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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Cartoon Attack; Mike Huckabee to Announce Presidential Bid. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 05, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:30] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: ISIS claiming responsibility for Sunday's attempted ambush at the Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas. One of the two gunmen killed during the attack recently tweeting his allegiance to ISIS. The FBI says in 2011, Elton Simpson was convicted of making false statements involving terrorism. His family now apologizing for his actions. The second gunman, Nadir Soofi, had spent time in Pakistan when he was younger.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A New York City police officer shot over the weekend has died. You're looking at 25-year-old Brian Moore. He was ambushed, along with one of his partners in Queens. The man who did it, Demetrious Blackwell, now facing upgraded charges of first-degree murder for killing a police officer. Moore's family and friends gathered for prayer service Monday night in Moore's hometown on Long Island. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones. We are reminded how dangerous it can be to be a police officer.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: A 21-year-old U.S. college student speaks exclusively with CNN. After being detained in North Korea, Won Moon Joo admits he entered illegally. He's hoping his presence will heal tensions with the South. He has not spoken to U.S. officials nor his family in New Jersey since he was arrested. Won doesn't seem worried about the severe consequences he could face.

CAMEROTA: All right. Time for CNN Money Now, business correspondent Cristina Alesci is in our Money Center.

What's the latest, Cristina?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we got to start with the world's biggest burger chain, McDonald's. It unveils some new details on how it's going to reverse a huge slide in sales. The company says it will modernize its brand and improve the quality of its food it needs to.

Comcast is offering a new way to share video. Its new app called Xfinity Share let's users share video from their phones straight to another user's TV. This comes after live streaming app like Meerkat and Periscope have been gaining in popularity. I just Periscoped this morning for the first time. It was a lot of fun.

PEREIRA: We didn't know you did. That's so exciting.

All right, Cristina. Thank you so much.

Two armed gunmen killed by police while attempting to attack a Prophet Muhammad event in Texas. We're going to ask a surviving staffer from "Charlie Hebdo" magazine if those organizers were asking for trouble.

CUOMO: And the field for president is expanding again. Who's jumping in? We have the answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: ISIS is now claiming responsibility for Sunday's attempted ambush at a Muhammad art exhibit in Texas. That shooting is drawing comparisons to January's terror attack on French magazine "Charlie Hebdo", which had a history of publishing caricatures of the prophet.

One man who narrowly missed the Paris attack was "Charlie Hebdo" is Jean-Baptiste Thoret. He arrived to work late that fateful day. And he is in New York to accept PEN's Freedom of Expression Courage Award on behalf of his colleagues. He joins us now in studio.

It's a pleasure to meet you under such bizarre and incredible circumstances. We'll talk about your award in a moment. But first of all, we have to ask how all of you are doing?

JEAN-BAPTISTE THORET, CHARLIE HEBDO FILM CRITIC: We are trying to do the best we can, because I tell you, before the January 7 killing, you know, we were quite a small magazine trying to make cartoon and something happened and we became sort of a symbol all over the world, all the people say "Charlie Hebdo," don't you remember?

PEREIRA: Of course we do.

THORET: Of course, from Brazil, from U.S., from China --

PEREIRA: The world over.

THORET: The world over. So, it's far beyond earth, you know what I mean.

[06:40:05] So you have to stay focused. And what you have to say and what you have to write.

PEREIRA: Do you feel different? Do all of you feel differently? And does the magazine feel differently post January 7th?

THORET: Differently because for one sad reason, I mean, we lost most -- not most but large part of our colleagues who are friends, you have to know that. Just not colleagues, you know. Some cartoonist and some writer.

So, a lot of people are missing, you know, in our columns. So, you have to -- we have to find some new writer, new cartoonist. But you don't become a cartoonist like that, you know? You have to know people. You have to practice. PEREIRA: Sure.

THORET: You have to feel comfortable on magazine --

PEREIRA: It takes time to rebuild after something like that.

THORET: Absolutely.

PEREIRA: I want to ask you in light of what happened in Texas over the weekend, we hear about this attack and then two gunmen who planned to attack this Muhammad art exhibit there, does it bring about memories? What does it make you feel when you see that kind of thing happening? Or almost happening again?

THORET: You know, what happened in "Charlie Hebdo" January 7, we used to say that it was the beginning of something, you know? It's not like a plane crash, for example.

PEREIRA: Right. A one event, a single event.

THORET: It's over. You have to, you know, grieve. You have to make a lot of things. But the disaster is behind you.

