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New Day

The Aaron Hernandez Trial; Time to Refinance; Obama Meets with Muslim American Leaders; Morgan Spurlock Goes Inside Zoos; Detroit Walking Man's Fundraiser hits $300,000

Aired February 05, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The Aaron Hernandez murder trial, we haven't seen one start like this in a while. You've got sisters on both sides of the case. You've got incriminating security footage from inside the defendant's home. Now this warning from the judge to the victim's mother. You could forget this guy is even a famous athlete; that's how much is going on.

Susan Candiotti takes us inside the circus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remembering a painful day, Shaneah Jenkins watches herself on security camera video visiting the home of then New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez. Jenkins is hugging Hernandez's fiance, older sister Shayanna, after learning boyfriend Odin Lloyd has just been shot dead less than a mile away from the Hernandez home. Shaneah testifies Hernandez is also in the house that day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That he seemed very shaken up?

SHANEAH JENKINS, GIRLFRIEND OF ODIN LLOYD: He seemed stressed.

CANDIOTTI: Nine days later, Hernandez is arrested for Lloyd's murder. The murder weapon is still missing. Prosecutors show jurors home surveillance photos of Hernandez's fiance holding something in her hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This item that she is holding, do you know what that was?

JENKINS: The black trash bag.

CANDIOTTI: Authorities suspect Hernandez's fiance, sitting behind him in court, uses the trash bag to hide the missing murder weapon inside a box and throwing it away after getting a coded message from Hernandez. His defense team questions Jenkins on how much time her boyfriend, Lloyd, spent with Hernandez. Jenkins telling jurors it was mainly during visits with her older sister. A powerful moment coming when prosecutors ask Odin Lloyd's mother to identify a photo of her dead son at a hearing without the jury present.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does that depict your son's body? URSULA WARD, ODIN LLOYD'S MOTHER: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: With Hernandez watching intently, Ward said she knew many of her son's friends but not Hernandez.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had you ever met him before?

WARD: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had he ever come to your home?

WARD: No.

CANDIOTTI: But she clearly remembers seeing her son hours before he was shot to death.

WARD: I just saw his beautiful pink gums smiling coming across the street towards me.

CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fall River, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it's time for CNN "Your Money" and chief business correspondent Christine Romans here. She's going to save us all some money. You have a fool-proof way.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is my forecast for this year. The number one thing you can do to save some money this year is to refinance your mortgage. If you have a home loan, it is now time to refinance and here's why. These rates keep going down. They're below 4 percent here. The 30 year fixed rate mortgage, 3.66 percent. And I was so surprised this week to find out that about 35 percent of people with a mortgage don't even know what their interest rate is. Don't even know what their interest rate is. It has been falling, falling, falling and a third of you out there don't know what the rate is.

Here's why it is so important to lower that rate if you can. A 5 percent interest rate on a $400,000 mortgage is a $2,147 a month payment. You lower that to today's rates, it's $1,800 a month. That's savings of more than $4,000 this year. It's real money. And home prices have been slowly rising over the past fewer years, so few of you are underwater. Fewer of you are upside down. More of you are actually able to get those lower mortgage rates.

Now, famously, earlier this year, Ben Bernanke said, the former Fed chief, that he was trying to refinance his mortgage and he couldn't. The banks are getting a little better on this this year. That's incredibly important here. And if you're a first-time home buyer, this is now again going to be a good year for you to try to enter into the market. Things are getting a little better. FHA has lowered -- it has changed some of its principle requirements and some of its insurance requirements. So there are some new things out there that make this the year for the home buyer and the refinancer.

CAMEROTA: Great to hear --

ROMANS: Do it.

CAMEROTA: Great. There you go.

ROMANS: Do it.

CAMEROTA: Good advice. Thanks so much, Christine.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

CUOMO: All right, so the president of the United States is reaching out to Muslim Americans following the recent terror attacks by ISIS and other extremist groups. So, whom did he pick to meet with and what did he have to say? We've got two peeps who were at the meeting.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a NEW DAY first for you today. Check out who Morgan Spurlock brought to work today. He and some of his friends of the less hoppy nature join us live.

