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New Russian Airstrikes Coordinated with Syrian Regime; Top General: U.S. Needs New Troop Plan in Afghanistan; More Trouble Ahead for Storm-Ravaged S.C.; Captain Had 'Sound Plan' for Storm; Interview with Rep. Alan Grayson. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 07, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight, Russian warplanes launching a new round of strikes on several towns in western Syria.

[07:00:04] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The big question is, are they there to take on ISIS or are they there to really help Assad or both? How do you figure it out? Well, just one thing we know, the head of NATO is condemning Russia for violating Turkey's air space, calling it dangerous, reckless and unacceptable behavior.

CNN's Arwa Damon is following all these developments live in Istanbul -- Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

And Russia violating Turkish air space over the weekend twice, then writing it off as being a mistake, blaming it on the weather. Neither Turkey nor NATO necessarily buying that line. With NATO's secretary general, as you were saying calling this unacceptable, also calling the Russian deployment of significant forces in Syria of great concern. This is something that has also, of course, been echoed by the United States.

Many concerned, although Russia does deny this, that it will also have a ground troop somehow involved in Syria to assist the Assad regime. Russia is not only targeting ISIS positions. That, in fact, is amongst the minority of areas that it has been striking. Most of them, according to activists and rebel forces on the ground, are, in fact, anti-Assad positions.

But remember, when it comes to Syria's perspective, just about every single rebel group is considered to be a terrorist organization. And Russia is there at the request of the Syrian regime.

But it most certainly, at this stage, has forced itself onto the table as a key regional player. To such a degree that the Syrian foreign minister even came out and boasted, saying without a doubt, Russia will win this race.

What is going to be key at this stage is seeing exactly how the U.S. and its coalition do, in fact, respond. Do they allow a Russia to continue acting with impunity or do they somehow try to rebalance the scales? Because if the status quo continues, they most certainly will tip in

favor of the Assad regime. And that is not going to bode, necessarily, very well for Syria, the region, or for the additional civilians that have been impacted by this horrific war for all too long, Chris.

CUOMO: You know, Arwa, we are seeing a signal from U.S. leadership that they're starting to separate Assad from ISIS more and more. What does that portend in terms of future accommodations of what Russia is doing? We know you'll follow it on the ground. And we'll come back to you soon.

Another part of this that is certainly complicating matters is that ISIS is not just strong in Syria and Iraq. They and al Qaeda are getting much stronger in Afghanistan, so much so that the U.S. commander there is now rethinking how many troops are needed of Americans, American troops, to keep that country stable. So let's go to CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson.

Joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan. What has changed on the ground? And what does it mean?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Chris, right now on the ground, about 10,000 U.S. troops, the plan by the end of 2016 to draw that number down to about 1,000. But what has changed? The Afghan army here is struggling.

The U.S. helps train it, helps it in the battlefield, has been helping it for over a decade now. They're struggling. There are more than tens of thousands of Taliban. They've just taken over a big city. Al Qaeda we know now, thousands of them pushing into the country again, ISIS, thousands of them pushing into the country here again. It's complicating the threat here.

And that's why U.S. general in charge of U.S. troops here, John Campbell is going to give President Obama other recommendations. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JOHN CAMPBELL, COMMANDER, U.S. TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN: Based on conditions on the ground, based on the transitions I've talked about, I do believe that we have to provide our senior leadership options, different than the current plan that we're going with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Now, I've talked to some Afghans on the ground here. Some, as they fled Kunduz, the city where there's a question about the airstrike that hit the hospital, said, "Do you still need U.S. support here?"

