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New Day

Explaining Clinton's Secret Email Foreign Donations; Jeb Bush Hits Vegas Raises Cash; Who Killed Putin Opponent?; Nasdaq Tops 5,000

Aired March 03, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: So sweet. But can I just say, are you not glad that we did not live as children in the age of social media? I had some really sketchy letters to Santa that could've - you know what I mean? I'm just saying, whew.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We dodged that?

PEREIRA: We dodged that one. Kids, we're sorry.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: What's more frightening to have kids who are in the age of social media, because at least I can control what I would've done.

All right, time for "Inside Politics," on NEW DAY with John King, the Hillary emails, come on, John, what you got?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Just like the Michaela sketchy letters, they should be preserved and then released.

Let's go "Inside Politics" this morning because we have an important thing to talk about. With me to share their reporting and their insights are Julie Pace of the "Associated Press" and Ron Fournier of "National Journal."

To quote the great political philosopher, Ricky Ricardo, Hillary Clinton has some explaining to do. "New York Times" story this morning about when she was secretary of state, she never had a government account.

She exclusively communicated using a personal email account. And now the question is have all of these records been preserved and protected? Let me get the official statements on the record here.

Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman said, "Last year, the department sent a letter to representatives of former secretaries of state requesting they submit any records in their possession for proper preservation.

In response to our request, Secretary Clinton provided the department emails spanning her time at the Department. The Department is in the process and so and so forth.

There is your bureaucracy. Like secretaries before her, so this is a problem across the government. Let's get that on the record and it's a problem dating to the prior administration. People started using personal accounts some say just because the government computers were so slow. Some say you could put a bigger attachment on Gmail, whatever.

You're a government official, this administration came to power saying we'll be different, we'll be better. We'll be the most transparent in history.

This is what a Clinton spokesman says, "Like secretaries of state before her, again saying other people did it, too. She used her own email account when engaging with any department officials.

For government business, she emailed them on department accounts with every expectation they would be retained. I'm going to stop there. No, she's the secretary, she's the CEO. The burden is on her. Is it not, not on the people who get the emails?

RON FOURNIER, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": Yes, there is no explanation here. That is all spin. There are explicit rules for this. There wasn't for past secretaries of states. Even if the rules were the same, you're supposed to be better.

I had Democrats last night calling me up, not emailing me, calling me up, saying one, does she not want to run for president? And two, a couple of them, maybe she shouldn't run for president.

There are some Democrats out there who are really freaked out. Both by this and the way they've handled the taking of foreign money from, donations of foreign money. This is inexcusable, you can't justify this.

KING: I want to come back to the foreign donations because there are developments on that part two, but right here, Robert Gibbs, the former White House press secretary said this morning on the "Today Show," there's no explanation for this echoing Mr. Fournier, there is no explanation for this.

But you can't just punt it on Secretary Clinton, she's mostly responsible. But she had a boss, who was the president of the United States, who promised the American people this would be the most transparent administration in history.

JULIE PACE, "ASSOCIATED PRESS": This is not just a 2016 question, but this is a question for the White House, the White House has repeatedly said we are the most transparent administration in history.

They said when they came in the door. We're going to do things differently than previous administrations. This is something they have said over and over again. This just does not fit in with that narrative.

FOURNIER: This is a national security issue. China has read all the secretary of state's emails. This is not a secure email system.

PACE: That's a practical concern. I mean, if she's using a Gmail account, is it encrypted? Are her communications being accesses? I mean beyond the politics of it, is an actual national security issue.

FOURNIER: She gets to decide, those are our emails. They are not Hillary Clinton's.

KING: Right. She's paid by the taxpayers. She took this job for a president who promised to be the most transparent in history and she had every expectation she was probably going to run for president. She also knows the family history.

Forgive me, the Clintons are kind of like the New England Patriots of politics, they are presumed guilty when it docomes to the transparency things, until proven innocent. Whether that's fair or not, she's knows that.

FOURNIER: It's the Clintons have been known as having a sense of righteousness, the sense of entitlement, that we are doing the right thing so don't question us. We can play by a different set of rules.

Bill Clinton made his political stakes on the phrase, if you play by the rules, you should be able to get ahead. The problem is the Clintons don't play by the rules as everybody else does. This is another example of it.

KING: You mentioned the jitters among Democrats, we talked last week and you used the word sleazy and stupid about the foreign donations. Stupid is the more appropriate word for taking, once she left the State Department, the Clinton foundation starts taking foreign donations and there were stories that a couple came in, one from Algeria, $500,000, it went to help the people of Haiti after the earthquake.

FOURNIER: Yes, what is Algeria buying?

KING: Why not just tell Algeria? Don't send it to the foundation. But send it directly to somebody else. At that time the state department said not to worry, he check all these things. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We like to review them. We have reviewed every donation that has been submitted. But in this case, the fact that the process has -- was not followed in this particular incident does not raise concerns with us.

KING: We like to review and we have reviewed every donation. It turns out, that's not true.

