Return to Transcripts main page
New Day
Wrinkle-Free Second Skin; Blind Adventurer Reaches New Heights; Democratic Presidential Race; Facebook Denies Bias. Aired 8:30-9:00a ET
Aired May 11, 2016 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:32:02] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the five things to know for your new day.
Donald Trump easily won primaries in Nebraska and West Virginia. Easy, since everyone else dropped out. New Trump seems to be playing nice ahead of tomorrow's big meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Bernie Sanders with a big win against Hillary Clinton in West Virginia, but he barely chipped away at her delegate lead, netting just five delegates from that contest.
A deadly stabbing spree south of Boston. Police say 28-year-old Arthur DaRosa of Taunton, Massachusetts, killed two people, wounded several others, before he was shot and killed by an off duty officer inside a mall.
A search warrant in the investigation into Prince's death is revealing the name of a doctor who treated him. Doctor Michael Schulenberg saw Prince twice the month before he died.
Film lovers flooding the French Riviera as the Cannes Film Festival begins today. Security will be intense as Woody Allen opens the festival with his latest movie, "Cafe Society."
For more on the five things to know, go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.
Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, listen to this, John. Researchers at MIT create a lotion that makes wrinkles invisible. Chris and I are all ears. CNN's Jeanne Moos has the skinny.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it's baking soda -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Smear it on.
MOOS: Or coffee grounds, people will try anything to reduce those bags and wrinkles. So why not a second skin? DANIEL ANDERSON, PROFESSOR, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: I
don't see why you couldn't put it on every morning and wear it like any other makeup.
MOOS: Even put makeup on it. "An elastic second skin" was the title of the paper published by MIT and Harvard scientists in the journal "Nature Materials."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First you put on this invisible cream on your skin, and then has the polymer in it. And then in a second step, you put on what we call a catalyst.
MOOS: The two creams produce a bond, an invisible plastic coating that mimics younger skin. Look at the difference in photos accompanying the article. The coating lasts for at least a day.
MOOS (on camera): How does it feel?
ANDERSON: It doesn't feel like you're wearing anything.
MOOS (voice-over): Developed over nine years, tested on over 100 people, the scientists say it could also protect sores and hide skin diseases like eczema and psoriasis.
MOOS (on camera): You really can't tell where the fake skin ends and the new - real skin begins?
ANDERSON: I can.
MOOS (voice-over): Scientists stand to benefit, even get rich if second skin pans out when it hits the marketplace in a couple of years.
MOOS (on camera): Why do they keep pinching that woman's eye bags?
MOOS (voice-over): To demonstrate the coating gives elasticity to skin, something we lose when we age. One joker compared it to the "Game of Thrones" character who morphs from old to young and back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's kind of the Spanx argument, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You wear it, and then when you take it off, you let it all hang out.
MOOS: No word on pricing, though considering the chemical contents, Professor Anderson doesn't see why it should be super expensive.
MOOS (on camera): So how do you get your new, invisible second skin off?
[08:35:02] MOOS (voice-over): Pretty much the same way they do in "Mission Impossible." Just hope that if you ever use second skin, you don't get this reaction when removing it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ahhhh!
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Are you wearing it?
BERMAN: You'll never know.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This stuff is amazing.
CAMEROTA: Because you look like a baby.
BERMAN: I will never - I will never tell.
CUOMO: His face is so soft.
BERMAN: Supple is the word I think we're going for there.
BANFIELD: A man-baby.
CUOMO: Look, who knows, some day they're going to be able to remake all of us completely.
CAMEROTA: When is that day?
BERMAN: Just you, hopefully.
CUOMO: I know.
CAMEROTA: I'm just curious. When will that be happening?
CUOMO: Not soon enough.
A Colorado adventure who is redefining what it means to be blind, breaking down barriers, helping others to do the same. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back. He has this story in "Turning Points."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Erik Weihenmayer has scaled the seven summits and braved the violent Colorado River rapids, in the dark. At four years old, he was diagnosed with a rare eye disease called juvenile retinoschisis. By high school, Erik was completely blind.
