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Clinton: Trump is "Not Qualified" to be President; Egyptian Military: Plane Wreckage Found. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 20, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:34] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. There's speculation the dynamic of the race is changing and there's good proof of it in the form of Hillary Clinton. She seemed to take off the gloves against Donald Trump in a way that really we hadn't seen her do before this.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

CUOMO: Now, the question is why? Is it the right strategy? And what is this going to mean in the perspective battle between her and the presumptive nominee.

Let's discuss. CNN politics executive editor, Mark Preston, CNN political commentator and former Reagan White House political director and Trump supporter, Jeffrey Lord.

We've got to work that description, Jeffrey. Too long.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: And CNN political contributor and Hillary Clinton supporter Hilary Rosen.

It's good to you have all here.

Immediate impact, Mark?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Listen, great interview. Hillary Clinton has gone places where she hasn't gone before. She was given every opportunity in weeks before your interview yesterday to go after Donald Trump, to say was he qualified, and she used yesterday during a time of concern and a time of terror, to really go after Donald Trump, say that he's divisive, that he's unhinged, that he's unmoored and he absolutely is not qualified to be president.

CAMEROTA: Hilary, what did you hear? I mean, it's not a surprise that Hillary Clinton thinks he's not qualified to be president. She'd been telegraphing those thoughts.

But what did you hear in her shift of tone yesterday?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I heard something substantive, though. Hillary Clinton is the no going to be doing the sort of personal insult tour that Donald Trump seems to campaign on constantly when he attacks her.

What she said yesterday was, I'm concerned that he's, you know, criticizing America's greatest ally, I'm concerned that he's promoting a despotic dictator in North Korea, that he wants to give additional weapons to additional countries. So -- that he is banning Muslims at a time when our relationship with the Islamic world is so tense.

So, I think what we're hearing from her are substantive objections and based on her own sense of what American values and foreign policy are, doesn't feel like he's qualified to be president. I think that's a -- that's a different frame they're we're hearing from Donald Trump which really gets down to an insult game that I think the American people are really not very interested in at this point.

CUOMO: Jeffrey, there is contrary evidence to that last proposition. Many feel that not responding to the attacks about the past is a way of basically confirming the past. Is that the consideration on your side of the fence?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, certainly the fact that she doesn't respond, mean, these -- you know, it's very interesting. This interview with Donald Trump in which he mentioned the "rape" word, these accusations are not come from Donald Trump. They're coming from the women who were at the center of this.

So, all we're doing here -- she wants to campaign on being, you know, the woman candidate, play the woman card. I would respectfully suggest she's not about women. She's about liberalism.

And, you know, if you're a woman and you're a conservative, then you have a different set of values than Hillary Clinton, then you're not considered. So, it's time to have this discussion. I think it's a good one.

In terms of substance and everything, I found this very interesting in your interview with her, Chris. She talked about North Korea a few times and how dangerous it was and all of this kind of thing.

North Korea has nuclear weapons, because of the agreed framework that President Clinton signed with North Korea in 1994, and came out and said it, quote it to you exactly. "North Korea will freeze and dismantle its nuclear program, and that the United States had gotten a good deal."

Well, all of these years later, North Korea has nuclear weapons, because of Bill Clinton. So I really -- am very --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about foreign affairs. Yesterday, Mark, the tragedy of EgyptAir put terrorism back on the front burner and back burner of some other things we've been talking about, and Hillary Clinton basically suggested that Donald Trump sort of shoots from the hip, and you know, calls it something before he has the information. It turns out that that was actually terrorism it is the way many in the intelligence community were leaning.

Here's what Donald Trump just tweeted in the last hour, I believe. He says, "Look where the world is today. A total mess and ISIS is still running around wild.

[06:35:00] I can fix it fast. Hillary has no chance."

That is a message that is very soothing to people who are worried about it. "I can fix fast." He doesn't give specifics but maybe that's enough?

PRESTON: Right. What we've seen now is the politicization of how they're going to address the issue of terror.

You know, I went back and looked at our most recent CNN/ORC poll to see where Hillary Clinton stacked up against Donald Trump when it came to two key issues, foreign policy and terror.

When you look at the issue of foreign policy in general, she outdistanced by 25, 30 points. When you talk about the issue of terror, she only outdistanced him by about five points. The reason being the rhetoric he's using and how he is able to fire up his supporters by saying that he is going to take on the likes of ISIS, that he's the one that can beat terrorism, I think has been very effective for him.

But when you talk about the politicization, right at the top, I think you're absolutely right. We saw Donald Trump immediately come out yesterday, in this hour basically, 24 hours ago, before we knew anything was happening, that -- that there was -- that the plane was taken down by terrorists and last night at about 9:30, 10:00 at night, Chris, Hillary Clinton took your interview and put it out as a fund- raiser to try to raise money and cast even more doubt against Donald Trump.

CUOMO: But, Hilary, it seems tout both ways, as Alisyn is pointing out here. Yes, Trump went out early before we knew things, and you know what else? He seemed to be right by now what most official estimates are.

