divisiveness like we have seen in the U.S. The main challenger to Mr. Khan was accused of playing this fear and division card.
OBEIDALLAH: It's exactly. And that's what I saw that the new mayor- elect mention and even Prime Minister David Cameron on the floor of the Parliament was trying to lump in Mr. Sadiq with the -- Mr. Khan with extremists somewhere, that as a lawyer, he used to represent.
You know, it's a dangerous campaign, what you're doing is, on some level, further inalienation (sic) of Muslims in the U.K. as opposed to bringing them in and make them assimilate and be a part of the entire country there, to become a part of being British.
So it was troubling. I'm glad he won. It took a lot to the people running, especially that late in the last six months. There's been two terror attacks on European soil not far from Great Britain. When you think about it, it's just a lot about how progressive and tolerant and open-minded, embracing they are of multiculturalism.
ALLEN: And the campaign that he ran and what he stands for that people apparently believed in him. I want to point out that you are part Palestinian, part Sicilian and New Jersey-born. And you say that's what gives you a unique background to be a comedian.
But you've also experienced stereotyping.
So what do you hope a Muslim mayor of London can do to help quash stereotypes?
OBEIDALLAH: Well, I think it's great. You have someone who's very visible now. He'll go out to communities around London, get to know people even those who might be concerned about Muslims. I think it'll send a very strong message that he's not going to try to impose Islamic law as mayor of London, as we have certain people on the far right in America who'll claim that every Muslim has to do that or Muslims can't be friends with Jews or Christians or other faiths.
I think he'll cut right through that. And I think on some level it might actually make the extremists for us -- and I'm Muslim -- here in America slightly better, having a visible person who's mayor. And I hope one day we'll have two member of Congress who are Muslim right now in the United States, I hope we have more elected officials who are Muslim. And I think that really cuts through because as a human face doing good things.
And that challenge is misconceptions and stereotypes.
ALLEN: Yes, and you call yourself a comedy missionary. You take your act all over the world. You try and bring all kinds of people together to laugh at themselves instead of being suspicious of one another.
I guess there's no better time right now with this development to be in your business perhaps.
OBEIDALLAH: On some level, although in America, it's scary at times. Some of the rhetoric of Donald Trump and before that Ben Carson and Ted Cruz was very, very alarming to people from the right. But I think comedy's cathartic and sometimes we can process things that are even scary that might even affect our family through comedy. We laugh at it. It takes some of the sting away and it brings people a little bit more sense of relief.
So I think comedy -- a great time in the comedy business, although being Muslim in America has never been more challenging, frankly, in my entire life than right now and the rhetoric we've seen far worse than after 9/11. And I'm not worried for me. It's really the young Muslim kids growing up.
There's a spike in bullying. (INAUDIBLE) hijab is being attacked, punched. Kids named Muhammad, Mahmoud, at school, being beaten up and taunted. So I'm hoping for those kids, the young kids, they can grow up in a country like I did, where people didn't care what your religion was. We need to get back to that, where we really embrace our values as Americans.
ALLEN: Well, we thank you so much for joining us and good luck with your making us be more understanding of one another and making us laugh. Dean Obeidallah, thank you. OBEIDALLAH: Thank you.
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ALLEN: People watching the election of course will be wondering now who Donald Trump may pick for his running mate. There are some serious and not-so-serious suggestions and we'll have that next for you.
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ALLEN: Donald Trump has made plenty of enemies in his campaign for America's top office. But now the former reality TV star has to choose a running mate. CNN's Jeanne Moos looks at the field of potential Trump picks.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's time to name that veep.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gingrich is a really interesting wild card.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Christie is the favorite.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Martinez of New Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ben Carson.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What?
MOOS (voice-over): Or could a guy who's been --
TRUMP: Little Marco.
MOOS (voice-over): -- grow up to be Vice President Rubio?
TRUMP: It could happen.
MOOS (voice-over): Trump veepstakes mania has hit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should run as the first father-daughter ticket now that his girl, Ivanka, run with him as a V.P.
MOOS (voice-over): Prepare for "V.P. Survivor."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On "Vice President Island," 20 amazing Trump supporters in a battle for the ultimate prize. MOOS (voice-over): Even the current V.P. joked about it.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am anticipating he will ask me to be vice president.
MOOS (voice-over): The Donald seems to drop hints.
TRUMP: Somebody maybe that's been even a senator.
MOOS (voice-over): Former Senator Scott Brown spent an hour and a half with the Donald last month.
MOOS (on camera): Some would-be running mates seem to be running away.
GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: I'm going to pass. I like my job.
MOOS (voice-over): When "The New York Times" asked a Jeb Bush adviser about Jeb being V.P., this was the written response.
And John Kasich passed the buck to his interviewer.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: There is zero chance. Erin, there's more chance of you being Donald Trump's vice president than me.
MOOS (voice-over): But Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallon gushed, "I would be very honored if I were to receive a call, saying, 'I need you to help make America great again.'"
And Chris Christie didn't say no.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I'll decide in my heart what I wanted to do.
MOOS (voice-over): But what's the Donald want?
JIMMY FALLON, ACTOR: Someone who compliments me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, you mean someone who has a different skill set than you?
FALLON: No, I mean someone who literally compliments me.
Like, "Donald, you're great."
MOOS (voice-over): Get out the popcorn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who will advance and who will be kicked off the island?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gary, you're impeached.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Vice President Island," this summer on every cable news channel.
MOOS (voice-over): And every late night comedy show -- Jeanne Moos, CNN --
CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: He said he wants a qualified running mate. When asked why, Trump said opposites attract.
MOOS (voice-over): New York.
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ALLEN: Get ready for more. Thank you for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. Our top stories right after a short break.
