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Delaware Family Fighting for Their Lives Against Deadly Pesticide; NCAA Championship Tonight; ISIS Seizing Palestinian Refugee Camp; "Rolling Stone" Retracts UVA Gang Rape Story. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 06, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:07] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama makes his sales pitch to skeptics, calling the tentative Iran deal, quote, "our best bet by far to make sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon". In a wide ranging interview with "The New York Times", the president says he'll keep all options available if Tehran does not comply, but Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is not convinced, saying the framework threatens Israel and its neighbors.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The manhunt is intensifying for the al Shabaab terrorist believed to be the mastermind of Thursday's terror attack in Kenya. Authorities also confirming that one of the four gunmen was the son of a Kenyan government official. More questions being asked on that front. Meanwhile, it is day two of three days of national mourning in Kenya for those 147 victims.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, Indianapolis police on the hunt for three gunmen who put an infant, a toddler, and a 6-year-old in critical condition. Two adult women were also found shot last night inside a home in the northwest section of Indianapolis. Those women are also in serious condition. Investigators believe the victims knew their attackers.

CAMEROTA: OK, more on this strange story -- a Delaware family is fighting for their lives after their Caribbean vacation turned into a nightmare. Health officials in the U.S. believe that a powerful and banned pesticide sprayed at their resort could be to blame. CNN's Nick Valencia has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This morning, a criminal investigation under way at this luxury hotel in St. John's in the U.S. Virgin Islands after a family of four on vacation from Delaware was allegedly poisoned by methyl bromide, a deadly pesticide commonly used in agriculture.

OLIVER CAMPBELL, VICTIM'S CLASSMATE: It couldn't have happened to a better family and better people. They're one of those families everyone likes to be around.

VALENCIA: The company who rents out a villa at the Sirenusa Resort told CNN the pest control company Terminex fumigated the lower unit on March 18, right in the middle of the family's stay. The odorless nearly undetectable gas attacks the lungs and nervous system, causing respiratory and heart failure. So toxic it's banned from use indoors within the U.S. Even the World Meteorological Organization says methyl bromide is so destructive it significantly contributes to the thinning of the earth's stratospheric ozone layer.

CAMPBELL: It's really scary to think that this could happen to somebody that you know.

VALENCIA: The father, Steve Esmond, was found in a coma while his sons, 14 and 16, and their mother Theresa Devine were having severe seizures, according to families lawyer. The parents' condition improved after the family was airlifted back to the U.S., the mother released from the hospital. But the attorney said on Saturday both of the boys remain in a coma.

Terminexs told CNN in a statement that they are, quote, "looking into this matter internally and cooperating with authorities" and they join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery.

Nick Valencia, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: The last thing you anticipate happening ever.

CAMEROTA: That's terrifying.

PEREIRA: It really is.

CAMEROTA: And it's invisible, you never know when you go into a resort; you trust them to take your interests at heart.

PEREIRA: A luxury place, too. I mean, this was a couple -- it was maybe $1,000 a night for a villa?

CUOMO: Yes, but also it does feed, though -- you're right, it's a luxury place, but it feeds that xenophobia, that fear of, oh, you go to the islands, what is going to happen? Can I trust that they do things the same way we do it here? But who ever heard of that, pesticides making you that sick?

CAMEROTA: Gosh, so scary.

PEREIRA: We send our prayers and our thoughts to that family. That's going to be a long road to recovery.

CUOMO: Life threatening. And that mother now, she's home, but she's got to worry about her babies. And they're always her babies; it doesn't matter how old they get. We're going to follow up on that story, let you know how that family is doing.

All right, so some brighter side news. Tonight --

PEREIRA: Bright for who? (LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: For these who teams. Duke and Wisconsin set to battle it out for the national title tonight. Let's get Andy Scholes in here with his priceless smile, smile especially wide in Indianapolis, but he's got this morning's Bleacher Report.

PEREIRA: I'm mourning the loss on Saturday night.

CAMEROTA: Me too.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: You know what, guys, a lot of people were looking forward to seeing Kentucky in this championship game, trying to see them go for that perfect season in a colossal matchup against Duke. But Wisconsin, they spoiled that on Saturday night, pulling off that upset. And you got to hand it to these Badgers, guys; they have faced the highest possible seed in every one of their games so far in this tournament. Only three teams have done that and gone on to within the championship.