"Absolutely," they told me. "The Afghan army isn't strong enough. It can't defeat the Taliban, can't defeat all these threats," they say, "Just -- just don't hit civilian people and don't hit hospitals." To that point, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, made this

statement yesterday, very, very clearly allaying people's fears in that regard. He said, "The U.S. military takes the greatest care in our operations to prevent loss of innocent life. And when we make mistakes, we will own them." Making mistakes and owning them there, he's talking about the investigation into the incident at that hospital in Kunduz over the weekend -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: And owning it, what does that look like? We'll have to wait and see. Back here stateside, something people waking up in South Carolina certainly don't want to hear. The worst may be yet to come. The rain may have stopped, but the flood-ravaged state now grappling with a swarm of new concerns. Crews are now fearing even more flooding could be on the way.

[07:05:03] Let's get straight to Boris Sanchez, who's live in Kingstree, South Carolina, with the very latest -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela.

As the sun is rising here, we're getting a clearer picture of the devastation in Kingstree. I'm going to step out of the way so you can get a good look at what's going on behind me.

This is several feet of water covering this entire neighborhood. I'm not sure if you can see that sign right there, but it is under several feet of water. This is actually a river behind us that has gone over its banks and gone into this neighborhood. There are homes here, cars here that are under water, and this is just a devastating situation for Kingstree.

This river is slowly moving east. A lot of this water is coming from the west where those dams have breached. And this is actually going over a highway into a bridge that is still covered in water. It hasn't been opened.

To give you some numbers, specific numbers that we're seeing here in South Carolina, 11 dams have breached or failed since Saturday. Thirty-five of them are still under observation by officials, because they're in danger of being breached.

Also, there are about 70 miles of I-95 that are closed in South Carolina. To give you perspective, there are only about 200 miles of I-95 in South Carolina. So that's a huge chunk of highway that is shut down right now. Five to eight bridges there are being inspected before that highway can re-open. We're also talking about the death toll this morning.

There are 15 dead in South Carolina. Two in North Carolina. We've also seen about 175 rescues from people in the water. But Chris, that number is going to jump very soon, because we've had 50 here in Kingstree alone. And it's a relatively small town. We already had one small rescue this morning.

CUOMO: Boris, as you well know there, being on the ground, all the numbers are going to jump. The need is only going to increase. That's why we're staying on the story. Thank you for doing your part there this morning.

All right. A big question in the news is what happened to El Faro? The most basic question still unanswered. The NTSB is beginning its first full day of investigating the sinking of the cargo ship. The ship's owners insist the captain had a sound plan for dealing with this powerful storm, Joaquin.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now with the latest. What happened to that plan?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

That's the question that's being asked of the cargo ship's owners. El Faro's owners are TOTE Maritime, and they are being asked point blank, why would this ship set sail with the forecast appearing the way that it was? They knew that Hurricane Joaquin was coming or at least that a tropical storm was on the way. So why did the ship head in that direction?

Well, the owners have said that they leave their trust in the captain to make these decisions. They also say that the captain was monitoring, in real time, the weather, and that as recently as last Wednesday, he reported that he was aware of the worsening weather conditions ahead, but he said that the ship was in a position where weather conditions remained favorable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL GREENE, PRESIDENT/CEO, TOTE SERVICES: Given what he had in the way of information about the weather system, his plan was a sound plan that would have enabled him to clearly pass around the storm with a margin of comfort that was adequate in his professional opinion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: By Thursday, the day that El Faro met with Hurricane Joaquin, a Category 4 hurricane, the ship had become disabled. It had lost propulsion. That's the report that came from the captain. But there's no word on how the ship lost propulsion. It's a question that NTSB investigators are now out there to answer.

But in the meantime, we've got the Coast Guard continuing their search. They've been out there all night. Again, they have now covered more than 172,000 square nautical miles in the hope that they will find some of the 33 passengers who were on board that ship.

PEREIRA: Yes. All those resources are a comfort, I'm sure, to the family and friends of the missing crew members. In fact, we have one of them joining us now.

Larry Legere is a former ferry boat captain who has known the captain of El Faro, Michael Davidson, since the 1970s.

Mr. Legere, first of all, thank you so much for joining us. I know it's with a heavy heart. You're concerned about your friend. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Captain Mike, what you know of him? I understand he spent a lifetime on the sea, much like you.