And his message is very simple: things now are worse, and Hillary Clinton is part of what made it worse.

I asked the secretary that specifically yesterday, and she basically gave a soft answer of -- well, look, the world we're working now, we have cooperation now we didn't used to have, we need more leadership. But not a straight rebuttal to the proposition that things seemed worse.

Isn't that the battleground?

ROSEN: Well, it might be, if you're going for a shoot from the hip foreign policy. I think the point is, yes, he was right but what if he was wrong? You know, do we really want the leader of the free world tweeting out their gut reactions when an issue of national crisis occurs? No, we don't. That's not how we want our leaders to respond.

So, I think what she was saying is, this is complicated. If we're going to have a real conversation about it, my instinct Hillary Clinton will come out ahead in that conversation because she has more detail, more knowledge and more specific plans. Him saying he's going to "fix it" might be comforting in the moment. But I think when we get into a long campaign, when we get into debates, it's not going to be incredibly comforting.

CAMEROTA: Hilary, Mark, Jeffrey -- Jeffrey, we owe you one -- thanks so much, pal.

LORD: That's all right.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for being here.

LORD: There's time.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: I don't feel I owe him anything.

So, we're going to have more of the exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton coming up. She wasn't just talking about Donald Trump. She's got another battle on her hands with Bernie Sanders and talking about that as well. How does she deal with the opposition as well as the unification of her party, next.

CAMEROTA: We also much more on our breaking news, the Egyptian military finding debris from that plane. It went down some 34 hours ago. We'll look where it turning up and how it can help investigators figure out what went wrong at 37,000 feet.

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[06:42:17] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We want to give you the latest now in the search for EgyptAir Flight 804. The Egyptian military finding wreckage and passenger belongings of the missing jetliner in the Mediterranean Sea. French investigators specializing in aviation have arrived in Cairo to help determine what brought this plane down.

Government officials tell CNN its early signs do point to it as a terror attack. Search crews still combing the Mediterranean, looking for victims, debris and the flight's all-important recorders.

Let's bring in David Soucie. He's our safety analyst and a former FAA safety inspector, CNN counterterrorist analyst Phil Mudd, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

OK. Let's look at the map giving context of where they're finding thing.

So, this spot right here where the red dots are on the map, this is 180 miles north of Alexandria, Egypt, where they found personal belongings.

David, what does this spot tell you?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, it tells, at this point, there is a lot of gyre activity within the ocean. So, it kept everything together. So, I think the search at this point will be much more -- much less difficult than it would had been out in the Indian Ocean or some of the other searchers that have been accomplished. So, that gyre is going to keep this together in this one spot.

CAMEROTA: So, Mary, when they find personal belongings in the ocean, how does that help them figure out what happened to this plane?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, in many ways. First of all, the belongings and also any human remains may have traces of residue, explosive patters. If the plane exploded from a bomb, or for example, from a fuel tank explosion, then there will be characteristic pitting, depending how long things are in the water possible to get residue traces.

And then the other important part, which the world learned in following MH370, where these items are will be very important for what they call float patterns. They have to trace back so they know where to look for those black boxes and hopefully pick u up the sounds of the pinger. So, this very important finding will help a lot in the investigation.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, Richard, when they find pieces of the wreckage as they are and personal effects of the passengers, then what are they doing with them?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, your first goal, of course, is to retrieve anything, as Mary says, for investigative purposes. And then, of course, you have the very sad but most important task of recovering human remains, the bodies of the loved ones.

And there you often will -- you will often get a difference of opinion. Some people will want their loved ones to be returned to them for proper burials, either religious or otherwise.

[06:45:00] Other people will say, no. This is where they came to rest. With 447, everybody was given the opportunity if remains could be found to have them repatriated but many decided, no, that was their place of final resting, and that's where they should remain.

I think in this particular case -- I mean, 447, they'd been in the water for many years and a certain closure of process. I think in this case you're going to see a lot more recovery. I don't think it's going to be that difficult to find the fuselage. The water is quite deep, up to 1,000, 1,500 feet.

But as David Soucie says, it's contained, got there quite quickly. They will gets assets under the water to listen for the pings.

I am not -- I'm prepared to be proven wrong, but I'm not expecting this to be a particularly onerous or difficult recovery.

CAMEROTA: If we look at the map again, Phil, we can see all of, whatever they find here, will be taken to Cairo for investigation, because as we've been discussing this morning, the Egyptians are leading the investigation. So what does that mean in terms of they'll be the first people to be analyzing whatever they find on the plane's wreckage?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: If you're looking at this from an intelligence perspective, think of parallel lines. Here, you're looking at a location, you're looking at material from the flight. In the intelligence world, there's a parallel universe going on, and that is looking at the manifest.

This is a people business, not a place business, not a plane business. That is who did it? Who was on the plane? Who are the people in the airport, for example, baggage handlers?

Remember, there's another piece of this. Are those individuals who might have been involved in a place like Syria, Libya, are they talking?

