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2016ers Step Into Indiana Debate; Menendez Indictment Comes at Critical Time; Will Flight 9525 Crash Bring Technology Changes?; California Imposes Statewide Water Restrictions. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 02, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:43]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We are following breaking news this morning, al Shabaab gunmen storming a university in Kenya, the situation ongoing right now at Garissa University College. That's where terrorists are holding hostages reports say.

Local media saying as many as 15 people killed, 65 others injured. Those numbers are soft and will change throughout the day, but by any estimate this is a horrible situation. A witness telling CNN affiliate NTV, gunshots rang out like fireworks. We're going to update this story throughout the morning.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: About 300 prisoners, including a senior al Qaeda member are loose after terrorists stormed their prison in Yemen. This happened in the port city of Mukallah, government buildings, the central bank and a radio station, also taken over. This is the second major prison break in Yemen in two months.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: This is a very scary head-on crash caught on a school bus dash cam in Tulsa -- horrifying to listen to that. Seven people including six children were rushed to the hospital. The driver of the SUV was pinned in his vehicle, had to be cut out of it.

Fortunately and this is the miracle here, people, everyone is OK. The police say the driver has been known to suffer from seizures, it's unclear though if he was having one at the time of this accident. They're obviously investigating, but what's so miraculously is that nobody was seriously injured here.

CAMEROTA: My gosh, you can see the air bag deploy on the driver of the car there, he must have had a seizure. There is no other explanation for driving head on at that rate of speed.

CUOMO: No other good explanation, those poor kids, you hear them see it coming, terrible for them.

All right, a lot of politics this morning, let's get you to "Inside Politics," on NEW DAY, with Mr. John King.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Chris, good morning to you. You're right. Another busy day, let's discuss the national implications of these two state debates over religious freedom.

With me this morning to share their reporting and their insights are Jackie Kucinich of the "Daily Beast," Jonathan Martin of the "New York Times." So Indiana and Arkansas, let's get me a rewrite, that's what we call did in the news business.

They're going back to try to redo these two laws that caused so much controversy. What we see playing out now in the 2016 field, this divide between the Evangelical base of the Republican Party and the pro-business Chamber of Commerce establishment wing of the Republican Party. That's not new.

The question is, how will this impact 2016? I want to start with Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor out in California raising money yesterday, and he seems to back away. Early on, he said, good for you, Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Listen to Jeb Bush yesterday, he said he's not being critical of Mike Pence because I did say I supported his efforts. But Jeb Bush went on to say, "By the end of the week, I think Indiana will be in the right place, which is to say we need in a big diverse country like America.

We need to have a space for people to act on their conscience that is a constitutional right that religious freedom is a core value. The better approach Jeb Bush went on to say would have been the approach that is more census-oriented approach. It seems like he is backing off a bit.

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, it seems like he got a little ahead of his skis, initially in supporting what Pence was doing. But I also think this the difference between someone who has been a governor and someone who might be in the Senate.

In that, you know, Ted Cruz is doubling down, but then you have someone like Jeb Bush who knows in order to govern, you sort of need to this kind of thing happens, maybe not this bad, but for -- if you're Mike Pence, but this seems like a very gubernatorial thing to do.

KING: Gubernatorial thing to do, but Jonathan, will it hurt Jeb Bush, he's already got issues with the base of the party on immigration, on the common core education standards.

[07:35:06] He's saying maybe Governor Pence should have handled this more gently. Maybe he should have been more inclusive and let's just listen as we continue the conversation. Ted Cruz says no, Republican governors in both places now going back to rewrite. Ted Cruz seems to think they're making a mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I salute both the legislature in Indiana and the legislature in Arkansas for passing strong bills protecting religious liberty. And I think the assault that has been directed at Indiana now at Arkansas, has been shameful, and it has been wrong. (END VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES" NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, therein lies the challenge for Jeb Bush and for the other candidate -- appealing to the base, but also keeping some semblance of appeal for the general electorate, John, because there's going to be the Ted Cruzs of the world who are always going to be on their right.

And that's the challenge for folks like Jeb Bush. It's never going to be good enough for either the folks on the far left or the far right. You know, the challenge here that Jeb has is by saying that Indiana will get to a better place by the end of the week. The folks on the right think that's not true at all.

KING: I think that they're caving now.

MARTIN: Caving and the very point of these laws were to protect florists or bakers or whoever from not having to work on weddings for folks who are same-sex. And if you carve out language that says they don't have to, that sort of goes against the point. So it's a real challenge.

KING: So are we guaranteed that we will see yet another Republican presidential cycle where you have this Evangelical and establishment- based divide that's been immigration in the past. It's been abortion sometime in the past. Same-sex marriage has come up in the last couple of cycles.

And it's clear, we'll look at Hillary Clinton, you know, the former first lady of Arkansas, remember Arkansas is going back to reconsider its law. The governor of Arkansas's son convinced him maybe he should rethink this issue.

She tweeted out yesterday, "Like the Indiana law, Arkansas bill goes beyond protecting religion, would permit unfair discrimination against LGBT Americans, I urge governor to veto." She tweets when she thinks it's to her advantage.

