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U.S. Navy SEAL Killed By ISIS in Iraq; Trump & Clinton all But Certain to be Nominees. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 04, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:12] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have new details this morning about the ISIS attack in Iraq that killed a Navy SEAL. This is the third combat death in Iraq directly linked to ISIS.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is live in Amman, Jordan, with more.

Good morning, Jomana.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Thirty-one-year-old Navy SEAL Charlie Keating IV was tragically killed in this coordinated complex attack launched by ISIS militants on Peshmerga Kurdish forces, north of the city of Mosul, about 20 miles north of Mosul. According to U.S. officials they used multiple suicide car bombs and bulldozers attacking the Kurdish Peshmerga front lines and about 100 ISIS militants in this attack.

They managed to break through the Peshmerga defense lines and the navy SEALs were not on the front lines, according to U.S. officials, as a standard practice. They were at a Peshmerga base about three miles from the front line.

But as ISIS broke through, a firefight ensued and that is how Navy SEAL Charlie Keating IV was killed. We're also hearing from Peshmerga forces they also suffered casualties this major attack happening on Tuesday morning. The U.S. responded with an F-15 and drones dropping more than 20 bombs.

We're hearing from Kurdish officials that this was not the only attack that ISIS carried out on Tuesday morning. This was part of a major assault by the group on various Kurdish front lines in northern Iraq really highlighting ISIS' ability to carry out such attacks and, of course, the dangers U.S. forces are facing even in that advisory role -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Jomana Karadsheh in Jordan, thank you so much.

Detroit public school teachers urged by union leaders to return to work this morning. Nearly all of the district's 97 schools were shut down Monday and Tuesday by mass teacher sickouts. Those teachers are now assured by a state-appointed emergency manager that they will be paid for the full school year.

CAMEROTA: All right. Much of the Northeast continues to get drenched. When will the rainy weather end?

Let's get to CNN's meteorologist Chad Myers.

Make it stop, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sunday afternoon for Mother's Day, I think is the next real shot of dry air, and then it's going to be raining on and off until then. Rain in New York City right now. Airports are going to be slow today with cloud cover and rainfall.

Big storms still in Florida this morning and those are part of the tail of the front that's there. There could even be even some wind and hail damage across parts of southern and central Florida this morning.

There's the next storm, though, across the Great Lakes, and everywhere here you see that's yellow. Two inches of rain or more in the next three days. Piling up.

Now, it will be cool under that rain as well, 51 Chicago. Only in the 40s and 50s across all of the Northeast.

So, how does the pattern really set up? It's a trough ridge track. What means there's a trough in the west, a ridge in the middle part of the country where it's warm and dry, and a trough where it's going to be very wet in the east.

Now, that warm and dry is also over the fires in Canada, talked about those. Thousands of people evacuated there, but heavy, heavy rainfall into southern California, and they'll take it, because El Nino didn't break the drought just yet, but this will help, just a little bit more -- John.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, the one thing, it's a trough ridge trough.

CAMEROTA: I like a ridge, bad trough.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, thank you so much.

MYERS: All right.

BERMAN: All right. Donald Trump will be the presumptive Republican nominee after winning Indiana. That word from the Republican National Committee chair. His likely opponent this fall, Hillary Clinton. So how do they fare head to head? We have brand new CNN poll numbers, coming up.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:39:04] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She will not be a great president. She will not be a good president. She will be a poor president. She doesn't understand trade. Her husband signed perhaps in the history of the world the single worst trade deal ever done. It's called NAFTA. And I was witness to the carnage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's Donald Trump turning his attention to the general election in a likely race against Hillary Clinton. In a just released CNN/ORC poll, it shows Clinton leading Trump by 13 points in a general election matchup. That is her biggest lead since last summer.

Let's discuss all of this with Maggie Haberman. She's our CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for "The New York Times."

Maggie, great to have you here.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Let's take a moment to just reflect this morning. After Donald Trump's big win in Indiana, where we are, you have covered him for many years. Eleven months ago when he announced he was getting into the race, many people, pundits, thought it would be short lived.

[06:40:04] He is now the presumptive nominee.

HABERMAN: It's quite a moment, as somebody who authored a piece very early on suggesting he could never win a state. I have to say, I'm pretty surprised. It's a little less shocking over the last few months, because we saw him win New Hampshire very big and then he won South Carolina. Two states that Republicans, or Democrats, tend to capture and then go on to become the nominee.

He has had a tougher path because of this attempt at a Stop Trump movement, which I'm not clear how much oomph there actually ever was behind it. Sort of a lot of smoke, not much fire. He has accomplished something you have to give him credit for.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. And it's a little early for a matchup between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump because the race has been so hard to predict. But this is a lead for her by 13 points. Interestingly, Bernie Sanders makes the case that he is the most winning candidate. This is what he said again last night, because his lead over Donald Trump is even bigger, 56 percent to 40 percent.