So, the people in the FBI, national terrorism center, they're trying to figure out who was responsible, while the aviation folks are dealing with the location, with the flight recorder. Two parallel investigations going on here.

CAMEROTA: So, while they connect the dots what they know about the plane it made several trips before this ill-fated one. It was in Paris a couple of times, the 24 hours prior, as well as Eritrea and Tunis, countries in Africa. So, what does that tell you?

SOUCIE: Well, it tells us that it had gone from a non-European country to another country. So, in that exchange, when it gets to De Gaulle, at that point, they're going to do a security sweep. They're going to see what's in there.

Now, the security sweep is only as people that do it. You get in there, become complacent, the fact you've looked at many, many, many airplanes. This is one of our biggest vulnerabilities in security is, can the human being continually do the same thing over and over and over and do it well?

So, this is one of the vulnerabilities they'll look at. Was the inspected as it was inspected the way it was supposed to be, and if something go through? And if it did, that's really a game changer, that's really something that we need to work on, and something that really makes us vulnerable.

CAMEROTA: Mary, you called it a game-changer as well, if it turns out this was a bomb placed onboard somehow and it was missed at Charles de Gaulle. I mea, we've heard about the security. How stringent it is at Charles de Gaulle. But if it there was something that that scan, we know the plane was scanned by security before it off, but if something were missed, you've called it a game-changer, also? SCHIAVO: Well, it is because -- I mean, a lot of people have talked

about how good the security at Charles de Gaulle, and I take a different view of that. They knew they had problem before they were doing security sweeps. They did find, you know, dozens of individuals suspected ties to terrorism or at least had been radicalized in some way or another. Even materials right at the airport.

So despite the fact they were on high alert and scrubbing down the airport, if things got through at Charles de Gaulle and someone was able to put something on the plane or take it through the security checkpoint, despite the best effort something got through, that is a very scary proposition.

So, we can assume they were doing all they could do because of the heightened state of alert, that would give new credence to what the U.S. said back in 2014. That there were new kinds of bombs or explosives or methods developed that were hard to detect. That's very, very alarming.

CAMEROTA: OK. Panel, stand by. We will call upon you for the rest of the program, and we will have much more ahead on our breaking news that debris has been found from EgyptAir Flight 804. It's been found in the Mediterranean.

Also, remember a broadcast legend. We'll be talking about "60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer who has died. What a career. We'll be sharing some of those memories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:17] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We do have some breaking news to report. Egypt's military now says it found wreckage from EgyptAir Flight 804 -- passengers' belongings and part of the wreckage have been located 180 miles off Egypt's northeastern coast.

French investigators and technical expert from Airbus had now arrived in Cairo to help determine what happened. Terrorism is a prime concern. EgyptAir also tweeting out its condolences to passengers' loved ones.

CUOMO: Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin now has to decide if abortion becomes a felony in her state. Oklahoma's legislature passing a bill to criminalize doctors perform by doctors except to save a mother's life. Doctors could get up to three years in prison under the bill. Governor Fallin hasn't said whether she supports the measure yet.

Now, this law and the 19-week role being pushed in South Carolina, may raise constitutional questions and wind up in court.

CAMEROTA: Here's an important update for you: a second Nigerian schoolgirl held since 2014 by Boko Haram has been rescued. The Nigerian army saying she and close to 100 women and kids held hostage were freed during a military operation that killed at least 35 Boko Haram fighters. It is unclear if she was among those missing since 2014.

CUOMO: All right. More sad news of a different variety. Legendary CBS newsman Morley Safer is gone. He had been in poor health when CBS announced his retirement just last week.

Safer, of course, a fixture at CBS news. Over 50 years. 46 of them on "60 Minutes." The show the executive producer says his stories were practically works of art.

[06:55:05] Safer's groundbreaking reporting on Vietnam certainly changed the way Americans viewed that war.

Morley Safer, 84 years old.

CAMEROTA: And his death came just after the announcement of his retirement. Just last week, sad he was retiring, gotten so used to him and his lovely, lovely demeanor on the show. And now, I guess he was in worse health than we knew.

CUOMO: Yes, I mean, that was odd. Who knows what's behind that?

But it was more interesting with Morley Safer, one of those guys who was very anxious to nurture. You know? And why he would say, why? Every story should be centered around why? Why? Why? And did it in a form that was really like art. The producer was right about that.

CAMEROTA: That's so great. What a great description.

All right. Back to breaking news we're the search for answers is intensifying as the first debris from Egypt Flight 804 is located in the Mediterranean. Now begins the task of finding out what happened. We have all of the breaking details for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: Good morning. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are watching NEW DAY.

And we begin with breaking developments in the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804. The Egyptian military confirming they have found wreckage and personal belongings in the Mediterranean Sea. This discovery coming more than 30 hours after the plane vanished from radar on its way from Paris to Cairo.

CUOMO: We still don't know why and that's the question that the families of the 66 people onboard care about the most.