Now Duke and their star Jahlil Okafor definitely going to be Wisconsin's toughest challenge yet. CNN's Rachel Nichols sat down with Coach K and Bo Ryan. She asked what advice they were giving their players about handling this big moment?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE KRYZYSEWSKI, DUKE HEAD COACH: Well, I think the main advice I've given them is how the handle the Final Four. There's so much. And so how do you stay yourself during this time? But I think being in the Final Four has helped me get my team emotionally ready better.

[06:35:02] BO RYAN, WISCONSIN HEAD COACH: Just stay in the moment. To stay who you are. Be us. I had to say that Saturday 40 times. Guys, let's just be us and not -- let's play the way we've played to get here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Duke is trying to win Coach K his fifth national championship while Wisconsin is trying to capture its first title in 74 years. And you're going to have to stay up late if you want to watch this. Tipoff set for 9:18 Eastern on CBS.

All right, get your peanuts and crackerjacks out. The 2015 baseball season is now officially under way. Jon Lester took the mound for the Cubs last night, his first start after signing a $155 million deal in December. But it was Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright who stole the show; he threw six shutout innings as St. Louis won the game 3-0. And we've got 14 more games on tap in Major League Baseball. Today, the Yankees will be opening up their season against the Bluejays. That one gets going at 1:05 Eastern.

No more Derek Jeter for the Yankees, guys. And Chris, I know -- but I know you are excited. A-Rod's back.

CUOMO: Yes, he says he feels like a kid again.

PEREIRA: Team outing?

CAMEROTA: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOLES: Do you know what, 270 (INAUDIBLE) in the spring. Not bad.

PEREIRA: Not bad odds at all.

CUOMO: Don't you hate on A- Rod, perfect smile boy.

PEREIRA: All right. Andy, thanks, so much.

CUOMO: Do you like the team, by the way? How are we doing on baseball?

PEREIRA: I love baseball.

CUOMO: We all right with the Yankees? Did you grow up a Yankee hater or something like that?

CAMEROTA: Are there snacks there?

CUOMO: There are, actually.

PEREIRA: This is going to be really fun for you. I'm an adversary and she doesn't know what sport we're playing.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I'm an open vessel. You can teach me.

CUOMO: She'll probably wind up calling who's going to make the all star team.

CAMEROTA: That run I had with the bracket, that was sweet. I'm so sorry.

PEREIRA: Come on, man. Come on.

All right. Back to some news here. ISIS fighters are on the move in Syria. We're going to take a look at where they've seized control and where they may be headed next.

CAMEROTA: And Columbia University issues a scathing story about "Rolling Stone's" UVA rape story. And you will never believe the magazine's response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:59] PEREIRA: ISIS fighters seizing nearly total control of a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern part of Syria's capital Damascus after heavy clashes with rebel forces over the weekend.

Want to break it all down. Where is ISIS expanding and where do the terrorists pose the greatest threat? We're going to bring in co- author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror", Michael Weiss. Good to have you here on this Monday, Michael.

MICHAEL WEISS, AUTHOR, "ISIS: INSIDE THE ARMY OF TERROR": Sure, thanks.

PEREIRA: I want to talk about this concerning situation with Yarmouk refugee camp, Palestinians there. What is the end game for ISIS here? What is their interest in doing this?

WEISS: Well, so this is an interesting case. The Yarmouk camp has been shelled mercilessly by the Assad regime for over a year now. There's the main rebel faction that's been sort of in control of the camp, or inside the camp, Jaysh al- Islam, which is an Islamist brigade. They are against ISIS. But right now, the dynamics, it's a little hard to get accurate information because, again, the state of siege.

Right now, the allegation is that is Jabhat al Nusra, which is the official al Qaeda franchise, which broke apart from ISIS over a year ago, they're now working with ISIS, their rival that they have been fighting against, for control of the camp. Nusra denies this claim. There's also a Hamas affiliate in the camp, which is the main party pushing back against ISIS.

So the question is why does ISIS want control of the camp? There is not really very many resources there, aid can't come in. It's also the case that ISIS very rarely fights the Assad regime. So they're creeping closer to Damascus, but you notice they're not going after regime installations. They're trying to take essentially this blighted and devastated refugee population.

PEREIRA: And this population, the plight of them, is up in the air because there is not a lot of forces going to go in there and try and --

WEISS: Well, they're already living in a state of second and third class citizenry.

PEREIRA: Right, and it's only made worse now --

WEISS: Exactly.