LARRY LEGERE, FORMER FERRY BOAT CAPTAIN: Yes. Indeed. Good morning, Michaela.

I met Mike back in the late 1970s. He came to work at Casca Bellay (ph) -- it's a local ferry company -- as a deck hand for me when I was captain on the boats back then. He quickly worked his way up and was promoted to captain, eventually attending Maine Maritime Academy here in Castine, Maine.

PEREIRA: Help us understand, because this is a perspective that you can give us, the decision, how a captain weighs the decision to ship out? What kind of things do you look at? What information do you weigh?

LEGERE: Well, Mike was a very capable and experienced captain. He would have weighed all of the factors, the weather, the condition of the ship. And he would have thought of that very carefully and weighed the decision. My guess is that he saw that he could outrun the storm, providing everything went right.

[07:10:14] PEREIRA: Yes. At the time it was a tropical storm. It hadn't developed into a hurricane. Interesting to hear from the company spokesman saying that they believe that their captain, that Mike had a sound plan, and that they trust the captain's judgment in a situation like that.

Let's talk about some of the particulars. We know that this ship was 41 years old, which to me sounds like it's old and significant, but you say it's not so significant as is the type of vessel and the type of cargo on board. Explain that to us.

LEGERE: This is true. The type of cargo they had on board were vehicles, lashed down on the main deck. It was a roll on/roll off type of ship. That mean -- meant it had cargo doors on the side. And once the seas got so heavy and the cargo shifted, they could have breached those cargo hatches on the side of the vessel, causing it to take on water.

PEREIRA: And does that also make it more top heavy than, say, a tanker?

LEGERE: Yes. Much more top heavy than a tanker.

PEREIRA: We know also that...

LEGERE: Center of gravity of a tank...

PEREIRA: Right. Go ahead. Finish.

LEGERE: Yes. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

PEREIRA: We're both being so polite here. Let's talk about the pressures, too, Because we understand in a business like this, there are time constraints, there are pressures, there are deadlines to meet. Does that play into the decisions that a captain is weighing when he decides whether or not to ship out with that cargo and those crew members?

LEGERE: All of those things do play into the captain's decision to sail. He -- however, I don't believe that he would have been pressured by the company, considering the weather forecast and so forth.

PEREIRA: Where do you think his head was during all this? You've known him a long time, since the 1970s. You know this man. You know the kind of challenges and pressures he was facing. Where do you think his head was when he saw things were going south?

LEGERE: I don't believe they had much time to consider anything, based on the evidence, the lack of recovered survivors or anything. I don't believe that he really had all that much time to consider the factors. Once they lost the propulsion, I believe it happened very, very quickly.

PEREIRA: I can imagine that you and other people that know and love the crew members and all the people aboard there, are comforted by the fact that there are so many resources that are out there scouring the seas, trying to find any evidence of these people. Are you holding out hope that they might find a miracle?

LEGERE: Yes. Everybody in the community, and it's a very vast community, the maritime community here in Maine is very large. It's very close-knit. And we are holding out hope.

PEREIRA: Well, we'll hold out our hope with you. Thank you so much, Larry, for joining us, giving us a little insight into your friend. And we appreciate your expertise, as well, learning about some of the challenges facing mariners out there. Thank you. We appreciate it, Larry.

LEGERE: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Chris.

CUOMO: All right. We have new polling to talk about, giving Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump a boost in three key battleground states. Less than a week away from the first Democratic debate, Clinton now leads by double digits in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania. You know how big they are.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump on top. Ben Carson in second in all three swing states. Fortifying Trump's position on top, in fact. A number of the other GOP candidates jockeying for third. Keep an eye on Bush and Rubio. Only one of them will make it out of Florida.

PEREIRA: Overnight, Israeli officials say a terrorist attacked a Jewish man in the old city of Jerusalem. Police say an Arab woman stabbed the man's upper body. The victim then shot his attacker. That woman is said to be in serious condition. The stabbing victim's injuries reportedly are not life-threatening.

