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Massive Manhunt on for Two Escaped Killers; Interview with New York Governor Cuomo; Obama to Meet with Iraqi Leader; U.K. Royal Navy Rescues 1,200 Libyan Refugees; Cop Throws Teen to Ground at Pool Party; Leagues Doing Enough to Protect Fans? Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 08, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And back out live this morning, again, reminders are everywhere that that search shows no signs of slowing even in the local headlines here. Reminders for some of the people who live in the shadow of this prison complex. Officials are still trying to track down both Matt and Sweat.

Chris, last thing I should mention: I have been speaking to law enforcement officials who say they are confident they will track down these two guys. The very real concern is, what are two desperate fugitives on the run willing to do to try to make sure they don't end up back behind bars again, Chris?

C. CUOMO: Bad men. No question about it. Polo, thank you very much. We'll check back with you, and we will have New York's governor on the show coming up, so stick with us.

Also, today is the second day of the G-7 summit. Second to last day, actually. The war on ISIS is the main focus. But there's also pressure on Vladimir Putin. President Obama rallying world leaders against Russia's continued and deadly aggression in Ukraine.

We have CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta on the scene in Austria. What are you seeing in terms of the balance between ISIS, which is obviously the exigency, and what's going on in Ukraine?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Chris, those are the two big issues on the agenda for this G-7 summit. No question about it. I would say half the time on Ukraine, half the time on ISIS.

But Chris, President Obama's most critical meeting of the day here is with a leader who isn't even part of the G-7, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He just wrapped up a face-to-face chat with the world's most powerful leaders earlier this morning. Abadi is here in the Alps to seek more military assistance for the battle against ISIS.

And senior administration officials say don't expect any big announcements on that front. But the president has a diplomatic goal in mind for his meeting with Abadi, and that is to ease tensions with the prime minister after Defense Secretary Ash Carter told CNN that he questioned the Iraqis' will to fight. Administration officials know that comment deeply upset the Iraqis. But there's more than Iraq on the agenda here. The president hopes to

leave this G-7 summit with the G-7 leaders showing unity in maintaining sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. He's already lined up the support of the summit's host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel; the British prime minister, David Cameron; and just a few moments ago, the French president, Francois Hollande.

Michaela, I am told to expect at the conclusion of this summit, a joint statement from these G-7 leaders, condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine and saying the sanctions are going to remain in place until Vladimir Putin changes his behavior -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Pivoting a little bit, we also know that the president will be meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi. And there's been a whole lot of finger pointing between the two nations about what support the U.S. is providing to the Iraqi forces. Do you expect that conversation to get a little heated today?

ACOSTA: Well, I don't know if it will get heated, because keep in mind, these two leaders need each other very much. Haider al-Abadi knows that, without U.S. airstrikes, his security forces on the ground are really going to be out of luck.

But you know, the White House is frustrated with the Iraqis, no question about it. Keep in mind what happened in Ramadi in the Anbar province. That did not go over well inside the administration. That's why Defense Secretary Ash Carter said what he said.

Administration officials, if you talk to them privately, they'll say, "Listen, he's not going to -- the president is not going to disavow the comments of his defense secretary," but I would expect during this meeting, this bilateral meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, the president is going to add some more context to that conversation.

And he has also urged his national security team, we're told by officials, to come up with new and innovative ways to ramp up assistance for the Iraqis. We're not expecting any big announcements on that front coming out of this summit, but they want to keep that conversation going with the Iraqis, because they know something has to change in order to defeat ISIS -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Certainly does. The world is watching and waiting to see what the strategy will be. All right, Jim. Thank you.

The British Royal Navy has rescued 1,200 refugees from a certain death in the Mediterranean. The rescues are part of a multi-national effort to save 6,000 migrants this weekend alone.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Catania, Italy, with the latest on what is seemingly an epidemic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. I mean, this wave that we're seeing right now this weekend is the biggest wave in a single weekend so far this year.

Look at the numbers overall so far this year. About 100,000 migrants picked up in the Mediterranean; hundreds have died. But compare this to the same time last year. It was around about 50,000, half the number.

We know that the British ship, the HMS Bulwark, is going to be docking here in the next couple of hours. It began its rescue in the early hours Sunday morning just off the coast of Libya. They were called to a boat in distress. When they got there, there were 15 different vessels in distress.

The HMS Bulwark has a couple of big helicopters. They were involved in the recovery mission, as well.

[07:05:09] But the vessels that the people were in, I mean, it's staggering when you learn the details. Some of them were inflatable rubber dinghies. Twelve of those 15 boats that were carrying these migrants were inflatable rubber dinghies, designed, we're told, for perhaps about 20 people. And in some cases had close to 100 people on board. You can only imagine, whoever puts them out to sea in vessels like that, it's a very callous act.

