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Violent Explosions Kill 44, Injure Hundreds in China; Former President Carter Fighting Cancer; Toxic Colorado Spill Triggers EPA Backlash. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 13, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Cutting off the funding works for the Mafia, to foreign wars, absolutely true.

[06:30:04] But putting troops on the ground to secure those oil fields and light them on all fire, military saying, hey, pal, it doesn't quite work that way.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And not only that. The American public has not much of a tolerance for more war at this point.

We know that he says things of immigration of late, came out strongly from day one, 35 percent. And he's continued to beat this drum of build a wall, build a wall, build a wall.

Realistic?

AVLON: Well, look, I mean, you know, towns saying we're going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, no, that's a complete shell game. There's a little thing called national sovereignty. He can say he's got leverage, but he does deserve credit for raising this in a much harder way than the Senate. Not a surprise.

PEREIRA: Last but not least, we have to run after this. This is very interesting. Which candidate is more likely to change Washington? Oh, my goodness, the top two candidates? Forty-four percent and 9 percent.

AVLON: Yes, and not surprisingly, I have nothing here to do with Washington, not serve in elected office. This is not about who can govern best. Its' about who can send a message best. Donald Trump running away with it.

PEREIRA: John Avlon at the big wall, appreciate it.

All right. Ana, over to you.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Michaela.

Up next, a disaster unfolding in China's spectacular and devastating explosion leveling a warehouse that has hazardous materials inside. Dozens are dead and hundreds injured or missing. And now, investigators want to know, how did this happen?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:33] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, a series of violent explosions at a warehouse in China. The warehouse handled hazardous materials. We don't know what yet. That's part of the problem for firefighters. They don't know what's burning, so they don't know how to stop it.

We do know that the death toll is high and going higher. Forty- four people, 500 others still in the hospital. The situation is very fluid. The heat, so extreme cars are melting in the streets. Windows on high-rises miles away being blown out. The city, you may have never heard of it, but there are 15 million living there.

Unsafe working conditions are being blamed. That's as emotions are running high as families wait for words from their loved ones.

CABRERA: Those pictures.

Former President Jimmy Carter is battling cancer. Carter, who is 90, says doctors discovered the mass while removing his liver earlier this week. Now, the nation's 39th president released a statement saying that he's also learned the cancer has spread to other parts of his body. We still don't know what type of cancer he's facing or what his prognosis might be.

PEREIRA: We certainly wish him well.

Well, anger is building over the toxic spill in Colorado that caused by the EPA. A week after officials accidentally released 3 million gallons of waste water. Contamination levels are returning to normal in the Animas River.

The EPA, however, is blasted for its slow response and perceived lack of transparency. House Speaker John Boehner calling on President Obama to be accountable and protect everyone impacted in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

CABRERA: All right. Business news now, time for CNN Money and chief business correspondent Christine Romans is joining us in our money center.

Christine, China devaluing its currency for the third straight day. What's going on?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. The Chinese say they are done devaluing the yuan after this third day in a row. But the dramatic move has shaken everything up.

Here's how it matters to you: first, cheap mortgage rates. Investors are running away from risky assets and into safe havens like government bonds, driving down interest rates. Refinance your mortgage, folks, or lock in your rate. Rates are still low here.

Number two, gas prices are falling and could be back to $2 a gallon in just a few weeks as commodity prices tumble. And number three, this market volatility means your 401(k) has been hit, your retirement savings, if it's heavily invested in stocks is worth less today than the beginning of the year.

Chris, three ways -- three ways China's moves matter to you right now.

CUOMO: And eyes are on what happens next. Christine, thank you very much.

We do have some sad news for you this morning about America's 39th president, Jimmy Carter. He reveals he's battling cancer. The disease is spreading. The latest on his condition and his prognosis. He's 90 years old but he's still a fighter. We'll have the latest for you, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:25] CUOMO: Former President Jimmy Carter reveals to us he does, indeed, have cancer and it is spreading. The disease was discovered when doctors removed a mass on his liver last week. The early word was that it had gone well and the complete recovery was expected. So, obviously, his family is taken by this news.

