Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Raul Castro Visits Pope Francis; Calls for Special Prosecutor Grow In Baltimore; Foundation Troubles an Issue for Clinton Campaign?; Hillary Clinton's Brother Under Scrutiny; Deadly Tornadoes Tear Through Several States. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 11, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:39] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Widespread devastation in Van, Texas, this morning after a reported tornado. Officials telling CNN at least 26 people were hurt. More than 70 tornadoes ripped through the country this weekend from South Dakota to Texas, including in Iowa, where fierce winds ripped the roof off of this high school, as you can see in the distance there. Two people in Arkansas, one in Texas killed by the weather this weekend.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Four suspects set to face a judge today in the fatal shooting of two Hattiesburg, Mississippi, officers. They were killed during a traffic stop. 22-year-old Joanie Calloway and 29-year-old Marvin Banks both face capital murder charges. Banks' brother is also charged as an accessory and a fourth suspect charged with obstruction of justice. A vigil for the slain officers, Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate, will be held in Hattiesburg today.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yemen's Houthi rebels claiming they've shot down a Moroccan F-16 fighter jet conducting airstrikes there. This ahead of a reported five days cease fire. The stoppage of the strikes offered by the Saudi-led coalition takes place tomorrow, allowing for humanitarian aid to reach civilians.

CAMEROTA: First lady Michelle Obama getting personal during a commencement speech at Tuskeegee University. She says she faced different questions than candidates' spouses typically do during the campaign in 2008.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:35:00] MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud or too angry or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Mrs. Obama also acknowledged she was "knocked back a bit" by this cartoon in the "New Yorker" in which she had a huge afro and a machine gun.

PEREIRA: Yes. The terrorist (INAUDIBLE), if you remember that.

CAMEROTA: I remember it well. It was so interesting to hear her, how much it actually upset her because she has never led on to that before, and to hear that she was really upset by all the depictions of her.

PEREIRA: As you can see as we are getting closer to the end of their term, you can see they are both getting a little more, sort of, you know, looking back and considering it and even being open about it, being candid about what they felt and experienced.

CUOMO: I remember her kind of starting this off early on when she said I am finally proud of my country, which really bothered people a lot. Then they dug into her past and it was a little bit that she had written something in college that made people wonder about how much she loves the country. Race gets interpreted different ways by different people in terms of how they feel. But it's good that she's open to talk about it.

PEREIRA: We'll talk a little more about it later this show.

CAMEROTA: I look forward to that.

CUOMO: More controversy for you this morning. At the Vatican, Cuban leader, Raul Castro paid a visit Pope Francis this weekend. Unusual for a communist that hates religion to go and see the head of a church, but he did that and he thanked the pope for brokering these peace talks between Washington and Havana.

CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman live in Rome with more. Communist kisses ring. Is that the headline?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, there are a lot of raised eyebrows after this meeting, which took place yesterday. 55-minute meeting between Pope Francis and Raul Castro. The Vatican afterwards said it was a cordial meeting and that Castro used the opportunity to thank Pope Francis for his role in breaking the diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Cuba.

But afterwards, he went to a press conference with the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, where he came out with this statement. He said that "If the pope continues to speak like this, sooner or later, I will start praying again and I will return to the Catholic church."

Now, just in case anybody thought this was just a remark off the cuff, he went on to say, "I'm not saying this jokingly, I'm a communist of the Cuban Communist Party." Significant that the official media in Cuba is not quoting these particular remarks, but they are strange coming from the disciple of Carl Marx who describes religion as the "opiate of the masses."

Michaela. PEREIRA: Alright, Ben. Very interesting developments there. New

scrutiny of the Baltimore prosecutor who quickly brought charges against six Baltimore officers in Freddie Gray's death. The clops claim Marilyn Mosby has multiple conflicts of interest. Can she survive the case? We will discuss it ahead with a man who has several opinions on the matter, Congressman Elijah Cummings.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:24] PEREIRA: Dismiss the charges or reassign the case? Attorneys for the six Baltimore officers charged in Freddie Gray's death are calling for the entire case to be tossed or for a special prosecutor to replace state's attorney Marilyn Mosby, who they say has too many conflicts of interest to be objective.

