Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Hundreds of Migrants Feared Dead on Capsized Boat; ISIS Video Shows Executions of Christians; Americans Flee Chaos in Yemen; Hillary Clinton Heads to New Hampshire; How Did Baltimore Man Die in Custody? Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 20, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... which included apparently they had questioned if Bangladeshi survivor from this disaster, who said that as many as 950 people were on board this ship, which went down off the Libyan coast.

[07:00:14] That survivor also spoke about the fact that many of the people on board, including as many as 200 women and up to 50 children, had been locked by the traffickers in the lower decks of that ship.

Now, Italians, or rather European officials, are scrambling to deal with this mounting crisis. We understand they will be holding an emergency meeting this afternoon in Latvia. And there is talk of an emergency summit, including 28 interior and foreign ministers to try to address this problem -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Ben, thank you so much for that.

Well, the migrants were, in part, trying to escape the horror of ISIS. The terrorists releasing a new video, showing the mass execution of Ethiopian Christians. For the latest, let's get right to senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. He is live for us in London. What do we know at this hour, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this is ISIS doing in Libya what we've seen them do in Syria and in Iraq, which is take advantage of a volatile, chaotic situation, where the government has essentially collapsed, and then instill their own brand of vicious radical Islam.

This 39-minute video that they put out now is all about telling Christians how they can live or die under ISIS. What they're saying is you can convert to Islam. You can pay a non-Islam tax or you can be killed like these Ethiopian Christians.

We don't have confirmation that these are Ethiopian Christians. ISIS claims they are.

There are multiple layers to this ISIS message here. They behead a group of 15 of these Christians on the beach in the north of Libya, on the Mediterranean sea. The other group of 15 are executed by gunshot, right on the southern borders of Libya, hundreds of miles away.

What ISIS is trying to do here is create the impression that they are spread out across the whole of the Libya that they have control there. They've used the same media organization that ISIS in Iraq and Syria uses, trying to imply that they are spread on getting stronger all across the Middle East -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Nic Robertson for us in London, thanks so much.

We have new developments this morning in the crisis in Yemen, where any Americans left in the country are trying to escape. The leader of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels is talking tough after nearly a month of Saudi-led airstrikes failed to drive his rebels away. Want to bring in CNN senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir for us, who has covered this crisis inside and outside that country.

Good morning.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the situation as you described it really does feel like it is descending further into chaos.

John, the -- but most countries at this stage in this situation in Yemen have evacuated their nationals, most notably India, which brought out 5,000 people.

We were able to bring out 60 refugees with us from Aden, one of the few ships to dock at that Aden port. Fifteen of them were American, and they told us that they had felt abandoned by their country. Take a listen to Muna Munassa (ph). She's from upstate New York. She's from Buffalo. Listen to her, John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUNA MUNASSA (PH), U.S. CITIZEN: I called the U.S. embassy. I asked them to help us, that there is about 75 families that were waiting at the marina. My family has been here for two weeks. We ran out of money. We ran out of food. We ran out of shelter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELBAGIR: Just a horrifying situation Muna's (ph) describing there. She told us that she feels like her country treated her like a third-class citizen, even though her son is an Iraq War vet.

There is no definitive number on the number of Americans still in Yemen. We know there are still many more.

Back to you, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Nima. Thank you so much for giving us an inside look at what is going on in so many places around the world. All right. So, let's get back to these two main stories that

we're following, though, about these migrant ships, one that is off the coast of Italy, the other one now off the coast of Greece. There's new information coming in about that. Three believed dead already.

Again, a population of migrants off the coast of Rhodes there near Greece. And they're still looking for dozens and dozens of people. So what is going on here, and what is the U.S. role going forward?

Let's bring in Ambassador Nicholas Burns. He is the former U.S. undersecretary for political affairs and ambassador to NATO. He's now a Harvard Kennedy School professor.

