Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Source: Prison Worker Planned to Pick Up Escapees; Police Officer in Pool Party Melee Resigns; Cavs Hold Off Warriors, Take 2-1 NBA Finals Lead; Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 10, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:42] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A woman who works at a New York prison where two escaped killers are still on the run was supposed to be the getaway driver authorities tell CNN. Her name is Joyce Mitchell. And she had been wooed by Richard Matt, according to authorities, and agreed to help the murderer and fellow murderer David Sweat, but then changed her mind she says.

So, who else help? We know her phone was used to call several people connected to the convicts. The manhunt is the main focus, and the search is picking up steam. Police descending on a town near the prison after two suspicious men were reported running into the fields.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The police officer who pulled his gun at a pool party in Texas after slamming a girl in a bikini to the ground has resigned from the force. The attorney for former Corporal Eric Casebolt says the officer is in hiding this morning after receiving multiple death threats. The chief of police in McKinney calling Casebolt's actions, quote, "indefensible." He says the officer stepped down of his own free will.

CUOMO: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleads not guilty to all charges related to his alleged hush money cover up. Federal prosecutors say Hastert lied to investigators and hid bank transactions as a part of a plan to pay $3.5 million in hush money to an alleged sex abuse victim.

Meanwhile law enforcement sources confirmed they interviewed a second alleged victim and the sister of a third alleged victim, who told that ABC Hastert molested her late brother.

[06:35:07] CAMEROTA: Let's talk sports. LeBron James was unbelievable once again last night, leading the Cavs to game three victory over the Warriors in the NBA finals.

I know all about this. But let's bring in Andy Scholes anyway. He's live at Quicken Loans Arena this morning with bleacher report.

Andy, what a win for Cleveland.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was, Alisyn. And the atmosphere in the arena behind me last night was just incredible. The fans here are waiting 51 years to celebrate a championship. Now, they are two wins away from doing that.

We saw a full moment before this game last night. LeBron going over to the legendary running back, Jim Brown, bowing to him before the game.

And LeBron just amazing in this one. He had 40 points in this game, nearly missing another triple-double.

And what can you say about Matt Dellavedova? The undrafted point guard has become LeBron's running mate this series. He played amazing defense on Steph Curry all night, had the play of the night, getting a wild shot to go in the fourth quarter. He had 20 points.

The Warriors made this game interesting late. This was Cleveland's night. The Cavs win 96-91. The LeBron said afterwards the fans played a big part in this victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: As loud as they were, they need to go home now and start soaking up a lot of tea, drinking a lot of tea for the next 36 hours whatever the case may be because they need to be as loud on Thursday night. Need you guys to get those voices right. They will be unbelievable Thursday night as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Elsewhere in the sports world last night, Giants rookie pitcher Chris Heston looked like he might be in for a rough night against the Mets. He hit two batters in a row in the fourth inning but then he went on to throw a no-hitter! He struck out 11 while walking none! First no- hitter of the Major League season and the fourth year in a row, now, that the Giants have had a pitcher throw a no-hitter.

Guys back out here in Cleveland. Matthew Dellavedova, he is becoming a superstar. He was exhausted after last night's game. He had to get an I.V. for severe cramping. We expect him to be fine, because you know, he grew up in Australia playing rugby as a kid. So, we all know he's a pretty tough guy.

CAMEROTA: Yes, if you can play rugby in Australia, that's not the bar, I think.

CUOMO: That's tough. Although, he did need the I.V. It just shows you how strenuous that game is.

CAMEROTA: I know, it's like you after the show.

CUOMO: It's true. I get an I.V. every day after the show of Kool- Aid.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Andy.

CUOMO: All right. So, we are going to take a break. When we come back, the power of a picture. The seven minute video caused this Texas cop his job. Without the video, everything would be different, right?

The teenager who took it at the pool party, we are going to talk to him about why he took it the way he did, what he saw and what he thinks it was about, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:12] CAMEROTA: New developments to tell you about in the manhunt for two escaped prisoners. They escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York. According to sources, a woman who works at the prison named Joyce Mitchell planned to help the convicts make a get away but she got cold feet at the last moment, as the search of a town south of the prison continues at this hour.

