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Murder Case Reignites Nationwide Debate Over Immigration Policy; Iran Deal Deadline Approaches. Aired 6:30-7:00a ET.

Aired July 07, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Francisco Sanchez now charged in last week's murder of Kate Steinle, a young woman simply walking along the popular San Francisco Waterfront. The case has fueled a nationwide debate and reignited this debate over immigration policy and whether San Francisco's sanctuary policy is to blame.

To discuss this, we have Ana Maria Salazar, she is a Latin American Political Analyst and former policy advisors for President Clinton special envoy for the American. Good to have you, Ana Maria. Ben Ferguson is here, CNN's Political Commentator and host of The Ben Ferguson Show. I sense a debate is likely in our offing here. I appreciate you both bringing your passion to the subject.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

PEREIRA: Good morning. Good morning to both of you. Ben, I want to first talk about what we heard from our affiliate, KGO. They had an opportunity to talk to the suspect. They asked him if he kept coming back to San Francisco because he knew that they wouldn't actively look for him. He replied yes. Is it time for U.S. cities to review the sanctuary city policy? Or as Pamela Harris, the AG of California says, this one case shouldn't inform our collective outrage about one man's conduct.

FERGUSON: I, I, I would say this, if you're one of the families that's been affected by an illegal immigrant who has a safe haven in the sanctuary city who then commits a heinous crime just like this one, it affects your life and we should respect these people who are affected by these illegal immigrants. And many of them, do in fact, go to sanctuary cities and so that they know because they have a safe haven to operate in illegal ways. This is a man who had been convicted in U.S. courts of felony seven times, had been deported five times.

If you feel that comfortable to come back into a city and to stay in a city because you know, ultimately, no one is going to force you, really, to leave and if they do, you can come right back. And you don't have to worry or look over your shoulder that someone is going to deport you. And then you can go out and kill an innocent person walking with his father and have that father watch you die. This is what happens when you allow a safe haven for illegal activity at the hands of illegal immigrants. And, and they should be ashamed of themselves for trying to act like this is someone else's problem.

[06:35:00] PEREIRA: And...

FERGUSON: This is their problem. And they should fix it.

PEREIRA: Ana Maria? Response?

ANA MARIA SALAZAR, LATIN AMERICAN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is a - I mean, we've got to remember why safe haven cities were created. They were created because there was racial profiling not only of illegal aliens but also Mexican-Americans, Hispanic-looking type of people who would be walking down the street. And that you know, just because they look Hispanic or they look quote unquote illegal, they were being stopped.

I mean, these safe havens were created to protect people both illegal and both, and both - and American citizens. So I think there should be a debate about safe havens. But the debate should be around when you are talking about individuals who may have committed a felony crime.

PEREIRA: Well, let me, let me bring in the - let me bring in a statement from the mayor of San Francisco. Ed Lee said, quote, let me be clear, San Francisco sanctuary city policy protects residents regardless of immigration status, is not intended to protect repeat and serious violent felons. Yet, aren't these kinds of sanctuary laws, Ana Maria, allowing felons of this type to slip through the cracks?

SALAZAR: They would slip through these cracks I would say almost in any other city. When you have, when you have these types of individuals, and I say this very carefully because this case is being used to define what the immigration or people are looking, like Donald Trump, to try to define what should be U.S. immigration policy regarding 11 million undocumented people who live in the United States right now. I'm just talking about the Mexican population. The problem is with these types of cases, is that clearly a mistake was made. This is a mistake, not the norm. And I, you know, -

FERGUSON: But Ana Maria...

SALAZAR: - when you look around and look at the numbers, and we have been talking about, let me, let me just finish.

PEREIRA: OK.

SALAZAR: When you look about - when you look at the numbers, clearly the undocumented population in the United States is much less likely to commit a crime. That's the data. I mean, that's, that's a horrible case.

FERGUSON: You, you - but you just said something - you just said something thought that to me that is political correctness just out of control. You said sanctuary cities were set up in part to protect illegals. Why in the world would you want to protect people that are breaking the law in this country who are here illegally? That is exactly the reason why these sanctuary cities are so

helpful and effective to people just like this individual that had committed multiple felonies and been convicted of them. You do not set up -

PEREIRA: Ben, let's show you...

