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New Day

Harriet Tubman to Replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 Bill; First Criminal Charges in Flint Water Crisis; Interview with Rep. Dan Kildee; Anthony Bourdain Visits Manila; Obama Speaks from Saudi Arabia. Aired 8:30-9a Et

Aired April 21, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:22] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Five things. Here we go for your NEW DAY.

The (INAUDIBLE) Donald Trump back on the attack hours after sounding more presidential in his New York victory speech. Ted Cruz meanwhile declaring the GOP nomination is undoubtedly going to a contested convention. Bernie Sanders back on the campaign trail today, after his bruising loss in New York. Sanders and Clinton now making that big push for votes ahead of next Super Tuesday, when five northeast contests will take place.

Any moment now, President Obama is expected to speak at a Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia, urging leaders to bring stability to the region. The president growing tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, but the White House insists he already has cleared the air.

Criminal charges being filed against three government workers for their alleged rules in the Flint water crisis. They face possible jail time for allegedly altering water test results and misleading regulators.

Here it goes, the Olympic torch, beginning that long road to Rio. The torch was lit in a traditional ceremony -- using a mirror, Chris noticed -- in Athens, Greece, this morning. 12,000 athletes will carry it around, what an honor, before it arrives in Rio on August 5 for the opening ceremony in Rio.

For more on the five things to know, be sure to visit newdayCNN.com.

Watch that amazing twist I do.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Ooh!

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: It was awesome. I rehearsed it.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You're so talented.

PEREIRA: I'm very talented. Andrew Jackson's long run as the face of the $20 is coming to an end. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announcing that he will be replaced by Harriet Tubman, the slave turned abolitionist and women's rights supporters.

We want to discuss this historic makeover with Christine Romans because she's all about the Harriets now.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I am. The Harriets, right. Seriously. This is the biggest money story and the biggest money controversy of the year or so.

PEREIRA: Controversy?

ROMANS: Yes, right? Because, you know, they talked about redesigning the $10 bill, which has Alexander Hamilton on it. And then eventually decided to change the $20, which had Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, a slave owner, the guy who was known for the Trail of Tears. History has not really been kind to the seventh President of the United States. Harriet Tubman, imagine -- a slave owner's picture was on that bill and now a former slave, a woman who changed history.

PEREIRA: And someone actually said that something that's been -- some of the black minds have been talking about this online, saying she wouldn't get down with this. Like this seems kind of in the face of what she stood for.

ROMANS: It's really interesting because, look, we had a woman a long time ago, 100 years. You had Martha Washington was actually on a piece of U.S. currency. You never had a black woman on a piece of U.S. currency. So it is certainly historic.

That's the $20 bill. The $10 bill, controversy there too. So the $10 bill has Alexander Hamilton on it. Probably the most famous Treasury Secretary, more famous, sorry Jack Lew, than the current Treasury Secretary, some would say.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: This musical -- this musical that is really incredibly popular. Have you guys seen it?

CUOMO: Saved him.

PEREIRA: And incredibly popular with --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: So, look, Alexander Hamilton will stay on the front. He has become sort of a popular culture -- you know, the guy who helped found the American economy and American (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: Saved him.

KEILAR: But do you really think that this -- that this saved him? CUOMO: Saved him.

KEILAR: Unbelievable.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Saved him. I can make a case for just about anything. I could not keep a compelling case to keep him on the $10 bill compared to Harriet Tubman.

KEILAR: And the cast of "Hamilton" even went to White House. It sort of really --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Now, on the back, you're going to have a image of the women's voter's movement, the suffrage moment. So it will be sort of a mural of women -- women in -- I suppose you'll see Susan B. Anthony, maybe many others. But there are some women today who are saying, come on, it's still -- the back, you know?

CUOMO: How come Susan B. Anthony doesn't count when she got the dollar?

ROMANS: It was a coin. We're talking about currency bills.

[08:35:04] KEILAR: So when doe sit go -- when does Harriet Tubman go into circulation?

ROMANS: So they want to get this done by 2020. There are some counterfeiting rules --

CUOMO: Why does it take so long?

ROMANS: Because of counterfeiting. You know, there are bad guys around the world who, you know, there's that blue strip or that green strip in your money.

CUOMO: It takes them three years to figure it out?

PEREIAR: Like this kind of counterfeiting? I found this in Cuomo's wallet.

CUOMO: Look at that. Do you know what the problem is? Nobody would want to spend that.

PEREIRA: I might give it to you.

CUOMO: You'd want to keep it.

PEREIRA: Because I got my own.

CUOMO: Nobody's going to spend that.

PEREIRA: And guess what? Brianna's got her own.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: That's it!

