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New Day

More on the Severe Weather in the Southern US; Latest Election Poll Results; Possible Travel Delays from Changed TSA Rules at Airports; Interview with Bernie Sanders. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 24, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Remember those victimize.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Powerful twisters, torrential rain and huge hail battering several states.

CUOMO: The line of severe storms leading behind what you see on your screen, complete devastation. Remember those victimized right now specially during the Christmas season.

Christmas is just a day away.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers, with the very latest then you cannot give us the gift of saying its over, so let at least get it straight, what is the situation?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, in fact my wife from Atlanta just texted me and said, "No tornadoes for us today, right?" I said, "You know what, the chance of that is not zero", it is not as high as it was yesterday but not zero.

Twenty four tornadoes on the ground yesterday not one of these may have been a very long track tornado. And it may have been on ground for 130 miles, we don't know but the weather service will be out to check the damage here.

CUOMO: This Christmas Eve morning, hundred of people are waking up to utter devastation.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (inaudible)

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CUOMO: The destruction cause by deadly tornado outbreak coming across the south and midwest.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See the very...

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CUOMO: The tornado claiming multiple lives including seven years old boy as residents desperately tried to hide in their cars and homes.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time I got out of my car I had a tree that was in my windshield.

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CUOMO: In Northern Mississippi this tornado tore through a busy highway.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

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CUOMO: Watch as the massive twister tosses this tractor trailer as it barrels through traffic.

Watch from this angle for what appears to be the same semi. This driver, just feel away.

The winds in Southwestern Tennessee roared up to 75 miles per hour as officially declared a state of emergency.

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NICK WEEMS, PERRY CO. SHERRIFF: The houses just exploded and they were buried in the rubble.

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CUOMO: Two people were killed east of Memphis. Their bodies found under the debris.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're in the house, we heard the wind picking up and we had 45 seconds and that was it. We walked out of the storm shelter, everything is gone.

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CUOMO: And in Arkansas an 18-year-old women died when a tree fell through her house, toppled by the high winds and heavy rain.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Christmas is all about love and we're going to love through this.

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CUOMO: Some residences in Mississippi clinging on to what they say matters most after losing nearly everything this holiday season. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNDIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't about the house, it was about my family and that was the most important thing to me.

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MYERS: And the tornado watches continue this morning, until 10:00 a.m. for Macon almost to the gulf coast. Severe weather heading into Atlanta at this hour if you're flying today, take some patience because these storms are going to be approaching big cities, big airports and planes don't like to fly through big storms that could content hail or wind or anything like that.

It's warm and humid, its muggy here in New York City. It will be almost 72 degrees today and that's the severe weather threat all the way to New York City.

I mean I talked about Philadelphia but probably the Northern part but its close. So change here of some severe weather -- but I don't think we'll think get big tornadoes like we had yesterday.

The mix isn't ready for today's severe weather like it was yesterday. Yesterday a very rare day.

Now, we do get tornados in December but not that many, not that big, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK Chad thanks keeping an eye on it for us.

Joining us now by Phone is Master Sergeant Ray Hall, he's with the Mississippi highway patrol, he's involved in search and rescue effort.

Sergeant, thanks so much for joining us, can tell us what you are seeing on the ground, what the situation there is at this hour.

SERGEANT RAY HALL, MISSISSIPPI: Yes, we're actually in waiting on our first light. We have officers rescuing throughout the night, continue to search here in Benton County.

We had a -- we still have two residents that are unaccounted for, unfortunately, we believe that they may still have been caught up in storm, due to where we think they may have been living at the time.

CAMEROTA: The search and rescue efforts, what form are those taken?

HALL: Well, methodically just going through the county taking road, each county road, each city street. Just one road at a time and going door to door, house to house of the houses that are damaged, the houses that are completely destroyed. We're tying to comb through the debris from a search, rescue just to make sure that we're not missing anyone.

CAMEROTA: Right and I know you said you do believe there are still two people missing at this hour, we've understood that there are -- this is the last report we got, perhaps you can update us, four people killed in Mississippi, 40 people injured? Are those numbers holding at this hour?

HALL: Actually, during the night we had another confirmed death here in Benton County. We had a couple -- a married couple in one of the homes that was destroyed, the wife unfortunately had died and when tornado passed, her husband died a few hours later at the hospital. So, actually here in Benton County, we have three dead. And I think on the other side with the other side of our state have two confirmed fatalities. So that should be around five.

