Return to Transcripts main page
New Day
Trump: I Disavow David Duke and the KKK; American Tourist Finds Possible MH370 Debris Off Mozambique Coast; Does Ted Cruz Have A Path To Victory; GOP in Disarray Over Efforts to Topple Trump.> Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired March 03, 2016 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:32:19]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have a developing political story. Moments ago, Donald Trump addressing his KKK comments, once again trying to put the issue to rest once and for all. Also, former KKK leader, David Duke, speaking out.
Here to discuss all of this is Michael Eric Dyson, he is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and author of "The Black Presidency, Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America". Professor Dyson, thanks so much for being here.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, AUTHOR, "THE BLACK PRESIDENCY": Thank you for having me.
CAMEROTA: OK, so moments ago on the "TODAY" show, Donald Trump came out and unequivocally disavowed the KKK and David Duke in his strongest language. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll tell you what I meant. You don't know. I know. I've never met David Duke. I don't know him from the standpoint I never met him, but Icertainly would not have anything to do with him or the KKK, and everybody knows that. And I say how many times do I just have to disavow? And right after that I tweeted that I disavow any endorsement or anything of David Duke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: OK, so that is four days after what happened on Sunday where he was given an opportunity three times to disavow and he demurred. But, today, that is the strongest yet. What do you think of the timing? What do you think of his statement that he says I would have nothing to do with him?
DYSON: Well, it is rather curious after he was given an opportunity -- ample opportunity on Sunday to deny and he didn't, and then now, a couple of days after Super Tuesday. So, it's a brilliant rhetorical strategy in a campaign in the electoral strategy on the part of Donald Trump given the southern states that were in play on Super Tuesday and his attempt to reach out to him resonating profoundly with the Republican strategy of the southern strategy where southern Republicans attempting to rest the party early on in the 50's and 60's back from Democratic control sought to reach out to disaffected white voters.
It seems to me that Donald Trump's very clear demarcation, drawing a line in the sand now between what he said then and what he said now, plays to that same strategy. Now that Super Tuesday is over he can come out and say hey, I don't Trump with that guy. But at the same time, when it was in play on Super Tuesday, there was very, very questionable ambiguity surrounding his stance vis-a-vis David Duke and the KKK.
CAMEROTA: David Duke also has a theory about this. He spoke to the outfit "NEWSMAX" about how he actually thinks that he helped Donald Trump. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE MALZBERG, HOST, NEWSMAX: Don't you think your support of Trump is going to hurt him?
DAVID DUKE, FORMER GRAND WIZARD, KKK: Well, let me tell you. Right after this came out it was massive news for three days. He jumped 10 points in the polls. It's not going to hurt Donald. It didn't hurt Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: David Duke said this. He waited long enough strategically for it to work, whatever that means, for Super Tuesday.
[07:35:16]
DYSON: There's no question. I think that David Duke makes an excellent point there. The ambiguity that Mr. Trump showed in the build-up to this Super Tuesday allowed him both to seem as if he's trying to investigate the sources of racial animus that are articulated by David Duke and the KKK, though he need not investigate long. On the other hand, he waits long enough after the results of Super Tuesday are in to disavow him. He's having his cake and, right now, eating it, too.
CAMEROTA: Obviously, this not the first time that the incendiary issue of race has come up in presidential politics. It happens all the time. How do you think this year plays against some other famous years -- say, 1988 with Michael Dukakis and the Willie Horton ad? Or, say, 19 -- I guess it was '76, Ronald Reagan --
DYSON: Right.
CAMEROTA: -- talking about welfare queens? Where do you rank this year?
DYSON: Well, it's pretty rancorous. In those instances, the kind of implicit politics of race -- the kind of sub textural character of race flared up here and there. The Willie Horton ad, of course, was pretty bad. Some argue that it lost Dukakis his presidency -- at least his attempt to counteract what was being said about him. He was soft on crime. That was a theme that the Republicans beat time and time again against the Democrats.
Ronald Reagan, himself, of course, choosing to start one of his presidential races in Philadelphia, Mississippi, implicitly identifying with the very state and the very city where three civil rights workers were found murdered. So, the implicit politics of race flared time and again.
In this instance, I think with Donald Trump being the frontrunner, even the Republican establishment, which has benefitted from a southern strategy, which has benefitted from the implicit politics of race, is offended by the fact that Donald Trump is allowing these things to surface explicitly. So, he's breaking the social compact that the Republicans have struck with the American public by playing it safe and playing it by implication and signification. Donald Trump is brutal and straightforward -- at least the people he draws to him -- and as a result of that all sides are shaken up a bit.
CAMEROTA: That'sinteresting, professor. I mean, you think that it's the difference between explicit and implicit racism. But isn't it also possible that the country has changed and the country has made progress, and people aren't as comfortable with all of these insinuations as they used to be?
