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South Carolina Governor Signs Bill to Remove Confederate Flag from State Capitol Grounds; Republicans Suspend Vote on Amendment to Keep Confederate Flag on Display in National Cemeteries; Donald Trump's Comments on Illegal Immigrants Examined; The Search for Clues in "Baby Doe" Death. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 10, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The governor signed this bill into law yesterday, surrounded by many of the lawmakers who made this a possibility today. Also present, the families of those nine victims killed some 23 days ago in that massacre in Charleston. Each of those families will be receiving a pen that the governor used to sign the bill into law, to sign the law that will be removing that Confederate flag that is flying right now. Now, listen to what the governor had to say about this historic moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. NIKKI HALEY, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: This is a story about action. This is a story about the history of South Carolina and how the action of nine individuals laid out this long chain of events that forever showed the state of South Carolina what love and forgiveness looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: Again, that is the flag that will be taken down in just a few hours people again gathering here at the state capitol grounds for this historic moment. The governor, we're told, will not be making any remarks during the flag removing ceremony. And the ceremony itself is not expected to take a very long time. Now, once this flag is removed by the director of South Carolina's department of public safety it will be taken to the Confederate relic room at the museum that is just a few blocks from where we are. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We see a lot of people gathering there already ahead of that ceremony. Alina, thank you.

Meanwhile the flag triggering strong emotions on Capitol Hill. House Republican leaders forced to put a funding bill on hold because of a push to keep Confederate symbols on display at national cemeteries and parks. Athena Jones picks up that part of the story in our Washington bureau. Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. This was really an embarrassment for Republicans on Capitol Hill because it came on the same day that the Republican governor of South Carolina signed that bill to remove the Confederate flag. So you had that on one side of the screen image. On the other side you had Republicans on Capitol Hill being forced to pull that bill because it involved voting on an amendment that would keep those flags, the Confederate flag, on display at cemeteries run by the National Park Service. This move really angered Democrats. People spoke passionately and purposefully on the House floor yesterday. Let's listen to what New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D) NEW YORK: At first it appeared that House Republicans were prepared to do the right thing and help to banish this symbol of racial hatred and oppression. But then apparently the ghosts of the Confederacy invaded the conference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And earlier Hakeem Jeffries made similar remarks on the House floor standing next to a giant placard of the Confederate flag. He said if this flag, that this battle flag and people behind it had been allowed to prevail, I will still be a slave, not a member of Congress. So a very, very personal, raw emotion on the House floor.

Meanwhile House Speaker John Boehner has said he wants the adults in Congress to come together and have a discussion about what should be done with these Confederate symbols. But of course Democrats are saying there's no discussion that needs to be had. The Confederate flag is a symbol of racism, oppression, bigotry, and brutality and needs to be removed. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Boehner also tried to defend the amendment by saying it was just a complication of Obama's, of the administration's directive to the National Park Service. Joaquin Jeffries and others reject that. Athena, thank you very much, appreciate the reporting on this.

So in other news, a call for terror attacks on the U.S. by the new leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. This as the FBI announces it foiled several ISIS inspired July 4th to kill Americans. And a troubling development, dozens of people influenced by ISIS in the U.S. have gone dark. Why and what do we do about it? CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto live in Washington with the latest. Director Comey is very concerned about this. What does it mean?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. You get a sense as to why we had those alerts before the July 4th weekend. So the FBI saying that they foiled a number of plots in the last four weeks, some of them timed to the July 4th holiday, and that they made more than 10 ISIS related arrests during that time period. Included in that group, a group in New York and New Jersey that were planning, application, to build bombs to lay at parades around the holiday weekend.

And as you say, Chris, here's the other problem. As they're trying to stop these plots, the suspected terrorists are communicated with ISIS and other handlers overseas by widely available applications that are encrypted that even the NSA and others cannot monitor. Here's what James Comey had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: This is not your grandfather's Al Qaeda. This is a group of people using social media to reach thousands and thousands of followers, find the ones who might be interested in committing acts of violence, and then moving them to an end to end encrypted messaging app. Our job is to look at a haystack the size of this country for needles that are increasingly invisible to us because of end to end encryption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:04] SCIUTTO: Invisible to the intelligence community, now, that's ISIS. The other group that they're very concerned about, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and they've got a new leader. You'll remember there was a strike, a drone strike last month that killed the AQAP leader in Yemen. But as always happens with these groups, they very quickly have a replacement, and that replacement pointing his finger, putting his sites on America, encouraging followers around the world to attack America. Chris, remember this, and Michaela, while ISIS is considered most likely to carry out an attack on the U.S. because it's easy for them to do that through social media, it is AQAP, Michaela, that I'm told consistently that has the greatest capability. Remember, that's the group that has success putting bombs on airplanes. It's a real concern.