So, is this a vulnerability I mean for Trump moving forward?

HABERMAN: I think that you're coming into this election, if it is Hillary Clinton as the nominee moving forward and the delegate math is simply not on Bernie Sanders' side still without super delegates if the race is what we assume. It will be Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. They are both going in with historically high negatives but Trump's are higher. And so, you generally win with the better positive rating.

I agree with you there is an unpredictability about this political climate, how angry the electorate is and some is not cutting across ideological lines from what you see in Sanders and Trump supporters, you have Trump clearly making overtures towards Sanders supporters over the last several days.

But a primary electorate is not the same as a general electorate and it's important to remember that.

CAMEROTA: Politics makes strange bedfellows, it's been said, and it also makes strange breakups. We saw this host of tweets sent out by conservative Republicans last night after Donald Trump's victory. Let me show some for you.

This is Philip Klein. He's the managing editor of "The Washington Examiner." I have officially deregistered. Ben Howe, editor of RedState, aconservative website, #I'mwithher. Willing to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. He says, "I am not longer a Republican."

So, you know, that's all happening at the same time Donald Trump is bringing more people into the tent. So, how does that math all shake out?

HABERMAN: It's going to be interesting to see two things. Number one, how many new voters Trump does bring in in the fall. We have seen him bring in new voters in support of him. We also saw him bring in new voters who voted against him, certainly in the earlier states.

So, it's not clear how that will break down. There is also this group of people who are, you know, #NeverTrump, as you see on Twitter and going a step further saying, #imwithher, which means you're voting for Hillary Clinton. Those are not necessarily the same things.

It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks to see if people step back a bit from the precipice and say, you know what, we want to unite behind the brand of the Republican Party, we want to strengthen, we want to help defeat Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: Though he defies the brand of the Republican Party.

HABERMAN: Yes, yes. And he both owns it and defines it. He has run in spite of it and now, he is taking it over. And that is going to be a major issue how he brings the party together and how consistent in this new tone that we saw last night going forward.

CAMEROTA: There's one big vulnerability for Hillary Clinton, and that is when people asked in exit polls what the biggest issue is, they say the economy. And when you pull up how he does against her on every issue, terrorism, immigration, income gap, health care, she wins. But on the economy, the number one issue, he beats her.

HABERMAN: It's a significant issue. It is a number one voting issue for people. If the economy continues to do well and she is tethering herself to President Obama as we have seen, that will probably help her. I think how President Obama and the economy does will be a major factor. You're not seeing a huge disparity between the two of them in that number. But, look, Trump is presenting himself as the Mr. Fix it and doing it

in very sort of easy to digest terms. You know, I can do this. I've done this. I've run a business. I'm going to bring back jobs.

And to some extent, just that simple statement is something voters want to hear. We'll see.

CAMEROTA: Maggie Haberman, always great to talk to you. Thanks for sharing your reporting always with us.

Let's get over to John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Alisyn.

Donald Trump savoring his resounding victory in Indiana. It looks like there was one issue that put him on top in that state. We'll talk about that next on NEW DAY.

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[06:48:40] BERMAN: All right. Time now for CNN Money.

Indiana voters on both sides of the aisle sharing a top concern, the economy.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here with a look at some of the deciding factors in Indiana -- Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, guys.

Indiana has the highest percentage of manufacturing workers of any state. Did you know that? And outsourcing those jobs is the fear reflected in our exit polls. The economy and jobs, top agenda in Indiana, it has been for states. Forty percent of Hoosiers say the economy is number one.

Those worried voters lean towards Trump and there's growing concern about the future, 67 percent are very worried about the U.S. economy and out of 25 percent, somewhat worried. Added together, it's 92 percent. Seriously concerned about the direction of the U.S. economy. Of those, they favor Donald Trump as the man to fix it.

For Democratic primary voters in Indiana, 84 percent are worried about the economy. They broke for Bernie Sanders. But look at the breakdown when asked about trade with other countries. Forty-seven percent say it killed American jobs, takes away American jobs. That group voted for Bernie Sanders. Thirty-nine percent said trade creates jobs, that group split 50/50.

Now, the economy and jobs is issue for the Democrats as well. Of those, Sanders edging out Clinton by just 2 percentage, guys -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, Christine.

Well, the navy SEAL killed in Iraq identified. [06:50:00] What we're learning about the coordinated attack that took

his life.