CUOMO: All right. Enough on the heavy, a little bit on the light. Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to

get. Tell that to a Florida University student named Lauren. Forrest Gump himself, a.k.a. Tom Hanks, that guy on your screen, he finds her school I.D. in a New York park. Uses Twitter to try to track her down. Thousands of shares commence. Someone who knows Lauren spots it.

PEREIRA: Get out.

CUOMO: But here's the rub. As of late last night, Lauren's roommate told us she hadn't gotten the I.D. back yet.

PEREIRA: Wait for it.

CUOMO: Tom Hanks, felon?

PEREIRA: So I'm a little forgetful. And I've lost my keys several times. So should I expect, I don't know, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to, you know, find my stuff for me?

CUOMO: Where's the I.D., Tom? Where's the I.D.?

[07:15:02] PEREIRA: He'll get it to her. He's a good man. He'll get it to her.

All right. We'll talk more politics here. The Republican majority leader's comments on the House Benghazi committee is the gift that seems to be keep -- seems to keep giving for Democrats. Hillary Clinton seized on them for her campaign. Now a Democratic congressman, Alan Grayson, is calling for an ethics investigation. He joins us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. We have political business to unwrap. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's worried about the Benghazi special committee's effect on Hillary Clinton's campaign. That's a mouthful. But those words are still coming back to haunt him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MAJORITY LEADER: Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not thought...

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS, "HANNITY": I agree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What do you hear in that? Do you hear McCarthy saying, because of what we found in the committee, in the investigation, people don't trust Hillary Clinton as much?

That's not what the Democrats hear. They hear that this is fodder for the campaign trail, because it was an unfair investigation, the man making that case and saying it's an ethical violation is Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson. He's filing an ethics complaint against McCarthy, as well as the chair of the Benghazi panel, Trey Gowdy, a.k.a. Harold.

This as a New York Times editorial calls for the Benghazi committee to shut down. Congressman Grayson joins us this morning. A strong American tie that you have on this morning, Congressman.

[07:20:14] Why do you believe this is an ethical violation, pursuant to Rule 3-A?

REP. ALAN GRAYSON (D), FLORIDA: Well, it's very simple. You're not supposed to use taxpayer funds for a political witch hunt. The rules are very clear about this. If the Republicans want to hire investigators, that's one thing. If they want to have the taxpayers pay for this kind of inquisition, that's another. That's an ethical investigation. I'm sure that that's exactly what the ethics committee is going to find.

CUOMO: People died. We don't know why. It seems as though we should have done much better in the situation. Secretary Clinton at that time was in charge. What more do you need to know as a basis for investigation?

GRAYSON: Well, that's wrong. I'm on the Foreign Affairs Committee. I've read every single classified document relating to this, and Secretary Clinton did nothing wrong. This is the scandal that never was. But what's more important for present purposes that the Republicans are trying to gin up anti-Clinton propaganda in the course of a presidential race, and they're using public taxpayer funds to do it.

CUOMO: But how is this different than any other ethical situation that they look at? And by the way, I didn't say Secretary Clinton did something wrong. I said that we don't know what went wrong when you lose four Americans in a place that should have been able to defend itself.

GRAYSON: Well, again, you're misstating the facts. What happened here is the ambassador on his own volition and on his own authority went to a place that he knew would not necessarily be safe. And he paid the ultimate price for that. But that doesn't mean that the Republicans somehow can use taxpayer money here in order to do some kind of undue political examination to try to destroy someone's career.

This is a good example of what Secretary Clinton's well-known husband described as the politics of personal destruction, and it's being conducted at taxpayer expense.

CUOMO: What do you see as the clear proof of this being political and not purposeful in terms of finding out how this supposedly protected U.S. -- you know, U.S. entity within Libya got attacked?