I want to bring in Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings. He's been on the streets of Baltimore since the Freddie Gray death led to unrest there. Good to see you Congressman. Thanks so much for getting up so early for us to talk about all of this

I know you probably had a chance to look over this information, the motion that was filed. I want to pull up a few points of it. Really attacking Marilyn Mosby's personal and professional integrity in key areas. Falsely said Gray's arrest was illegal. These are their words. Has personal conflicts of interest, is a close friend to Gray family lawyer Billy Murphy, a key staffer of hers is in a relationship with a TV reporter.

You have maintained your confidence in Marilyn Mosby.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: And I still do. You know, this is a criminal case that, obviously, there are some who want to try it in the media. Marilyn Mosby has made it very clear that she's not going to do that.

Again, I believe in her integrity. She is a brilliant young lawyer. Keep in mind, this is a young lady whose mother and father were police officers, whose grandfather was a police officer. That's why the FOP, that among many other reasons, supported her in her campaign and just because people may not like a decision that she made doesn't mean that they have to try this case in the media.

Again, I stand by her decision. I said it before she made the decision that based on my, what I know about her, and her integrity and her excellence, whatever she had decided I would have been fine with.

PEREIRA: These attorneys also -

CUMMINGS: By the way, you are going to have these attacks. This is what comes with the territory. I mean, I practiced criminal law for 20 years. I understand what they're doing. They're going to throw everything, including the kitchen sink and the pipes at her. But again, we need to let justice move forward and that's just the way it is. PEREIRA: Let me run with that for a second, Congressman. So you

were an attorney for some 20 years. If you had been on this case or you were opposing council, would you have asked for her to step down because of these conflicts of interest?

CUMMINGS: I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know enough about it. Again, this is not unusual. What they've done here is they've tried to search every little fine thing they could find and put it out there to say, judge, we don't want her to be involved in this case.

[06:45:10] What they need to do is go back and say, you know, this is the FOP and others, we supported her. She is the daughter of two police officers. And so, you know, she's somebody who has always proven to be a fair person. Let her do her job.

If the officers are innocent, they'll be found innocent in the process. People go through this process every day. People in my block go through it every day. So, I mean, this is our process, this is our judicial system and I say, not in the media, but through the courts.

PEREIRA: We also know that Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the DOJ investigation, a pattern or practice investigation, we know Commissioner Batts supports it. He says that he, in fact, welcomes this.

I want to know from you, as a man who is not only from Baltimore, you live in Baltimore, you Baltimore in your heart. Do you believe your city has a problem?

CUMMINGS: Yes, I do. I do. I believe we have a steady -- our city has a problem and I think it's evidenced by having paid $6 million in settlements over the last five or six years for excessive force by police officers.

The "Baltimore Sun" did an extensive article in the latter part of 2014 and they show the faces of people who have been beaten up, they show and they talk about the elderly people who had been beaten in the custody of police. Some people, unfortunately, lost their lives. All of that shows that we have a pattern of practice of excessive force and we've got to address that.

PEREIRA: I understand you've got a busy day ahead of you. You are co-hosting an economic forum, middle class prosperity project, with Senator Elizabeth Warren. Can you tell us briefly about it?

CUMMINGS: Yes, Senator Warren and I have been doing this forum, now it's our fifth one in a row. But today we are going to be in Baltimore talking about how there are so many areas in our society and in our cities that have no banking services whatsoever and that people have to depend on pay day lenders and people who will give them advances for the IRS refund checks and they're basically doing, using predatory tactics to get money from these people. So we will be talking about that today. This is, like I said, the fifth in a series. We are traveling around the country, doing this, trying to help people keep more money from their paychecks. PEREIRA: We love that because we know in Baltimore that is one of

the underlying issues. You look at the economic disparity and challenges that face that community. Glad to know you are doing something about it where you can. Congressman, always a delight to have you on our air. Thank you for speaking with us this morning.