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BERMAN: New details now with the complex and coordinated ISIS attack that claimed the life of a U.S. Navy SEAL in Iraq. Officials say some 100 ISIS fighters carried out the attack that killed Charles Keating IV. He's the third U.S. combat casualty since the U.S. redeployed forces in Iraq in 2014.

Joining us from Baghdad, spokesman for the anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq and "Operation Inherent Resolve", Colonel Steve Warren.

Colonel, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

First off, what can you tell us about Charles Keating IV?

COL. STEVE WARREN, SPOKESMAN, ANTI-ISIS COALITION IN IRAQ: Well, John, thank you for having me. It was bad day for us here yesterday. Our thoughts and our prayers are, of course, with this service member's family and loved ones.

Yesterday morning here in Baghdad, about 9:00 a.m., about 9:00, 9:30 a.m., there was an attack, in a part of Iraq, northern Iraq, actually north of Mosul called Tal-Skuf.

[06:55:03] This was a coordinated ISIL attack where they attempted to seize this village. It's only a small village.

At that time, some of our American advisers happened to be in that village discussing future plans with the Peshmerga who were there. So when the enemy came through, the forward lines that attacked that town, our service member was right in the thick of it.

BERMAN: Defense Secretary Ash Carter called this a combat death, yet the White House said this was not a combat mission. Is this a distinction that matters? What is the distinction?

WARREN: Well, this was certainly a combat death. This soldier as well as many other soldiers have been conducting their combat mission here in Iraq.

I think the distinction is what is not happening here in Iraq right now is what we would think of as major combat operations. This is not 2004. This is not 2008, when we had a large, large American presence here conducting offensive maneuver operations in an effort to take and hold ground.

What we have now is several thousand American advisers, American trainers, and some facilitators here helping the Iraqi army take back their own country. I think that's the difference.

BERMAN: They were in this town north of Mosul under the protection of the Peshmerga. You know, the Kurdish militia connected to Iraq's main army. Is the Peshmerga up to the task? Do you have concerns about the Peshmerga's ability to keep U.S. military personnel safe?

WARREN: We don't have concerns about the Peshmerga. They are up for the task. They have, in fact, fought very well over the last 20 months. They are one of the, if not the, best fighting force here in Iraq, the Iraqi counterterrorist service being the other one.

So these are good fighters. We've partnered with them for many years. We understand their capabilities. They understand ours.

John, this was -- this was one of the things that happens in these conflict zones. This was a determined enemy who punched through the lines suddenly and was able to create a little bit of a ruckus back in the Peshmerga rear area.

It's important to note, too, that all of the systems that we have in place to deal with these situations sprang quickly into action. A quick reaction force of Americans moved into position to assist. The medevac birds that we have laid on got to this service member and had him at a hospital within the famous golden hour, that important one- hour time from when one is hit until one gets to higher level medical care.

Unfortunately, the wound was just not survivable. It was a very tough situation. But we feel like our partners, the Peshmerga, are up for the task.

BERMAN: No, look, we have the best of the best in Iraq right now, advising and assisting, but it does create confusion here in the United States, where a lot of people look at this and say, hey, you know, we're told we're not involved in combat over in the Middle East right now. We thought we were through all of our troops in Iraq, yet we're seeing casualties there, yet we are seeing people very much in harm's way.

What would you tell the American people about the environment that some 4,000 troops now in the region, the dangers they face?

WARREN: Right. And the confusion is very understandable and is very justifiable.

What I would tell people is this -- there is an enemy here in Iraq and in Syria called the Islamic State, and these are the determined enemy. This is an enemy that wants to attack us at home. They want to attack our allies, our friends and partners in Europe.

They have already conducted more than 60 terrorist attacks in 21 countries around the world. They've caused more than 1,000 casualties outside of Iraq and Syria. These are bad guys, and they need to be stopped.

So, we're helping our partners, the Iraqis, and we are helping our partners the Syrian moderate opposition to do just that, to defeat this enemy. So, we're doing it in a place that is very dangerous. And there will be casualties. This is something we have to accept.

We're doing it with devastating air power. There have been thousands and thousands and thousands of air strikes launched from various spots around this region. Every one of those pilots is in danger when he takes off -- he or she takes off.

So, it's important to note, we are in a dangerous place here. But we are doing it for a very important reason. This is an enemy who wants to come get us.

BERMAN: Colonel, our thoughts with all 4,000 U.S. troops there and know that we mourn the loss of Charlie Keating along with you. Colonel Steve Warren, thank you so much for being with us.

WARREN: Thank you, John. It's my pleasure.

BERMAN: We're following a lot of news this morning, including an interview with the head of the Republican National Committee. This following Donald Trump's big win in Indiana. So, let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), SUSPENDING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: We gave it everything we've got. The voters chose another path.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Ted did is really a very brave thing to do and a great thing to do.