We in "Charlie Hebdo" even, all of us knew that it was a beginning of something. And what happened in Texas has nothing to do, I think, what about to "Charlie Hebdo." I mean, in Texas, it was clearly sort of anti-Islamic, you know, movement, fighting against what they call the Islamization of the U.S.

PEREIRA: Right.

THORET: It's absolutely nuts.

PEREIRA: That doesn't feel the same.

THORET: Absolutely.

PEREIRA: But at the heart of it, does it not feel --

THORET: Maybe at the heart just because you have some crazy guy, you know, attacking some others because they are making cartoon of the prophet and it was a contest.

PEREIRA: What about the notion of freedom of speech? Of trying to silence that right to speak and publish freely?

THORET: You should take that this way (ph) --

PEREIRA: You don't?

THORET: Yes, it's easy, because it's a question of speech freedom of speech, even a freedom of speech allow you to say some very strange thing and maybe things which are, you are not agree with you know what I mean.

PEREIRA: Were they asking for trouble, do you think, with this art exhibit?

THORET: No, no, I'm not going to say that. Maybe they were expecting something, but I think it's impossible to say, I'm expecting some trouble. Because you put some limits to the freedom of speech and become dangerous, you know what I mean.

PEREIRA: I do, I do.

THORET: You have freedom of speech or you don't have.

PEREIRA: I want to ask you, there's a little bit of controversy surrounding your work. First of all, congratulations to you.

THORET: Thank you.

PEREIRA: But there's some controversy about this. Six novelists said they're not going to participate in the event, another 145 in an open letter saying they are in disagreement you're your magazine, "Charlie Hebdo", being selected for the honor. Why do you think the honor and the distinction is being met with such dissension?

THORET: We have this today the same kind of debate in France. You know, it's not specific to the U.S., I mean.

PEREIRA: No.

THORET: First of all. Similarly, it's OK with me. I am like a lot of people like you, I guess, for the freedom of speech. So I'm not going to stop to say write or don't write. It's not a problem.

But maybe there is, you know, little misunderstanding, sort of confusion because this (INAUDIBLE) freedom of speech for the principle what happened is "Charlie Hebdo" for now is (INAUDIBLE), you know, this principle. The world feels contempt for "Charlie Hebdo."

PEREIRA: Agree, I understand what you mean, yes. It's for the principle not the content. You even have one of your colleagues that has now said he's no longer going to draw cartoons. How do you feel about that?

THORET: No, I feel I know him. It's Luz you're talking about.

PEREIRA: Yes.

THORET: A guy who draws this now famous cover of what we call the survivor issue on January 15.

PEREIRA: Yes.

THORET: But, you know, 500 cover from 2005 to 2015 by "Charlie Hebdo," only seven were about Islam, seven of 500, you know? That's worth talking about. It's quite crazy. I mean, for him it's an artist, he has a new way (ph) to explore a lot of qualities.

PEREIRA: Right.

THORET: I don't want to be reduced, you know, two or three cartoon made on thousands cartoon, you know?

PEREIRA: Thank you so much for coming in to speak to us. It's really a pleasure. Jean-Baptiste Thoret, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy your time here in America. Be safe.

THORET: Thank you. A pleasure.

[06:45:01] PEREIRA: What's your take on all of this? You can give us a tweet using #NewDayCNN. Or you can jump on Facebook.com/NewDay and leave some of your comments there. Keep the conversation going.

Chris?

CUOMO: So, Mick, you're following this presidential field. What, are they giving away toasters if you run for president? We have five Republicans in there now. Six candidates set to declare today. Who? I got that for you. And we're going to tell you how crowded the GOP field could get. Five people, name the song, one, two, three, four, five --

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CUOMO: Mike Huckabee's in, former Arkansas governor. He says he wants to be president. That brings the total number of GOP candidates to six. Huckabee was the last man down against John McCain you may remember in 2008.

So, does he have a chance now? What do we think?

CAMEROTA: Let's bring in our political correspondent for "New York Times", Patrick Healy, and CNN political analyst and presidential campaign for "The New York Times", Maggie Haberman.

Great to see you, guys.

Let's start with Mike Huckabee. So, he's going to throw his hat in the ring today.

And, Maggie, what will be different this time around than last time around for Huckabee?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He's actually running very similarly to the way he did last time.

[06:50:02] He's looking to expand on what he did. He'll be an economic populous but a fiscal hawk and he's going to appeal to social conservatives who really bolted him in the Iowa caucuses in 2008.