DYSON: Well, of course. Some of the country has changed and some of the country is uncomfortable, but given the numbers that are attracted to Donald Trump and the rhetoric that he espouses, or at least the way in which that rhetoric resonates with them, it's clear that there is a great quarter -- at least half of the country -- that has not changed. That is resistant to a black presidency that is consciously or unconsciously disposed against Obama for legitimate, theological, and political reasons.
CAMEROTA: But, it -- I mean, it's not really half the country. It's not half the country that's supporting Donald Trump right now.
DYSON: No, no.
CAMEROTA: It's a percentage of Republicans.
DYSON: But, the half the country I'm talking about is not simply about who's supporting Donald Trump. It's about the kind of racial discord that we see manifest in this country and the disgruntlement with the things as they are. Some of that is ideological, some of that is political, and some of that has a racial overlay. So, what I'm suggesting there is that there is a huge civil war going on in America -- manifest in the Trump campaign, but it's broader than that.
CAMEROTA: Professor Michael Eric Dyson, always great to get your perspective. Thanks for being on NEW DAY.
DYSON: Thanks for having me. CAMEROTA: We also want to get your perspective out here. What's your take on this topic? You can tweet us at #newday or post your comments on Facebook.com/newday -- Michaela.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, really interesting development. Has a piece of MH370 been found off the coast of Mozambique? We're going to look at where that debris was found. You'll hear from the American who found it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:42:56]
PEREIRA: All right, investigators are set to examine debris that washed up off the coast of Mozambique that could be linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. This plane debris was discovered by an American. It will be sent to Australia to be looked at by international specialists. You'll recall that flight disappeared nearly two years ago. Could this debris help lead searchers to its missing 239 passengers?
CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest has a brand new book out this week. It is called the "The Vanishing of Flight MH370" and he joins me now. Congratulations on the book.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.
PEREIRA: Obviously, this has been sort of a life's work for you given this story and how big it has been here at CNN. Let's talk about this piece of debris. What exactly are we looking at? Is it easy to tell at first glance?
QUEST: No, because at first glance what they found just off the coast of Mozambique -- what they have found is what they believe to be part of the horizontal stabilizer of a plane.
PEREIRA: Of a plane.
QUEST: Of a plane. Now, the reason -- there is some doubt in the last few hours because it's got the words no step.
PEREIRA: No step. Right, yes.
QUEST: It's got the words no step, but the size of the font of that is perhaps more akin to a small plane rather than a large 777.
PEREIRA: Very interesting.
QUEST: But, it's also got the rivets on it --
PEREIRA: OK.
QUEST: -- and we've managed to identify one of the rivets and we've been in touch with the company that makes those rivets and they say yes, it is the sort of rivet that does comes from an aircraft. But, obviously, the entire -- the nature of the item, the thickness -- and it's going to have to be looked at. It's certainly something from aviation.
PEREIRA: It certainly is. That we can say unequivocally.
QUEST: There's no --
PEREIRA: It's not a boat, it's not any other cargo.
QUEST: Very little -- no, no.
PEREIRA: OK. Now, this is the second piece --
QUEST: Right.
PEREIRA: -- that is suspicious, you know -- that is raising suspicions because we saw another piece found near the Reunion Islands, right? And that was, indeed, part of MH370.
QUEST: And that is why. If you look at this map you'll see you've got Reunion Island just over there, and this -- the length of this piece is only about 1,300 miles from that. It's entirely within the entire area where you would have expected the --
PEREIRA: Well, except for the fact that you've got Madagascar right in the middle.
QUEST: Correct.
PEREIRA: Explain to us maybe a little bit about the current.
QUEST: Correct, and that is, perhaps, the difficulty in this. It isn't a straight line all the way from where Reunion Island or, indeed, from the Indian Ocean across. You've got to go around Madagascar. But the currents, we're told, and --
PEREIRA: It can work that way.
QUEST: Yes, absolutely. The currents could have taken it that way, we are told.
PEREIRA: However, all of this -- all of this is a far cry -- thousands of kilometers away from the search zone where we know the task force is currently searching. They have been for some time. Does that fit their models?
QUEST: Absolutely. In fact, the ATSB, which is the search authority --
PEREIRA: Yes.
[07:45:48]
QUEST: -- and the Australian Transportation Safety Board -- they put out a statement overnight basically saying, yes, the drift models do concur. It could have gone, from where you can see over on the map, right the way across the ocean and that's exactly the sort of thing that would have happened. PEREIRA: This is fascinating.
QUEST: So, the circumstances -- the circumstantial evidence is correct. The issue is whether the factual evidence bears that out, and you won't know that until the part is sent down to Canberra where it will be investigated by the best in the business.