FERGUSON: Let me say, this is very important. You don't set up a city to help people that are, that are, that are involved in a legal activity. And that is exactly what they have done with sanctuary cities. As you are literally saying, if you are illegal, and you're committing crimes, the safest place for you to be a criminal because we are not going to enforce the law of the land. And oh, by the way, when you kill somebody, we will blame the federal government, for not our policies.

PEREIRA: Let's go back to the fact for a quick second because you mentioned the fact that Donald Trump is making all these claims about immigrants, being responsible for heinous crime, crimes. I've got a Pew research study that I want to pull up the data on. Showing that crime rates among first generation immigrants are significantly lower than overall crime rate.

So that's an important piece of conversation to bring in here. I'm going to leave it at that. Ben, Ana Maria, I feel like this is a conversation we are going to pick up daily for the next of a while. Thank you so much for joining us with your strong opinions. We'll continue talking about this. We appreciate it.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

CUOMO: All right. Another story lives on here, Mic. It's the truth that we have the bad guys, one is dead, one is back in jail. But what about prison worker, Joyce Mitchell? What did one of the prisoners reportedly give her before he escaped?

There's new information in the investigation. You're going to hear it.

[06:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Bill Cosby admitting that he obtained prescription sedatives and intended to give them to young women he wanted to sleep with. This testimony revealed in document from a 2005 sexual assault lawsuit in which Cosby settled out of court. Seventy seven year old admitted giving Quaaludes to one woman and quote others, but never admitted to actually drugging anyone. Over 25 women accused Cosby of sexual assault, allegations he denies.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All eyes on Vienna at this hour as negotiators try to close a nuclear deal with Iran by today's deadline. New Iranian demands to lift in arms embargo said to be among the sticking points. The president and secretary of state say the U.S. is prepared to walk away from an agreement that fall short of U.S. demand. The talks could extend past today's deadline. CUOMO: The pope expected to draw a crowd of up to one million

people today in Ecuador. It's his second mass there this many days. The pope asked the people to pray for miracles in the troubled country. He's also said to visit Bolivia and Paraguay on this eighth day trip to South America, back home for him.

PEREIRA: Joyce Mitchell's attorney telling CNN that his client destroyed pills given to her by Richard Matt intended to incapacitate Joyce's husband, Lyle. Officials say, both Matt and his accomplice David Sweat had plans to kill Lyle before they escaped to Mexico.

In the meantime Sweat is now facing a disciplinary hearing in prison to figure out what should happen to him next. Until then, he will be held in solitary confinement. Just when he thought things to sort in quiet and down back in custody, one is dead. More twists and turns in the story.

CAMEROTA: New things come out. New details come every day in the story. But I still - that's the part of the story that doesn't make any sense. Why, why - raise the body count - why would they kill somebody on the way out of town? That's the part that is still confusing.

PEREIRA: I don't understand much of it. I can understand their desire to get out if you are in prison. I mean, not that I can really, can relate to the prisoner but that part of the story is such a mystery to me.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Well, one thing is for sure, he has a huge bucket of stuff coming his way. And no matter what happens at this hearing...

[06:45:00] PEREIRA: And that's an official term by the way.

CUOMO: He is going - that's a legal term, now, I don't know. But I find it hard to believe that they would have gone out of their way to kill a man for this woman. I find it hard to believe that they really had a plan that she

was part of in terms of continuing down the road with these guys.

CAMEROTA: I'm with you.

PEREIRA: She might have gotten out of the way, but that's about the only part of the plan, right?

CAMEROTA: BERMAN: Meanwhile, severe storms moving east today. Dark tornado clouds over Missouri, as you can see and reports of tornadoes touching down. Several inches of rain causing flooding and major traffic on a Kansas City highway. Wow, look at that flooding. The storms postponing the Kansas City Royals home game again Tampa after flooding in California stadium including the Royal's dugout. Wow. That's a waterfall actually in the dugout.

Let's bring in our meteorologist, Chad Myers with more. What are you seeing, Chad? CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: I'm backing you up. 6:00 yesterday

afternoon from Chicago almost all the way back to Kansas City and loving. That's the line of weather you are flying through if you are on an airplane and slowed you down as the pilots had to move around those storms. I push you ahead now as the storm goes to the southeast toward St. Louis. A lot of rain coming

down. Even Paducah, four inches of rain right now with flash flood warnings going on in some spots.