ERIK WEIHENMAYER: I wanted to be with my friends and going on dates. And I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to participate in life.
GUPTA: But he did, joining the wrestling team and learning how to rock climb.
WEIHENMAYER: You're just feeling your way up the rock face.
GUPTA: He became an accomplished mountaineer and set his sights on Everest.
WEIHENMAYER: Himalayan experts said, you cannot stop if you fall. You cannot think at high altitude. It wouldn't be a good place for a blind person.
GUPTA: Erik disagreed. And in 2001, became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.
WEIHENMAYER: I'm on the top. (INAUDIBLE). I can't believe it.
GUPTA: Seeking out new adventures, Erik trained for six years to kayak 277 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
WEIHENMAYER: You know, I'm not just doing these things so I can prove that blind people can do this or that. That's kind of shallow. You do it because that living fully.
GUPTA: The now 47-year-old is using that mantra to help others facing challenges through his nonprofit, No Barriers.
WEIHENMAYER: And I think in our lives, all of us in a way are climbing blind.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:41:07] CUOMO: Bernie Sanders winning in West Virginia, handedly. That prolongs the primary. It prolongs the so-called coronation. It prolongs the questions about what's going to happen in the Democratic Party.
So let's discuss with California Congressman Xavier Becerra, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, has endorsed Hillary Clinton.
It is good to see you, congressman. We both know my first question, have you been contacted about being a potential VP?
REP. XAVIER BECERRA, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS: If someone has, it's not me. And I'm just looking forward to seeing Secretary Clinton do a great job in the primary, and then win in November. So working very hard to help her do that.
CUOMO: So we both knew and loved Tim Russert. Let's bring him back just for a moment. So you're saying that no one has contacted you, but that you are open to being contacted?
BECERRA: Look, I'm working hard. If you ask me, do I believe the House Democrats have a chance to get a majority to work with Secretary Clinton as president in 2017, I'll tell you, it's looking a lot better. Our channels are growing each day. And that's because Hillary Clinton is doing a great job. Democrats are doing a great job. So that - I could tell you that. I - that's one thing I could to tell you. CUOMO: And is that your way to saying, I would therefore be open to
working with Hillary Clinton to win the election as her vice president?
BECERRA: Chris, you're talking to the son of immigrants, who is the first to go on to get a four year college degree. I am ready to do as much as I can to help my country make the biggest difference where I can. So right now, in the House, we're really anxious to have a majority that will work with the president, rather than get in the way of the president. So, Hillary Clinton becoming the next president will be awesome. But what's more important is to have a Congress that will work with her so we don't have people in Congress who are asleep at the wheel, as we have now.
CUOMO: And as someone who was raised by the son of immigrants, serving at the highest capacity would always be a dream. And is that a dream of yours as well?
BECERRA: You know, the sky should be the limit for any American who believes in the American dream. And I certainly am the product of it. A construction worker and clerical worker somehow found a way to send four kids to get some college. My dad couldn't walk into restaurants because of the signs that said no dogs or Mexicans allowed, even though he was a U.S. citizen. And today I've got a - when you come to my office, I'll show you a photograph of my parents with the president of the United States. He got to walk through the doors of the White House. So, that's the dream, shoot high, don't believe anyone can keep you done.
CUOMO: I respect the dream and I respect the De La Hoya-esque bopping and weaving you're doing around my questions.
Let me throw something at you, you can't avoid. Bernie Sanders is not going away. He says he's in it to win. Hillary Clinton in 2008 won 23 states. He's on pace to meet or beat that record. The bigger concern is, is that your adversary, Donald Trump, has started to use what Bernie Sanders says as a hammer against Hillary Clinton. How does this make you feel? Does it make you feel that something needs to happen with Sanders sooner rather than later?
BECERRA: Chris, I - again, I just gave you the reasons why we should always be optimistic and shoot for the stars. I think in this case Bernie Sanders is going to be in the campaign as long as Bernie Sanders wants to. It's been a spirited debate, a spirited election process. I don't think anything's wrong with that. So - I think so long as they stick to the issues, they tackle the issues versus tackle each other, as we saw on the Republican side, we're in good shape. And I believe that once this primary season is over, I believe Hillary Clinton will be not only our nominee, but a strong nominee. And I believe everyone who has been working on the Democratic side, including Bernie Sanders, will work hard to make sure we elect the best president, the most tested person to be the next president, Hillary Clinton.