ROURNIER: She either to try get past a news cycle or she lied. Either way that's inexcusable.

PACE: But it can gets back to what you said, this idea that even if there is nothing inherently bad about the donations, or nothing inherently bad in the emails, it raises the question of why.

Why do you even bother to do something that just gives off the impression that you're hiding something or that you are doing something fraudulent especially if you have in the back of your mind the idea that you're going run for president.

KING: Shall if she wants to be the candidate of the future, with such a long past, including the past we went through with her husband when he was president, you've got to put the bar up here, you got to raise it, you can't lower it.

FOURNIER: Especially when there are legitimate questions about her honesty. You go back to the trample office affair. That's point where there was real questions about whether or not she told the truth in that investigation. You got to be honest with people especially now in the able of the internet where everything is out there to be seem.

KING: The names and the visions of the Tomasens are passing through my head. I didn't have gray hair, but some of them I remember by the second. Let's move on. One guy, open question, who thinks he can take advantage of. This is Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor.

He tweeted out, Hillary, you better not have destroyed those records. A couple of months back he released not all, but he released most of his emails when he was governor.

He also has a personal email account question that will play into the campaign. One question about Jeb Bush, what will he be like out on the trail as a candidate. He was in Vegas, here's a little snippet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Bush, first of all --

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Don't insult me, I'm a governor. Do you have brothers and sisters? Are you exactly the same?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I voted for your father once and your brother twice.

BUSH: What happened on the other time for my father?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well -- Ross Perot was there.

BUSH: And you got Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: An interesting little snippet there. Just to see whether he's got it, whether he's funny, he can engage in voters in the state of Nevada, a very important place to raise money if he is the nominee. One question is can the Republicans get back the swing states with a high percentage of Latino voters.

PACE: This is the big question for Jeb, he's much bet anywhere a Q&A format, this seems like something that his campaign is going to do more, put him out there, taking questions. Both in these policy arenas, but also with voters, and I think it's got good for him at this stage of the campaign to be getting his feet wet on this he's going to face a lot unfriendly voters, he hasn't seen that yet. But he's got to get some practice under his belt.

FOURNIER: He did a good job at CPAC, which is a pretty hostile conservative crowd. I would like to see all of Jeb Bush's emails. He's trying to be holier now. He had a personal account too so let's see them all. Let's see them all.

KING: Let's see them all. Ron, Julie, thanks for coming in. Alisyn, as we get back to you, remember what Mr. Fournier just said, the Democratic jitters, all the Democratic pot is in Port Hillary, the whole armada, the question is whether somebody decides, I'm going give this a try.

CAMEROTA: Interesting, this is why all of my emails are set to self- destruct after 60 seconds.

KING: Oliver North tried that a long time ago. Hate to tell you, somebody's got them.

CAMEROTA: Good point. John, thanks so much for all of that great to see you.

Well, the slain opposition leader, laid to rest in Russia, it is still a mystery, who killed Boris Nemtsov, but does his murder send a message to other critics of the Putin regime? We'll explore.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: It remains a mystery this morning who assassinated Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition leader. Ukraine's president says Nemtsov was about to reveal damaging information about Russian aggression in the Ukraine. So what happens now?

Joining us is William Taylor. He is the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the executive vice president for the United States Institute for Peace, Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being on NEW DAY. How do you think killed Boris Nemtsov?

WILLIAM B. TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: No one will ever know who killed him. It's very clear that he took, that his life was taken in one of the most secure parts of a very secure city.

So the video cameras ought to have been there. The police were clearly around. The authorities were definitely in control of that part of Moscow next to the kremlin.

So while we will never know because there won't be a good investigation, an unbiased investigation, so we won't know who killed Boris Nemtsov.

CAMEROTA: Two weeks before Boris Nemtsov -- yes, two weeks before he was killed, another opposition leader, another Putin critic, Alexi Navalny was put in prison, these two leading Putin critics have been silenced, obviously this sends a chilling message to other opposition leaders. What does happen to any opposition now?

TAYLOR: Well, it hasn't been chilling enough because some 50,000 to 70,000 Russians came to the streets yesterday to mourn Boris Nemtsov. They protested the killing, very interesting event there. Several -- there were chant of "Russia without Putin" this is an indication that Mr. Putin has trouble coming up.

He's got trouble economically, his reserves are running down, the sanctions are biting, the oil prices are dropping, so revenues are dropping, he's got political problems because his soldiers have been killed in Ukraine.

And the mothers are demanding answer, why are their sons going to Ukraine. The battle in Ukraine is not popular in Russia. So Mr. Putin has some near-term political problems.

CAMEROTA: The thinking is that two days after Boris Nemtsov was killed, he was set to reveal at a rally some sort of insider information or at least damaging information about Russia's involvement in Ukraine. Do you know what he was going to say?

TAYLOR: I, of course, don't know what he was going to say, but everyone knows what's going on in southeastern Ukraine. And that is that Russian units, Russian military units are fighting there. Mr. Nemtsov had undoubtedly had some information that he was about do display to the Russian people and to bring attention to this very unpopular war.