PEREIRA: Now, you actually had a chance to speak to the man who was instrumental in finding this piece.
QUEST: Yes.
PEREIRA: Let's listen to what he said about what he thinks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAINE ALAN GIBSON, U.S. TOURIST WHO FOUND PLANE DEBRIS: I just knew when I saw it that it possibly could be, and that it was important to get it into the hands of the local authorities, and the authorities in Australia who are doing the search, and the Malaysians who are responsible for it. I just knew that it needed to be processed and it is being right now. It needs to be sent to the specialists to identify what it is. It could be from 370, it could be from any of those other planes that crashed in the area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: It's interesting to hear his perspective.
QUEST: Absolutely.
PEREIRA: You know, obviously -- now, we know that in the books that you've written extensively about the aftermath of the crash and there was a lot of furor around this whole what are we going to do about aviation? How do we prevent this from happening again? What are the changes that need to be made? These were some of the suggested changes.
QUEST: Right. This one -- regular reporting of aircraft position, absolutely. The international authorities now say planes must report, or will do in the fullest of time, every 15 minutes.
PEREIRA: OK.
QUEST: But, frankly, that's still not enough and many global carriers are down to two, three, and four minutes, but 15 minutes will be the limit. Triggered data transmissions -- that's if the plane does something unusual, the black box data is sent to the satellite.
PEREIRA: Immediately.
QUEST: We're a long way from that.
PEREIRA: Really?
QUEST: Yes. There's no real movement on that. Keeping transponders permanently on.
PEREIRA: I think that surprises people that wasn't being done to begin with.
QUEST: You know, the reality is pilots -- many pilots, not all -- are against it. They like to have the ability to switch these things on and off in case they need to. My gut feeling is, though, this is the big one. This is the big one. Extend the life of emergency locator beacons. Look, Michaela, that has been in the rules coming down the road for years.
PEREIRA: For years, yes.
QUEST: For years. They've got to get on and do it --
PEREIRA: All right.
QUEST: -- because then you don't have this ridiculous rush to hear the pings before the battery dies.
PEREIRA: Many voices agree with you on that. Join us tomorrow night for a CNN special report, "VANISHED: THE MYSTERY OF MH FLIGHT 370" at 10:00 eastern only on CNN. Thank you so much, Richard.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Mic. So what about Ted Cruz? Where is his opening to bite into Trump? To make gains? Does to start tonight at the debate? We're going to ask one of Cruz' top supporters if he can really catch Trump, and if so, how?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:53:30]
CUOMO: We now know that it was closer than even thought for Ted Cruz in terms of whether to stay in the race or not, given what happened on Super Tuesday. He wound up winning three states -- enough to continue going forward. But what does it mean about the path ahead to catch Trump, to overtake Trump, to deal with him on a delegate level, to deal with him tonight at the debate? Is that where it starts?
Big questions. We have a good man to answer them. Cruz supporter, Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King. Congressman, good to have you this morning.
REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Good to be with you this morning, Chris. Thank you.
CUOMO: Can you confirm what we have heard from the Cruz camp that if he had lost Texas he was out?
KING: Well, I can't confirm that from hearing it directly from Ted Cruz. I mean, I picked that information up, I think, the same way that you did. But what we saw happen, though, was he had a big win there. And as you watch the states that matter to two of the other candidates, that's what this comment means to them. Can you carry on if you lose your home state to Marco Rubio, to John
Kasich? And it looks to me that -- I mean, if I were in this race and I were running for president and I had lost Iowa, I'd have a hard time making the argument that the people that know me the best don't really know what the best thing is to do as far as the president is concerned.
CUOMO: Where's the path for Ted Cruz going forward? If we look at this weekend -- Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine. You're still going to get proportionality out of those states, but really Louisiana is the only one where he's registering in a real way. He was supposed to clean up in the south. That didn't happen. Are things getting better for him or worse?
KING: Well, I think that path is becoming more clear, and this Saturday is a smaller Saturday than we're going to see coming up next March 15th. I see that as the seminal date that really makes this race shake up and change. But, Ted Cruz has stayed on the heels, to a degree, of Donald Trump. He's clearly in a solid second place. We know the south didn't work out as well as one had planned. That nobody's campaign worked out the way they planned it, maybe not even Donald Trump's. But we'll never know.
So, I think this. I think we'll come out of Saturday a strong second place with Trump leading in delegates and with eyes on the March 15th date. And I think there will be a lot of sweat popping out on the brows of Marco Rubio and John Kasich as to whether they can win their home states. And by the way, Illinois is a big state that same day, too.