There will be more rain this afternoon as well. There's the flash flood watches and warnings all the way from St. Louis back down to the south. If you are going get four to six inches of rainfall any spot, you're going to get more flash flooding today. Now, there will be severe weather forecast from Buffalo to Cleveland, all the way back down to Paducah, maybe Evansville down into Memphis, that's the area today. It was here yesterday, it's here today. Only wind I think today. Really there's going to be not so much tornadoes or hail, but it's a wind event and lightning event. If you are outside, there's going to be a lot of lightning strikes today, probably thousands of strikes per hour. So make sure you have the kids inside when the lightning rolls around.

Guys good to see the band back together.

PEREIRA: Yes.

MYERS: Cuomo, welcome back.

PEREIRA: Who's on drums?

CUOMO: Good to beat me. I'm in the drums, I'll leave the...

PEREIRA: I'll be on the base.

MYERS: It's good to see you my friend.

CUOMO: We are going to take a quick break. Bernie Sanders, when we got into the race, a lot of people said what is he really going to do? He's really just going play on the far left. Oh, you're wrong, he is doing great, especially in Iowa. Raises the question, is Hillary feeling the burn? Bernie Sanders. We have experts weighing in on why he's doing so well and what it means going forward.

Stay with us.

[06:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is gaining momentum in Iowa. Now, some people dismissed him as a legit contender when he came in. I looking at Alisyn for no reason.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

CUOMO: But I'll tell you, the polls are telling a different story to be sure. What is it going to mean to the race? That's the big question right now. Should we discuss? CAMEROTA: We should. Let's do that right now, because we want

to bring in CNN's Political Analyst and Editor in Chief for the Daily Beast, John Avlon. And CNN's Political Commentator and Political Anchor at New York One News, Errol Louis, great to have you with us.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let me pull up an interesting Quinnipiac poll, the latest poll. And what it does, is it shows the difference in the numbers from just two months ago, May 7th to today. Look at what's happened. These are Iowa Caucus voters. OK. Hillary Clinton has gone down from 60 percent to 52 percent. Bernie Sanders has doubled his support from 15 to 33 percent.

Now, John, are Iowa Caucus voters representative of anything other than Iowa Caucus votes? Does that translate to a sort of national feeling?

AVLON: This Caucus, translate to a Caucus. Caucus is not to discuss but that's good. Look, you know, Iowa Caucus voters speak to a certain grass roots element of the democratic party same in the GOP corrolary. They are the die hards. They are the grass roots representing sort of the Midwest sensibility. But in fact, these doubled significance. But it's still a 20-point gap in terms of reality check.

And despite the fact that when she lost Iowa last time, actually came in third, it really did was a major shot across the inevitability obviously leading ultimately to Obama winning the nomination. The dynamics are still fundamentally different. She should be concerned about her left blank but I think if she can go all the way over to the left, she's probably overreacting in a way that can damage her in general.

CUOMO: Boy oh, boy, the lesson of history. John Edwards was on everybody's lips as we came out of Iowa.

AVLON: So creepy.

CUOMO: And it's amazing how things can change. Errol Louis, you had a knowing smile on your face as John was talking. What do you see in these numbers?

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, the real problem for the Clinton campaign, is that, those numbers when you talk on a telephone poll, it's five minutes on the phone. The Caucus is something different, the Caucus might be five hours, you have to go out and stand for your candidate in view of your neighbors, maybe two or three rounds until it is actually over.

This is what sank her in 2008. She had a lot of soft support. But the depth is what really counted. That's where Obama completely out organized her. That's where John Edwards completely organized here and that's where Bernie Sanders, if you like Bernie Sanders you must really like Bernie Sanders. Because he doesn't have a lot of name recognition. He does not have a high profile nationally. And so I, I suspect they may realize they are going to have to go deeper into Iowa. They can't just check off the boxes, run a bunch of ads and be the front-runner. That's what they tried last time totally in work.

CAMEROTA: What is their strategy?

AVLON: Well, look, I mean, they have an Iowa expert in place. But you know, there's a likelihood. In politics, there are Iowa experts, don't doubt that for one second. There is a - it is totally conceivable, but she - even with the historic lead she had in the democratic field, right now and it is historic, right? I mean, the lead she has over the contenders, including Bernie Sanders. She could lose one of the two.