[07:05:04] CAMEROTA: This is just so terrible, hearing these stories. In terms of the injuries, are most people being injured in -- look, we're looking at the aftermath right now where you can just see shards of piles of what used to be houses yesterday. Are most of the injured, were they in their homes or were they on the highways?

HALL: Well, the residential areas, you know, you had debris flying, things like that, that's where we had the injuries in Benton County. Many of those were taken to local hospitals and treated with emergency personnel as they arrive. They were treated the minor injuries.

But, you know, the devastation, just unreal supposed being here, in Christmas, and so, we're all pulling together as a community. We're going to help our community out this morning.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, we know you are. What are you telling residents to do and to prepare for today?

HALL: Well if, of course, as first light comes -- the main thing, you know, if you're not part of the search and rescue, we're asking people, you know, to stay out of the those areas because it only congests them. And it makes the emergency rescues that much more difficult to try to maneuver and try to get into these areas.

And so we're just asking everybody to be patient. I think we're trying to coordinate efforts with the American Red Cross to try to set up some resources for those that have been affected.

CAMEROTA: Sergeant Ray Hall, you and your community are in our prayers today. Best of luck as you get first light there.

HALL: Thank you, you have a Merry Christmas.

CAMEROTA: You too. Thank you.

CUOMO: Just damnable timing for those people down there. And as Chad is telling in, as you hear from the first responder there, it's not over. And they're prepared as best as they can be please keep them in your mind. And weather is not the only thing that's going to hamper the holidays specifically from a travel perspective, we have security changes that the TSA has made and they hold as well.

We have CNN Sara Sidner live at LaGuardia Airport with more, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, yeah, there's a change just in time for the holidays. Basically, the change may not affect everyone. But, you know, when people go off and say, hey, iI do not want to go through the scanner, I want a pat-down instead. It used to be that anyone could do that and the TSA would oblige.

Now the TSA is saying no, we're not going to oblige everyone. There are some passengers who absolutely have to go through the scanners. And they will not be offered a path down, and that is the change. It won't be to everyone. But there will be passengers that won't be able to do that.

I do want to talk a little bit about what may also cause delays here, and that is when we're talking about the number of people traveling, there are expected to be a number of people -- 100 million people traveling this holiday. 50 miles or more from their house. And that includes about 91.3 million will take cars. But a lot of them, the 5 million, won't fly and so there's going to be lot of out here it's the biggest number ever that they've had in this Christmas new year's holiday season.

So there's a lot of people just piled up trying to get where they want to go. And then you have the issue of weather. Of course, we don't have any issue of snow here in the New York area, but you have storms. And we're seeing so far about 135 cancellations across the country. Not here on LaGuardia alone. And 451 flights that have been delayed. But we're doing much better than Europe and Asia pacific.

Asia has 5,000 flights that have been delayed. And Europe has 1,000. So we're doing quite well with only 450 at this time, Chris

CAMEROTA: I'll take it Sara, I think 100 million people in the country traveling? I mean Chris I we're just saying how amazing that number is. So, thanks so much of the warning of what they might encounter at the airport.

All right, let's turn to politics now. The Democratic race getting more interesting. Hillary Clinton still leading the Democratic race for president but a newly released CNN/ORC poll shows challenge or Bernie Sanders gaining on her.

Senior Washington Correspondent Joe Johns have more on those numbers along with a new warning from Donald Trump. Good morning to you.

JOE JOHNs, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn on the key issue points that we ask questions about Hillary Clinton still holds a commanding demanding lead when in comes to foreign policy, handling ISIS and gun policy.

But speaking of the economy which Bernie Sanders has been hammering away on -- he gain some ground about eight points, yet still trailing Clinton by roughly the same margin.

Now in the head to head matchup against Republicans, this is the one the most interesting thing about the poll saying Hillary Clinton almost running neck and neck with all three of the top Republicans, squeaking past Donald Trump but running two or three ticks behind both Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Important to say all three match up within the margin of error.

Meanwhile, the back and forth between Donald Trump and former secretary of state continues, Trump pushing back, against Mrs. Clinton allegation of sexism. Trump Twitting, Hillary when you complain about a pension for sexism, who are referring to. I have great respect for women, be careful.

[07:10:02] And then there was this Tweet from Trump Hillary said, "I really deplore the tone and inflammatory rhetoric of his campaign. I deplore the death and destruction she caused stupidity." So, more pushback from Trump. Back to you.

