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41 Dead, 239 Injured in Istanbul Airport Attack; Is ISIS Behind Airport Terror Attack?; Trump Renews Call for Waterboarding after Terror Attack. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 29, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

KEMPER: It is very sad and very striking. And we need to set examples that humankind can stand together and can build these bridges. I think that's the important thing.

[07:00:12] CAMEROTA: Yes, Mr. Kemper, thank you for that message of solidarity and standing together this morning. We're so sorry that you've endured all of this. Best of luck to you getting home, and we'll check back in with you.

KEMPER: Thank you so much. Thank you for this opportunity.

CAMEROTA: All right. We have more of our breaking coverage on the terror attack in Istanbul, so let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carnage and destruction at Turkey's busiest airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard a blast. We saw a lot of people running around there. They were all covered in blood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody was trying to find a place to hide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was an explosion and the sound of shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has all the signatures of an ISIS attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bloody rags just lying around the floor. It's pretty horrific. No one had a clue which way to run.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. And we do have new information for you on the breaking news on the deadly terror attack at Istanbul's airport.

The death toll now climbing to 41 killed and 239 others injured. Intelligence officials in Turkey and the U.S. say all signs point to ISIS. CUOMO: The numbers that you're hearing of those who have lost

their lives and the injured, they're going to change. They always do in these situations. So please, be patient.

And you want to see the numbers as they are accurate coming in. Now, details about what happened at this airport with these panicked travelers running for their lives. We have video and information that we have not had before.

Let's give it to you. We have the story covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir. She's live at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul -- Nima.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, we are outside the arrival hall. This bore the brunt of the biggest blast yesterday evening. We're standing still amongst shards of glass.

And if I step out of the shot, I want to show you where you can see the strength of that blast blew out most of those ceiling tiles. But already they've begun the cleanup process. Already, they're trying to return to some sense of normality. They've sheltered the area where you can see, where we saw the tarmac pitted from where that bomb had detonated, right near the tax rack, where holiday makers and families were being reunited.

I want to remind our viewers of how it all played out last night. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR (voice-over): A horrifying scene of carnage and destruction at Turkey's busiest airport. Three suicide attackers carrying out a deadly siege on Tuesday night. The coordinated attack, captured by airport surveillance cameras.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just recognized the gunshots and then heard this huge explosion, and I knew immediately it was a bomb. And I just bolted as fast as I can.

ELBAGIR: Two of the terrorists opening fire at the international terminal before blowing themselves up. This amateur video shows just some of the injured laying outside on the ground before the first explosion. That sound from the first blast by the arrival hall on the first floor. Travelers seemingly unaware of the attack that is about to unfold.

Another surveillance video captures the chaos inside as one of the attackers runs into the airport. Then he's apparently shot by a police officer, his gun sliding across the floor.

Seconds later, another massive explosion, roof tiles falling, panes of shattered glass along the floor, and bullets perforating the windows and walls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't think it's real. But then people started running and running and running, so we clashed and fell over each other. It was total chaos.

ELBAGIR: The third attacker detonating a third explosion at a parking lot at Ataturk Airport.

Istanbul's airport is known for its heavily fortified security inside and outside the terminals. Turkish prime minister says the attackers arrived at the airport by taxi. He says all indications point to ISIS, bearing chilling similarities to the deadly bombings in March at Brussels airport and subway system.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: Today, of course, is very different, looks very different. You can hear the sheer volume of traffic as passengers are being dropped off and heading to their flights. It's very difficult to imagine that there isn't a single person who isn't aware that the doors they're walking through this morning are doors people ran screaming out of yesterday -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Nima, it's remarkable that the airport is open just hours after this attack. You remember Brussels. That airport was closed for weeks. What are you seeing and hearing there and the level of activity?

ELBAGIR: Well, it is extraordinarily busy. This is the 11th busiest airport in the world. And it's a very difficult line for the Turkish authorities here to tread. Because on one level, there are always concerns about reopening too quickly, about the impact that that's going to have on the forensic evidence that you're gathering. But at the same time, Turkey spent most of this year reeling from terror attack to terror attack.

So for the government, that ability to return to normality, to try and show not only the Turkish people but the holiday makers, the people who come through here, hoping to make new memories, that this is a place that they can come to and feel safe. It's that safety that they're trying to re-engender in people by reopening this airport so quickly.

But you can see it's essentially a construction site. And these passengers, I have to tell you, they are extraordinarily brave. They're trying to get back to their lives.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I see those people climbing through the spaces behind you where there were window panes just one day ago.

Nima Elbagir for us there in Istanbul, thank you so much.

Turkish and U.S. officials say the attacks carry the hallmarks of an ISIS-inspired attack. With suicide attacks on the rise in Turkey, was this the work of ISIS or another terror group?

CNN's senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward live in Washington with more. Clarissa, good morning.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor.

Well, that's right. As you said, U.S. officials and the Turkish prime minister saying this has all the hallmarks of an ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed attack.

Now, previously, ISIS has not claimed responsibility for attacks in Turkey. There have been at least three this year that we know of. Other attacks in Turkey have been carried out by Kurdish separatists.

But why does ISIS not claim responsibility for its attacks in Turkey? Most people would say that it's probably because they enjoy seeing the sense of chaos, the sense of uncertainty, the instability that failing to claim responsibility for these attacks engenders. They're trying to hit at the heart of Turkey's economy. They're trying to hit at its tourism industry. And they're trying to isolate Turkey diplomatically.