For the efforts of the British, the German, the Italian, the Spanish, the Swedish, the Irish navies that are working out in the Mediterranean right now, their fate could be far worse.

On board that British ship, ten pregnant women, we're told. Many children, as well. And this is typical of what we're seeing. We're told they're fleeing Syria, Egypt, Libya, Mali in the north of Africa, Nigeria, even Pakistan. It's a massive influx. And that is really a big concern for Europe right now -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes. It just shows how desperate they are. Nic, thank you for that.

Well, a major event to tell you about in Turkey. President Erdogan's ruling party losing its majority in parliament after 13 years. Erdogan was hoping for a big victory so he could change Turkey's Constitution and give himself greater powers. Now he has to work with opposition parties to build a coalition instead.

C. CUOMO: Police under fire. Again, this time a Texas cop on administrative leave after responding to calls about teens using a community pool without permission. What happened next is disturbing, to say the least.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A moment, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you to stay. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Down on the ground.

CUOMO (voice-over): Kids having fun or chaos? This scene in McKinney, Texas, over the weekend has some calling for this officer to be disciplined for using excessive force. The approximately seven-minute video posted on YouTube Saturday shows

a situation out of control. The officer seen wrestling a 14-year-old girl in a swimsuit to the ground. He then pulls his firearm on two unarmed boys before turning his attention back to the girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On your face.

C. CUOMO: The officer has both knees on her back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer was overzealous. These are children. They've got to be able to handle things in a better manner than this.

C. CUOMO: In response to the video, McKinney police have said...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A formal investigation into the incident has been started. And the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Just terrible. Just terrible. I mean, these kids were barefoot in bathing suits, unarmed.

PEREIRA: We were talking about the fact that every kid has snuck into a pool they weren't supposed to be going to or stayed too late or, as you said, stayed at the ball diamond longer than they were supposed to. That seems completely overzealous.

C. CUOMO: And look, the positive information right now is you don't see the police just reflexively backing the officer. He's on administrative leave. Pulling the weapon is obviously the biggest concern. If you don't address the training, the community policing that goes into a different way of persuasion, you wind up having trouble both ways.

The cops get challenged in ways that is wrong, as well as a result. Like, you saw those two kids that they didn't like what he was doing to the girl. They moved up on him. Right? That's going to make an officer nervous and make him feel like he's got to draw his weapon. You know, now you've got kids running everywhere. It's a problem.

CAMEROTA: Clearly, there needs to be training not to escalate from the police officers' side. How to deescalate it.

C. CUOMO: Yes. Yes, and again, you don't want to say that this is the norm. It happens all the time. But you have to make it happen less. You have to show that it's unacceptable. And that's why video, you know, from what I've seen so far, I don't see a downside to it.

CAMEROTA: We do need to tell you about this, because there is severe weather heading for the East Coast. Let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers for a look at the forecast. What are you seeing, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, guys, I see storms that could have hail, wind, lots of lightning and maybe even a tornado or two from Pennsylvania to Arkansas today. In places that we have high population density, not west Texas and

eastern, you know, Colorado where there's 100 people per square mile. We're talking thousands of people, millions of people in the way of these storms that fire up later today.

Here's where we are now. The storms go through Columbus and Cincinnati around noon or 2 p.m., and then they really fire up in the heat of the day. This is when things get going around 6 p.m. tonight, the hot part of the day. If you see storms, if you hear thunder, get inside. Because the storms could pack a punch -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chad. Thanks so much for that warning.

Back to the stunning escape of two convicted murderers from a New York state maximum security prison. Authorities still searching this hour for Richard Matt and David Sweat, who tunneled to freedom Friday night.

And joining us this morning is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Governor, thanks for being on NEW DAY.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[07:10:03] CAMEROTA: OK. So we understand that you took a tour of their escape route. Tell us what you saw.

A. CUOMO: Well, it was really unbelievable. If it wasn't -- if it was a movie plot, you would say that it was overdone. They cut through the back wall of the cell, which is more than a quarter inch steel plate, out into a cat walk.

From the cat walk, they shimmied down six stories to a tunnel that carried pipes, followed the pipes along, broke through a double brick wall, cut into a 24-inch pipe, shimmied their way through the steam pipe, cut another hole so they could exit it, and then cut their way out through a manhole.

So, this was very sophisticated. They had equipment that they shouldn't have had access to. That's clear. But the first order of business is getting them back. These are really dangerous, desperate men. They are literally killers. We have all sorts of personnel deployed. We're offering a $100,000 reward, 1-800-GIVE-TIP for the arrest or apprehension of both of these gentlemen.

And we want them back. Then we'll piece together how they actually accomplished this. But there's no doubt, in my opinion, that they needed equipment that they wouldn't have had. They had to have the assistance of someone.

CAMEROTA: And when you say they had to have the assistance of someone, you mean someone on the inside? Your latest thinking is if there was a guard or a prison official who helped them?