It's the perfect morning to have you, sir. Thank you for joining us, Ambassador.

Let's deal with, first of all, these two big ongoing rescue efforts. Have you ever heard of having so many lives at risk of this kind, migrants who are trying to escape by water at the same time?

NICHOLAS BURNS, PROFESSOR, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL: No, it's unprecedented, Chris. We've never seen a situation like this with these huge numbers of people. It's so tragic: drowning at sea, trying to flee the chaos and instability and violence all over the Middle East, from Iraq to Yemen, and over to now North Africa and Libya.

[07:05:12] CUOMO: I mean, look. We know that as many as 20 percent of the population in Jordan and places now are swelling up with people from Syria and surrounding areas, trying to escape. We just saw what Nima had for us in Yemen.

On land, it is dangerous enough. But by water, you're having tons of people overload ships' capacities. And what do you think is driving it, and what do you think should be done?

BURNS: What's driving it is mass unemployment in North Africa and the Middle East. Instability produced by the wars of the last four years since the Arab Spring started; and hopelessness, the fact that in Libya, the country has fallen apart. It's in free fall, because the governing structures have collapsed.

The same thing has happened in Syria, Iraq and in Yemen. So you have four states that are in the process of disintegration, where the governing authority has collapsed, where they are vicious wars that have broken out.

In Syria alone, Chris, 11 million people homeless, out of a population of 22.4 million. That's half the country. Two hundred and fifty thousand people dead.

And so when you don't have any hope that your government can take care of you and when you're the victims of these brutal terrorist groups like the Islamic State, people flee for their lives. And that's what we're seeing over the last several months. The refugee numbers are way up. And of course, these terrible drownings at sea.

CUOMO: Now, all of these multiple situations in this compressed time period makes you start thinking about some type of unifying catalyst here. Is there a failure of world strategy involved here? Is there a failure of U.S. strategy evidenced in what we're seeing here?

BURNS: I wouldn't blame this on the United States. What we're seeing in the Middle East is, I think, a decade or more of violence and instability and revolution. That's a decade into the future.

After four years since the Arab Spring, you can perhaps say that Tunisia is better off. But most of the other countries, if not all, are if worse shape. And so the United States, the European countries, the Arab nations themselves, have to focus on a few priorities.

And I think you've seen President Obama just in the last several months with a "back to the future" policy of trying to support our traditional friends: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and, of course, Israel. We can't be all things to all people. We don't have enough people. We don't have enough funds to rescue the entire Arab world, but those are the places where the United States traditionally has had interests. You've seen a lot of support for what the Saudis, Emiratis and Kuwaitis are doing, as well, Chris.

And I think it's because the United States has vital interests: protection of Israeli, protection of these Arab friends, free flow of energy out to Europe and Asia. Those are the essentials of American policy, really going back 40 years. And you've seen President Obama come back to that after having supported some of these democratic movements, I think quite rightly four years ago.

CUOMO: So one more macro question and one question that goes to the immediate situation we're dealing with.

Now, on the greater level, the macro level, you encourage people to fight for democracy. The United States does that all over the world. But this is the price of revolution, and should there be a little bit more discretion in what you tell people is best for them?

BURNS: Well, I think, you know, the United States put its weight behind the young people in Egypt in Tahrir Square in January, February 2011. You remember that, the Arab Spring.

CUOMO: Sure.

BURNS: No one thought that the entire region would break down in a process of severe and fundamental disintegration, economic, social and political. And that's what you're seeing now.

CUOMO: But is that the risk, though, encouraging people to fight the system. You know, maybe the -- maybe, you know, the type of democracy you have in the U.S. isn't for everyone.

BURNS: Well, I think, you know, this is a region that's never known -- hasn't known in many, many decades a democratic state in an Arab country. And so I think it was right for the United States to put its weight behind those young people. They weren't voting for this that you see today. They were voting for freedom. They were voting for jobs. They were voting for an end of corruption. I think the president was right to do that.

