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New Day

Tornadoes Tear Through Homes in Plains; NFL Issues Deflategate Report; Police Challenge State's Attorney's Case; Bill Clinton Defends Foundation. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 07, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:30] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

We have bad news of weather. A burst of dangerous tornadoes hitting the Plain States. More than 40 of them doing damage across Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. You had your heavy winds there tossing trucks around like toys. Many homes completely flattened.

You know, for the first time in its history, Oklahoma City had to issue a flash flood emergency. Their main airport forced to shut down. Thirteen injuries reported after a mobile home park was destroyed in Oklahoma. Fortunately, no deaths reported so far.

Now, let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers in the CNN weather center.

Did they get good notice before? Because we know that's the key. What do they see coming today, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, all the warnings were good. And we told you yesterday. it was going to get real. I mean, because you put me on TV and look out, because Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas again today going to get -- this is the area of severe weather. I'm even going to draw it all the way to Arkansas. I don't like the fact that it's not over here. I think, Arkansas, you're going to see the residual stuff coming out of Oklahoma this morning and re-firing into your area later on tonight.

More storms Iowa, Nebraska, back down into Oklahoma. This isn't going to change for the next three days. The jet stream is doing this. And when it does, there's always going to be severe weather in here. And that's the story for today, tomorrow and Saturday. And even Saturday could be worse. I know we'll have chasers out there.

Be careful this weekend the kids are out of school on Saturday and Sunday, they'll be hundreds of cars. They'll be traffic jams looking for tornadoes this weekend. It's a dangerous thing. Just let the professionals do it.

Michaela, back to you.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And hopefully, people can make a plan now so they're not caught in the middle of it.

All right. Chad, thanks so much for that.

New information for you about the Garland, Texas shooting. The FBI and phoenix police were conducting a joint surveillance operation targeting Elton Simpson since last year. Simpson, of course, one of the two gunmen who was killed trying to ambush a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas last weekend.

Now, according to "New York Times", authorities never suspected Simpson and his accomplice were even planning the attack.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Pentagon officials concerned about ISIS taking over a key oil refinery in northern Iraq, their fighters already breaching the perimeter of the refinery. The U.S. now conceding the facility could fall in a matter of days. If ISIS controls the refinery, defense officials say the nearby city of Mosul will be much more difficult to take back.

CUOMO: Israel in the news has a new coalition government, but just barely. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had six weeks to form a coalition, got it done with just an hour to spare. And it's unclear how the balance of power is going to work out. Netanyahu's Likud Party does hold the slimmest possible majority in the Israeli Knesset, 61 of the 120 seats.

PERIERA: Very premature babies are surviving earlier than doctors once thought possible and that may have huge implications in the abortion debate. A just-published study of thousands of premies documents a small number who survived at 22 weeks with few health problems as long as they received medical treatment. The study is now spurring debate on the age of viability, which most medical experts consider to be 24 weeks.

CAMEROTA: That's amazing. Neonatal medicine is one place where science has made great strides.

PEREIRA: Great strides. Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: I had two premies. I had twin premies, at 31 weeks. It's amazing. They look like little birds and they can survive and thrive.

PEREIRA: And they are thriving now.

CAMEROTA: They are.

CUOMO: When we had our kids, seems like forever ago, you know, the sonograms they used to look like Rorschach tests. Now --

PEREIRA: It's amazing. They're 3D almost.

CUOMO: The kid's in there telling you where they want to go to college.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I'll tell you, you know, we say there -- most scientists think 24 weeks. The problem and I know I say this too much, there is no consensus about when life begins. And it is a big block not just on reproductive rights politics, but stem cell research and what we're dealing with Nick Loeb and Vergara.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. So interesting that you're bringing that up, because we will have Nick Loeb, who is Sofia Vergara's ex-fiance on later in the program to talk about how he believes these embryos they're fighting over are life.

All right. Meanwhile, no smoking gun but a month's long investigation by the NFL into Deflategate finds two New England Patriots employees probably --

PEREIRA: That word.

CAMEROTA: -- released air from the footballs from the AFC championship game. And that quarterback Tom Brady was at least likely generally aware.

PEREIRA: Generally aware, Andy.

CAMEROTA: -- of the rules violation.

Let's bring in Andy Scholes to help us parse these words.

PEREIRA: Love the language.

[06:35:00] CAMEROTA: Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.

You know, when you look at 243-page report, you know, it jumps out at you right away are those text messages between those two Patriot employees. Now, their names are Jim McNally, he's a locker room attendant, and John Jastremski, an equipment assistant.

Now, Ted Wells was able to get their records during his investigation. And here's an example of one of their texts from October of 2014. McNally said, "Tom sucks. I'm going to make that next ball an expletive balloon." Jastremski replied, "Talked to him last night he brought you up said you must have a lot of stress trying to get them done."