Let's bring in Douglas Brinkley, he's a CNN presidential historian and President Carter's biographer. And Dr. Stephanie Bernik, who's chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Doug, I'll start with you. Thanks for being on the show.

As I just said, they thought this was one thing and now it turned into something else. What does this mean within the family? And what is the president's perspective on how he wants to take it on?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, Jimmy Carter takes everything on full bore. He's been in exceedingly good health in recent years. I mean, he globe trots, goes everywhere, works on his guinea worm and river blindness programs in Africa, monitoring election. He'll go fishing in Mongolia.

So if there's a 90-year-old to pull through this, Jimmy Carter's the person. He makes sure he eats right, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink. So, he will be in fighting trend to kind of take on cancer he he's taken on so many other things.

CUOMO: And, obviously, Doc, the healthier you are going into this situation, the better, but the reality is, he has cancer. You were describing this to me as a metastatic disease.

DR. STEPHANIE BERNIK, CHIEF OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY AT LENOX HILL HOSPITAL, NYC: Right.

CUOMO: Don't just think liver cancer. What does this mean to you?

BERNIK: It probably started somewhere else and spread to the liver. That's what they are indicating saying the cancer has spread. We don't know where the primary is, but looking at his family history, the suspicion is it may be pancreatic cancer.

CUOMO: Now, when you hear that he's 90 years old, common sense tells you, wow, you have had such a full life, but we are hearing from Doug this is no normal 90-year-old.

BERNIK: No.

CUOMO: Obviously, he's become more vital outside the presidency than some would argue during it.

So, what do you do if you want to fight?

BERNIK: I think if you're 90 and a vital person, you can go forward with the treatment. Sometimes treatments are adjusted because a 90-year-old is not going to respond as a 40-year-old would, but it doesn't mean that you can't be treated.

CUOMO: And he said that's exactly what he intends to do.

Now, in terms of the motivation to live, that's so important when people are in later stages of life and they are hit with anything. What fuels the president, Doug?

BRINKLEY: The love of his wife. And they are a real partner, Rosalynn Carter, they go everywhere together, the fact that he has children and grandchildren. But mainly Christianity, his mother at the age of 70 joined the Peace Corps to help people with leprosy. Jimmy Carter has that Baptist missionary tradition. He still feels that he can help heal the world and it fuels him every day.

[06:45:03] CUOMO: So, look, we're going to be thinking about him. We're going to be trying to help. What is this going to look like in a typical process? Do you have anything to base it off of, someone this old dealing with something like this, what is the routine? What is the rigor?

BERNIK: You know, it is hard to say. First, you have to see where the primary cancer came from because that will help determine --

CUOMO: Can you definitely identify that?

BERNIK: Not always. Sometimes, it's a cancer of unknown origin, but most of the time, you can look at the genetics of the tumor and sort of get an idea where it came from. Plus, they will do further testing to see if there's cancer anywhere else or to see if they can find out where it originated.

CUOMO: Now, you hear about two different types of treatment when it comes to cancer. There's one kind of chemo/radiation combo where people go on with their lives and they kind of go in and out.

BERNIK: Sure.

CUOMO: And the other one is when they are locked up in there and going through a course. Do you think he can do this on an outpatient kind of basis?

BERNIK: Most cancer treatments are an out-patient basis. That's probably how it will be done. Sometimes during the treatment you have to be put into the hospital if there's some sort of complication, but generally, it's an out-patient treatment.

CUOMO: Doug, is it true that the president's early words to insiders was, I am not going to be taken out of the ordinary dynamic to deal with this treatment. I'm going to do the treatment but I'm going to keep doing the work that matters most. Is that true?

BRINKLEY: Absolutely true. And that is Jimmy Carter. He's a man on a mission. He is setting up the Carter Center to be one of the most effective governmental issues in the world. It's his passion.

And he realizes, I remember when the writer Christopher Hitchens got sick and dealt with mortality, ended up dying of cancer, wrote a book about it. Carter is going to be a teacher here. We're all going to be watching how he goes through this and will hope that other people in the United States learn to fight cancer like he's going to.