The amazing thing about him is he is a real gifted political performer. So he has still retained this support in Iowa. He has not run there in seven years, eight years and yet he still outpolls Rick Santorum who last won the caucuses in 2012. I think he's going to add a real jolt to the race.

Now, how committed he is to running remains to be seen. He's been out of the public idea. He had a TV show. He has gotten used to sort of luxury travel. He's a different kind of candidate. So, it will be interesting to see how he marries those two.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. I remember last time around, he was just driving around in his Taurus with a map.

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK HEALY, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Maggie and I have done that in Iowa before.

HABERMAN: We did that together once. It didn't sell quite the same way.

CAMEROTA: We'd like to know more about that.

But, Patrick, I worked with Mike Huckabee at FOX for many, many years. He's a tremendously likable guy.

So, how does he parlay that against some other candidates like Ted Cruz who is not known for that?

HEALY: Well, it's going to be a challenge. How can he become a face from the past who certainly won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, who's got a real base from his years on cable TV, and offer himself as someone who can go up against Cruz who is a great orator, who can go up against Scott Walker who's run right next door, who's evangelical Christian as well with executive experience who are newer faces. You know, he's also got Rand Paul, he's got Rick Santorum who did well four years ago.

It's a much bigger field than it was when he ran against Mitt Romney and John McCain in 2008.

CUOMO: They're adding numbers but not necessarily adding depth, right? When you look at the number of candidates they have that could cross over from just the right side of the Republican Party and get on everybody's right side, you still only have what? Two or three?

HEALY: Right. You've got Cruz, you've got Santorum --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: You think Cruz can get elected president in the United States?

HEALY: Cruz might be able to get elected president of Iowa. I mean, he --

CUOMO: Oh, of Iowa, but I mean --

HEALY: Right.

CUOMO: They're not going to give you money if they don't think you have a shot long-term.

HEALY: Right, I think for a long run, that becomes a bigger challenge. HABERMAN: Yes. That's a big issue for Huckabee, too. I mean, the

Club for Growth, which is the anti-tax group and they're a real force especially in Republican primaries because they spend money. They're already out with an ad buy tomorrow against Mike Huckabee essentially describing his tax record in Arkansas. They were huge nemesis in '07 and they are a group donors listen to.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what's going on with Hillary Clinton and in particular the Clintons. As you know, there are questions about the Clinton Foundation and about whether or not they sort of inappropriately took money from foreign donors and countries when she was secretary of state.

Bill Clinton for the first time addressed this yesterday. And one of the first things he talked about was his book fees. He gets half a million -- I'm sorry, his speaking fees. He gets half a million dollars -- on one hand, it's like, hey, good for you. And on the other hand, it was -- was something compromised as a result?

So here is him addressing that for the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: Over the last 15 years, I've taken almost no capital gains --

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN, NBC NEWS: Why do it, Mr. President?

CLINTON: -- and I've given 10 percent away to pay my bills and in the -- why?

MCFADDEN: Regular working Americans look and say $500,000 for a speech?

CLINTON: But why shouldn't every -- it's the most independence I can get. It's -- I don't -- if I had a business relationship with somebody, they would have a target on their back from the day they did business with me until the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Maggie, what do you think of that response?

HABERMAN: Well, the capital gains thing wasn't quite right. One of our colleagues actually looked back at his tax returns and I think it was $371,000 in capital gains. That's not nothing.

In terms of speeches, on the one hand, look, their argument is, we came into this without having inherited money. You know, we came into the White House, we were not rich. So part of the deal is you sort of get to go make money afterwards.

CAMEROTA: Isn't that true?

CUOMO: Is being rich a problem if you want to be president now? It really seems to be a shift of the American ideal. Used to be, we used to look at people who were really successful and be like, that's the dream I want to be them some day.

HABERMAN: Which is what their argument is.

HEALY: And a lot of them, they weren't necessarily -- they were successful in politics, but a lot of times it was inherited wealth. I mean, I think the Clintons came out of the White House. They had a lot of debts. They hadn't accrued well from over time.

HABERMAN: And they had legal fees from investigations into them which is a big thing, big point of contention.

HEALY: Right. And there were a couple ways they could have made some serious money. They could have cashed in, gone the corporate board of directors route. She chose to run, you know, for Senate. She saw a career still ahead of her.

The paid speeches things that's striking, and what it is striking now is that she's got, what, 15 months ahead of her before she may become the Democratic presidential nominee. What does he do over those time times? Who is he giving paid speeches from?