CUOMO: What kind of dog is that?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

Amid recent acts of terror committed by ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups, the White House has reached out to Muslim Americans. President Obama met with community leaders to discuss issues ranging from discrimination to the importance of countering terror groups who commit heinous acts in the name of Islam. Joining us, two of the people who were at that very meeting. Dean Obeidallah is here right here in our studio with us, a political comedian and, of course, a "Daily Beast" contributor. Farhana Khera is the executive director of Muslim Advocates. She joins us from D.C.

Good morning to the both of you.

Dean, I'll ask you first, significant meeting. First of its kind, I understand. And it sounds as though it was a long time in coming. How did it come about? And were you surprised that you were invited?

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, POLITICAL COMEDIAN: I was surprised I was invited. I was elated I was invited. I think Farhana could tell you much more about what led up to it. She spearheaded the effort with Muslim Advocates. But it's been an effort for years. And don't get me wrong, there are Muslim Americans who have an ongoing relationship with the administration. They're called in to discuss issues. But as a -- with the leaders around the country sitting around a table, it was exciting. I was ecstatic. I was trying to think of a way to steal the White House silverware because it looked so cool. I hate to bring it up. I was really, like, if I go back, a plate's coming back with me.

CAMEROTA: So, Farhana, we know there were some rules to this meeting. You cannot quote the president directly, but can you tell us what subjects you touched on? FARHANA KHERA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MUSLIM ADVOCATES: Yes, absolutely.

And let me first say, Michaela, that this meeting could not have come at a better time. You know, at a time in our country when unfortunately there are some public officials from the statehouses to Congress questioning the loyalty of a group of Americans simply because they're Muslim, I really commend the president for taking the time to sit down and hear directly from American Muslims about our hopes and dreams for our country.

And something I shared with the president was that the most common concern I hear from Muslim mothers and fathers across this country is their concern that their children will grow up being ashamed to be Muslim. And it was probably encapsulated in a Valentine's Day card I actually shared with the president. It was written by two young sisters, Sanya (ph) and Sabrina (ph), eight and 10 years old, in California, and they basically shared their hopes and dreams and, frankly, their fears. Sabrina, in particular, the oldest sister, talked about how she dreams of one day becoming an engineer or a basketball player and (INAUDIBLE) she's also concerned that people are going to be mean to her simply because she's Muslim. And she's asking the president to do something.

CUOMO: You know, Dean, it is not an unusual immigrant experience in this country to be judged by your worst stereotypes, you know? I mean you're dealing with it on both sides of your family now. Part of you is Muslim, the other part is Christian Italian.

OBEIDALLAH: Yes.

CUOMO: You know, and they had their own path through this country.

OBEIDALLAH: Sure.

CUOMO: And that's why this being so secretive, like you can't say this, you can't say that. In a way, does that feed the phobia a little bit?

OBEIDALLAH: Well, I think these are the ground rules that my sense the White House has for meetings with other organizations as well. After the meeting they said, you know, anyone who wants to say what they said, they can say it. But it was a meeting to start a conversation with the president, frankly. So, we want to build relationships. And I think that, you know, each of us expressed what was our concerns. And if people out there think that we don't hate these Muslim terrorists more than they do, they don't get it because these people are killing people in the name of our faith and we suffer the backlash. So that was a big part of it.

And, for me, I talk about the political avenue about what's going on. You have Republicans from Bobby Jindal a couple of weeks ago, to a state representative in Oklahoma saying Muslim Americans are a cancer. They should be cut out of America.

PEREIRA: Right.

OBEIDALLAH: And that we need the Democrats to give us more than silence. We need them to stand up for us the same way the Republican- elected official made a racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic comment. They're silent when it comes to us. So we just want a fairer field and that was my big point to the president. Each of us had our own points.

CUOMO: Strong point.

PEREIRA: Well, and that brings up an interesting thing that we have even struggled with here at CNN on NEW DAY is the language --

OBEIDALLAH: Yes.