A. CUOMO: You have three basic types of employees in a prison. You have the correction officers, the guards, civilian employees and private contractors who come in to do private contracting work. This facility was 1865, so it was a very old facility. And you had a lot of construction going on.

I would be shocked if a guard was involved. And that's putting it mildly. But, we're looking at the civilian employees now and the private contractors to see if, possibly, a civilian employee or a contractor was assisting this escape. Because they wouldn't have had the equipment on their own. That's for sure.

CAMEROTA: And by the way, they also put dummies in their bed. I mean, that is as Hollywood as it gets. So they weren't detected. Their escape wasn't protected for something like seven hours. Are you looking at changing prison policy in terms of better head checks, better head counts now?

A. CUOMO: Well, it's an interesting question. There's a two-hour -- every two hours, they do what they call a bed check during the middle of the night. Now, they don't wake everyone up every two hours. And it's a relatively darkened state. So, these dummies were in the bed with the blankets pulled up, wearing a sweatshirt and hoody, which is very common in that prison, and they just assumed that they were in the bed.

The alternative would be to wake everyone up every two hours, which isn't the best option, either. But it's one of the things that we have to look at. This prison, 1865, maximum security, has never had an escape before, believe it or not. This is the first escape from the maximum security portion of the prison. So it really is extraordinary in that account.

CAMEROTA: And Governor, when they popped out of the manhole and they were free, is there surveillance video from the neighborhood or any source of nearby stores of these guys?

A. CUOMO: No, this is a rural community. You're about 25 miles from the Canada border, northern New York. The prison is basically the largest facility in Dannemora. The manhole cover was a good block and a half from the prison. And it's a relatively quiet area once you get away from the prison. And this was probably somewhere in the middle of the night. So, they weren't seen.

The -- we are now looking intensively in the immediate area, because they could still be in the immediate area. But we're also looking in Canada. One of the people had experience in Mexico. They could be headed down south. That's why they could be literally anywhere in the country now. And these are really dangerous individuals. And that's why we're going to the extent we're going through. And that's what we want to accomplish first.

CAMEROTA: I mean, they really are. They're heinous criminals, what they've done in their past. One of them was a -- one shot a police officer. One killed his boss and dismembered him. How are you assuring the public of their safety in that area today?

CUOMO: Well, in the immediate area, we have several hundred police and law enforcement personnel. We have aircraft -- if you are in that immediate area, Alisyn, you feel safe. Because there are people all over. [07:15:13] But, can I assure people in the rest of the state? No. We

have two dangerous, possibly armed individuals who are on the loose. And they are killers. And they're not going to want to go back, I can assure you that.

And it's not just New York. It could be anywhere in the country now. And that's -- that's why we're going to the extent that we're going to. That's why we offer the reward, $100,000, which is very significant. I don't believe the state has ever done that before, just because these people are truly dangerous. And we want them back, and we want to understand exactly how this happened. And to the extent anyone else was involved, we want to know who was involved, and we want to make sure that lesson is learned, also.

CAMEROTA: Let's hope that $100,000 reward brings them in. Governor Cuomo, thanks so much. Nice to talk to you.

A. CUOMO: Thank you for having me. You know, also by the way, we're working on a long-term journalism piece where we're looking for a reporter to go into a prison and maybe stay there for about a year or so and then do an expose on prison life.

CAMEROTA: I knew it.

A. CUOMO: If you have any suggestions, any suggestions we're open to it.

CAMEROTA: you know, I do have a suggestion, Governor.

A. CUOMO: Do you?

CAMEROTA: I do. Yes, I have somebody very close to me that I think would be very great at that assignment. And I knew you weren't going to let us go without taking a shot at Chris.

A. CUOMO: That's good news. Good news.

One year, two years.

CAMEROTA: Got it.

A. CUOMO: Three years, five years.

PEREIRA: The sentence is getting longer.

C. CUOMO: It's been a 45-year sentence so far, and I've made it. The problem is, they haven't -- they haven't built a prison that can hold me, yet. Other than marriage. All right. So...

A. CUOMO: We'll find out.

C. CUOMO: Thanks. Appreciate it, Gov. Go find the bad guys. Lower my taxes.

All right. We're going to take a break now. There was a freak accident at Boston's Fenway Park that nearly killed a spectator. Pieces of a shattered bat flew into the stands and literally hit her in the head. We're going to show you how it went down and whether or not it says something about the nature of the game. There's a lot of history here, as well. We'll take you through it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

C. CUOMO: Welcome back to your NEW DAY. A freak accident raising real questions about fan safety at the ball park. Friday night in Boston. It was the second inning. Brett Lawrie of the Oakland A's breaks his bat. It happens, right? A piece of the bat goes flying into the stands, along the third baseline. That's something you see, right? But then what happens is this poor woman gets hit in the head and had to leave in critical condition. She's been upgraded in serious condition, but she's in bad shape.

