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ISIS Claims Deadly Attack On Baghdad Gas Plant; Trump's Past Under Scrutiny; Murder Rates Rising After Decades Of Decline Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired May 16, 2016 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:31:42] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: ISIS says it's behind yet another bloody attack in Iraq. Part of the assault caught on video. At least ten people were killed when a suicide car bomber stormed a Baghdad gas plant. You can see the aftermath there sending this huge ball of flames into the sky.
CNN correspondent, Jomana Karadsheh, joins us now with the latest. What have you learned, Jomana?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, according to security officials in Iraq at about 5:00 a.m. local time on Sunday ISIS carried out this attack in the northern outskirts of Baghdad on that gas plant, as you mentioned.
Two suicide car bombers attacking also followed by at least six militants who clashed with security forces and guards for a couple of hours and the result of this attack that was finally rappelled by security forces, at least ten security personnel killed.
The governor of Baghdad very critical of security authorities saying the forces there were inadequately armed to face this sort of attack. But of course, the real concern here is the timing.
This is the latest in a series of attacks that we have seen taking place in Iraq over the past couple of weeks. These really high- profile, some of them complex attacks that have claimed by ISIS.
Also coming at a time when the country is going through this political crisis. Concern that ISIS might be trying to exploit that to re- ignite the sectarian war in the country.
But U.S. and Iraqi officials say this is ISIS acting out of weakness after losing a lot of territory in both Iraq and Syria. This is the kind of response that we are seeing, what they describe is ISIS on the defensive. Chris, back to you.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A 100 lives lost at the end of the day. Strength and weakness, a horrible toll. Thank you very much for the reporting. Stay safe there.
Donald Trump's past is under a microscope now that we're getting towards the general election. What is really there? How bad is this for him? We'll put it up on the board and you decide next.
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[06:37:45]
CUOMO: Look. It's only a matter of time. You run for president, people are going to dig into your past. That's going on right now with Donald Trump. He is the presumptive GOP nominee so their scrutiny new and intense.
Let's take a look at what's out there and you can make a decision for yourself how much stink it really is. Peter Beinart, CNN political commentator, contributor at "The Atlantic," professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York.
It's good to have you with us. Professor, take us through the stink.
PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. So let's first look at the debate about Donald Trump's taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting any closer to releasing your tax returns?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm thinking about it. Thinking maybe when we find out the true story on Hillary's e- mails.
We're working on that now. I have very big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and very beautiful. We'll be working on that over the next period of time.
You don't learn anything. A tax return, you learn very, very little.
Nobody would ever put out their returns that's under an order.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: All right. So that's the range of refusals.
BEINART: Right.
CUOMO: And then what are we getting from the party?
BEINART: Here's the Republican Party response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just have to tell you after a year of dealing with this primary, one-on-one, and you know it's been a lot, I don't think the traditional playbook applies, John. We've been down this road for a year, and it doesn't apply. He's rewritten the playbook.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: All right. So -- and then how about him saying, Trump said to George Stephanopoulos the other day, when George have said, all right, what's your effective tax rate? He said, none of your business. What's your thumbs up, thumbs down on taxes?
BEINART: I think thumbs down. Reince Priebus is right that this didn't hurt him in the primaries, but what we're seeing is a much, much more of a spotlight on this now that there are only really two candidates left in the race.
And in addition, there are going to be a lot of reporters working on this story. Even if Donald Trump doesn't come forward and release, we're going to find out things about his finances.
If there's something there, if there's not something there, why isn't he releasing this? If there is something there, I think we're going to get an inkling of what it is.
CUOMO: Kind of dovetails with this next idea. The false identity thing where he was making phone calls or not, depending which side you're on, where it's not that big a deal until he goes into denial mode and then it winds up elevating it.
[06:40:03]So we know what the tape is. Skip that. This is a new piece of entry. Let people see what the "People" magazine editor who is part of this back then had to say about it.
BEINART: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH": You outed him at the time.
SUE CARSWELL, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE EDITOR: Yes.
SMERCONISH: Did he then fess up?
CARSWELL: Two weeks later.
SMERCONISH: He did?
CARSWELL: Yes. He apologized to the magazine, and he said, I'm sorry. Well, it didn't get to the "Washington Post" through me.
SMERCONISH: So?
CARSWELL: Trump.
SMERCONISH: You think Trump dropped this?
CARSWELL: Yes.
SMERCONISH: Why would he do that?
CARSWELL: Look what's gone on this week.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: What do you think -- has this been good for him? Why would he dump this tape?
BEINART: You know, this seems like unforced error. I mean, you know, classic example of a cover-up being worse than the crime. So he had some fun with newspaper reporters 25 years ago. Nobody's going to care about that. If he had just admitted it, said I was a fun guy. It was a long time ago. We all had a good time.