PEREIRA: And labels and titles. Frahana, did you guys bring that up? Was that addressed in the conversation, about how to label the -- whether you call them extremists, whether you call them terrorists, whether you call extremist Islamists? Was that discussed, the challenge?

KHERA: So at Muslim Advocates, we certainly -- we've encouraged the White House to not play into the frame that's being promoted by ISIS. ISIS wants this to be a religious war, to be a war against Islam. It feeds their recruitment if they do so. And so we've actually supported the White House. And it's not just this administration, it's actually even the Bush administration that has not used the term Islamic terrorism, has not used the term jihadi.

CAMEROTA: So what is the term? I mean -- so, I'm sorry, what term are you -- are you comfortable with?

KHERA: Yes, so I think the -- I think we just call it violence. Or if we're talking about ISIS, we're talking about al Qaeda, you know, the enemy is ISIS. The enemy is al Qaeda. And that's what we have to call it.

OBEIDALLAH: They're terrorists. That's it. I mean people say, well, how can you fight an enemy you can't define? I can define them. They're called (INAUDIBLE) al Qaeda and ISIS. Now let's go defeat them.

KHERA: Yes. Yes.

OBEIDALLAH: Let's stop playing games about words. Let's go save lives by defeating the enemy. We know where they are. We know what they're about.

PEREIRA: Right.

CUOMO: It's not that easy though because what you want out of a meeting like this is you want to extend into our cultural recognition. What you're dealing with most profoundly in the United States is a fear of the unknown with Islam. And when you hide from the fact that these people call themselves Islamic, these terrorists, it seems like you're trying to cover for Islam. And that's the problem the administration's having.

OBEIDALLAH: It -- well, I want to say just quickly.

PEREIRA: Yes.

OBEIDALLAH: They're Muslims. And calling them Muslim terrorists is actually accurate if you want to say that. Islam indicates that somehow what they're doing is connected to the faith or sanctioned by the faith.

PEREIRA: To the faith.

OBEIDALLAH: Just because somebody says "allah akbar" if they're doing something doesn't mean it's based on the faith. But we hear people on the right saying that all the time. That's the simplest almost idiotic approach. Look at what they're really doing. They're about power. They kill Muslims 12, 13 a day according to the report by Iraq body count.

PEREIRA: Dean, Frahana, we hope that we can have further discussions with you both.

OBEIDALLAH: Thank you.

PEREIRA: This was a great first step at the White House, obviously.

OBEIDALLAH: Yes.

PEREIRA: So glad you could come and share your experience with us.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, guys.

KHERA: Thanks for having us. Thanks.

CAMEROTA: All right, welcome to the jungle. You're going to find out --

PEREIRA: You've got to say it with more conviction.

CAMEROTA: Well, I didn't know there was actually a lizard in the studio until right now. You're going to find out --

PEREIRA: No, that's an alligator.

CUOMO: Read my lips, alligator.

CAMEROTA: Alligator. OK, you're right, there's an alligator in the studio. That -- I buried the lead. That should have been the lead. Also, Morgan Spurlock is in the studio. And I think these two are connected.

CUOMO: His nickname is crocodile.

PEREIRA: Who's cuter?

CUOMO: Uh-oh. Uh-oh, that's a problem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A day at the zoo is usually a fun family outing, but for Morgan Spurlock it's an immersive learning experience. He goes behind the scenes in tonight's new episode of "INSIDE MAN".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll let you operate the door if you'd like.

MORGAN SPURLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And there he is.

Whoa. He's pursing his lips.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is called a threat face.

SPURLOCK: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They stand very rigid and very tall and then purse their lips and really very tight.

SPURLOCK: How about a banana?

(CRASH)

And then there's that.

Never been so happy to have a fence next to me in my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I don't think that gorilla liked you, Morgan. Morgan Spurlock joins us this morning. And you brought along some souvenirs, I see.

SPURLOCK: I did. I brought some friends along with me. I brought Nature Nick and some animals. This is an owl monkey today.

CAMEROTA: OK, why did you want to go behind the scenes of a zoo?