PEREIRA: We remember all too well. Jim Sciutto with that latest warning for us, thank you.

Donald Trump stoking anger and pushback with his comments about undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Trump doesn't seem to be getting the message. In fact he's thinking he's picking up support in the Latino community. And he used a former Republican candidate to make his point. Take a listen to what Donald Trump told our Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You do make a lot of the people you're running against in the GOP very nervous. They feel you've got to get Hispanics on the side of the GOP. They look at Mitt Romney who got 27 percent of the Hispanic vote.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's right, he didn't appeal to them. And I understand why. He didn't appeal to a lot of people. Excuse me, he didn't appeal to conservative Republicans. If Republicans would have left their living room and gone out and vote he would have won the election. People for some reason didn't dig Mitt Romney.

Now, he choked the last month of the campaign. I give Obama a lot of credit. Obama was on Jay Leno. He was on your show. He was on all these shows. He was on David Letterman. He was on all these shows. I said to Mitt Romney and his people, why aren't you on television the last two or three weeks? Why aren't you doing television now? They were sitting around taking it easy. He choked. Something happened to him. Now, as far as --

COOPER: You can get the Latino vote?

TRUMP: I'll tell you what, if the Republicans voted Mitt Romney would have -- he didn't energize anybody. I do energize people. Now will I get -- everyone is smiling now saying he won't get -- I will get more Latinos that anybody else. I have thousands of Latinos that work for me right now.

And I'll tell you why I'm going to get them. Because at the appropriate time later on, probably after the primary situation is chosen, assuming I win, which I hope I do. I mean, I'm in it to win it. We'll see what happens. I'm going to have thousands of people who work for me standing up saying we love Trump. And what I'm going to do for the Latinos is I'm going to be able to create jobs. I'm going to take jobs from China. I'm going to take jobs from Mexico, from Japan where they're sending in vehicles and automobiles all the time and we get nothing out of it. I'm going to take jobs back and bring them back into the country. And the Latinos are going to be able to work and make good money. They're going to vote for me. They're not going to vote for Mitt Romney. And I'll tell you what, I will take them away from Hillary Clinton.

COOPER: You talked very openly in your speeches about your deal with Macy's, your line of neckties that were manufactured in China.

TRUMP: Openly. I hate the fact that they're --

COOPER: If you really hate it, why not make a stand and say I'm not going to make this deal? I want them made in America. Brooks Brothers makes them in American, American Apparel.

TRUMP: So here's the story. Macy's was weak. They were very weak, because they want to be politically correct. By the way, thousands of people are cutting up their Macy's credit card right now, and I love that, because I hate to see weak people when they're wrong. I think they're paying a very big price. I talk openly in speeches about ties. The ties that are made for me because China has so devalued their currency that it's impossible for American companies even with something so simple as a tie, it's impossible for American companies, Anderson, to compete with China.

COOPER: American Apparel, Brooks Brothers, they make clothes in America.

TRUMP: They make a lot of clothing outside of America too. And by the way, a lot of clothing is made in Mexico.

COOPER: If yours is a standup guy, which you clearly are, why not say, you know what, I don't care how much this deal costs, I don't care how much it hurts, it's good for America, I'm going to make American ties?

TRUMP: And I do that to a certain extent. But, honestly, if you have to put the price at three times higher, somebody is going to say I'm not going to buy Trump's tie. It's very simple. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Here this morning to weigh in, CNN political commentator Van Jones, CNN political commentator and host of CNN's SMERCONISH, Michael Smerconish. Let's look at it this way, do you believe that Donald Trump is a reckoning, that he is price the GOP and the rest of us to some extent must pay for their failure to energize their own base?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: I think the failure is in not expanding the tent. They are left now to a diminished core, some of whom this appeals to. But the numbers in the long run show, and it's so clear, he professes to be a numbers guy, that this is a losing strategy. Jeb Bush in 2014 said in order to win in 2016 you need to be prepared to lose primaries to win the general. This is that instance.