So, let's bring in CNN national security commentator Mike Rogers. He's a former Michigan congressman and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Good morning, Mike.

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Do you think the authorities are close to getting these two fugitives?

ROGERS: You know, I've heard mixed results. But what's going to happen is they are going to make a mistake. So, the early planning was well done. So, I'm sure that they had a way to go underground for a short period of time.

What happens in these cases is, eventually, they either have to move or they have to purchase something. Either way, it's going to narrow down the law enforcement's ability to try to catch them. They are going to make a mistake. They will catch them, eventually.

CAMEROTA: If you believe these sources, it seems as though one of the parts of their plan fell apart because they were going to use the assistance of this woman they met who is the tailor of the prison and she befriended them and she got cold feet and went to the hospital with a panic attack instead of picking them up. What happens to a woman like that if she was going to help them, but didn't help them, what are the charges?

ROGERS: Well, she's facilitated the escape of felons. That's a serious charge. What will happen is it will unravel. She was only part of the plan, I guarantee it.

There's no way that on visitations people were smuggling in construction equipment to cut through concrete. So, there was a host of people within that prison system, some number of people who helped in that particular escape. That investigation will clearly be going on now. Someone will break.

Likely, if she had a panic attack, Alisyn, as a former FBI agent, she's going to unwind quickly and it will lead to other arrests within the prison system. You can't tolerate this. So, they need to throw everything they have at them to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. You have exposed the community to very dangerous felons who are now on the run and God only knows what they will do to resort to, to not go back to prison.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's move on to this crazy scene at the White House yesterday. These two bomb threats called in first to the Senate Dirksen building during a TSA building, then the White House press room during a press briefing.

First, let me show our viewers the proximity of the press briefing room circled in red and the oval office at the bottom of the screen in yellow.

First, Mike, let me show you what happened. A very brief clip of the few seconds of the chaos when they first got word they had to evacuate.

[06:45:03] Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to evacuate the press room now.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We'll come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So, there you see Josh in the middle of a press briefing and everybody had to clear out. Why didn't the president have to evacuate from the Oval Office?

ROGERS: It depends on what the location of the bomb threat was and so, apparently the Secret Service agents made an immediate assessment, they would go down their ability to make that assessment, and didn't feel, at that time, the president was in danger from that area. So --

CAMEROTA: But I mean, help us understand that. We just saw the map. If it was called into the press briefing room, the oval office is a hop, skip and jump from there.

ROGERS: Yes, it's not as close as you think. The map I think is misleading. If you have been inside the White House, the press room is not located close enough, you know, to have a blast range that would be of concern.

So, it would take a significant amount of explosives to impact the press room and the Oval Office. They made the quick assessment if there was a bomb within that area, the range of that bomb would have not impacted the president, if he was even in the oval office. I'm not sure I know that.

CAMEROTA: I think we heard he was. But just out of excessive caution, I mean, the first family wasn't evacuated from the residence either. Why not get everybody out?

ROGERS: Again, you don't want to cause panic throughout the whole building. That brings a whole another set of problems. So, again, I think they went through their initial assessment. Remember, in order to impact that much of that building, the way it is constructed, it would take a significant amount of explosives to do that. You would be able to see it very, very quickly.

The way that the circumstance of the bomb threat, to my understanding and where that location of the building is would have minimized that impact to a small area of the building. It was probably safer, in their minds, to go through that and say we are going to try to see if we can locate something we believe -- if it were, a smaller device versus trying to evacuate the whole place or causing problems that way.

And at the end of the day, it's probably right. Again, it would take a significantly sized device in order to impact the rest of that White House. So, they have to make that decision on the fly, on the run. To me, I think they would have made the right decision in that particular case, even if there had been a small device in that room.

CAMEROTA: Look, I mean, obviously, it would be very hard to get any device into the White House. But still, the bomb threats we have seen with the airlines and now the White House is troubling.