CUOMO: All right Joe, thank you very much. We're also following breaking news overnight out of Israel. Police say there that a Palestinian man stabbed two security guards near industrial park in west bank. The attacker was killed. The violent happening as Christians converge on the holy land to mark Christmas Eve and it comes a day after two people were killed after a stabbing attack at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City.

CAMEROTA: A Black Lives Matter protest disrupting operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. More than 100 people blocked the terminal causing some flight delays, but no cancellation, that protest came after a demonstration that briefly shut down, the Mall of America and one of the year's biggest shopping days 15 people were arrested.

CUOMO: Video you've got to see to believe, a helicopter trying to land in Fiji, OK? Strong winds...

CAMEROTA: Oh, OK. Oh my gosh.

CUOMO: Just let it go for a second. Tere we go. Let see it again, move your hands away from your eyes.

CAMEROTA: I don't like this.

CUOMO: It looks like the man throttled up, right? Not what happened, they deal with wind in a very specific way, a helicopter, they're very vulnerable, even at the point of touchdown.

Now, it's not that the pilot made a mistake, he actually made a great save. The chopper did hit that tree before crashing next to a pool. We are told all seven on board, including the pilot, not hurt.

CAMEROTA: Incredible. Incredible. Helicopters, they are -- they make no aerodynamic sense.

CUOMO: Tell it to da Vinci.

CAMEROTA: All right.

CUOMO: He came up for the early model.

CAMEROTA: Get da Vinci on the phone for me.

CUOMO: I can't but I can get you Bernie Sanders.

CAMEROTA: Let's do that. CUOMO: We're going to put him to the test. He says he know how to help the middle class. He said it's all about greed. What would he do and would it make it better? And we talked about him about this data breach and whether it's a simple as it sounds.

Next.

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[07:16:06] CUOMO: Socialist, that's the one word albatross hanging around Bernie Sanders net for many different voters. He says, first of all, its Democratic socialist. But is that a different that's lost? Well, let's look at it in terms of what he says needs to happen to make the gap between rich and poor better. And his explanation of the data breach. Here it is.

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CUOMO: There are many who see what you're suggesting right now as an assault on the American dream that you want to burden those who have been successful, even though they already pay 80 percent of the taxes in this country with a burden of paying for all of these free goodies that you want to give people. And that's not what America is about. In a capitalist society, you make money if you're good, and you don't if you're not good enough. Everybody has the right to succeed or fail on their own merits. Why burden those who are successful with the needs of everybody else?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (D) PRESEDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Chris, let's talk about reality. And here's the reality that in the last 30 years, the great middle class of this country has been disappearing. Trillions of dollars in wealth have gone from working families to the top one tenth of 1 percent whose percentage of wealth that they now own has doubled. So, what we are seeing also is a situation where the average American is working longer hours for low wages, 58 percent of all the incomes going to the top one percent.

We have a massive situation in terms of wealth and income inequality in America today. And I want to change that. I think what this country is about is a great middle class, not a handful of billionaires receiving almost all of the new wealth and income.

So, yeah, I believe that public colleges and universities should be tuition-free. We pay for that. We pay for that by a tax on Wall Street speculation. Yes, I do believe that we should rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, create 13 million new jobs, rebuilding our bridges and our roads. We pay for that by doing away with all of these huge tax breaks which allow corporate America to put their money in the Cayman Islands and in Bermuda and in a given year ends up not paying a nickel in taxes.

And yes, I do believe that the wealthiest people in the largest corporations in America who are doing phenomenally well while the middle class continues to disappear. Yes, I do believe that they're going to have to stop paying their fair share of taxes. CUOMO: But they say they do pay their fair share? They pay 80 percent when they look at your suggestions whether its Glass-Steagall or what you want to do with Dodd-Frank or the interest rate moves with the Fed. They say that you want to regulate them and tax them out of existence. And at the same time, you want to force them to lend to people that are risky, which is how they say we got into the mess back in 2008 in the first place.

SANDERS: Well, Chris, that is wrong, wrong, wrong. This is the reality. Either we are going to be a nation in which we have a strong middle class. Or we are going to be a nation which moves to allergotic form of society where a handful of very, very wealthy families control the economy and the political life of this country.

Today and let the American people make this decision. The top one- tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent today. 20 of the wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom of 50 percent, 150 million Americans. That is not what America is supposed to be about. That is not an economy that works for working families. That is a rigged economy. So the bottom line here Chris is, rich becoming much richer, most Americans becoming poorer. The gap is growing wider. I intend to do something about it, whether corporate America or the billionaire class likes it or not.