Russians don't want to be fighting in their Slavic brothers in Ukraine. This is an unpopular war, which Mr. Nemtsov was about to reveal and very interestingly the authorities right after he was killed, went to his apartment and confiscated his computers.

CAMEROTA: It is fascinating to watch that rally as you just said of the tens of thousands of people who have turned out against what Putin is doing with the government.

And yet, Mr. Ambassador, let me show you the latest public opinion polls, 81 percent, according to state TV, support Putin, sorry, 84 percent, according to state TV. Other sources of news have it at 73 percent. The average there is 81 percent. Are these polls to be trusted? Is this all just intimidation?

TAYLOR: These polls are not to be trusted. But -- I will tell you that 99 percent of the Russians supported the communist party before it fell in 1991. So this could change very quickly.

CAMEROTA: So when you see the opposition rally of tens of thousands of people who is the leader? Are people stepping forward to try to galvanize that sentiment?

TAYLOR: Well, Mr. Navalny (ph), of course, is still there, he's in jail for 14 days, Mr. Kodorkovsy (ph) has been run out of the country. He also is a potential leader. So the Russian opposition has potential leaders than can step into this role.

CAMEROTA: What is the status of the Russia/Ukraine conflict now?

TAYLOR: The status is the cease-fire is beginning to take effect and the heavy weapons are being pulled back from both sides, so the minks agreement seems to be a little firmer ground after the Russians violated it after it was signed.

They kept fighting and fought in Debaltseve after the ceasefire was signed. But the Russians continue to send troops into Eastern Ukraine which suggest there is are more steps to come.

CAMEROTA: Ambassador William Taylor, we always appreciate getting your perspective on NEW DAY. Thank you.

TAYLOR: Glad to be here, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, the Nasdaq completing its long march back to 5,000. But is it a cause for celebration or should we be concerned that a bubble is about to burst? We'll ask Christine Romans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: It is time for CNN Money now. Chief business correspondent, Christine Romans is in our Money Center. Huge news for stocks, big day for Nasdaq, good news?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It took 15 years to get back to the top, but the Nasdaq is back to its dot.com bubble level 15 long years. Yesterday, the Nasdaq topped 5,000 for the first time since March 2000. Don't worry this isn't the same Nasdaq from the dotcom era.

These tech companies today like Apple, Google, are well established and are making money. Not the old days when the Nasdaq was never worth 5,000, you could argue. Back then some of those companies didn't make money.

The $2 gas is gone, at least for now. The national average for a gallon of regular is $2.44 today. Prices have been climbing for five weeks now pushing the average above $2 a gallon in all 50 states now. Experts tell us that will continue through March.

A stunning 25 percent plunge for the company Lumber Liquidator shares. A report by Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" revealed laminate flooring sold by the company contains high levels of formaldehyde which can cause cancer.

The company says it stands by every plank of wood and laminate that it sells but that stock just creamed, you guys. Alisyn, very rare to see one news report take a stock down like that, this morning you have California saying it is investigating and said that it has found high levels of formaldehyde in Lumber Liquidator's lumber as well.

PEREIRA: Wow, the power of investigative journalism. There you go.

ROMANS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right, Christine, thanks so much. So the White House has a message for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, watch what you say about U.S. nuclear talks with Iran. Will he reveal sensitive information?

CUOMO: All right, we know that ISIS is targeting Christians. Are they gunning for the pope? The chief of the Vatican police says that's a real threat. What's being done about it? We have an exclusive interview with New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan on that and a lot of other topics in the news ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There could be some sensitive information revealed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we are no longer silent. Today we have a voice.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm less concerned, frankly, with Prime Minister Netanyahu's commentary --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran will never have a pathway to a weapon, not on my watch.

ROMANS: ISIS threats against Pope Francis?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A holy war. This is a religious cleansing. There should be no doubt in people's minds that this is a full blown genocide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody expects one of these planes to fall out of the sky. Nobody expects a 777 to vanish.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Suddenly this giant 777 is blind to the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody on that plane redirected it and they were not telling anyone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, March 3rd, just before 8:00 in the east. Headline, do not betray our trust. Quite the warning from the White House to Benjamin Netanyahu just hours before the Israeli prime minister addresses Congress.

Netanyahu by all accounts is unconcerned and plans on divulging sensitive information to Congress about America's nuclear talks with Iran. The White House warns that could have serious implications for the intelligence sharing agreements.

CAMEROTA: His controversial speech dividing Americans and Israelis, his appearance so controversial, about 50 lawmakers say they plan to boycott it. President Obama says he does not plan to watch it calling it a distraction.

CNN is covering every angle of this developing story starting with senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, we understand the president has made other plans.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He's made other plans, Alisyn. He won't be watching that speech. And you know the president is all but acknowledging that there has been damage done to this U.S.-Israeli relationship, but he said that the damage will not be lasting.