Now, two things in the report that really don't make Brady look very good. One, he refused to turnover any text messages and/or e- mails to help the investigation. And, two, he hadn't talked to Jastremski on the phone for six months but once Deflategate broke, Brady called multiple times and spoke with him for more than 20 minutes.

The big question now, of course, is what kind of punishment will the Patriots receive? Will Tom Brady be suspended? The league says they are reviewing the matter.

All right. In a much lighter note. Last night on inside the NBA, this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is obvious -- get him. Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Wow.

SCHOLES: Shaq's always trying to race Kenny Smith to the big screen and the big fella, he didn't realize his size 22 shoe had a monitor cable around it. He went tumbling to the ground.

PEREIRA: And lost the shoe.

SCHOLES: I don't know about you guys this happens to me all the time. I'm always forgetting I'm tangled, my IFB plugged in.

PEREIRA: I knocked a chair over getting up to say hello to a guest the other day. I clear knocked the chair off the platform.

CUOMO: Did you hear the sound though?

PEREIRA: I think the whole city shook when that went on.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

CUOMO: But his beautiful Shaq-ness not only does he defy science that a shoe that big --

CAMEROTA: Right. How many children live in that?

CUOMO: -- to fall off, but he said I'll give you 500 bucks if you come up with the best name of me busting my butt on television. Got to laugh at yourself.

CAMEROTA: Right. Wow.

CUOMO: All right. So, no laughing matter, the charges in the Freddie Gray case. Here's the new twist. Are they supported by the evidence? You know who says they're not sure? The police that collected that evidence. What does this mean for the prosecutor's case? We'll take you through it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:34] CUOMO: Big story today: Baltimore police challenging the prosecutor's charges. Sources tell CNN that a police investigation does not support some of the charges that were filed against the six officers. Proof that police can investigate their own? Or is this proof that the charges may not stick?

Andrew Alperstein, Baltimore defense attorney, former Baltimore County prosecutor, joins us this morning.

What do you make of the situation? First of all, unusual to have the police and prosecutor at odds over a case. But what do you think this means going forward?

ANDREW ALPERSTEIN, BALTIMORE DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Chris, everything about this case is unusual. We can agree on that, right?

CUOMO: Yes.

ALPERSTEIN: So, going forward, you know, this week we've seen the lawyer for Nero, Marc Zayon, file a motion to inspect the evidence. He lays out in great detail that he wants to see this knife and why.

And he hit some pretty hard with an allegation. It's interesting to hear the reactions from the government.

What we're seeing is an explanation that the officers that arrested Freddie Gray are alleging in their charge papers that this was a spring-assisted knife.

CUOMO: Now, hold on a second, Andrew, do me a favor. Will you take one step backwards and explain why what type of knife it is matters in this situation? And then explain what the discrepancy is.

ALPERSTEIN: Absolutely.

So, in Maryland, it is illegal to possess a switchblade and conceal it, OK? That's the state law. And that includes Baltimore City.

CUOMO: OK.

ALPERSTEIN: In Baltimore City, there's a more expansive law that prohibits specific additional conduct which is called a spring- assisted knife. And that's illegal. So that's the distinction here. So now layering that down, when the police arrested Mr. Gray, they alleged that Mr. Gray possessed a spring-assisted knife and they charged him with violating the city law, the city code provision that says you can't possess a spring-assisted knife at all anywhere in Baltimore city, period.

When the prosecutor laid out her charges, what she did is she said this is not a violation of --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to file a complaint against the department of --

ALPERSTEIN: Sir, can you give me a minute?

CUOMO: That's all right, Andrew. You know people there Andrew want to talk about what's going on. This happens from time to time.

ALPERSTEIN: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Violation!

CUOMO: We know that it happens from time to time. People there are angry about what's going on. And they make sure they don't do anything too hostile to the guy. They'll move your shot over a little bit, Andrew.

ALPERSTEIN: It's obviously --

CUOMO: It's proof that people are angry about what's happening down there. Now they hear the charges are being questioned. To them it sounds like a cover-up. But he'll give you some space in a second.

So, you were at the point --

ALPERSTEIN: He's moved away.

CUOMO: Yes. You were at the point where you were saying, Andrew, that the prosecutor had said that this arrest was no good because of why? Why was the prosecutor arguing the arrest was no good and that it was false imprisonment as a result?

ALPERSTEIN: Sure. Highly charged stuff down here as you can see.

CUOMO: Absolutely. With good reason.

ALPERSTEIN: Yes.

The prosecutor's saying, look, this case is highly -- this is case is a problem because the statewide law, that is the spring- -- the switchblade law, is -- was not violated.

[06:45:08] That's what they charge these police officers with. They don't talk about the city code provision that the charging officers charge Mr. Gray with.

So, it's really a very inconsistent explanation by the state. State does not allege when they charge these officers the right thing.