CUOMO: Race for second isn't going to cut it, though, as you know, Congressman. Looking at March 15th -- Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, the Northern Mariana Islands. Really, it's only Missouri where he's registering in a real way. What's going to change between now and then for Cruz?
KING: Well, the thing that changes is not so much between now and then, but it's what changes on that date. And it sure looks like it's going to be hard for Rubio to win Florida. He's a long ways down there. It looks like it's going to be a difficult task for John Kasich in Ohio.
So then, by the standards that you heard from the Cruz campaign, if you don't win your home state, it's hard to stay in. That means after March 15th it's most likely -- it's a two-man race. And Ted Cruz has led in all the polls that I've seen in head-to-head competition with Donald Trump.
[07:56:20]
CUOMO: So, the question becomes is how is he doing in terms of the aspects of gathering a bigger tent? There is a theory that winning in Iowa may have cost him the overall race because of what happened in Iowa -- because of what was seen as dirty tricks. We have Carson's Super Pac chair on Cruz saying, "Some people are so angry at Cruz they could spit nails. They wouldn't support him if he were the last guy on earth after what he did to us."
And part of what they did, of course, you know -- you had a hand in that. You had a tweet in that that suggested that Carson was out of the race. People looked at that as a dirty trick. Do you think that you got a little bit of a gain in the moment, but it's going to cost you now?
KING: Well, I'd say this. In the end, I trust the voters and I trust them to be objective. I'd ask them, just go to my Website, steveking.com. We have a timeline on that. We've got a narrative on that that tells the whole story. Ted Cruz knew nothing about it. There was no information that was provided out of the Cruz campaign that was anything other than essentially a copy and paste or an objective forward, or what information came out of the news media, only to find the news media that way for this morning, Chris. Just to avoid that. And, so I know what I put in -- more objective.
CUOMO: It's a smart move. It's a smart move, given that we both know that CNN did not report what the Cruz campaign said we did. We never said he was out.
KING: No, I would take issue with that. And neither did the Cruz campaign say he was out. And neither did Steve King say he was out.
CUOMO: Steve King said looks like Carson's out. How am I supposed to interpret it?
KING: Looks like, looks like, looks like. And when you had Rick Tyler -- when Ted Cruz asked for Rick Tyler's retirement --
CUOMO: Come on.
KING: -- within five minutes, the news was reporting that Cruz had fired him.
CUOMO: Come on. You know why you sent the tweet. You sent the tweet to tell people who might be going for Carson, looks like he's out. Go for Cruz. Come on.
KING: And, CNN reported -- they reported that Carson was going to skip New Hampshire and South Carolina, and go to Florida for R&R. And I said, looks like Carson is out. And right behind the time that I said that's the equivalent of suspending the campaign. These were all objective and it was in the heat of the battle.
And I went to Ben Carson and I said I regret this happened and I'm sorry it happened to your campaign. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done anything. Knowing what I knew then, I'd have been compelled to do the same thing. It was in the center of a decision- making process at 19 minutes after 7:00 when we gaveled in at 7:00, Chris.
CUOMO: I respect you coming full circle on that one and addressing it here on NEW DAY, as you do every time. Congressman King, thank you for being on.
KING: Thank you, Chris.
CUOMO: All right. So, we have these developments that are going on on both sides of this race and they are big, so let's get to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We could keep this frontrunner from winning.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to make America great again.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we remain divided, that strengthens Donald Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mitt Romney is the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are expecting that he's going to go hard against Donald Trump.
CAMEROTA: The e-mail scandal haunting Hillary Clinton's campaign is back in the spotlight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a hiccup for her campaign. It's a huge difference from the Ebola virus plaguing the other side.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It really matters when you're running for president what you say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the Supreme Court, the biggest abortion battle in decades.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This law is cruel and it is harsh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This case is not about overturning Roe v. Wade.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about real lives, real futures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.
CUOMO: Good morning, friends. Welcome to your new day. It is Thursday, March 3rd, 8:00 in the east now, and the Republican Party is in a state of disarray. Efforts to stop Donald Trump from this hostile takeover of the GOP now reaching a fever pitch.
Mitt Romney is going to come out this morning. You remember him -- the 2012 nominee. He's going to take Trump on directly in a speech, and we now know he's going to use words like phony and a fraud. Will that work against Donald Trump or is it just proof that he's unstoppable?
CAMEROTA: Most of the remaining Republican field is set to square off tonight in their latest debate. Meanwhile, a former Hillary Clinton staffer at the State Department -- the one who set up her private e-mail server -- now accepting an immunity deal from the Justice Department to cooperate with the FBI's investigation.
A lot to talk about, so let's begin our coverage with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. She's in Overland Park, Kansas on the GOP race. What's the latest, Sunlen?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn. Well, today, Mitt Romney will completely unload on Donald Trump.