PEREIRA: -- by ISIS kind of adding -- so let's talk about Damascus. When you talk about the fact that ISIS is gaining ground here, do they have the capability to actually take Damascus?

WEISS: No, I don't think they do. They have been in Damascus in sort of minimal numbers for quite a while actually. What I think is happening, what I see occurring, is look, they just -- we'll get to Iraq in a second I'm sure -- but they've just lost to Tikrit. When they tend to lose terrain in Iraq, they gain it elsewhere in Syria. So for them, the caliphate, as you might call it, is fungible. So the idea is to project power even when you're on the back foot in one place.

PEREIRA: Even when you're losing. So let's go to the back foot, let's move down to Iraq and we can take a look at where it is, a very different situation there. The ISF and coalition forces have made headway there. How significant is this?

WEISS: The fall of Tikrit is very significant to ISIS, more significant to the Iraqi government, for which this is a symbolic victory. The groups that have essentially liberated the city, Hashd al-Shaabi, the Shia militia consortium, most of them backed by Iran. They have been billing this operation as a continuation of the 1991 uprising, Shia uprising against Saddam Saddam. This is Saddam's hometown.

ISIS held the city with about 400-700 fighters for, I mean, a month of intense operations, aerial bombardment, again some 24,000 to 30,000 Shia militia backed by the Iraqi security force and of course U.S. aircraft. ISIS is saying, look, we bled the Iraqi government dry in this operation. 700 of our guys vs. 30,000 of theirs and it took them a month to take the town.

But still, it's a loss, and now it means that pro-government sources are creeping closer to Mosul, which is sort of the key to the kingdom.

PEREIRA: So let's look at control zones, if we can. Because we took -- looked at the attack zones. Control zones, these are areas that ISIS is actually fighting in. These offensive, what does it say to you about sort of long-term goals for them?

WEISS: Well, see, the thing about ISIS is they're not terribly good at governing or controlling territory. I mean, they do it. I mean, it's almost (INAUDIBLE). If you are governed by them, it's because you have -- there's no other alternative.

But what ISIS tends to do is they roll into a town with maybe 40 guys. And they take a town of hundreds of people or thousands of people and they say, right, you're going to pledge loyalty to us and we're going to install emirs. We're going to install governors of this town. We're not going to have a huge force behind them, but we're going to leave them there. Anybody that wants to rebel or oppose us, we'll cut your head off and put it on a pike in the middle of the town.

[06:45:00]

And that's how you stay loyal to ISIS.

And so ISIS is also capitalizing on the kind of political fragmentation of Iraq, which is to say the Sunnis in the geostrategic heartland of this country are not going to rise up against ISIS on behalf of what they see as Tehran. So Iranian-backed Shia forces which now in Tikrit are looting, cutting people's heads off, so the Sunnis are actually more terrified of the pro-government forces in many cases than they are of ISIS.

So when we say control versus support, it's a very kind of nebulous thing.

PEREIRA: And then let's, very quickly, because we'll wrap it up here, which is support zones -- and again there is an actual area that is not actively fighting but is sort of hands up and ISIS can have its free will there. WEISS: They can. And what is important to understand is why does

ISIS want so much terrain? One of the ways they make money is when they lorded over people, they charged taxes. So the more geography you have, the more population you control, the more money you make.

So most of these support networks or support areas, these are the tribal regions of eastern Syria and western and northern Iraq. So these communities, these populations, for centuries, they have been playing very careful political games, trading horses and sort of negotiating with whatever the reigning power is, be it in the Syrian side Bashar al-Assad's regime, the Iraqi side, Saddam's regime, ISIS or before ISIS al Qaeda and Iraq, or U.S. forces when they were there.

So the point to understand is these guys are not going to really switch until they see another major power coming in, expelling ISIS, and not doing so in a sectarian manner to go after them.

PEREIRA: It just shows how challenging and delicate the nature of all of this is. Michael Weiss, always a pleasure to have you here.

WEISS: Sure, my pleasure.

PEREIRA: So much smarter than all of us put together. We appreciate it. Chris?

CUOMO: That's for sure. "Rolling Stone" magazine, remember the huge UVA gang rape story? Set off a national debate? Well, the magazine now says it was all wrong. They retracted it. Why? And why are people saying a bigger price should be paid?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:54] CUOMO: "Rolling Stone" now says that its article about an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia campus fraternity was wrong. The retraction follows Columbia Journalism School calling the piece, quote, "journalistic failure" because "Rolling Stone" did not do their due diligence when reporting on this story.