CUOMO: Now, does the issue of whether or not -- how do they even know he had a knife when they first started chasing him if it was concealed? Is that relevant?

ALPERSTEIN: Well, yes and no. Federal law is that if a suspect in a high crime area runs from the police, that's cause to stop him. According to the charge papers, and it's really not disputed, there was no knowledge by the arresting officers, that's Officer Nero and Miller, that he had a knife. They found that afterwards.

But I think that would probably be a lawful stop by them. And that's not really what seems to be at issue. They didn't know of the knife at the time they chased him down. But if you run from a police officer, you know, you're going to get stopped. That's suspicion -- reasonable grounds to detain somebody to further investigate.

CUOMO: Bottom line, this conflict, Andrew, what does it mean going forward in terms of the sustainability of the charges?

ALPERSTEIN: Well, I think it's going to depend on two things.

Number one, what is the knife itself? Certainly, if the knife is a spring-assisted knife, case over for Officer Nero and Officer Miller. This case shouldn't even exist. That's number one.

Number two, even if they were wrong, if they had a good faith basis that the knife was an illegal knife -- because this is tricky stuff. What's a knife and it gets litigated all the time in our courts what is the definition of it. You know, that's going to ultimately be a very good defense for them.

And finally, this second officer in the case which I believe to be Officer Nero, he reacts to what the first officer says. So if the first officer says, hey, take him or whatever the code is. The backup officer is not supposed to say, you know, time-out, I want to inspect the knife please or what's your probable cause before I actually effectuate the arrest. The backup officer saying to the primary officer and suspect saying, excuse me can we inspect the evidence before I touch him, or before I detain him? That's absurd.

CUOMO: Right.

ALPERSTEIN: So, I really think they're going to have a really tough time with that officer.

COUMO: Well, to say the least, it would be unusual for a defense attorney to be able to refer to the police investigation as a basis for fighting the charges against them. Thank you for giving us the insight and keeping a cool head.

It's very important we recognize a lot of people are angry there. And many of them have reason to be.

ALPERSTEIN: They sure are.

CUOMO: So, thank you for going through that with us. We'll talk to you again.

Mick?

PEREIRA: Yes, the genius of live TV. That kind of stuff does happen.

All right. Hillary Clinton is set to shift into another fund raising gear courting donors for her super PAC. Is this just the start of the big money battle for 2016?

Our political panel will delve into the debate.

(COMMERCIL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:52:03] BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: I did have one friend of mine in the other party say see what you get for transparency? They try to make you look like a crook. If you didn't tell them anything, which is what I would do, they forget about you and go on to the next target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was former President Bill Clinton defending his foundation's fund raising.

Does Bill Clinton's response put this issue to rest?

Joining us to debate this morning, CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast", John Avlon, and CNN political commentator and host of "The Ben Ferguson Show", Ben Ferguson.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thanks so much. Good morning. Great to see you.

So, John, Bill Clinton is treating this as a tempest in a teapot, nothing to see here, this is all going to go away. Is this the right tact for him?

JOHN AVLON, THE DAILY BEAST: Look, the guy's a master politician and that's a very good former deflection, sounds real folksy.

But you want to find the truth in politics, you follow the money. There are a lot of allegations here. There's a lot of smoke. So people would be really digging into it.

And as the campaign progresses and money becomes more of a factor, there's going to be a lot more things to follow. So it's a perception issue at the very least.

CUOMO: Right. But nobody's going to get the high ground, Ben, when it comes to raising money in politics.

FERGUSON: Sure.

CUOMO: And as "Clinton Cash" has had its life span out there and this early edition of it, it seemed to have moved to the point, of well, it's not about illegal, it's just about how they handle situations.

How big a hammer do you think you can use on this issue?

FERGUSON: I think it's going to be big especially if you look at the Clintons own words. I mean, they're the ones that have attacked super PACs. They're the ones that have attacked big money. They're the ones that have attacked, you know, and also said we need transparency in government.

And they've been the complete opposite of that. Whether it be the lack of e-mails, having the server wiped or saying we vetted our own e-mails. And now you have this money issue coming in. And then they play the victim card.

I mean, this is not 1992. And I think it's a weird strategy for the Clintons to act like, oh, we're just some people from Hope, Arkansas, just trying to make a difference in America.

You are big time elite players in the political realm. You cannot act as if somehow you're a victim when people are asking legitimate questions. I think it only makes people dig deeper when they act like they're so innocent.

Bill Clinton's not naive. He knows exactly what he was doing when he took the cash. He knows where it came from. He knows why people are asking the questions. He's like, well, I'm just trying to make a living and make a difference and take money from rich people and give to the poor. I don't think people are going to buy it.

CAMEROTA: John?