It would have been completely gone. So this is an example of the fact that he doesn't have better people around him, not a more disciplined team making these decisions. Too much free-styling here.
CUOMO: All right. So issues with women and let's let people take a look at some of the excerpts underneath the gender sign of what kinds of things was put out there, the "New York Times" really did this report. What do we got? Come on. I knew you would mess it up. Only a matter --
BEINART: This technology is tough.
CUOMO: David, you can't wipe it. Can you put it out?
BEINART: Trying my best.
CUOMO: There are people putting things out there about his behavior with women. That he kissed a Miss America contestants on the mouth, and he said to a reporter, you look very good today. How heavy-handed is this stuff?
BEINART: You know, if it was in isolation, maybe not a big deal. Going back to the stuff with Megyn Kelly. From the beginning of this campaign -- the question, are there that many Republican women for him left to lose?
The problem is he needs to regain Republican women. He needs to win all of the people who voted for Mitt Romney. We know his support is soft among some Republican women. This could keep it soft.
CUOMO: I hope they're paying you well at Cuny (ph) because you broke the wall. The last category here is questionable associations, we know what happened. His butler came out. The guy was with him for 30 years. He said really ugly stuff about President Obama.
The Trump campaign said he hasn't been there. My question, we are talking about this butler crackpot. You and I, you know, Beinart is one of our best on foreign policy. We should be talking about Paul Manafort.
We should be talking about what he did with Ukraine and Russia and his connections. Is that the kind of guy to have around a potential president? But what about that kind of stink? It kind of plays to a profound bigotry?
BEINART: Right. You know, in general, I'm not a fan of guilt by association. You know, he's got this guy working for him, he's not responsible for his political views. But again, you have to look at it in totality.
You go back to birther stuff, when he suggested Obama might be a Muslim, Obama only got into college because of affirmative action.
CUOMO: He did more than suggest it, by the way.
BEINART: Right. And the stuff with David Duke, where he didn't -- didn't really disavow himself. It adds up to a perception, and this is a guy, again, we're in a general election. He has to win some minority votes if he is going to have a chance of winning, and that's the problem.
CUOMO: Professor, it's good to have you.
BEINART: Sure. My pleasure.
CUOMO: Bill's coming, buddy -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Charge him for that. Thanks so much, Chris.
The bad blood between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers, not fading away, an epic bench-clearing brawl erupts between the two teams. What brought it on? I'll explain all of this in the break to you, Chris. Coy Wire has our "Bleacher Report," next.
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[06:47:40]
CUOMO: Bad blood rivalry. Part of sports when you have rivalries, but sometimes it goes too far. Now it's not about the sport, it's just about being stupid. That's what we had Sunday, an all-out brawl.
So let's bring in someone who's not only intelligent but an esteemed athlete who knows the right way to play. Coy Wire with the "Bleacher Report." Sing it.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Baseball turned to base-brawl indeed. This likely stems from last October when Blue Jay slugger, Jose Baltista hits a home run against the Rangers in the playoffs and he starts to celebrate.
And the Rangers take offense because it was a bad-mannered bat flip. Let's check out what happened yesterday. The scene set. Right? Top of the eighth, Baltista take a hit from bush in the ribs. It was on.
Baltista's on base, he goes to take second and look at this slide. The nerve. Right there into the legs of Rangers second baseman and it was on. Get ready to rumble. Clean off his face. Both benches were clear in this one.
There were a total of eight ejections in the game, coaches and players. Once the dust settled, the two teams, they won't play each other again this season, but if you're a sports fan you might want to see these two teams meet up in playoffs again. Let's move to another set of playoffs. Raptors hosting the Heat. Game seven of their playoff series. Toronto, doing all they can to spoil it. Dwyane Wade, Lebron James reunion in the next round.
Kyle Lowry leading the way for the Raptors, 35 points including five three pointers. Raptors advance to the conference finals, first time in franchise history, taking on Cleveland with game one tipping off tomorrow.
Game one in the western conference finals, that will be tonight, TNT, Steph Curry and the Warriors looking to defend their NBA title against OKC -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK, Coy, thanks for all of that.
Well, here's a troubling trend to tell you about. This is in reference to crime, the murder rate is rising in some of the country's biggest cities. We'll ask a veteran police officer what's behind it.
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[06:53:39]
CAMEROTA: Very troubling new numbers from the FBI shows homicide rates soaring in more than two dozen American cities. Let's discuss this with former commissioner of the Boston Police Department, Ed Davis. Ed, thanks so much for being here this morning.
ED DAVIS, FORMER COMMISSIONER, BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Thank you.
CAMEROTA: So there are different theories as to what's going on with this spiking crime? What's your theory?