[06:55:00] Every time he gives a paid speech, another headline.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It's not the money. It's what's being done for the money. That's the question, isn't it? I mean, that's the conflict question.

HABERMAN: And it was that his speaking fees went up dramatically when she was secretary of state. That's essentially where all this comes down to is that period.

And I think also, since 2008, you have had this massive downturn in people's own personal fortunes. You have had this economic recession.

And so, I think that he is sort of catching up in terms of how he is talking about wealth. I think the way that people, that voters, want to hear a discussion about wealth I do think has changed and about economics and personal finances has changed.

And so, I think that when he's saying these things, you know, I have to pay my bills. I think to him that feels very real. The problem is for a lot of voters, that feels like an awful lot of money they'll never see.

CAMEROTA: It's so interesting because they are self-made.

HABERMAN: Right, they are.

CAMEROTA: And they are self-made. That's the American dream. Yet somehow, there's this question about access. Was he paid so much because he has access to the secretary of state?

CUOMO: That's why Maggie says fees is going up when Hillary was secretary of state.

CAMEROTA: Right, has there been able to connect those dots?

HABERMAN: There's a lot of sort of -- you know, in the phrase "quid pro quo", there's a lot of quid, there's not really a pro quo, right? So, they're just sort of, look, we connect these dots and we see these things -- but no, there's no evidence of any action being taken directly or anything like that. There's just questions about appearances and his thing is, you know, appearance is whatever doesn't matter.

HEALY: Part of you has to wonder if the Republicans are and critics of the Clintons are sort of baiting them to see how angry they can get. Because Bill and Hillary are saying prove it, prove it, draw the connections. Hillary Clinton saying no one has ever given me money or given him money in a way that has influenced a change of policy.

HABERMAN: That's right.

HEALY: Prove it.

Now, if -- Bill Clinton, when he got in trouble was when it seemed like when his temper was flaring or he's causing dissension within her campaign in 2008. So, if they can -- what was striking in that interview to some extent was he was definitely getting a little bit frustrated with Cynthia McFadden. If they can bring that out even more, it's the kind of thing that blows up.

CUOMO: They're going to step into the crucible of heat versus light when Hillary testifies before the congressional hearing about what this was and what this wasn't.

So, they'll get plenty of chances to poke at her. That's for sure.

CAMEROTA: Patrick, Maggie, thank you.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

HEALY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: One programming note, CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will sit down with former President Bill Clinton and we will bring you that interview on NEW DAY tomorrow.

CUOMO: We're following breaking news this morning. And there's a lot of it. So, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: ISIS claiming responsibility for Sunday's attempted ambush in Garland, Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of them had assault rifles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the two gunmen had been on the FBI's radar for years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am anti-jihad, I am anti-Sharia. I am concerned that the media whitewashes and scrubs this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Concern grows that the Baltimore City prosecutor moved too quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She acted too provocatively, when you say, I hear you --

MARILYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE CITY PROSECUTOR: My job is to seek justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you go into North Korea?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought some great event could happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diana is because like it makes you feel like a princess.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY and we do begin with breaking news for you.

Up first, ISIS taking credit for the weekend attack at a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas. The terror group referring to the two dead gunmen as, quote, "their brothers".

CUOMO: The big question this morning, were the attackers just ISIS fan boys or were they under orders from the terrorist organization?

CNN has every angle covered. Let's begin with senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live in Beirut -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INNTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, that is, of course, what investigators will be focusing in on. Are we talking about a social media claim before the attacks by one of the gunmen followed up by further social media and this case, a radio statement by ISIS suggesting this was one of their attacks? Or was there actually some intimacy in the planning of this attack on behalf of ISIS?

That's not clear from the statement on Al Bayan radio, that's thought to be broadcast in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul which ISIS swept into in the middle of last year. It's sparse frankly in detail. It refers to the two brothers who carried out the attack as soldiers of the caliphate, that's that northern Syrian/northern Iraqi area that ISIS has self-declared as being their religious state.

But it also goes onto refer to how they were killed and injured security guard. Information you could easily find in the public domain. But it tries to add a chilling threat on the end to the United States by saying that the future attacks are going to be harsh and worse, and the future is just around the corner. Unclear what they're referring to, but it could be what many counterterror officials are concerned about, and that's a rise in this lone wolf kind of attack.

People who aren't necessarily intimately linked with ISIS, many have met them over the internet or even just read their statements -- taking that branding, pushing it forwards. And after the fact, ISIS, who aren't doing too well on the ground where they have a stronghold at the moment, ISIS coming forward.