ROMANS: I love it, I love it.

PEREIRA: We all got our own faces on our money. Look at that.

ROMANS: It's worth exactly what it looks like. Nothing.

PEREIRA: This is what I love. The back? Nothing.

KEILAR: That could not take three years to back. I wonder, though, does it come down to, you know, someone growing up, a child who now is going to have money in their hand that has Harriet Tubman on it.

PEREIRA: I know. That is powerful.

KEILAR: What does that say?

ROMANS: It is really symbolic. I think it is symbolic. And there's uniform acclaim for picking Harriet Tubman. I mean, there really is here.

PEREIRA: All right, so we want to know what you think at home. Don't take my dollar bills here.

CUOMO: You can't save them all.

PEREIRA: You can get on social media, give us your feedback. We'd love to hear what your thoughts are.

CUOMO: Mick looks like casino money.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Christine, you actually look like you belong there.

CUOMO: She loves money. Loves it.

PEREIRA: Casino money.

KEILAR: Serious story ahead here. The first criminal charges in the Flint water crisis. Is this just the tip of the iceberg? We will ask a Congressman who represents the city.

CUOMO: But first, we have what might just be the smartest bike in the world. Here is the concept. The bicycle runs off of solar power, can communicate with your smartphone, and comes equipped with a trunk. It's another peek in the future of adventure. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT EGGER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, SPECIALIZED BICYCLE COMPONENTS: My belief is that there's no perfect design. With modern technology now, it's a great time to really take advantage of the great innovations in the bike industry.

So this bike is super aerodynamic. You can see with the windscreen.

CHRIS HU, R&D ENGINEER, SPECIALIZED BICYCLE COMPONENTS: The concept bike is really important for innovation. Even though we can't directly make that product, maybe a little part of it we can mold it into the rules and it's still a better innovation than what we thought of in the past.

EGGER: You'll see behind the windscreen that it's all run by your smartphone. There's many apps that we can develop. It can communicate with cars to let cars know that, hey, I'm getting too close to this cyclist.

I hope that the FUCI bike is a small inclination towards what the bicycle industry could be. It's a concept for the future. I just believe and dream that bikes can be so much more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:24] CUOMO: Authorities in Michigan say their investigation into the contamination of the Flint water supply is, quote, "only just beginning". And, quote, "nobody is off the table". Criminal charges filed against three low-level government workers. The allegations include tampering with evidence, misleading county andd federal officials about the safety of Flint's water.

Joining us now, Representative Dan Kildee, who represents the people of Flint, Michigan, in Congress. Congressman, it is good to have you with us. Let's start with the basic proposition. Do you believe, with your understanding of the situation, that people should go to jail?

REP. DAN KILDEE (D), MICHIGAN: Well, certainly people should be investigated and if the facts lead to prosecution, that is one step toward justice. So I'm very pleased to see the state attorney general and the United States Justice Department looking into this.

Of course, the concern that I have is that while this is entirely appropriate, I want to ensure that this does not obfuscate the need for the other forms of justice that the people of Flint are due, and that's the restorative justice required in order to make Flint whole again.

CUOMO: Don't they go hand in hand, though? If you don't punish officials for doing something that is found to be willfully, knowingly, maybe even recklessly, damaging to the community and health of its people, it's going to keep happening?

KILDEE: That is true. And this has to happen simultaneously. Punishing these individuals will send a chilling effect to anybody who decides they're going to play fast and loose with environmental protections, which is what the State of Michigan clearly did in the case of Flint. But we want to make sure that the price is not just paid by a few people who are basically at the bottom of the chain, but it also applies to the people who created the culture that made it OK for these folks to manipulate test samples and basically treat these protections as if they are annoyances and not a basic protection of human health.

CUOMO: Well, money over health. Money over health is what the basic allegation is in a kind of, in a rhetorical sense.

Some of the concerns in the legal community are that this doesn't feel right. When you go after people who you know are largely functionaries, who are going to say they did what they were told do, and yet they're getting prosecuted, which means they didn't feed their way up. Usually the lower echelons get passed over because of waht they can offer up for the upper echelons. Are you afraid that these guys may be scapegoated and we may not get to the right part of the food chain here?

KILDEE: Well, I'm very sympathetic to that argument. And I am concerned about it. Because everything that we have seen showed that, at the very highest levels of state government, there was knowledge and there was complicity, and there may even have been orders to try to get past the data that they showed -- that was showing that there were problems with lead in the water in Flint.

I don't know where those facts go. I think the integrity of the investigative process has to be maintained. I just hope that they are as aggressive in looking at those folks who made decisions far up into state government as they are looking at the people who may be, perhaps, were just simply following orders. That doesn't excuse them but it certainly begs the question as to whether others should be brought into this as well.