[08:10:06] If they don't confront in now then they lose the independents come the general election. This is him saying Mexico is sending us their rapists. In the numbers it's so compelling. The demographics are not on the side of the Republican Party. It's become aged, it's become white, it's become male, it's become angry. And you've got to expand the tent. If a Republican candidate equals the share of the white vote that Mitt Romney commanded, they need to do better among nonwhites. You think this is going to cause them to do better among nonwhites? It's a losing strategy.

PEREIRA: People love me, Van. Latinos love me is what Trump was saying. It's interesting, last year I was on a panel. He was talking about last year how the RNC was really devoted to trying to cultivate this diversity and open the doors to others, if you will, within the Republican Party. This has just got to make them feel live like they're being set back so far.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, yes and no. First of all, I think if this was any other person you would just have to say about Donald Trump, this man is delusional. He's delusional. This is a guy who literally has just gotten even more famous than he was before, saying that the Mexico government, our neighbor, is deliberately sending here rapists and criminals, and that the best people are not being sent here.

First of all, they're not being sent. People are coming for opportunities like they have for 200 years, more than 200 years. And, frankly, some of the best people from Mexico are coming here, and every day they're working and starting businesses. Every day they're doing menial labor. Every day they're in the tech sector.

So you're delusional in terms of how you think the world works, and you're doubly delusional if you think this is endearing you to Latinos. And then he says the Latinos that work for him. In other words, he doesn't see Latinos as equal. He doesn't know any Latinos except for those who are on his payroll. None of this is good for the Republicans. But on the other hand there is something wrong with a party where someone like this feels comfortable, where someone like this is actually growing in the polls, at least among Republicans. This is very, very bad for that party. CUOMO: All right, now, how about what's bad for your party, which is

that you guys are taking Jeb Bush out of context with his comment about Americans need to work more hours. He was talking about part- time workers needing full-time jobs.

PEREIRA: Was he not clear?

CUOMO: I think he was clear enough. And you have all of your people running around now, Van, saying oh he says that Americans need to work harder. Why are you doing that?

JONES: I think that you know this gotcha game on both sides --

CUOMO: Not both sides. Just you side Van. Own it and apologize.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: Listen, I haven't done it. You haven't heard me doing it. I think it's wrong. I think Jeb Bush's economic policies are bad enough when they are clearly stated. I don't think you have to take them out of the context.

I think that this gotcha game, whether it's saying the president said businesses didn't make it here, that was totally out of context. This is totally out of context. That type of stuff needs to stop.

I want people to very clear about what Jeb's policies are. His policies would be very bad for working people, but that statement was taken out of context.

PEREIRA: It was interesting to see the Twitter war. Hillary jumped in on it. Bernie Sanders jumped in on it. On the subject of Bernie Sanders, why don't we talk about that? Bernie Sanders galvanizing a crowd. He's doing exactly what Hillary is not going. He is going to the base. He is getting a lot of groundswell support. Do you think this is something that, should Hillary try to fix?

SMERCONISH: I think she should be looking in the rearview mirror not so much at him, but at Joe Biden, because if I'm Joe Biden and you believe the accounts that Beau Biden wished for his father to run for the presidency in this cycle, you've got to wonder what Joe Biden is thinking looking at Bernie Sanders drawing these crowds and in some states drawing these numbers. I don't think that Senator Sanders poses a lethal political threat to Secretary Clinton, but he may give impetus to others to get into this race who could.

CUOMO: Very interesting. Bernie is going to be on, Senator Sanders is going to be on. What do you think the main challenge is for him?

SMERCONISH: I think it is to expand beyond being the progressive champion, to get beyond that label of a self-described socialist and to have more populist appeal not among that limited core of Democratic supporters but to a broadened swath of America.

CUOMO: Van, Senator Sanders supporters says that he is an example of how your party has lost its way, that Hillary Clinton actually represents what her husband started, which was the centrist move in your party and that he is actually a pure Democrat.

[08:15:00] JONES: Listen, I think Bernie Sanders is remarkably popular. But I think more importantly, his ideas are very, very popular. If you strip off the Bernie Sanders brand, you know, the kind of rumpled fire brand, if you take off the word "socialist" and you just put out there the ideas he's standing for, you know, very concerned about Wall Street getting away with breaking rules, very concerned about the minimum wage, very concerned about the middle class, this stuff is popular across the board.