But Mike Rogers, thanks so much. Nice to talk to you.

ROGERS: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Here is a provocative question for you: is this month going to be President Obama's most important? Is this the reckoning of his political achievements? There's big initiatives that could either work out or not work out. We are going to take you through them and figure out how much control the president has over his own future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:08] CUOMO: June, that's the month. It is shaping up to be a big one for the Obama administration. Over the next few weeks, the president could see big wins.

I mean, look what he's got there. These trade deals, 11 different countries. It's so big, it's almost bipartisan. You've got SCOTUS deciding whether or not when you decide to get a subsidy, which is what they are calling it, the administration disagrees, when you get Obamacare, whether it's legal. And then you have the big deal.

So, what happens if none of these happen? Is this a legacy moment? And is that a good consideration?

We have CNN political commentator and former adviser to President Obama, Dan Pfeiffer.

Welcome to the CNN team.

DAN PFEIFFER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you so much.

CUOMO: We'll baptize you by fire.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: The idea of having legacy concerns at all, is that a reality or is it a political conceit that should be avoided? You think because they are right, not because they are good for what you are going to look like in the future.

PFEIFFER: I think legacy is something people in the White House almost never talk about. They worry about what is happening right in front of them. And if that works, it will work for your legacy, we'll deal with that in the backend.

And these are three important things coming to head here in June.

CAMEROTA: And the Pacific trade deal is not an easy one. Lots of people do not like it. They have been vocal, even some Democrats.

CUOMO: Lefties.

CAMEROTA: Yes, even some Democrats. Harry Reid I think says he hates this deal.

So, what's going to happen?

PFEIFFER: I think the White House is going to get it across the finish line, but it's going to be hard. The politics in trade are complicated. You have progressive Democrats against it. You have Tea Party Republicans and you have Republicans skeptical of giving the president any authority.

But the president is working very closely with the Republicans and Democrats in the House. And I think they'll be able to get across the line, but it's going to be close.

CUOMO: Fair criticism that it's showing that he can't control his own. Even the left is giving him a hard time. He doesn't know how to manage the relationships. He doesn't know how to control.

PFEIFFER: I don't think so in this case. This is a traditional split in the Democratic Party. Bill Clinton had very similar troubles when he was trying to pass NAFTA. So, there's always a split between Democratic presidents and Democratic congressional members on trade.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the thing nearest and dearest to the president's heart, and that is his health care initiative. The Supreme Court is going to be deciding on it soon. If they decide against the president, against the subsidies, that is a big problem. Not just for legacy, but everything he put in place.

PFEIFFER: Well, it's a big problem for a lot of people. It's a problem for 6 million to 8 million Americans who are going to be unable to afford health care. It's going to be a problem for the president. It's going to be a problem for Congress because Republicans in Congress are going to have to do something about this, because these are constituents in their states primarily who are going to be -- have health care denied to them. It will be a political game changer for the near term. No question about it.

CUOMO: What is the no plan "B" thing, though? I get that the administration doesn't like King V. Burwell. That's the case that the Supreme Court is looking. But what is this no plan B? How do you not plan if you care so much about this legislation? If the decision goes against you, you have no plan?

PFEIFFER: There is no plan in the sense that there's no silver bullet, no magic wand.

[06:55:02] The president and the administration have to solve the problem on their own. It requires a legislative fix. We should see how -- we'll see what the court says. I think the president has been very clear. He believes the law is on his side. This is not one of those times where we have to divine the legislative intent of long passed lawmakers. The president is going to ask those people who wrote the bill, what did they intend? They intended what the bill is doing.

CAMEROTA: I mean, this would be, I think you'd agree, the biggest set back of his presidency, if it doesn't go his way.

PFEIFFER: It would be a big setback, there's no question. I think it would be very -- it would be a setback on the legislative issue and it would take away from all the other things we are talking about in June because we're going to have to do something about it now.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's move on to the Iran deal. Another setback, Secretary Kerry broke his femur negotiating on this. So, where do you think that they are today on it?