[06:55:00] New Hampshire is also Bernie Sanders neighboring state, he is from Vermont. But that does not necessary - well, that will damage her enormously in terms of media narrative and momentum. The question is, does it derail her March to the nomination?

Because Bernie Sanders is a function of the fact that the, the activist left is more engaged, more active, more enthusiastic than any time in the last 30 years. And he benefits from that. She has the sort of ultimate establishment of the candidate. For son or daughter of the DLC.

CUOMO: It does seem legit, though Alisyn, that these left candidates are going to have to move more left. We are seeing patterns of that in elections across the country with democrats that the base is starting to say you are not democrat enough. Is this a nod to that of returning to what they were supposed to be in the democratic party? Bernie represents that and this is a gut check on Hillary.

LOUIS: Well, it's, it's a, it's a welcome reminder, there are a lot of reasons to support a candidate. Not necessarily because you want or even expect Bernie Sanders to be sworn in you know, January of 2017. But because you want your faction of the party to have prominence and a voice, to be heard in debates and else with throughout the process, to maybe go into the convention with some delegates and, and sort of make a point. This is what it's all about. I mean, and this is, frankly, what the Clinton's did after the debacle in which Jimmy Carter lost and they just decided you know, what we're going to start our own long march and try the progress within the party.

AVLON: And this is what happened, Bill Clinton won the presidency for the democrat after they lost 40 states in three consecutive elections. So there's just a, a really obvious warning sign here. It feels good to be a professional protester. It feels good to be a member of a professional left. But if you think it's going to translate to general election success, you are deeply mistaken.

And the fact that Bernie Sanders is an evolved and that's OK, a democratic socialist. He is the stereotype of everything that not only Republicans, but independents don't like historically about the, the, the left. So that is a - that, that may make people feel good. But reality check about the prospects were you know, winning and/or governing people. Let's get real. I'll make my own maple syrup.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, as a political reporter, you must be heartened that one of Hillary's new strategy is that she will now be sitting down for interviews after three months of really not taking many questions from the press, she has now announced that she will now take them.

LOUIS: Long overdue. I assume and I hope she's doing her due diligence and talking with the local press. I mean, as a local reporter myself, I sort of appreciate that. She should be talking with every last columnist and major reporter and editor in New Hampshire, in Iowa in the early states. It, it, it was, it was a little jarring to see some of these photos of her like literally with ropes keeping her away from the press. It doesn't make any sense. It's not going to get her anywhere.

On the other hand she has going to have to take what she's learned at the local level and presumably she is learning about local issues and trying to think through some policies that she wants to run on and start a nationally and then start a new conversation. She can't - you can't put out an ad and said when she announced her candidacy. I want to have a national conversation then slap slam the door.

CUOMO: Last point on this, they are using the same rationale but Errol, it the other way in her camp. Which is - doesn't do anything forward to do the interviews and talking to help her build or any. Why doing such?

LOUIS: You can't run for the office without doing interviews.

AVLON: She's not talking back. That's fine. Ultimately, if you care, they are feeling erosion of support on the left. They are trying to counteract. But you cannot be with the press. You have to deal with the media if you are running for office.

CAMEROTA: John, Errol, stick around tonight, Hillary Clinton will be sitting down for her first national media interview exclusively with CNN. It will air at 5:00 P.M. on the "Situation Room," then again with Anderson Cooper eastern, tune in to that.

CUOMO: That will be big news. There's more so let's get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We never saw any drugs, but I would wake up completely confused, half dressed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bill Cosby testified in 2005 that he got Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was part of confidential settlement.

CAMEROTA: Francisco Sanchez charged with murdering Katherine Steinle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not an issue of ethnicity, this is an issue of illegal immigration. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florida state quarterback Deandre Johnson,

dismissed from the team.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Surveillance video that shows him punching a woman in the face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know why he would do that.

ANNOUNCNER: This is "New Day." With Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CAMEROTA: And good morning everyone, welcome back to your "New Day." This morning, we have the closest we have heard from an admission of wrong doing from Bill Cosby. Newly unfilled court document showed that he admits getting sedatives Quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with.

CUOMO: Here is the big caveat though. Cosby admits that he gave drugs, but never administered them. What does that mean? CNN's Sara Ganim, is joining us now to parse these revelations.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.