CUOMO: Mick -- Michaela was on the show earlier talking with Leann Walters. You know, she's suing as well. She's a parent there. She has a kid that got sick. A lot of parents were in that same situation.

[08:45:00] And the proposition of the lawsuit is as powerful as it is plain. The situation still sucks there, Congressman. People are still having to live with bottled water. They're getting encouraged to use filtered water. It's not been found to be safe beyond the point of concern of the scientific community. The infrastructure money isn't pouring into that place the way we expected it to be. Why can't you and the other elected officials get this done?

KILDEE: Well, we should.

CUOMO: I know you should. But why hasn't it happened?

KILDEE: Well, just to be blunt, because we have Republicans in Michigan that are blocking it. I have a bill that would provide federal and state support, equally matched from each of those levels of government, that would fix the pipes, that would provide the public health support, that would provide developmental support. But so far, I mean, I have to be -- say I'm frustrated with the fact that, in Congress, for example, I have many Republicans who are very sympathetic, who are very critical of what happened, who actually blame the EPA, ironically, but when it comes to actually putting money on the table to fix the problem, they stop short. They say, no, this is a state issue.

Look, there is no excuse in Congress or in the Michigan legislature for not funding the entire recovery plan for the City of Flint. And what I fear is that they're thinking if we just sort of mark time, this story will go away. Look, I represent Flint, Michigan. I'm not going to let it go away. That doesn't mean we'll get it done but I'm sure not going to stop.

CUOMO: Understood. Congressman Dan Kildee, thank you very much. We'll stay on this story.

KILDEE: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Brianna?

KEILAR: Anthony Bourdain taking us around the world in a new season of "Parts Unknown". Where does his journey begin? He'll tell us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:50:13] ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": As one does, I dragooned the band, Keystone, in a lunch, assuming correctly, as it turned out, that one of these young punks would know how to make a good adobo.

This adobo is amazing. It's really, really good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I learned this from my mom.

BOURDAIN: So the answer, as always, to who makes the best adobo, is mom makes it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Tony Bourdain makes the word dragoon delicious. And he is back with his award-winning show "PARTS UNKNOWN". It returns this Sunday, all new season episodes for you. Now the premiere, he's going to go to the capital of the Philippines, Manila, and discusses the Filipino people's love for music and cooking and more. It's about culture as much as it's about anything.

So let's talk to the man himself. So, great to see you here, my jiujitsu-loving friend. You go to the Philippines, Manila. What did you find there?

BOURDAIN: You know, the Philippines, it's 7,000 islands, so we can only really look at one place, and this time concentrating I guess on the Filipino character. The phenomenon of the overseas worker, the necessity for so many Filipinos to travel abroad, separate themselves from their family for decades, oftentmes, taking care of other people as doctors, caregivers, nannies, nurses, and sending money back to the Philippines is an essential past economy. And also the incredible phenomenon of the Filipino cover band. I mean, everywhere I go in my travels, particularly in southeast Asia, I go into a hotel lobby or a bar, there is a Filipino cover band flawlessly executing all of Guns 'N' Roses, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon", Happy birthday" in Cantonese.

CUOMO: Why there?

BOURDAIN: This is exactly what we're looking at -- why are so many cover bands so good and so ubiquitous that they all come from the Philippines?

CUOMO: Now one of the beautiful and new offerings of this season is that you really are capturing this change that's going on in the world with globalization and mixing of cultures and people in a new way. How are we going to see that as we go through the season?

BOURDAIN: Well, as it turned out, we tend to arrive as things are happening a lot. I mean, we were shooting in Cologne, (INAUDIBLE) Germany. Hadn't anticipated this obviously, but there is way a huge incident on new year's eve involving North Africa refugees, or an incident that was attributed certainly to refugees from Libya and North Africa and the Middle East. So in Greece, again, the refugee crisis coming up.

The world is changing. And people are moving, and it's becoming an increasingly contentious and divisive issue. It's something that we can't help but look at.

CUOMO: We're putting up on the screen for the people at home -- the places you're going are really going to be relevant as this whole kind of panoply of change around the world, Manila, the Greek islands, Chicago, Montana, Deblisse (ph), Cologne, Buenos Aires, Senegal. This is something. Boy, you really punched the passport book.

Now, let's start with this first one, being in Manila, we're talking about it. What is an adobo and what makes a good adobo versus the one that I would mae? I always thought it was the spice packett from Goya.