GRAYSON: Look, we have something here we don't often see in public light. We have a confession. A week ago, McCarthy actually admitted that the purpose of this committee was to destroy Hillary Clinton's career. And that's all the evidence that you would need. But look at the circumstantial evidence, as well. The fact that this has dragged on for 17 months, longer than Watergate investigation, and the fact that there hasn't been a single hearing conducted by this committee since January because they're, quote, "saving it up" in order to be able to dump all this on Hillary Clinton during primary season.

CUOMO: Is that fair or are you taking McCarthy out of context? Couldn't he have just meant what he says he meant, which is what we found in the investigation, the open questions, what Secretary Clinton has evaded, that's what led to her declining poll numbers?

GRAYSON: That's not what he said. What he said was what you quoted earlier, which is a confession, that this is a politically motivated witch hunt.

CUOMO: Well, but it was within the context. And you have to give him the -- you have to give him the benefit of his own context, right? And he says...

GRAYSON: The context was he was trying to explain why he would do a better job than Boehner. They're both inseparable. Leaving that aside, the fact is he was bragging about the fact -- bragging -- about the fact that he was wasting taxpayer money, $4.5 million and counting, in order to destroy a Democrat's political career. That's the context.

CUOMO: Let's take a pull quote out of your question -- out of your letter here. That you're sending onto the ethics committee, asking for an investigation: "Representative Kevin McCarthy and Trey Gowdy have violated federal law and House rules by using funds appropriated to the Select Committee on Benghazi to oppose the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. This is a clear and unequivocal misuse of appropriated funds for political purposes."

Let's say that the Honorable David Skaggs agrees, the Office of Congressional Ethics. What would happen next?

GRAYSON: Well, there would be a full investigation. For instance, we would determine whether internal e-mails corroborated what McCarthy said, which is that this is a politically motivated undertaking, and then there would be some degree of punishment. I'm sure that for one thing, they would recommend exactly what the "New York Times" is recommending, which is that this inquisition be shut down.

But beyond that, I think there would be punishment for the specific members.

CUOMO: Are you concerned at all about this investigation into the investigation of the investigation just adding more time and length to the Benghazi narrative?

GRAYSON: No. Let's go over this again. McCarthy admitted that this is a politically-motivated investigation. That's an illegitimate investigation. An investigation into whether one has wasted taxpayer funds, contrary to House ethic rules and statutes is not a politically-motivated investigation. That's a proper use of government funds.

CUOMO: I didn't say it was politically-motivated. And I understand the little degree of exasperation, Congressman Grayson. But you're going to have to make the case to do this. So I'm trying to get you to make that case right now.

GRAYSON: There's no moral equivalence here between right and wrong. What they're doing is wrong. What we're doing to end that wrong is right.

CUOMO: I understand your position. Let's see how it plays out when the honorable David Skaggs gets this letter and decides what to do next. Thank you for coming on NEW DAY, sir.

[07:25:07] GRAYSON: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: Mick.

PEREIRA: All right. Russian planes are pounding targets in Syria in a new round of airstrikes. Could the U.S. and Russia cross paths leading to a military confrontation? We're going to talk to a military expert about it, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Flood-ravaged South Carolina not out of the woods just yet. Right now, officials are monitoring the Beaver Creek Dam in Columbia. They're concerned that it could fail at any moment. Flash flood warnings have been issued for the area. The death toll has now reached at least 15. And is expected to rise.

CUOMO: An alleged U.N. bribery and corruption scheme busted, six people, including a former president of the U.N. General Assembly, now facing charges. A federal court complaint says John Ash accepted more than $3 million in bribes and other payments from 2012 to 2014. Why? To back construction of a U.N.-sponsored conference center in China. The U.N. secretary-general's office says Ban Ki-Moon is, quote, "shocked and deeply troubled" by the accusations.

PEREIRA: Attorneys for Bill Cosby will be in court this morning for a hearing, just days before Cosby himself is deposed in a lawsuit filed by Judy Huth.