CUMMINGS: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Chris.

CUOMO: Alright, Mick. We have news in politics to discuss. New developments in the scrutiny of the Clinton Foundation. We will tell you what we now know is true. Both sides will tell you what it means to them and then you decide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:08] CAMEROTA: A new potentially thorny issue this morning for Hillary Clinton. Hillary's brother, Tony Rodham, under scrutiny for using the Clinton's help with various business projects. This as more questions arise about transparency at the Clinton Foundation.

CUOMO: Let's weigh in what we know. CNN political commentator, Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker," Ryan Lizza and CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for the "New York Times," Maggie Haberman.

Let's start with the professional then we will move into the personal with Hillary's brother. Three years, they didn't report all of the things they were supposed to report about nations donating to the foundation. Can it still be, Maggie, a bookkeeping oversight that will be corrected?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You just pointed to the exact problem. The defense on everything has been we are transparent, we put it on the website, everybody can see it, you can find what you need. And then we keep hearing about, actually, this wasn't there and this wasn't there and this wasn't there. So at a certain point, they are going to, I think, get pressed to do greater disclosures or to be more open or to invite people into look at their books. I don't think the status quo will hold.

CAMEROTA: But Ryan, I mean, the fact that they didn't put it on their website, doesn't that suggest that they weren't all together comfortable with the funds that they were getting from foreign contributors?

RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORKER: Yeah, look. This was not an issue that the press just invented, right? As a condition of Hillary Clinton becoming secretary of state, the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton said, okay, we have this foundation, we have some issues here, this could be a potential conflict of interest, so here is how we're going to solve that. We will have this full transparency. So the fact that it was just full of holes, one, the Clintons themselves were not doing a good job keeping track of this. And two, I think it raises questions about the Obama administration. Why weren't they enforcing this agreement? Why weren't they going back to the Clinton Foundation and saying, we had a deal here?

CAMEROTA: But that would mean that hey knew about it.

LIZZA: That would mean that there was some auditing by the Obama administration saying, remember, as a condition of you coming in as secretary of state, we had this deal. We want to make sure that you are fully providing compliant.

CUOMO: But I think right now -- They stayed pretty focused on the Clintons, in terms of, you know, who is to blame if anything went wrong here. You know, Lanny Davis came on the show and, of course, he was Bill's general council, so you expect him to be -- but he says there is no proof. Where is the proof that somebody got something from the administration, from the U.S., from one of the departments in exchange for what they gave?

HABERMAN: He is not wrong about. That is a fair point and that has been the response to this Peter Schweizer book is look, you've shown a lot of quid, but not so much pro quo. The problem, I think for her and I think for them in general is the secondary answer they get repeatedly, as we were talking about with these disclosures, is this was sloppiness, this was a mismanaged thing. That is going to be the argument republican are going to start using is not corruption, but about a confidence -

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It's also the standard of proof. Where is the proof is when Alisyn is trying to bust me in criminal court. If it's about politics and trust, it's about semblance of impropriety. Something that smells bad is what you are supposed to avoid.

[06:55:08] LIZZA: And look, if you are saying disclosure is the antiseptic here, then your disclosure has to be perfect, right? And it will make it very hard for Hillary Clinton, if she is the nominee, to press a case against a Republican candidate when big money and politics is going to be a big issue and she's going to have a problem doing that.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about this new reporting from "The New York Times." New/old, I mean, Tony Rodham has propped up from time to time -

HABERMAN: Everything old is new.