CUOMO: What do you see as the one-two punch. What's your response to Donald Trump saying, on the personal side, Hillary is crooked and an enabler of her husband, Bill Clinton, and on the policy side, she's more years of Obama, and we can't have that?
[08:45:09] BECERRA: This guy says more things than you can read in a comic book. And my sense is that he reads like a comic book. One day he says one thing, another day he says another. Let him say what he wishes. Hillary Clinton is going to continue to talk about growing the number of jobs in America and growing paychecks. She's going to talk about how women will earn as much as men doing the same work. She's going to make sure health care is there. She's going to build schools, not build walls. And so, you know, I'm not too worried about what he says and does as they - as we typically will say. I'm not running against so-and-so, I'm running for this. And in this case, Hillary Clinton is running to be our president, not - she's not running against Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Quickly, you know a lot of the super delegates in your role there, and your relationships as well. Do you hear about anything significant in terms of shifting from Clinton to Sanders?
BECERRA: Other than I think there's an even stronger belief that Hillary Clinton will be our nominee, no. Again, I think everyone respects what Senator Sanders has done, is doing. It is important to have a vibrant discussion of the issues. This debate has been good and it's - it should be spirited and we should not ask for anything less. It's creating more enthusiasm. And I think we're going to have record turnouts, certainly in communities like the Latino community that really believe they have a personal stake in this election.
CUOMO: Xavier Becerra, congressman from California, Democrat, thank you for being on NEW DAY today.
BECERRA: Thanks, Chris.
CUOMO: Appreciate it.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: All right, Chris.
Facebook accused of anti-conservative bias. Coming up, the truth about those trending topics that you see on your page.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:50:44] BERMAN: Facebook is defending itself against claims it suppressed conservative leaning news stories on the social network's ranking of trending topics. The Senate Commerce Committee is now investigating these accusations initiated by former Facebook staffers. This was all from a story by Gizmodo (ph). CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter, and senior editor for Re/Code, Dawn Chmielewski join us right now.
And, Dawn, let me start just with trending topics right now. We're not talking about the newsfeed, we're talking about trending topics, which is something separate, which is what exactly?
DAWN CHMIELEWSKI, SENIOR EDITOR, RE/CODE: Yes, exactly. Squint really closely on your Facebook page on the - on your PC, and what you'll see over on the right corner is these microscopically small topics that appear, you know, sort of - and, believe me, they're forgotten. Like, everyone is familiar with the news feed. That's where I see updates from my friends, I see new kid pictures, I see, you know, whatever, news stories that friends have shared. That is the main news feed. That's not what we're talking about here. That information is determined by what your friends see and like and share and how Facebook's algorithms decide what might be of interest to you based on what you react to.
The trending topics are sort of Facebook's answers to Twitter. They're supposed to be kind of an alert system to tell us what - what's really buzzing on the platform. That's what we're talking about.
BERMAN: All right, just -
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: They're small, but they're powerful, right, because all of Facebook is powerful.
BERMAN: Indeed. Just to be clear, this is what Facebook says here.
CHMIELEWSKI: Agree.
BERMAN: They say "there are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspective. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics."
You know, Brian, you know, Dawn used the word algorithm, you know, which is a word many of us don't understand, which is how Facebook works, but the trending topics, at a certain level, they have whatever algorithms and programs and hocus pocus -
STELTER: Yes.
BERMAN: But they also have human beings.
STELTER: That's right. When you hear the word "trending," you think it's a computer algorithm that's deciding and revealing what's trending just by measuring sentiment all across the web. But, in fact, Facebook uses a human layer on top of that, and that's the controversy. These editors remove spam, they remove scams, they remove those hock (ph) stories that everybody gets tricked by once in a while. But if they're also once in a while removing stories about Ted Cruz or Donald Trump or about other Republican candidates, or if they're removing stories of interest to conservative readers, that's a big problem for Facebook. And even though they are denying it, they're investigating it further, this is a stain on Facebook's reputation going forward.