But four and a half years later when they're -- when you're undergoing a tsunami in the Middle East, you've got to go back to the essentials. And that's protect your traditional friends. And I think that's what the U.S. has been doing.

CUOMO: And a reminder of how hard-fought freedom often is.

So we'll be obviously covering this situation well into the future. But we have this immediate situation. Italy was doing very well, we 're told by recent estimates in the last year, in handling what was going on off their coast. They turned it over to the European authorities. There doesn't seem to be the will there.

Now, this just may be random, what we're seeing with this Greek ship and this ship off the coast of Italy at the same time going over, but do we have the set-up, the systems in place as an international community to deal with this exodus by water?

BURNS: I don't think so. And the European ministers, foreign affairs are meeting this morning. There's a lot of second guessing going on.

The Italians, as you say, Chris, had had a major program in place. The Europeans scaled that back. The Europeans are now talking about major investments in coast guard and naval facilities to try to interdict these boats at sea and save the people before they -- they suffer the fate that these hundreds of people appear to have suffered in the last few days.

[07:10:27] CUOMO: And smugglers are everywhere. Hardship by land is enough. But, you know, something bad happens at sea, and it's almost -- you know, the fate is almost decided immediately.

Ambassador, thank you so much for giving us perspective on these issues.

BURNS: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: The conversation we'll be having for some time to come, as you say -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, back to politics here at home. Hillary Clinton stumping in New Hampshire today after enduring blistering attacks from Republicans who attended a weekend summit there. And brand-new polling from CNN this morning shows that those attacks may not make a dent in Hillary's momentum.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny, live at Clinton's first stop in Keene, New Hampshire.

What are we expecting, Jeff? JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning,

Alisyn.

Well, she'll be visiting this century-old business here, trying to make her case for why she's the best candidate to keep the economy going. But she's out-muscling all those Republicans. And she's the first or second choice of 83 percent of Democrats.

But she knows all too well that early polls can sour. That's why she's coming here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am so delighted to be here.

ZELENY (voice-over): A week after finally jumping in, Hillary Clinton is dominating the presidential race. She's the first choice of nearly seven in ten Democrats.

SEN. RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton's going to raise $2.5 billion.

ZELENY: For Republicans, our new poll shows a wide-open race.

JEB BUSH, FORMER GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: Thank you all very much.

ZELENY: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush sits on top, but far from comfortably. A quarter of all Republicans say Bush has the best chance to win.

But Florida Senator Marco Rubio is closing in.

CLINTON: Hi, how are you all?

ZELENY: As Clinton heads to New Hampshire for week two of her re-introduction tour, 58 percent of Democrats say they're enthusiastic about her candidacy, up from 41 percent last June.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She lacks the candor and the transparency that are so necessary to leadership.

ZELENY: But that momentum hasn't stopped Republicans, who spent the weekend here trying to break out of the pack by piling on Clinton.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because I could have sworn I saw Hillary Clinton's Scooby Doo van outside.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Hillary Clinton travels, there's going to need to be two planes: one for her and her entourage, and one for her baggage.

ZELENY: But Hillary also knows how early polls can sour, which is why she's coming to New Hampshire, where one of the most vivid moments of her first presidential campaign played out.

CLINTON: I see what's happening. We have to reverse it.

ZELENY: It was a rare sign of raw emotion.

CLINTON: This really kind woman said to me, "Well, how are you doing?"

ZELENY: The woman who asked that question was Marianne Pernold. We went back to Cafe Espresso in Portsmouth to ask what she thinks of Clinton now.

MARIANNA PERNOLD, VOTER: I think she's a lot friendlier looking. She's smiling more.

ZELENY: She ultimately picked Barack Obama back then, a decision she doesn't regret. But now she says she's ready for Hillary.