CAMEROTA: Let's turn to our CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter and CNN correspondent Sara Ganim. They have both been following this story very closely. Great to have you both in studio here.

Sara, was there any part of this "Rolling Stone" story that was true?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they retracted the whole thing; they took the entire thing off of their web site. But there was a big clunk of it in the middle of the story, the overarching theme, that the University of Virginia historically did not respond well to victims of sexual assault, that they had never expelled a single student for sexual assault even when they admitted to it, but they did expel them for cheating.

CAMEROTA: So that part's all true. But the gang rape part, which was the most shocking, we no longer believe that was true. GANIM: So the University of Virginia has said that this investigation

was -- this investigation and the criminal investigation both came to the same conclusion, that there was no evidence of this. Although, we were talking about this yesterday. The police say they're keeping their investigation open to the possibility that something bad did happen to her -- maybe somewhere else. Maybe on a different day. Maybe not at UVA at all.

CUOM: Does that sound like CYA (ph) to you, like they're trying to be nice to the university because of sensitivity?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think this report comes awfully close to saying that the victim was deceiving "Rolling Stone". Nobody wants to come all the way out and say it, and the Columbia report makes clear no one knows for sure what happened, right? Only Jackie, the alleged victim, knows. And she's the only one not talking. She's the only one we still haven't heard from all of this, now that we've heard from the editors who apologized, now that we've heard from the writer who has apologized.

Fundamentally, if there had just been more phone calls made, there had just been more reporting done, this story never would've been published in the first place, because the red flags would have been going off.

PEREIRA: The thing that concerns me, I mean, there are so many parts of this story that are confounding and frustrating, but the fact that you say that there is an issue on campus and their historically has been -- is this going to set the fight against that back?

GANIM: Some student leaders believe that it's actually done the opposite. So, some will say --

STELTER: Because we're all talking about it.

GANIM: Because we're all talking about it and because the university was forced to implement, at least for those couple months or couple of weeks when we believed that this true, they were forced to implement new changes. And they have changed the way that fraternities hold parties. They've instituted a zero policy on sexual assault, although they haven't defined that so we don't know exactly what that means.

But it does seem that they're progressing in that area. But some -- there are leaders on campus who -- women's leaders who say, as a whole, this is a setback because it gives people a reason to doubt the next accuser within she comes forward.

PEREIRA: Right. That's a real concern.

CAMEROTA: It sure is. And Brian, let's talk about the journalism here. "Rolling Stone" did not follow the rules of Journalism 101. Someone tells you a story, an outrageous story or a regular story, and you corroborate it. You second source it. And apparently the reporter did not even go to Jackie, the alleged victim's, friends. She said that that night, she told her friends what happened. They witnessed her being distraught. And the reporter, it turns out, didn't ask the friends?

STELTER: It reminds me of that saying if it's too good to be true, it probably is. You've got to check it out. Well, this is a story that was too bad, perhaps, to be true. Something very traumatic may have happened to her, but the idea of seven men, the idea of multiple hours, the idea of her coming away bloodied and bruised and battered, those details were not able to be verified.

And that key point is what you just said -- the three friends weren't contacted. Sara was able to reach the friends. In fact, you talked to a couple of them last night. They're horrified by what "Rolling Stone" did to their campus.

CAMEROTA: Oh, that's interesting. Sara, they told you that they would have talked to "Rolling Stone" had they reached out.

GANIM: They told us that. They told other media organizations. They told Columbia that. And when you really boil the Columbia Journalism review down to one thing, it's that all she had to do was pick up the phone and call those friends. Because those friends say they would have talked and "Rolling Stone" now says that if they had that information from the friends, they would have started to go back.

STELTER: And you have to ask, why didn't they?

[06:55:00] CUOMO: Look, those situations are sensitive, especially when you're dealing with a sex crime and who want wants to come forward and what did they say and how did they feel? None of us hear know this any better than you do, because you dealt with it in Sandusky and the team wound up winning a Pulitzer for the reporting, but it's not easy when you deal with the victims.

GANIM: I mean, when I was reading this, and from my personal point of view, in that case and in cases that we cover here all the time, there is such a rigorous review process. I mean, lawyers are constantly asking us questions -- who did you talk to? What did that person say? Can we call their friend? I mean, I used to have lists of people that I had to call before a story we published. And it appears that none of that happens here. They based their entire article on one person and that was Jackie.