CAMEROTA: Right. - through the Clintons, because the allegation is that Hillary Clinton's younger brother has parlayed his relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton throughout the years to come up with some sometimes dubious business deals for himself. Maggie --

HABERMAN: You just laid it out pretty well right there. I mean, look, there has been an ongoing focus on the brothers Rodham. Right, Tony and Hugh Rodham, Hillary Clinton's brothers. And there is a sense of sort of a (INAUDIBLE) or hanging on, or looking for help. What was striking about the story that my colleague Steve Eder did is there are these court transcripts where Tony Rodham openly says I leaned on my brother-in-law to help me. I went through the Clinton Foundation. It says this. That type of stuff, I think, is very unhelpful. That you are going to see in attack mailers, you will see that potentially in ads. That, I think -

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: We have a little excerpt - Let me just quickly read an excerpt from this article in "The New York Times." It says here, "When Mr. Rodham was short on cash in 2010, Mr. Clinton helped him get a job for $72,000 a year raising investments in GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company then owned by Terry McAuliffe, an old friend of Mr. Clinton's and now the Governor of Virginia." Don't we all help our brothers-in law? Is there anything wrong with this?

LIZZA: I was going to say, I'm not -

CUOMO: What's wrong with that?

LIZZA: I was going to say, what's wrong with that?

CAMEROTA: That, I think, people forgive, helping -

LIZZA: He's not a politician. Right? Bill Clinton was not in office. It doesn't seem to conflict with her job as secretary of state. If Bill Clinton helped out the brother-in-law, I don't see that as a scandal. It does seem, in politics, little brothers are sort of there to embarrass their older -

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Easy. Easy. You are on my show, for God's sake, Ryan.

(CROSSTALK)

It hurts because it's true.

HABERMAN: That was really good. I think that the issue here, I think, as reading it, is that he talks about the foundation. To me, if there is any issue, I totally agree, I think that people forgive You help your family, you help your brother. I think that the more you see things of, I went to the foundation for help. Now the foundation says there is no evidence of anything that he said. But it's not great.

CUOMO: He plays to the risk and the reward of chasing after this. The risk is, though, that you overreach. That him getting a job, oh, you want us to look into everybody who you've helped? You know, that's the overreach here. That's the concern. That's why they have to stay specific and where their proof is will decide how bad it is for the Clintons.

HABERMAN: It's always the issue with the Clintons is people do tend to overreach and then that ends up favoring them. At least their supporters feel like they're getting hit needlessly and that's sort of their sweet spot politically. CAMEROTA: We'll see if this goes anywhere. Ryan, Maggie, thanks

so much.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Ryan, thank you for making my brother's day. He's -- the best day he's had watching this show in a long time.

(LAUGHTER)

Alright, this is one story for you this morning, but there is a lot of news. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): Dozens hurt this morning after a tornado strikes the town of Van, Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There goes the school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can hear the howling, pieces of houses everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't seen anything like this in a long time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suspects are in custody, and two police officers are dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a time and opportunity that we all need to pull together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS has shown that it is able to take the Internet to a new level as a propaganda tool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are very definitely in a new phase in the global terrorist threat.

CUOMO (voice-over): The Boston Marathon bombing trial drawing to a close.

PEREIRA (voice-over): One of the final potential witnesses, Sister Helen Prejean.

SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN: It's not that people are deeply webbed (ph) to the death penalty, they've never thought about it.

(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. And we do begin this hour with breaking news. A deadly string of tornadoes ripping apart communities throughout the middle of the country. The latest, a reported twister in the town of Van, Texas. That's just east of Dallas. Houses ripped to shreds, schools damaged and at least 26 people hurt.

CUOMO: Two people killed when a storm rolled through Arkansas. In all, there have been about 70 twisters just slamming states from South Dakota to Texas this weekend.

Watch this. People here watch what happens to their community. That's the roof being torn off a high school.

Alright. So we went out there and we are covering this story like only CNN can. Let's begin with our meteorologist Jennifer Gray. She's on the ground in Van, Texas. What is it going to be like for them? What are they looking at in terms of getting this community back together?

[07:00:01] JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Chris, I'm fearful of what daylight will bring because it won't be until then we will be able to get a full scope of the damage here. About 30 percent of the town damaged.