PERNOLD: She's not as stressed-out looking. And I don't think she has anything to prove anymore, because she knows she did a great job. I truly wish her luck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, it was so interesting to talk to Marianne again seven years later. She said she does like what she sees. She likes the more empathetic side of Clinton. But when he asked her if she would definitely vote for her, she said, "Look, it's far too early to pin me down. I'm not sure who else is running yet." So she's like a classic New Hampshire voter, and that is why Hillary Clinton is coming here today, to start working over those voters one by one -- John.

BERMAN: With only 600 days left. Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much for being there in New Hampshire for us.

City officials in Baltimore are promising a thorough investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. The 27-year-old died on Sunday, one week after he was severely injured while being taken into police custody. The video right here shows Gray being dragged into a van by officers with his hands behind his back and his legs appearing to hang limp. His family claims the police are now involved from a cover-up.

CUOMO: The unknown driving that story and another story, and there may be a twist in Tulsa. The attorney for Reserve Deputy Robert Bates releasing documents now that he says prove his client was properly trained as a law enforcement officer. The documents indicate Bates had one Taser training class in a six-and-a-half year period.

Now, you'll remember, Bates shot and killed an unarmed man earlier this month, he says by accident. That he pulled his gun instead of his Taser.

CNN has not confirmed the authenticity of the documents. But we will test the case with the attorney for Mr. Bates, coming up.

CAMEROTA: While the Senate likely to approve Loretta Lynch as the nation's next attorney general in the next two or three day, we're told. That's the word from Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. He told CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" that he expects a deal to come together this week to finish that human trafficking bill the Democrats have blocked because of an abortion-related prediction. Republicans have said Lynch would be considered once that issue is resolved.

[07:15:11] CUOMO: Now, J.B. was just telling you about the situation that's going on in Baltimore. We're going to have more on it, because there's a very big key here about what happened to Mr. Freddie Gray. There is a 12-minute blank in our understanding of the time line right now. The attorney for Mr. Gray's family is joining us next with what he thinks happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: I want citizens to know exactly how it happened and, if necessary, we will -- I will insure that we will hold the right people accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Big questions this morning for the Baltimore Police Department. How did 27-year-old Freddie Gray become so severely injured in custody that he died yesterday? Police did not explain why Gray was arrested or how he sustained those injuries.

Let's bring in the attorney, William Murphy, Jr. He represents the family of Freddie Gray.

Mr. Murphy, thanks for being with us.

WILLIAM MURPHY JR., ATTORNEY FOR FREDDIE GRAY'S FAMILY: Thank you. Good morning.

CAMEROTA: What has the Baltimore Police Department shared with you and the family about the arrest?

MURPHY: Absolutely nothing. The only things we know from the police are the things that they've said on television, and that hasn't been much at all. There is a video surveillance camera right above where Freddie Green was -- Freddie Gray was arrested. And that camera should tell at least the first part of the story about what happened to him from the beginning of the time the police first touched him to the time that he was put into the vehicle to be taken to the police station.

[07:20:08] CAMEROTA: So -- so the police have not communicated with you or the family at all. Have -- have they mentioned why they confronted Freddie Gray to begin with?

MURPHY: No. And the officers evidently have taken the Fifth Amendment rather than cooperate with the police investigation.

CAMEROTA: Well, the mayor, as you just heard, of Baltimore, is promising a thorough investigation. Here's what she said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: We have to move forward in a responsible way to determine all of the facts of this incident so that we can provide the community with the answers, the real answers, that they deserve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Now the city's chief prosecutor is investigating this, says that there's an investigation under way. Are you satisfied that the prosecutor will be able come up with some real answers?

MURPHY: Well, we're enthusiastic about the new prosecutor. She's newly elected, and she comes to the office with a belief in the integrity of these kinds of investigations.

We have much more confidence in her than we have in the police. Because there's never been any level of confidence, nor should there be, in the police investigating themselves.