CUOMO: One political point. Headlines were made about this data breach. The firewall goes down. The Sanders campaign winds up looking the data that it wasn't supposed to.

[07:20:06] The campaign acts quickly, you get rid of somebody, you suspend some other people. Why don't you just end there? Why does this call for a broader investigation and wanting the Clinton campaign involved? It sounds like a smoke screen.

SANDERS: Look, Chris, I hope that we can resolve this. I think the DNC understands and the Clinton people understand, we understand. This is not a great thing. We made a mistake. We have dealt with that mistake. We want to get it beyond this and I hope that that will happen. We are in negotiations right now with the DNC.

CUOMO: But what's all of this other stuff about a broader investigation and let's see what else happened though? Why that distraction? Why not you own what happened?

SANDERS: Right. Well we did own what happened, Chris. But here's what happened. And everybody has got to understand. There has not only been one breach recently. There was another breach. And in that breach, we also ended up with information from the Clinton campaign and all people went running to the DNC and say what is going on here, you've got a problem?

So, I want to make sure that we understand what's happened in the past and that it does not happen again. It serves nobody's purpose. Let's end it.

CUOMO: That's just the only piece I don't understand. What else do you think might have happened? What have you heard or what do you think you can show that adds to the understanding?

SANDERS: Well, what we believe, what we know has happened is this is at least the second breach. There was another breach, a couple of months ago. Our campaign ended up with information from Clinton's campaign, and we went to the DNC right away. Nobody looked at it. As well if there's a breach, it's a breach as a whole information you get to both sides. So we would like to take a look at that. We're not making any accusations. But I think it's fair to understand why these breaches occur and what the DNC is going to do to make sure that they do not happen again.

CUOMO: Now, I kept pushing him about that because, I don't get it, you made a mistake, you own it. Move on.

CAMEROTA: Yeah.

CUOMO: Don't make it sound like there's a broader thing, but he says without making any accusations there is broader thing. So, we'll see what developed. So, what do you think?

Let's bring in our commentators and Political Anchor at Time Warner Cable News. Mr. Errol Louis and CNN Senior Political Analyst and Editorial Director of the National Journal, Ron Brownstein. Gentlemen, thank you for being here. Happy Christmas Eve. So, good morning.

Errol, I'm pushing Bernie Sanders about why he is making more of this data breach. You know is it just the smoke screen? He says no we have real concerns. Is this about tactics, Bernie is not known for that? Or this about maybe something more there?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well I think there might be something more there. I mean my understanding in how this database works is that every single time somebody goes in whether you are the high level or a low level. It is all recorded.

If, as Bernie Sanders suggests, they went to the DNC and said you've got a problem here. You know we we're exposed to information we weren't supposed to have. What did the DNC do? Did they talk to their vendor? Did they fix the problem? And then of course Bernie Sanders I think leaving the door open to the possibility that maybe some of their data went wayward and maybe the Clinton people had a bit of unfair advantage at some point in the past.

So, you know, they don't have the information to conclude that one way or the other but it does make sense. I think we should all want this to be cleared up because this is not something that is supposed to be happening and there's a lot of stake including the privacy and the personal political preferences of lots of people who have tried to participate in the process. It really does have to get fixed.

CAMEROTA: Ron, beyond the data breach, what did you take away from Chris's interview with Sanders?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I'm just struck at the - and first of all happy holidays to you and everybody watching. I'm distracted by the different world in which the Democrats and the Republicans are running for president offering at this point.

If you listen to the Democrats, the divide they want to kind of impose on the choice for the voters is an economic divide. It's kind of looking at the income ladder, and kind of us against them, against the one percent, and arguing. I think you know, with a great deal of statistical evidence that the middle class has lost ground over the past generation while wealth has moved upward, the ladder.

The Republicans have a very different us and then in this campaign. Particularly, Donald Trump who is dividing the electorate along cultural and ethnic and even racial lines. And you see these fundamentally different flames. What is the choice? Who is the coalition? I mean if you look at the modern Democratic coalition. It actually is not as dependent on the working class as it once was. It's a coalition of minorities, millennial, and in the white population more upscale. Socially liberal college educated whites.

Whereas, it is Donald Trump and the Republicans are dominating among the white working class who offer the most responsive in those cultural arguments. So it really is almost as if they're running for the presidencies of different countries at this point.

CUOMO: We don't make this. Errol, I'm surprised by this. Of course I'm getting beat up by all the...