MARTIN: It's an easy issue.

KING: Easy issue for the Democrats, but she wants to stoke the Republican divide.

KUCINICH: Of course, she does and she's going to have a lot of opportunities to do that. Particularly she's not going to have to worry about her left. It doesn't look like it right now. So yes, that's what she's going to do all cycle you would imagine, right?

MARTIN: The larger story here is that Democrats in 2015 are a very unified party. They have some differences on the economy but on culture they're a pretty overwhelming liberal party. The Republicans have real decisions on a lot of issues right now. They are now where Democrats were 30 years ago.

KING: As they litigate those issues in the Republican field, we'll see this debate will put pressure on some of the other candidates as well. We'll see how it plays out in the debates going forward.

You saw Ted Cruz in Iowa just remember he was the first candidate to jump into the race, he did that eight days ago. His campaign just issued a press release moments ago saying he's raised $8 million in those four days.

Listen to Ted Cruz telling voters in Iowa, wow, I think I'm on to something here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Tremendously encouraging the support we're seeing. We're seeing both small donors, men and women all over the country contributing, but we're also seeing major donors, heavy, heavy hitters stepping forward, bundling, hosting fundraisers, and I really have been, been blown away by the tremendous support we've seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The question I have is, does it last? He decided to get in early because he wanted to change the race. He was at 4 percent. We've seen some evidence he is moving up in the national polls a bit.

Is he going to establish himself as the candidate of the right and the right usually has a candidate early on? Are we going to have like we had the last cycle where Michelle Bachmann had a week? Herman Cain had a week? We are just going to back and forth with the headlines?

KUCINICH: I think that remains to be seen, but this certainly has benefitted Ted Cruz going first. That was probably the right call for him and these grassroot donors are very important for the right. We saw Rick Santorum raising from tiny donors last time. He had his moment. Now there's someone else has their moment later and raises that kind of money. We'll see.

MARTIN: It was a shrewd move. He filled a vacuum. Had a nice week where he was able to get a lot of attention from the press. It obviously has worked to a certain degree financially. But yes, there's going to be a lot of folks with the same claim on a similar pool of voters that he has.

And frankly similar pool of donors so it's going to be challenging for him eventually, but he obviously is formidable because he's very articulate. He knows what he believes and again the point made earlier, on every issue he's going to get to the right of every candidate in the field.

KING: Let's quickly address, Bob Menendez, the senator from New Jersey. He is the ranking Democrat on foreign relations issues in the Senate at the time the president, you know, trying to negotiate an Iran deal and other international issues in the news. He's been indicted now on corruption charges. Let's listen to Bob Menendez quickly saying that this is all a scam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ), RANKING MEMBER, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: I'm outraged that prosecutors at the Justice Department were tricked into starting this investigation three years ago, with false allegations by those who have a political motive to silence me. But I will not be silenced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:40:14] KING: He is stepping aside temporarily as ranking member to do the Democrats a favor so he's not out there every day being asked these questions, I guess he might get asked anyway. Do we watch this play out in court and see what happens?

KUCINICH: Yes, but I don't know many people have come back from a temporary stepping down. It doesn't really happen.

MARTIN: And the political challenge is the details -- so even if his lawyers get him off -- it's sort of the Paris luxury hotel room on the donor's Amex points and frankly the most damning part of it, the Medicare. But also, having his staff get visas allegedly for his donor's girlfriends for various countries. Putting aside the legal issues, politically, very tough to come back from.

KING: It looks bad in these cases can take years, Alisyn, to play out in the court. So we'll watch Senator Menendez. He says he's going to fight, but silence a voice in the Democratic Party, at a time he could have been a very prominent player.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. So we will be watching that closely. As we know you will be, too, John. Thanks so much.

Well, after almost every aviation disaster, there are changes to improve airline safety. What changes will come from the Flight 9525 tragedy? Our experts will explain.

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[07:45:27]

PEREIRA: This morning, a European government official close to the Flight 9525 crash investigation tells CNN that investigators have made a new discovery. They're not yet revealing what exactly that new finding is. In the meantime, Lufthansa says they will fully honor every claim stemming from the crash on a case-by-case basis.

With us this morning to discuss it all is Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Justin green is here, private pilot and president of the International Air and Transportation Safety Bar Association.

A few things I want to get to with the two of you this morning. Good morning first of all to the both of you. We're hearing about the news there's a major development, a new development, Justin, on scene. They're not saying what it is. What could be key at this point?

JUSTIN GREEN, PRIVATE PILOT: Well, I believe the flight data recorder being found would be probably the major development.

PEREIRA: But we know that the CVR was the more telling thing in this instant especially when we talk about the fact it was an intentional crash.

GREEN: There are three things I think that are important in this crash, the cockpit voice recorder, which we have, which probably is the most important thing. The flight data recorder which will give some more information and actually the pilot's body because they can do an autopsy and find out what drugs or other problems he may have had.