CUOMO: Bringing in Douglas Brinkley always suggests we are looking to tell the life of the story of the president. We are not there yet, and I think we should all empower his fight and let him know we are talking about it being over yet. He's just starting a new phase.

Douglas, thank you for the perspective on the president.

Doc, letting us know that the fight is ahead and we know how he's going to fight it.

BERNIK: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: So we'll bring you back when we know how he's doing. Thank you very much.

Ana?

CABRERA: Ninety years old and still inspiring and still going.

Should U.S. troops be embedded with Iraqi forces in the fight against ISIS? Well, the outgoing army chief of staff says yes. But will the White House even consider this?

We'll have a closer look, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:51:21] ARMY GEN. RAY ODIERNO, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: I believe that if we find many the next several months we are not making the progress that we have, we should absolutely consider embedding some soldiers to see if that would make a difference. That doesn't mean there would be fighting but would be maybe betting them and moving with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That was General Ray Odierno. He's the outgoing army chief of staff saying that the U.S. should consider embedding American soldiers with the Iraqis to fight against ISIS.

So how would that work? How long might a plan like that last?

Here to discuss, Bobby Ghosh. He's a CNN global affairs analyst and the managing editor of "Quartz".

Bobby, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming in. We always appreciate your expertise.

So, you agree with the American general that putting American forces on the ground could be effective, why?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think it is inevitable, because it's become clear that we don't really have the time -- it will take a lot of time for the Iraqi military to stand up on their own. That's become very clear. We don't have the luxury of waiting for that to happen because ISIS will continue to make gains. And it may come too late.

I know that this sounds like -- to use the expression from another war and another time, mission creep, but it is inevitable. It is what the circumstances on the ground are demanding. We've already seen this creed take place. This was going to be -- well, we are just going to send a few advisors.

CABRERA: Now, we have like 2,900 Americans there in this region.

GHOSH: Three thousand advisers. And these guys are not all sitting in the Green Zone in Baghdad. They are out -- quite a lot of them are out in close proximity to war. The logical step to some of them is to get into the -- embed with the Iraqi troops.

Where I would disagree with the general with perhaps he'd sort of just gliding over some facts, I cannot an American trainer or advisor embedded with an Iraqi, let's say platoon, and goes out into combat and they won't pick up a weapon and shoot.

CABRERA: And they are not in the fight, right.

GHOSH: That sounds completely plausible to me, especially if they are there to protect these men. I cannot imagine the situation where they are going to watch their men fight.

CABRERA: I can understand what you're saying but the American public may not want boots on the ground. In fact, the most recent poll shows 55 percent oppose this idea.

U.S. troops could lose lives and we've also heard from other military experts who say it's not all about the U.S. in the long-term. It has to be the Iraqis taking ownership. What do you think of the critics?

GHOSH: That's the trouble. We have been saying this from the beginning, the long-term. When this started out, we thought that the long-term meant a few months.

But as we have gotten a closer and better look at the quality of the Iraqi troops, we have a better sense of what the long-term means and it's a lot better than we thought.

Meanwhile, the enemy, ISIS, is making gains. The quality of their fighting forces has not significantly diminished. If anything, they are getting better because they're getting more and more experience.

So, the trouble is, as I said, the realities on the ground are forcing these circumstances. I don't think the president would necessarily want that to happen. I don't think Odierno would want to put their lives at risk. But that's what the circumstances on the ground are going to demand. And he's clearly seen that.

CABRERA: Let's talk about what happened in Egypt. A Croatian beheaded and ISIS continuing with the executions, but this was the first time something happened in Egypt. Is this a sign ISIS is still expanding?

GHOSH: Absolutely. They have been expanding. They have a lot of presence in North Africa, we know they have a big presence in Libya. We know they a presence in Tunisia. It was a matter of time before they came to Egypt.

[06:55:01] There's a lot of different terrorist groups operating in the Sinai Peninsula, which is kind of like a badland. The Egyptian military has done an extremely poor job of driving them out of there.