DAVIS: There are and my theory, it's too early to tell at this point in time. There has been a concern after Ferguson and some of the high-profile video cases that police officers would pull back.
But at this point in time, we can't attribute this directly to that concern. There are a number of issues that affect the homicide rate. There are cities where the rate goes up and down dramatically from year to year over time.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
DAVIS: Boston has been one of those cities, and then finally the real thing is that there are cities in the United States, like New York, where the crime rate has actually continued to go down, even though there's been a very significant change in the way that they're doing policing.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
DAVIS: So I think that it's too early.
CAMEROTA: OK. Let's look at some of these numbers, OK? So everybody gets a sense what you're talking about. Here are the major cities where crime has gone up, and it's gone up dramatically. Look at this.
[06:55:00]Las Vegas up by -- this is murder rate, not just crime, the murder rate up 82 percent. Dallas, Jacksonville, I mean, it goes on and on. But then to your point, there are some major cities where you've seen the murder rate go down. New York City is one of them. It's down 25 percent.
Now, in terms of the so-called Ferguson effect that you're referring to, you know, some high-profile law enforcement people, James Comey, director of the FBI included, say this is a direct result.
The murder spike is because of what he calls the Ferguson effect. Let me read to you what he says. He says, "I think it is the potential effect of marginal pullbacks by lots and lots of police officers that is changing some cities. I continue to hear that privately. I've heard it in lots of conversations privately with police leaders."
I'm sure you've heard it as well, Ed, that they can't be as aggressive or assertive nowadays as they want to be, because they're afraid they'll be caught on camera and some viral video that will then jeopardize their job. What do you think about that?
DAVIS: Well, it's obvious that what all of this, all of this, these issues are affecting the way police officers work. You'd have to be crazy not to think that police aren't concerned about being videotaped and being held to task for what they're doing.
However, there are good, young police officers coming on the job right now that -- that don't know another way of doing this. In other words, as time goes on, this problem is going to be relieved because it's going to become the way of doing business. And I understand people's concerns about it, but I'm just --
CAMEROTA: When you say the problem -- I'm sorry to interrupt, but when you say problem relieved, you mean police officers being less aggressive? You think will be the way of the future?
DAVIS: Correct. No, no, no. I don't believe that's the case. I think that as we move on police will adapt to this new way of policing. You know, in the Boston Department we've had a strong relationship with academics over the years. Right now in our business it's time to rely on the academics to tell us exactly what's happening and not jump to conclusions. That's my point.
CAMEROTA: But I mean, wouldn't police officers say it's time to rely on the foot soldiers, the guys out there every day and should be able to trust their own instincts, and if they're pulling back, that that's dangerous for the community?
DAVIS: There's no proof that they're pulling back. That's the issue. De-policing is something that's we've concerned about, but reductions and increases in homicide rates have happened for generations. We have to look at this carefully to determine what's happening, that's my point.
CAMEROTA: OK, you don't think that we can blame this as James Comey is on the so-called Ferguson effect? So you are saying that you think this is cyclical. You don't think that is anything else to point and why the murder rate is up in more than two dozen cities?
DAVIS: There are enormous number of reasons why a homicide rate can go up. It can relate to drug investigations, gang activity, what's happening in Las Vegas really has nothing to do with what's happening in Jacksonville, Florida.
That's the point I want to make. We really need to study this, and I'm not saying that de-policing couldn't be one of the issues here, but it requires study, and it's a time not to jump to conclusions on this issue.
CAMEROTA: OK. We got you. Former Commissioner Ed Davis, thanks so much. Always great to get your perspective on this.
DAVIS: Thank you, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: All right, we're following a lot of news including Donald Trump defending his past. Let's get right to it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump coming under fire amid new allegations of inappropriate behavior with women.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of these stories that come out -- people just don't care.
TRUMP: Nobody has more respect for women than I do.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Ignorance is not a virtue.
BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If they want the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders is --
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Along comes Donald Trump a loose cannon.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: George Zimmerman is now trying to sell the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin for a third time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like he is shooting and killing Trayvon all over again.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An all-out brawl turned into a gun fight between the "Bandidos" and "Cossacks" motorcycle clubs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're not here to eat barbecue and drink beer.
LAVANDERA: Did the "Bandidos" declare war?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Write him a letter?
(END VIDEOTAPE) CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We begin this hour with Donald Trump on the defensive. His conduct towards women over the last four decades under more scrutiny in a "New York Times" report.
Trump dismissing the piece as a lame hit piece. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus acknowledging that Trump will, though, have to answer for things in his past, but he calls efforts to draft a third-party candidate a, quote, "suicide mission."
CUOMO: And it isn't just his party and his past, there is also President Obama focusing on Trump as well using a commencement speech to slam Trump without actually naming him. Obama telling graduates, quote, "ignorance is not a virtue in politics."