STELTER: I'm glad you mentioned what normally happens, because the audience at home should know there are these processes normally. This was a systemic failure. Lots of mistakes along the way that led up to this grave mistake. The writer made mistakes, the editors made mistakes, the fact checkers made mistakes. Frankly, the publisher made mistakes. All of those combined got us to this point. But usually journalists do get it right.

PEREIRA: So here's the question, can "Rolling Stone" bounce back then? I mean, it's one thing to see what's going to happen on UVA --

STELTER: Well, they're not going to fire anybody; that was the surprise yesterday.

CUOMO: And that's unusual. (CROSSTALK)

STELTER: They're not going to discipline anybody.

CUOMO: Because in our business, you get fired all the time now. It's like that's the first thing that happens, is the person gets fired and then you figure it out.

STELTER: This is now the most controversial part of it that they're not going to discipline anybody. The publisher says he's not going to -- in fact, he says that Sabrina Rudin Erdely may write for the magazine again. That has gotten a lot of people surprised.

CAMEROTA: Why were taking that tack? Why aren't they firing anybody? What's their explanation?

STELTER: Well, you can call it loyalty. You could call it loyalty. I think that one of the conclusions was this report published by Columbia, published in "Rolling Stone" magazine, is punishment enough. That this is already embarrassing enough. But I got to say, I don't know many people that agree with that conclusion that nobody should be disciplined here.

CUOMO: They said it wasn't intentional; they said they didn't believe that these mistakes were intentional and that's the -- it's something to think about. I mean we all -- I don't know about you guys -- I often feel that they pull the trigger too fast to fire people when you don't even know what happened.

STELTER: You got to wonder how Brian Williams feels sitting at home. He's been suspended for six months at NBC; very different story, but in this case NBC has not promised to release the investigation. In this case, got to give credit to "Rolling Stone", at least they have come forward.

CAMEROTA: That transparency, yes. Brian, Sara, thank you so much.

CUOMO: Sara, also got to keep our eye on the bigger ball. There are problems on campus, especially that one. And that doesn't go away just because this story did.

All right, so what do you think? That's why we're having this discussion. Do you think there should have been a firing? Is that important to you at "Rolling Stone" magazine? What do you think should happen now with this story in general? How do you keep it alive? You let us know. You know how to get us on Twitter. And you go to facebook.com/newday, OK? This is a big story for you this morning but there is a lot of news. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When nuclear weapons we become a political football.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are powerful enough to be able to test these propositions without putting ourselves at risk.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: A better idea would roll back Iran's fast nuclear infrastructure.

PEREIRA: The manhunt intensifying for the alleged mastermind of last week's university terror attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people are using the most basic means to murder as many people as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yemen has the full attention of the U.N. Security Council.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Yemen gets in a state like this, al Qaeda takes advantage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Generally wards are not won by airstrikes.

PEREIRA: Closing arguments are set to begin this morning in the Boston Marathon bombing trial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The judge is not involved in the sentencing. It's the jury.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

We begin with President Obama's hard sell to the American people on the Iranian nuclear deal, hailing the framework as quote, "our best bet by far" to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran's reach, while of course vowing, he says, to protect Israel.

CUOMO: And it bears repeating. The stakes are high here; we're talking about nuclear weapons. And yet the obstacle at home seems to still be the political climate with Congress. So the president just did an interview with "The New York Times" to make his pitch. But to be clear, he has a lot of work to do.

Let's get to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. She's live at the White House with the latest. Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, well, critics in Congress are trying to kill this deal. And critics abroad, too, are trying to kill this deal as well. And this is latest attempt by President Obama to try to reframe this debate and really give a defense in his opinion that this deal, he believes, is the best bet to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

And in this interview, he gives a real big picture defense on why he opened up communication lines with Iran, a country still on the state sponsor of terrorism list in the first place. And he called Iran's Supreme Leader a tough read but someone that he says was able to give his negotiators leeway to make some concessions.

(BEGIN VDIEO CLIP)

OBAMA: He does realize that the sanctions regime that we put together was weakening Iran over the long term and that, you know, if in fact he wanted to see Iran re-enter the community of nations, then there were going to have to be changes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And President Obama said that he observed over the course of these negotiations a real practical streak with the Iranian regime because he says that they're worried about that self preservation.

[07:00:06] That said, he does admit that there's still real mistrust and that's something that doesn't fade away between these two countries.