I think that there can be a Sanders effect both in terms of pulling Hillary Clinton to working class issues, but probably also, it shows that if you're in the Republican Party that's speaking more forthrightly about the peril of the middle class, I think people are underestimating Bernie Sanders effect on this race, probably in both parties.

I think a lot of independents like what they're hearing from Bernie Sanders. I don't think he's going to be the nominee, but I think he's captured something that is I think unexpected. If you said four years ago, a Bernie Sanders would be a discussion point against Hillary Clinton, you'd have said you were nuts. But you're not nuts, this is real.

PEREIRA: This is real, Van Jones. Thanks for joining us on this Friday.

And don't forget to check out "SMERCONISH", I'm going to give you a plug, Saturday, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern --

SMERCONISH: Thank you for that. I need it.

PEREIRA: You don't need from us.

Thanks for being here, Michael. Really a pleasure. And to you as well, Van.

CUOMO: All right. Now, as we're just teasing up here, we're going to be talking with Democrat presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders. He'll be on the show. Please take a listen and see how he responds to the questions that test his positions.

And if you want political news there's only one place to go, CNNPolitics.com.

PEREIRA: Some more headlines right now: a new offer by Greece could be its last chance to prevent economic catastrophe. Parliament is said to vote today on the $59 million bailout plan. Greece would borrow the money from a European fund and in return, it would agree to some austerity measures like sales tax hikes and reduced spending on pensions.

CUOMO: A mother and baby lucky to be alive in Arkansas after their house caught fire and exploded. Tasha Pool (ph) and her 18-month-old were awakened by neighbors banging on the door. Just moments after they left and firefighters went in, a backdraft blew out the insulation and the ceiling fell in. Pool and her child were treated for smoke inhalation but thankfully they're doing fine.

PEREIRA: All right. A bizarre story here out of Michigan for you. Three children, 9, 10 and 14 years old sent to juvenile detention why? Because they didn't eat their vegetables -- nope. Because they refused to have lunch with their father.

The children's parents apparently are locked in a nasty custody dispute. The judge ordered the children to eat with their dad, spent more time with him. They refused.

So, the judge found them in contempt, sent them to a juvenile detention center for the rest of the summer. Now, what's really serious here is the kids allege their dad is violent. But the judge ripped into the mother, saying she had poisoned the children against their father.

CUOMO: And that is the issue. I took a look into this case, because obviously punishing the kids seems ludicrous. I think the judge's issue was about where to put the kids to get them away from the situation.

PEREIRA: Right.

CUOMO: Parental alienation is a very big thing in the custody battle --

PEREIRA: But the question is, was the juvenile detention center the right place to put them?

CUOMO: It may have been his only one for them. It doesn't mean they're going to stay there. But this is an ugly situation and gets repeated many times all over the country. So --

PEREIRA: Here's an ugly situation.

CUOMO: True.

Who is Baby Doe? It's a growing mystery over the identity of the young girl on your screen right now. She was found. The question is, who is she?

Police are trying to get answers. We'll show you how they're trying to get them with the help of John Walsh. If he can't help, maybe nobody can.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:59] PEREIRA: So, more than 50 million people have now seen the composite image of the little girl who's body was found on the shore of Boston Harbor two weeks ago. It's heartbreaking story.

Officials are hoping that someone will come forward with information about this little girl. She's simply become known as Baby Doe. Can the image help police figure out who this little girl was, who killed her and anyone else frankly is in danger?

We want to ask a man who knows all too well. John Walsh, you know him as the host of CNN's "THE HUNT", and former host of "America's Most Wanted".

And, you've seen some heartbreaking stories in your time. In fact, you lived through your very own. This is one that captures our heart in a way that is almost indescribable.

JOHN WALSH, THE HUNT: When you see this picture of this beautiful little girl, I think 99 percent of the people on this planet would say, who could do this to her, who could throw her into the bay in Massachusetts like a bag of garbage?

But I have done a lot of these cases in the past. And the tough thing is to find out who she is, and the weirdest thing is many of those cases that I did of Baby John Does, Baby Does, Baby Bones in Philadelphia, long old case, when you find out who the parents are or what happened, you'll see that there are other siblings and that child was the one who suffered all the abuse. It's the weirdest syndrome.