BERMAN: Look, Republicans are already pissed, right? I mean the chairman of the Republican Party put out a statement saying Facebook must answer for conservative censorship, make this trend, you know, a not so subtle jab right there.
BERMAN: And even if this is - even this is election season posturing, it does have an impact on Facebook's perception.
BERMAN: So, Dawn, you know, the Commerce Committee in the Senate says they're going to investigate this. What kind of, you know, fingerprints or digital footprint, what kind of proof could there be out there of whether Facebook is doing this?
CHMIELEWSKI Lord knows what's out there. I mean, let's face it, we don't even know how these mysterious algorithms work, how the selection process works. It's really opaque. And, by the way, the same is true, Google search, you know, like these - these companies don't share their special sauce. They say that way it can be gamed. And I - and what - what the - what the Senate is looking for is information about what trends were featured and what was suppressed. I'm not sure that Facebook keeps such a record.
STELTER: Yes, it's going to be interesting to see if they have those records. Democrats, meanwhile, saying this is a waste of time. Some liberals say conservatives are acting victimized by all this. It is an interesting election season story, but I think it goes to this broader issue. We all sense that Facebook is getting more and more and more powerful. That it's one of the biggest sources of news because of what shows up in your news feed and what shows up in trending topics. And I'm glad to see this scrutiny because it kind of reminds me of what you say in the news business, right, sunshine is the best disinfectant. Maybe that's true as well for a technology company like Facebook.
BERMAN: You know, it's all against the subject of media bias, too, right?
STELTER: Right.
BERMAN: I mean we hear it a lot. We hear it from both sides but we hear it from the conservative side too. And Mark Zuckerberg, the leader of Facebook, he has been out there with statements that people have parsed to suggest that, you know, he's anti-Trump. He's talked about people building walls. He said he wasn't talking about Trump. But - but come on here. I mean, Dawn, do you think that's at play here?
CHMIELEWSKI: I mean, come on, look, there's absolutely no question that Mark Zuckerberg perhaps has put himself in the line of fire by making such prominent statements about people who build walls and anti-immigrant sentiment. He's done it more than once. He did it at the developer conference in San Francisco. He did it separately when Donald Trump made statements about banning Muslims from this country. So perhaps he's made himself a target.
But let's also be real here. Donald Trump managed to emerge as the Republican Party's nominee, not in small part by his deafness at social media. He's got 7 million followers on Facebook. I mean, how did that happen? That didn't happen with Facebook actively suppressing something. I mean he - he definitely used that platform and Twitter to communicate with his voters.
[08:55:14] BERMAN: All right, Dawn, Brian, you'll always be trending topics to me. Thanks so much for helping us understand this. appreciate it.
What is your take. You can tweet us, which would be counterintuitive given this last segment, or you can go to Facebook.com/newday, make it trend.
"The Good Stuff" is next.
CAMEROTA: You're such a romantic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: This stuff, which is good, brings us seven-year-old Ania Williams (ph). She shows us that strong determination can defy all odds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIANCA MIDDLETON, MOTHER: She ties her shoes. She gets dressed for herself. She doesn't need any assistance to do anything at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: Well, sounds pretty normal. But did you catch the video?
CAMEROTA: Yes.
CUOMO: Ania was born without hands. And that's not all. Ania has worked so hard in school to perfect her handwriting, she won the penmanship award.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHY DAVIDSON, AWARDS DIRECTOR: Oh, she's just - just warms your heart. She - when I saw her picture on - on our website, it was the first time I - it just brought tears.
ANIA WILLIAMS: I was going to keep it in my room and draw a picture of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:00:02] CAMEROTA: Oh, gosh, that's beautiful. What a great inspirational story.
CUOMO: She warms the heart, but also she put fire in your spirit. You are not your limitations.
CAMEROTA: There you go. Thank you.
CUOMO: Boy, oh, boy.
CAMEROTA: All right, time now for "Newsroom" with Carol Costello.