AVLON: Yes, look, I mean, hypocrisy's the unforgivable sin in politics. When the Clintons try to take hair high road and Hillary already opens her campaign talking about potentially repealing Citizens United, that sets a really high bar. The problem is the conservatives are in position where they say, see, we never promised to be ethical or open or transparent about this kind of stuff.

So, until they actually present a real credible contrast -- taking on crony capitalism, proposing campaign finance reform, all they're doing is pointing the finger and not actually proposing solutions. What we have is a system that's sick, driven by consultants who profit of millions of dollars in cash where the letter of the law and the spirit of the law are in total conflict.

[06:55:03] It's a ridiculous system and they can't -- but end up pandering to.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, Bill Clinton did admit in the sit-down with Christiane they did file -- the foundation did file some of their tax documents incorrectly.

So, listen to what he said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: That was just an accident. People refile their taxes all the time. We reported all the donations from all the governments and the private sources. And last year for some reason nobody really understands they were put together. The year before, they were filed properly, which shows you there was no deliberate intent. I mean, if there was some -- and there would be no benefit to the foundation for doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Well, remember, the government, the IRS, worries about how much, OK? The political side and people like you, Ben, you're questioning from whom. So, it's not that they have an IRS issue. It's going to be about the optics of the transparency, right?

FERGUSON: Yes. And you don't make mistakes this big. I mean, this is not some mom and pop foundation which he's trying to say, well, we did it right last time and we messed up this time. But it's -- we weren't hiding anything.

The biggest threat to Hillary Clinton's campaign is people not trusting her and not feeling like she's been honest and open and transparent on these issues. And when you say, oh, it was an accident, we didn't mean to and people make mistakes and, you know, we're fixing it. I don't think people buy it when it looks like you're trying to limit the amount of knowledge --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: That said you've got to find something that sticks. You can't just keep asking the questions and not like any of the answers. At some point you have to have some proof, right?

AVLON: That's right. Look, if you've worked in politics, never underestimate the power of human error.

FERGUSON: Bill Clinton can attest to that, I agree.

AVLON: Exactly.

But look, the problem really is with the foreign donors that aren't declared -- I mean, the problem as Peter Schweitzer said it's a pattern, and the Clintons are going to have to address it. You're not going to be able to deflect the attention.

And as super PACs become more a part of the cycle, frankly regulatory negligence, because there are no specifics in place that blow a hole in the B.S. of the Citizens United decision that said there would be more transparency and accountability than ever before, that pressure is going to get hotter. But it's a problem on both sides right now. Everybody's stuck in the mud.

CUOMO: And people have quit on money and politics. Let's be honest, you're not going to win an election by criticizing someone for what money they take. It's all about money now. The PACs are just the latest iteration of it, and the problem is it's the legal money, not the illegal money.

FERGUSON: Yes, Chris --

CAMEROTA: Yes, quickly, Ben.

FERGUSON: But here's the thing: if you're Hillary Clinton, don't come out and act like you're going to be above it when you're purposely delaying certain things with your campaign to help raise money for the super PACs which you're saying are destroying America. And expect people to forget that.

CUOMO: But nobody wants to play by the rules.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Nobody wants to unilaterally disarm. They're all playing the same game. They all say it's a bad game but nobody changes the rule of the game so they all play the game. I mean, that's the B.S. cycle we get on both sides.

CAMEROTA: Luckily, we get to talk about it for the next year. John, Ben, thanks so much.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

CUOMO: All right, this is a big story today because it's about presidential politics. But there's a lot of news for you. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We could hear the sound of a train. Our ears started popping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to take shelter immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the kids they were scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're hearing sirens and hearing the wind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a student of Islam. The more he studied, I think the greater his intensity grew.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the very first time, we are seeing and hearing from Elton Simpson himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State is going to have a very difficult time proving these charges.

BLAKE: I'm asking the Department of Justice to investigate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To handcuff him and take him to the station, they have to have a crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NFL's stunning 243-page report on deflategate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mountain of circumstantial evidence that they intentionally deflated the footballs.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

More than 40 tornadoes leaving parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska in tatters. These pictures tell you just how threatening and devastating the storms were. Homes destroyed, trees uprooted, now communities trying to rebuild.

CUOMO: There were injuries, at least a dozen people hurt in the severe weather, a mobile park completely destroyed. You have a flash flood emergency declared in Oklahoma City. That's the first time they've ever had to do that. They shut down their roads, even their airport got closed.

Let's get to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers in the CNN weather center with our top story.

Chad, you know, the big question is always once they've suffered through what happened is what happens next.

MYERS: Another round today, tomorrow and another round on Saturday. Forty-six reports of tornadoes from Nebraska all the way down to Texas. And that's today. There will be more to come and many more by Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we have a -- we have --

MYERS (voice-over): Debris launching through the sky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike, we have a roof that just launched through the air here. I don't know where it came from.

MYERS: Tornadoes wreaking havoc yet again across the plains.