(LAUGHTER)

BOURDAIN: It's one of the fundamental (NAUDIBLE). It's one of the fundamental spice and onion/garlic mix, of course, many other dishes. Everyone makes one differently. It's the sort of thing that is bound to cause an enthusiastic argument over whose adobo is best and how might one go about making it. It's a very personal thing. I think everybody's mom, of course, makes the best adobo.

CUOMO: It's always the best answer, that's for sure.

BOURDAIN: Yes.

CUOMO: And the Philippines, of course, so unique because they are that Southeast Asian culture mixed with that heavy Spanish influence. BOURDAIN: Yes.

CUOMO: And you wind up seeing that play out pretty much throughout the culture?

BOURDAIN: And a big U.S. influence as well. It's a real mix. They love to eat. They love to cook. They love to entertain. We were there over Christmas holidays, and Christmas holidays in Manila basically starts September 1st and goes right through into January. And they're just going hard the whole time.

CUOMO: Able to train in the Philippines?

BOURDAIN: Yes, jiujitsu is very good in the Philippines. Martial arts are very strong.

CUOMO: Very big.

BOURDAIN: And vicious. There, the national martial arts colleague is unbelievable violent. It's basically a knife -- knife defense and knife attacks. We show a little of it, but it's not a major focus.

CUOMO: Well, it's good. I'll think about that the next time I'm deciding how to attack you, Tony Bourdain.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Always a pleasure. Thanks for being with us.

BOURDAIN: Thank you.

CUOMO: Always excited for the new season. Tony Bourdain. All right, you know you can always watch it Sundays 9:00 p.m., appointment television.

[08:55:04] Coming up next, The Good Stuff.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: President Obama and the Saudi foreign minister addressing reporters right now in Riyadh. Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just want to make a brief comment on what we've accomplished.

Last year at our summit at Camp David, we agreed to build an even stronger partnership between our nation. We already had strong bilateral relations and collectively had a shared vision of peace and prosperity in the region, but we felt that we could do more given the challenges that have arisen.

Today we've reviewed the important progress we made together. I reaffirmed a policy of the United States to use all elements to secure our core interests in the Gulf region and to deter and confront external aggression against our allies and our partners. And we reached a common vision on how to move forward together in key areas. We remain united in our fight to destroy ISIL, or Daesh, which is a

threat to all of us. And the United States will help our GCC partners ensure that their special operations forces are interoperable, and GCC nations will to increase their contributions to the -- the fight against ISIL and the coalition that we formed. We'll continue to support Iraq as it liberates and stabilizes towns and cities from ISIL control. And we'll remain leading donors of humanitarian aid to the peoples of Syria and Iraq, who have suffered so much.

We agreed to continue working closely to deescalate and resolve regional conflicts. In Syria, the cessation of hostilities is obviously under tremendous strain, including continued violations by the Assad regime. This violence is yet another reminder that there is only one way to end this civil war, as our GCC partners agree. A transitional governing body, a new constitution, with free elections, including a transition away from Assad.

With regard to Yemen, we urged all parties to abide by the cessation of hostilities so that humanitarian aid can be reached to the Yemeni people and the peace process can proceed. With regard to Libya, we agreed to keep building support for the new national unity government.

And given the ongoing threats in the region, the United States will continue to increase our security cooperation with our GCC partners, including helping them improve their own capacity to defend themselves. And I thanked our GCC partners for their support of the comprehensive deal that has now cut off every single one of Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon. That makes the region safer. We'll remain vigilant to ensure Iran fulfills its commitments, just as we fulfill ours.

Even with the nuclear deal, we recognized collectively we continue to have serious concerns about Iranian behavior. Our nations committed to interdict illegal Iranian arms shipments and impose costs on Iran for its ballistic missile program and oppose Iran's destabilizing activities in the region. At the same time, as I said at Camp David last year, none of our nations have an interest in conflict with Iran. We welcome an Iran that plays a responsible role in the region, one that takes concrete practical steps to build trust and resolve its differences with its neighbors by peaceful means, and abides by international rules and norms.

And finally, even as the summit focused on security issues, it remains the case that true and lasting security also depends on governance and a economy that serves all its citizens and respects universal human rights. And with this in mind, the United States and the GCC will launch a new high level economic dialogue with a focus on adjusting to lower oil prices, increasing our economic ties and supporting GCC reforms as they work to provide jobs and opportunities to their young people and all of their citizens.

So again, I want to thank His Majesty and all of our GCC partners for this very successful summit. When we look back on the past year, a lot has gotten done. I'm confident that, a year from now, we will be able to say that because of these actions all of our nations are more peaceful and more secure and more prosperous. And it underscores the enduring friendship and partnership between the United States and the countries that are represented around this table. Thank you for your hospitality.

(APPLAUSE)

[09:00:07] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, everyone. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for being here.