So we -- we await the outcome of that investigation, and of course, we're doing our own investigation simultaneously, as far as we can. We've already interviewed about a dozen witnesses at the scene, and we've seen the police or the citizen videos that have come out concerning what happened.

CAMEROTA: And so from your investigation, what do you believe happened?

MURPHY: Well, what we do know for sure is that he was in good health when the police first contacted him, and he died of an 80 percent severed spinal cord and three broken vertebrae in his neck.

CAMEROTA: Is that what doctors have told you?

MURPHY: And that's not good.

CAMEROTA: Where are you getting that information, Mr. Murphy?

MURPHY: We have our own sources at this point. And we're not at liberty to expose those sources, but I'm confident that that information is reliable.

CAMEROTA: Something, obviously, grievous happened to him. Even in that video that we're watching, you can see at one point the police dragging him. And it appears that Mr. Gray's legs are limp. So something happened that we can't see on the video. What are witnesses telling you?

MURPHY: Well, the witnesses' stories at this point, on matters as critical as a video, which will show everything. Now, of course, the video has no sound, and we think it won't have. The witnesses will be important to fill in that part of what happened.

But you could see him screaming in pain as he has been dragging, or as he's being dragged to the police vehicle; and that's problematic. And you can also see his legs are -- appear to be limp and not moving. And that also suggests that the injury may have already happened at that point.

But until we see the autopsy report and we await the outcome of the police investigation, and what I understand is the simultaneous investigation by the chief prosecutor of Baltimore, we'll know more about this.

Now, bear in mind that Baltimore has a sorry history of police brutality and a sorrier history in terms of a governmental response to police brutality. Typically, the police deny, deny, deny, no matter what the facts are.

And it is not unusual for them to promote the police officer, even after he's been found guilty of brutality. We had one case -- I handled this -- where we got a $44 million verdict against the police officer who rammed my client into the brick wall at the back of his holding cell and paralyzed him from the neck down.

CAMEROTA: Oh my goodness.

MURPHY: That police officer was promoted to sergeant after the verdict against him, and the city refused to pay and made us appeal at every level. So we had to go to the court of special appeals, the court of appeals.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MURPHY: We won in all of the appellate courts, and still they wouldn't pay the verdict. So it's a sorry, sorry, situation.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Murphy, can you tell us how the family of Freddie Gray is processing all of this?

MURPHY: Oh, they're broken up, completely. They're -- they're barely able to absorb these tragic events. These things happened so quickly, and it's a real tragedy.

CAMEROTA: Well, we certainly hope that the mayor and, if there is an independent review and the prosecutor's office can get to the bottom of what actually happened here. Mr. Billy Murphy, thank you so much for being on NEW DAY.

MURPHY: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Alisyn.

The single most important indication of what will happen in the presidential election to be published in the last 83 minutes. Surprising numbers.

[07:25:00] Inside the numbers, a brand-new CNN poll that will change how you view the campaign. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:29:08] CUOMO: We have news going on right now. We have never seen anything like what is going on right now. Two boats capsizing, carrying hundreds and hundreds of people. One off the coast of Greece, where we're just getting reports of fatalities, dozens and dozens of people said to be in the water. You're looking at -- these are the first pictures we've gotten here. We're told these are migrants escaping, obviously, from what they fear at home. And it is an ongoing effort right now.

Now you're looking at the second one. This is an unprecedented rescue effort to save migrants trapped off the coast of Italy. Officials there are calling this genocide. They blame smugglers for just over-packing people into flimsy boat like the one that just went down.

The ship sent out a distress call off the coast of Libya Saturday. It had been at sea for days. Some say -- these are survivors we're getting reports from -- again, these are smugglers; they don't have good manifests of who was on board -- as many as 950 may have been on board. Some of them, we're told, may have been trapped behind locked doors. So we're monitoring the situation for you.

CUOMO: That video does show how flimsy those boats look.

Well, also, a stunning admission from the Justice Department. Officials...