PFEIFFER: Well, I think that there's -- I think the president said there's a 50 percent chance they can get it done. I think it stands there. Knowing Secretary Kerry as I do, he is working throughout all of this. You have to rip the phone from his hand to get him to take rest.

But there's been tremendous progress made a few years ago. No one thought it was possible. Now, I think it's a coin flip. There are a lot of hard issues they have to get resolved.

CUOMO: You know, very often when you're in this situations in politics, the best strategy is to have something else you can go with in case it doesn't work. Is there anything left the president or the administration, his team, could go after in this last period as a defining proposition?

PFEIFFER: Well, I think there's a whole host of initiatives both executive and legislative --

CUOMO: Big, that we would talk about.

PFEIFFER: Yes, I think so. I think there's -- CUOMO: Give me something, Dan.

PFEIFFER: I'll give you a couple examples. One would be infrastructure. That is something that is traditionally bipartisan support. Something the president cares a lot about. Something that everyone in the country knows we need. There are ways to do that.

You know, you can find ways to reform the tax code, to close loopholes and use that money to then pay for infrastructure. There's been bipartisan support for that. That would be a huge boost in the country. So, that would be one, Alisyn, I could see the president and the Republicans working together on.

CAMEROTA: I mean, tax code and infrastructure, why not do those? Those are no brainers.

PFEIFFER: You would think, but not brainers -- nothing is a no brainer in Congress these days.

CUOMO: And also, it's very expensive. And even though Dan put it forth provocatively, it's not a big ooh thing when you do it. So, it's a lot of money and not a lot of fanfare from the voters.

CAMEROTA: Bipartisan, everybody likes it. We need it.

CUOMO: They don't like the price tag. That's why they don't do it.

PFEIFFER: Right. But there are ways to pay for it that the public would like a lot. Most notably, if you can close some of these loopholes that encourage companies to shift jobs overseas, take that money and spend it on infrastructure here, that would be a political winner for everyone involved.

CUOMO: And a reminder, we lived through it in Philadelphia. The reason the train crash happened was yes, the engineer. If they had positive train control on the track the way they were supposed to have, it wouldn't happen. That's infrastructure.

PFEIFFER: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Dan Pfeiffer, great to have you on board. Thanks very much for being on NEW DAY.

PFEIFFER: Thank you guys.

CAMEROTA: What's your take on everything that we've discussed? You can tweet us using #NewDayCNN, or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay.

CUOMO: That's a big story, but there is a lot of news this morning, we promise. So, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Authorities are still on the trail of these escaped killers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators are questioning Joyce Mitchell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An employee, she worked with the men in the prison's tailor shop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was not going to risk her life or other people's lives to let these guys escape from prison.

CUOMO: Corporal Eric Casebolt is his name and he's resigning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our policies, our training, our practice do not support his actions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You diffuse the situation. You don't escalate it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since the riots, Baltimore has had the deadliest months in history. Why is this happening?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people on our side have, none of them --

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Michaela is off today.

Investigators looking to a New York prison employee to fill in the blank on how two dangerous convicts managed to escape. According to sources, Joyce Mitchell apparently planned to pick up the convicts after they made their break, but she changed her mind.

CUOMO: Another key is her cell phone. That phone may have been used to call other people connected to the convicts. So, that's a big target for investigators.

The focus, though, is on the manhunt. It is now in the fifth day. The question, are police closer to a break in the case? We did hear about one.

So, let's get to our coverage. We've got Randi Kaye, live in Upstate New York, looking at the situation.

Randi, what do we know?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you a little bit more about Joyce Mitchell this morning, Chris. We know that she's worked at this prison here since 2010. She's married. She lives in Dickerson. We also know that she worked in the tailoring shop with these two escapees, which may be how she got to know them.

Apparently, she knew them pretty well, that's why she's being questioned as a possible accomplice in this case. She is somewhat cooperating, we're told by authorities.