SPURLOCK: Well, I think there's a lot of debate these days about should we be keeping animals in captivity? Should we try to figure out a way to let them be living in nature? What zoos are actually doing the job that is actually conservationist and based in education and who isn't? And that's what the whole show looks at.

PEREIRA: You admitted the fact that you were, like every child, knew this was the one where you get to see animals.

SPURLOCK: And that's how it is for most of us. Most of us will never travel to Africa, we'll never go on a safari. We won't get to see them in the wild. So zoos provide an incredible part, an incredible education for myself, for kids. But the question is are zoos living up to the expectations that we should be --

CUOMO: So we have to watch the show. But on the zoometer, where's your needle?

SPURLOCK: Where's my needle on zoometer? There are zoos that are doing an incredible job. Like the Detroit Zoo that we filmed at is a beautiful organization. I mean, these guys are doing the best they can to take care of these animals. But there are some animals that are having a hard time. Like this one zoo even realized they need to get rid of their elephants. And they said --

PEREIRA: Which can happen a lot of places.

SPURLOCK: Right, some very large animals just don't do well in zoo settings.

CAMEROTA: This guy looks like he's about to pounce on you.

SPURLOCK: This guy's looking at that marshmallow in my hand, going "gimme."

CUOMO: Nature Nick, if you put a marshmallow on Alisyn, will the monkey go to Alisyn and get it?

NATURE NICK: He would. She may not have eyes though after.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: OK, I'm glad you reported.

PEREIRA: Don't listen to Chris.

CUOMO: She's going to protect you.

CAMEROTA: I appreciate it. Now what had you done to tick off that gorilla?

SPURLOCK: I was just there. That's the thing. Gorillas are, they're incredibly territorial. And once there's another male presence around, they will -- they will posture. They'll purse their lips. They'll do everything they can to scare you off.

CUOMO: Did you respect that a silver back gorilla saw you as a threat?

SPURLOCK: Yes, that made me feel very good.

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: Macho.

PEREIRA: You talk in the piece also about the importance of the health and welfare of the animals, and there are some zoos that have gone really far in terms of working on figuring out the psychology of what it is like for a captive animal.

SPURLOCK: That's right. That's what was happening in the zoo we were in. Detroit, they really studied the animals to see how were they fairing, how were they benefiting from the environment. And they try to make their health, their lifestyle, as much as it can be to the nature where they came from. But the gorillas are a perfect example. They have heart problems; they have health problems that they would normally never get in nature. They're becoming like us.

PEREIRA: There's anxiety, right?

SPURLOCK: There's anxiety. They're stressed and so they're trying to figure out how do we alleviate that? How do we make it as natural as possible? Because the problem is if you raise an animal in captivity, that animal can never go back to the wild.

CAMEROTA: And so have they found answers?

SPURLOCK: Yes. Every day they're finding answers. And sometimes it is these animals shouldn't be at our zoo. And there's other places where they say we need to change the way we take care of them.

CUOMO: Can I see the animals?

SPURLOCK: Yes, we've got some good ones.

PEREIRA: There's a scarf that I thought was empty but it's moving.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I'll hold the monkey.

PEREIRA: There's something under there.

CAMEROTA: Well, it's a leopard scarf. Does that have anything to do with it?

SPURLOCK: There's a very small leopard. Very small, a very wee leopard in there.

PEREIRA: Is that how you travel?

CUOMO: This is the only fun, Nature Nick, if you put the animal on one of the women.

CAMEROTA: OK. Now how are his teeth?

NATURE NICK: They're big. He has about 70 razor sharp teeth. He's an alligator.

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: And the incredible thing about animals like this is a lot of people will try and take them as pets, and keep them for pets. In New York City, for years, people had these in their homes --

CUOMO: And that's a mistake because?

SPURLOCK: This will grow to be about ten feet long, so right now this is great, it's fine. You can have this in your house.

PEREIRA: Yes, you keep it there.

SPURLOCK: But it's when they grow to six or eight feet long that it becomes a real issue. And what happens is the zoos have to then come in and rescue these animals and take them away. CUOMO: Being the steady cam guy, he was holding it, he looked pretty

easy. How do you hold this thing?