We have seen this in other parts of the world. When a terrorist group wants to achieve additional credibility, they announce suddenly that -- well, we are signing or swearing allegiance to ISIS and naming ourselves is. We are building our ISIS franchise here. Something similar is going on here in Egypt.

A group that was a local group now wants to become part of this larger ISIS trend. And they are following clearly from the ISIS playbook. They kidnapped a foreigner, issued a video, made an impossible demand, released all the female prisoners --

CABRERA: And the instability makes it a right situation for them to get in there.

GHOSH: And they used beheading, which is a classic ISIS tactic. It is something we'll see more and more of. And the trouble is that the Egyptian military is very good at beating up on unarmed pro- democracy protestors. Not so good at when it comes to fighting against people who can shoot back.

CABRERA: And real quickly, I do want to ask you about Turkey and its involvement in this fight against is. The U.S. now launching those first air strikes from inside Turkey, but Turkey was the life of the party.

GHOSH: Several days later and several dollars short. Now, I have sympathy for fur key as they have taken on a huge amount of refugees from Syria. It's not like Turkey is doing absolutely nothing, but they are a member of NATO. NATO is in this fight and shouldn't have taken this long for Turkey --

CABRERA: Is this going to change the fight, do you think?

GHOSH: It's going to change the fight from the American perspective. But until the Turkish military gets more involved, it's merely a case of allowing a naval base or an air force base. The Turkish military has to get involved to participate in the fight against ISIS. They have the most to lose. They are right there. It's happening on their border.

CABRERA: We'll see what happens. Bobby Ghosh, great to have you on. Great expertise. Thank you so much. And we are following a lot more news this morning. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It blew out the glass. It blew out the doors.

CUOMO: Explosions described as so powerful they have registered as earthquakes.

PEREIRA: Families desperately awaiting word from their loves ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our new CNN poll is showing quite a shake- up in the GOP field.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things can change very quickly at this point in the race. Hillary Clinton will probably face a challenge.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Black lives matter, especially now.

PEREIRA: New details emerging on the health of Jimmy Carter and his fight with cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sounds like it's in or around the liver.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the president himself who announced his diagnosis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is certainly going to take a toll.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

PEREIRA: It is your NEW DAY. Welcome back to the program.

Ana Cabrera joins us this morning.

Good to have you.

We begin with breaking news this hour -- a series of deadly explosions in Tianjin, China. So powerful, so violent, people could see and feel them for miles. They even registered as earthquakes.

CUOMO: Dozens have been killed. These numbers are early. We do know that of those killed, a lot of them are firefighters.

They are not really sure what these chemicals are yet and are not sure how to stop it. There are hundreds, as many as 500 in the hospital, emotions with their relatives running very high because word of who is in and who is hurt still not coming.

But we do have CNN's Will Ripley in the city where this is happening. There's extensive damage. He's experienced it himself and now he is covering it for us.

What's the latest?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the latest is, is that communication problems continue to be an issue here. So we switched to our telephone because of the fact that at times during the day, we suspect signals have been jammed. In fact, the Internet police here in Tianjin have been warning people that any false information on this tragedy that will be greeted with very severe consequences.

But you can see this damage behind me. I'm standing more than a mile from the blast site. So I'm going to switch the camera here so I can show you, you see that smoke plume off in the distance there, still burning, the fire still burning right now. That's more than a mile away.

But look at the force of the blast and what it did to this car right here, to this civic center here, to this light rail station where train service has been disabled. And all of the windows of these apartment blocks have been smashed out. And many of those off in the distance are actually empty.

Thousands of people are staying in shelters right now. Ten hospitals are treating the hundreds of injured, and all of this happening, we are told, the result of an industrial accident. Toxic chemicals that were stored dangerously close to residents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): This morning, horrific video poring in from catastrophic explosions in a major Chinese port city late Wednesday.

Watch this surveillance video obtained by ABC News of a man standing near the entrance of the building. The blast decimating the wall, caving in right on top of him.