Luckily, right now, she's expected to survive. But it raises this question. You know, is it safe?

And I've been saying that in a familiar way, because we've been asking this question for a long time. Christine Brennan is a CNN sports analyst and a sports columnist at "USA Today."

Christine, always great to have you on the show. You know, I remember being in law school, and you learned about how on the back of the ticket, there is an assumption of risk waiver that nobody reads because of the nature of the game and some inherent danger, right?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Absolutely. You go to a game to have fun with your family and friends. People are chatting. They're on their cell phones. They're texting. They're taking pictures. So many people are not paying attention to what's going on around them.

And if you're very close, and these ballparks, of course, are built to bring fans as close as they possibly can. Those are the big-ticket tickets. You know, that's the $400 ticket.

So, there's that sense there, I guess fans have, "I'm going to be safe. This is fun. I'm in a good place." And then something like this happens, Chris, and it shakes every reality we have about the situation.

C. CUOMO: Is there any reason to look at Fenway and say there's something that they weren't doing that they're supposed to do? You know, they have the netting in place. They're supposed to have a little bit of a guard up. But once you get up to the baselines on each side, it's pretty much open. Right? Do we know that anything was done wrong here?

BRENNAN: No. Nothing was done wrong. In fact, it's standard operating procedure at most of these ballparks, at all these ballparks, to have all these netting only go behind home plate, but not extend to the dugouts.

In Japan, interesting enough, Chris, the netting goes all the way to the dugouts and past the dugouts. And that is the conversation now that Major League Baseball is having.

The players' association, the players are actually saying that, in fact, Brett Lawrie himself said we need to have the netting go all -- all the way past the dugouts, to the dugouts or past the dugouts.

You know, I think that's a great idea, personally. But how is that going to fly with those fans who want to get that close experience and be near the players? So that's one big issue.

And the other one that comes to mind, public address announcement. The notion that you do not hear enough about watch out for baseballs. I would be doing that in the first inning before the game, first inning, fourth inning, and seventh inning, continuing the announcements over the P.A. just to remind fans about the dangers that are inherently by sitting closer, even father from the field.

C. CUOMO: That's smart. And it's just recognizing what we already kind of know. Right? What was it on -- was it -- the day was yesterday, right? The people at the golf tournament got hit in the head with a shank drive. And obviously, we all know about the risk that happens when you're at the car races, you know?

It goes on with some of these more, you know, volatile sports where anything is moving at any kind of rate of speed. And you're saying it's really about awareness, that we know these things and you can only do so much to protect in an obvious way. It comes down to state of mind.

BRENNAN: Well, without a doubt, Chris. And if I were a fan going to a game, as opposed to a journalist covering a game, I was that close. And I must admit, it's uncomfortable when you're sitting that close to the -- to home plate. It really is a jarring thing.

But if I were a fan, moving forward, hearing the story of Tonya Carpenter, understanding this incident and how tough it is and, you know, best wishes, of course, to her to continue to recover, I would say we've got to keep an eye on every single pitch.

There's no notion here that we're just having a fun time, and we can turn our heads. You've got to watch every single play. If you're with kids, like goodness, you have to keep your eyes on the game.

And golf, too. You've got to watch every shot. I'm amazed at the tunnel of fans the gallery forms around, say, a Tiger Woods when he's out in the woods, which he often is these days. And then they just stand right there. The faith that they put in these athletes is extraordinary. Fans need to be much more vigilant and again, take their safety into their own hands.

C. CUOMO: I remember when they started moving the seats up at the basketball arenas, everybody wanted to get as close as they could. And I remember watching Charles Barkley just crush this guy in the first and second row as he went in to save a ball.

So you're saying nets along the baselines, two warnings announced and ushers actively reminding. I think those are great ideas. The only one I'll push back on, if that you know, if you take away the ability of those high ticket price payers to not get balls, because those nets are going to keep foul balls away from them also, you get some pushback. A terrible incident, hopefully, with a positive result.

BRENNAN: No, you're absolutely right about that. But I do think the ushers could be reminding people. They see people chatting away, not looking at the game, if I were an usher, I'd be running down there and say, "Hey, I want to remind you of what just happened in Boston." I think that's going to be a wonderful thing to tell fans moving forward. A terrible incident. Hopefully with a positive result.

C. CUOMO: We definitely know about the risk. Just look at the back of the ticket. You see it all laid out. Christine Brennan, as always, thank you very much.

BRENNAN: Chris, thank you.

C. CUOMO: Mick.

PEREIRA: All right. Chris, it was all pork shops and Harleys in Iowa over the weekend. Who came out looking best after a classic Iowa roast and fry? John King, "Inside Politics," explores that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)