CAMEROTA: Carefully.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: There you go.

SPURLOCK: Let's pass it over to Chris?

CAMEROTA: Will he bite Chris?

NATURE NICK: No, alligators are pretty good.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: If he bites me, I can sue CNN. I'll sue Turner. This is going to turn out very well.

SPURLOCK: Right there.

NATURE NICK: There you go.

CUOMO: That's pretty easy.

CAMEROTA: Really?

PEREIRA: Little too fast and loose with the crocodile. You have one more animal as well?

NATURE NICK: Yes, one more.

PEREIRA: Put away the one with the teeth. Put away the one with the teeth.

CUOMO: That's all right.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: We don't know if they combine, Chris?

CUOMO: He's in the hand of a very dominant male right now. Keep these two separate.

PEREIRA: No, Chris, not here. Wallaby doesn't like this.

CUOMO: Going to use whatever this is in my hand.

NATURE NICK: This is a miniature kangaroo or Wallaby. He's full grown; he won't get any larger than this. He's about 30 pounds. This is Hugh Jackman, Hugh the kangaroo.

PEREIRA: He's not Hugh Jackman.

CUOMO: Jackman's here? CAMEROTA: And is he as cute and adorable and cuddly as he looks or is he misleading?

NATURE NICK: Well, a lot of people try to keep these guys as pets. But he does box. They really do that. They can't be litter boxed trained. They're really not that much fun to have.

CUOMO: What's he going to do when he sees this guy?

NATURE NICK: Not too good.

PEREIRA: What's the life expectancy?

NATURE NICK: Same as a dog. 12, 13 years these guys could live.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: How about the nails?

SPURLOCK: They're beautiful, but one of the things is when you travel down under you want to not buy stuffed animals when you're down there, because what happens is they turn these actual wallabes into stuffed animals.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

SPURLOCK: Which is terrible.

PEREIRA: Oh, that's actually kind of horrifying.

CAMEROTA: Well, we can't wait to see the show tonight. Make sure to check out Morgan tonight at the zoo on "INSIDE MAN" at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

(CROSSTALK)

SPURLOCK: He has one eye open. He's giving you the stink-eye.

PEREIRA: Nature Nick, I don't trust him.

SPURLOCK: He's testing.

CUOMO: I like you very much.

PEREIRA: This is going to end terribly.

SPURLOCK: Giving you the stink eye.

PEREIRA: All right, we're going to take a short break. Chris has the Good Stuff if he puts down the alligator. We'll have that in a second.

CUOMO: Nice update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CUOMO: All right. So, time for the Good Stuff. It's actually a betterer stuff because we have an update for you. Remember Tuesday we told you about the walking man, James Robertson, the man in Detroit. That's where Morgan was at one of the zoos. He walked 21 miles a day because his car had broken down. He had no other way to deal.

Well, now he can afford 17 Honda Civics, two Ferraris. California, so you can get one city bus. Ho, there's a wallaby. That's because the fundraising drive for Robertson started by a local college kid now has $300,000.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

CUOMO: We're showing you the page live because it goes up so often. Now, the man who used to have no car, he's got a whole team around him. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKE POLLOCK, BANKER HELPING DETROIT "WALKING MAN": An attorney from a very large Detroit-based law firm, an adviser from a very large investment firm that has an incredible record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Because what happens with that lottery effect. You don't know what to do with the money. They have a whole team around him. James says he's going to figure out his plans. He is going to keep working at the factory though and he has a perfect attendance record. So thank you for making the Good Stuff even better.

Lot of news. Morgan, thank you. Nature Nick, appreciate it. Kangaroo (INAUDIBLE).

Lot of news. Let's get you in the "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. No wallabies there.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEWSROOM": No but I saw that little wallaby in the make-up room and we bonded.

(LAUGHTER)

Have a great day.

CAMEROTA: You too.

CUOMO: His hair does look good.

COSTELLO: Thanks, guys. Brought a smile to my face. Have a great day.

"NEWSROOM" starts now.