So, I -- as if -- many times, it's the live-in boyfriend, the step daddy, on the old cases, most, that was the situation. But they'll target one child. And so, you want to find out who the child is to give them the dignity of the burial.

PEREIRA: And to also find out if anybody else is in danger.

WALSH: And to find out if anybody else is that risk in that family.

PEREIRA: Wow.

WALSH: That's why it's very, very difficult. And many, many times the people are transient. And there are people who may know who this girl is and are afraid to talk to police.

So, I always say if you don't want to talk to police and you think you know who this girl is and you think you know who she belongs to and you think you know who may have done this, call me. Call 1-866-THE- HUNT. We don't trace calls. I don't tap phones. We don't -- police don't answer our phones.

Go to your Web site, I don't care what your name is. Just give us -- give us that information. Tell us who she is. And we'll take it from there.

No cop will enter your life. People are afraid of police.

CUOMO: What do we know here? Are we sure it was foul play? Obviously, you would assume if it were an accident, somebody would have come forward and said, my baby, my baby.

And how difficult is it to track a baby's record of born babies in the area and all that?

WALSH: Great questions, because it may or may not be foul play.

So, a couple of the cases I did 20 years ago, foul play wasn't involved but the people were illegal immigrants. So, they didn't know what to do with the baby. They didn't want to go to a funeral home. They didn't want to be known. They were afraid to be deported.

So, I say if that's case call me and tell me. And nobody's going to come and deport you.

Let's say she died of natural causes and they didn't know what to do.

[08:25:01] You know, we have 15 million illegal immigrants in this country who are pursuing the American dream but their biggest fear is they're going to be found out and sent back, that ICE will come and knock on their door.

So, they haven't determined the cause of death of this baby yet. So, it might have been natural causes, and somebody went what do I with the baby, I'm going to lose my job, I'm going to get kicked of this country?

PEREIRA: Let's hope we can find some answers.

I want to pivot now. We have a new season of "THE HUNT" coming up. In fact, I play a little sound bite of it and we'll talk about it.

WALSH: Perfect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENDA WHITLEY: This was on New Year's Day 2008 and he's never been seen since.

WALSH: There haven't a place in hell deep enough for this guy. It is so appalling. I know what it's like. You're not supposed to bury your children. They're your immortality. They're your legacy. How could you possibly kill your own children?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Yasser Saeed (ph) accused of killing a 17 and 18-year-old daughters on New Year's 2008. One of the young girls after being shot was able to get a call into 911.

WALSH: You know, I have my own personal top ten. The FBI has their 10, the Marshals have their 15 most wanted. This is a guy I profiled eight times on "America's Most Wanted".

He abused these girls. They went to police. He sexually abused his own daughters. They went to police. And his tactic was, when they got away from police, he said, I will kill your mother unless you recant. So, the girls recanted.

They got away eventually, went to Texas and the mother lured them back in. I don't know why. She said maybe we can bridge this gap with your father.

He is a native Egyptian and an American citizen. So, when he got the girls in his cab that day, he shot the first sister in the chest and killed her. But the second sister, he shot methodically first in each kneecap, in each arm before torturing his own daughter.

These are the guys that are on the top of my list. I believe that he's in Egypt. I believe that Egypt with the failure of the Arab spring needs American support and all the aid that we sent them. I'm hoping somebody spots him. Egyptian police arrest him. The U.S. marshals get on a plane and get him and he will come back to face that this family so needs, so deserves.

He's on the top of my list of coward creeps.

PEREIRA: Season two of "THE HUNT" with John Walsh is happening this Sunday at 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Always a pleasure to have you here, John. We appreciate your work and your passion.

CUOMO: I'm a fan of yours so long.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: And you've got the fire like nobody else.

PEREIRA: Like nobody else.

Got to show you the hotline number. We need to find out who Baby Doe is. Police need your help. John needs your help. Here are the numbers of all the people you can call anonymously. And of course you can call 866-THE-HUNT to call John anonymously.

CUOMO: All right. So, it's coming up on NEW DAY. His supporters are feeling the Bern. Momentum building for Senator Sanders from Vermont.

He's going to be taking on Jeb Bush. He's going to be talking about what this country needs and why he is man to deliver it. We put him to the test on NEW DAY.

Good to see you, Senator Sanders.

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