PEREIRA: Consider that. Mary, we want to talk to you about the fact that Lufthansa has already set aside some $300 million in insurance for these families that is no small sum. We talked about this with MH-370, talk about it now with Lufthansa. That can make a real big dent in this company. Talk about the financial damage it can do to them.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it actually won't do financial damage to the company. They're fully insured. In most major airline operations, they carry about $1.5 billion of insurance per flight and almost never is that ever tapped out.

Even in the case of the four planes of September 11th, 2001 in our litigation after that, we did not break through all the insurance that was available. So Lufthansa will fly on. Germanwings will fly on.

The insurers will pay the tab and hopefully the insurers will do what they're supposed to do, which is examine the operation and call on them to make any changes necessary. And then yes, they can expect the rates to go up.

PEREIRA: I want to talk to you both. Mary, I'll start with you about some of the technology, sadly we know that so much is learned after these crashes. We know this was a particular scenario that led to this one. But developments have been in talks for a while about technologies that needed to be used.

We were talking about cameras in the cockpit, streaming data, streaming video from inside the cockpit. Some of these measures they're looking to sort of put into the airlines. And that you've told us about one automatic ground collision avoidance system. What is this and is it a real option for commercial aircraft?

SCHIAVO: It is. It's called, well, now it's called enhanced ground proximity warning systems, and those are the systems that you would hear and the prosecutors have already talked about in this case and every case where the plane itself warns that you're getting near the ground and the plane says terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up.

PEREIRA: Which would have happened in this one?

SCHIAVO: Right, exactly. There's a newer version of that which would be able to override the pilot, if the pilot is distracted. Every year there are hundreds of planes, small ones mostly, that go in and they have what's called c-fit, controlled flight over terrain.

This would override would take it away from the pilot and cause the plane to pull up if they were about to hit terrain so that's just one of the many changes hopefully technology that can come out of this.

But there are many more and there's a small window of opportunity after each crash to get changes, to make flights safer in the future.

PEREIRA: But just in this system, this technology is not perfect as a solution for all accidents. In fact, it wouldn't have helped in an intentional crash like this one, wouldn't it?

GREEN: Well, if the pilot could still pull off his or her engines. This is really designed for a pilot who is distracted, like Mary just said, which is actually a much larger danger to aviation than intentional acts by a pilot.

The system that would actually may have prevented this type of scenario is a system that would basically lock the pilot out of the cockpit. It would basically take the airplane over. The pilot couldn't turn off his engines. The pilot couldn't crash the airplane.

PEREIRA: A true pilot-less aircraft.

GREEN: That's right and they were designed by both Boeing and Airbus after 9/11. But the system, one of the things that doctors always say is don't do any harm.

[07:50:02] Airplane designers same thing, you don't want to design something that's going to create other problems and it's a major -- it's a major overhaul. There are other simpler things to prevent something like this -- having a second pilot in the cockpit. Better screening for pilots.

PEREIRA: Right. We're going to talk a lot more about this coming up, Justin Green, Mary Schiavo, as always, thank you so much. Chris, I'll send it to you.

CUOMO: All right, Mich, wait until you hear what California is doing to deal with an historic drought. We're going to take you there next. Stay with us.

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[07:53:59]

CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. California needs rain desperately. A four-year drought is approaching crisis proportions. So Governor Jerry Brown is now taking an unprecedented step. CNN's Sara Sidner is live in Los Angeles with the details. What's he doing, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look for the first time ever this state is now under -- the entire state under water restrictions and there are a lot of things that they are doing. I mean, this problem has gotten so bad that in some parts of California thousands of people are living without running water in their homes.

They have to go out and buy bottled water just to have something to drink in their homes. It is a very, very difficult problem and some of the restrictions that have been put in place, for example, the governor saying, look, we've got to cut urban water usage, the drinkable water.

We've got to cut that usage by 25 percent and this couldn't come soon enough according to scientists. If you take a look at what the reservoirs look like in California, how low they are, how little water there is on the surface. Scientists say that it's important that we have to act now.

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[07:55:05] JAY FAMIGLIETTI, SENIOR WATER SCIENTIST, NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: California has about one year of water left in its reservoirs on the surface and that's what our water managers tell us and that's readily visible from measurements on the ground. The reason the reservoir levels are so low is that we really had a terrible winter in terms of rainfall and snowfall.

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SIDNER: And let me give you a look at just how bad it is. We want to show you what the state is and how bad it is in certain areas. The darkest red on the map that we're going to show you, that's where the problem is the worst.

This is really a problem that is absolutely across the west though in California scientists have said this is not just 100-year drought, the worst in 100 years, but there is one study out there that says this is the worst drought California has dealt with in 1,200 years. These restrictions being put in place couldn't come soon enough -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Gosh, that's remarkable context. Sara Sidner, thank you so much.

CUOMO: Two major situations going on right now involving two different terror groups, al Shabaab gunmen opening fire at a Kenyan university. It's an active hostage situation. We have the latest from the ground.

And al Qaeda fighters carrying out a brazen prison break in Yemen, we have live reports, the very latest ahead.

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