Well, that's part of the game. But why is Bernie Sanders, I believe what Ron Brownstein just said. So why then is Senator Bernie Sanders doing better against the GOP field when he's such a starker contrast than Hillary Clinton is against the GOP field. Even though she has a yawning lead on Sanders?

[07:25:08] LOUIS: Well, there's a fair amount of leftover antipathy toward the Clinton's and I think we see that everyday. Every time you see the Republicans talk about there. So I think there is some of that going on. It's not just complying to Republicans. I think they'll also - you got if Ron is right and I think he might be about at least a big part of the electorate.

You look at what's going on in a place like Iowa, where they have a serious child poverty problem. Where there is a lot of people who still remember that NAFTA didn't work out so well for a lot of manufacturing and other industry in Iowa. You look at the fact that they have a $7.25 cent minimum wage and Bernie Sanders wants to more than double that, as well as provide free tuition. There's a lot to like there and I think the polls are picking some of that.

CAMEROTA: Ron, let's talk about the battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It started with Donald Trump calling Hillary Clinton's restroom break during the debate disgusting. Then Hillary Clinton countered re saying Donald Trump has a penchant for sexism. Then Donald Trump tweeted this, "Hillary, when you complain about a penchant for sexism, who are you referring to? I have great respect for women." Then in caps "Be careful."

Chris and I have been debating what that "Be careful" ominous warning means. How do you interpret it? BROWNSTEIN: Hard to know exactly what he means. It might be a veil reference to of Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky story. Hard to know.

What I do know I think is that a couple of things is first, the degree of cross-party interaction and engagement in this campaign really is at a higher level than I've ever seen. This early in the primary season for candidates to be going after each other across, you know, into crossing over into the other primary is just extraordinary. And I think it's partially a reflection of how polarized our politics has become.

I mean each side really is looking for a warrior. You know the view of the other party is now so negative. In each coalition that a part of the job of being a nominee is showing that you can be a worrier against the other side and they have both doing.

The other thing I would point out is that if you have a Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump race beside being, you know, a boon for T.V. ratings everywhere. You would really have a task of the competing theories about how you win the presidency. As going back to what I was saying before.

I mean there are a lot of Republicans who argue that the party does not have to reach out and improve its vote among millennial and minorities, but in fact that he is turning out more culturally conserved of whites. No one would do that I think more than no. It says that when Donald Trump who is the strongest among working class whites and conversely.

I mean if you look at Hillary Clinton, no one provides a better foil. If you look at it at Trumps favorable ratings in your new poll, among the core elements of this modern Democratic coalition of minorities, millennials, college educated white women. He is in very bad territory.

So you'd have just as enormous task of this alternative theories of what it takes to build the majority in this very fractious modern America we've become.

CUOMO: I mean, I think the worst prospect of that head-up if that's what it is. If Hillary, if Donald Trump wins is that wind-up having every motivation to talk about nothing that matters to the American people. That campaign would be almost completely obsessive about things that ultimately won't make a difference.

CAMEROTA: I mean that's our challenge. That will be our challenge. That will be issues. Yes.

CUOMO: Good thing I have you by my side for that.

Errol, let me ask you this. Kids in politics, obviously a sensitive subject for me. I grew up in it, hated it. That's why I'm lucky if I vote let alone ever be involved in the process.

CAMEROTA: Really? CUOMO: Is it out of bounce? What happened with Cruz's kid? It's one thing that he wants to use in a campaign. We usually stay away from that stuff. If it wasn't done here, should we call it out?

LOUIS: Oh absolutely. Now, what happened there was just completely inappropriate. I mean and look, cartoonists are supposed to offend people and there are cartoonist sure did that. Her editors should have stopped that from ever seeing the light of day. That is just out of bounds. It doesn't shed any light on anything. It's vicious in a way that actually hurts the child, you know.

CUOMO: Yeah.

LOUIS: I mean that has no political meaning to it. That has no cultural commentary that the rest of us need to see. Somebody needs to pull the plug on that before it ever came out, completely out of bounds.

CAMEROTA: All right. Errol, Ron, thank you gentlemen. Merry Christmas to both of you.

LOUIS: Thanks

BROWNSTEIN: Merry Christmas.

LOUIS: Merry Christmas.

CUOMO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.

Well in TSA, now says it will use full body scans more often. How will that help fend off terror attacks that a pat-down won't? The former TSA administrator joins us next.

CUOMO: I like a nice full pat-down.

[07:29:28] CAMEROTA: I bet.

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