But let's look at the actual hallmarks. What specifically makes us think that it was an ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed attack?

Well, firstly, look at how the attacks were carried out. Three attackers, all of them heavily armed, carrying AK-47s and wearing suicide vests. This fits the profile of the so-called Inhamazi (ph). It's essentially suicide warriors. Not just a suicide bomber, but a suicide fighter, somebody who goes in, who tries to kill as many people as they can using their gun before ultimately blowing themselves up in a last attempt to create maximum casualties.

Also, Victor, we are in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the last ten days, which are considered to be the holiest ten days. We've heard ISIS's spokesman coming out and urging any supporters to carry out attacks during this holy month.

CUOMO: Important to point out, Clarissa, because it's somewhat counterintuitive. You think the holiest part of the calendar would be the most peaceful. Has not played out that way. We know from now until July 5 to be on alert. Clarissa, thank you very much.

Let's bring in now former CIA director Jim Woolsey and counterterrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us today.

You just heard Clarissa saying we believe this looks like the trappings of an ISIS attack. Director Woolsey, does that make sense to you?

JIM WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Yes, definitely. The Kurdish attacks from the separatists, PKK, generally focus on military and on the instruments of government. They're not trying to destroy Turkish society. They want to carve off part of it for a Kurdish state.

Whereas ISIS attacks are horrific, and they are oriented very clearly, usually, toward -- toward spreading horror and terror and impacting as many civilians as possible and in places where civilians gather together. So everybody is saying that this looks like ISIS, and it definitely does. It's kind of an interesting -- more than kind of, it's a very interesting shift in ISIS's overall approach, if this is an ISIS attack in Turkey. They may have bitten off more than they can chew.

CUOMO: Let's talk about why. Daveed, why does ISIS usually avoid these types of attacks in Turkey? Do you believe that this is a reflection of them losing the war on the ground in and around that region?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: I wouldn't agree that they actually avoid these kind of attacks in Turkey. They've carried out some spectacular attacks before. Go back to October when you had an ISIS attack at a peace rally that killed over a hundred people.

[06:10:12] What they haven't been able to do is carry out a major attack against something like the Istanbul airport, but given other airport attacks and other major attacks they've carried out against similar soft targets and mosques throughout the region and also in Europe, it's not out of step with what they've been doing.

Now, I do think ISIS is desperate, but I wouldn't link that to this specific attack, because it's in line with what they were doing even when they were strong.

I think they're desperate because they're losing. And that's very clear. You can see that on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. They've lost Fallujah. They've had a steady stream of losses over the course of the past six months where their caliphate is under extreme pressure. And they're about to lose their African capital, as well, that being the city of Sirte, Libya.

So let's recognize the fact that they're experiencing battlefield losses, but that isn't necessarily why they're carrying out terrorist attacks abroad, because that's been a constant for them.

CUOMO: Director Woolsey, there's a lot of talk about ISIS specifically in the state of play of the election. Donald Trump just came out with a statement about this attack, saying we need to think about waterboarding and matching tactics with ISIS.

Hillary Clinton said we need to think about how to deepen our alliances. Of those two statements, which one do you think makes more sense in terms of how to continue progress against ISIS?

WOOLSEY: Well, taking the gloves off and deepening alliances both are reasonable things to do. One wants, I think, to realize that this is going to take an understanding that we have not vanquished the hardest part of ISIS by proceeding effectively in Syria and Iraq. We have got to essentially root them out here at home and in Europe and elsewhere in the world. And that is going to take a long time and be very difficult.

We've got to utilize publicly available data from, you know, things like Facebook and Twitter and all the rest of that in order to try to keep track of where some of these people are and what they may be planning and doing and who they're associating with. That entails steps that people sometimes don't want the U.S. federal government to take.

On the other hand, Amazon knows a lot more about your purchasing habits than the United States government today if the information is out there and available publicly, and it can help follow and track down terrorists. We probably should...

CUOMO: Is that what you mean by taking the gloves off, or are you saying that you support the notion Donald Trump has of going back to waterboarding and having more harsh tactics to be like the way ISIS wants?

WOOLSEY: Well, three people were waterboarded. Two of them, I think, once each. The vast majority of waterboarding was with Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, who was bin Laden's chief of staff and had a great deal of information about future operations. I think waterboarding is a tough tactic.

On the other hand, it's one that is utilized in the training of our special forces, like Navy SEALs. And I knew several journalists who went out and were waterboarded when this first came up, because they wanted to see what it was like so they could write articles about it.

We don't have people, you know -- people don't tear out their fingernails, a torture method, in order to be able to write an article about fingernails being torn out. So I think waterboarding is complicated, but it's not the main point.

The main point is all this data is out there and public and available and used for marketing and so forth by business. We need to have a public-private partnership in which the government and the companies that work in these areas can work together for essentially the needs of the country as a whole. We need to get into the mentality we were in shortly after December 7th of 1941.

CUOMO: Understood.

WOOLSEY: We need to pull all together.

CUOMO: That's an ongoing political discussion that we've been having in this country. Each event resets that debate. We'll see where it goes from here. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, former director Woolsey, thank you very much for your perspective -- Alisyn.

WOOLEY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Well, presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton condemning the attack in Turkey but offering very different responses to terrorism. CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us now with more. What do they say, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Alisyn, it is the ever-present factor in this 2016 campaign. Terror and how the candidates are responding to it as voters continue to be extremely uneasy about the ramifications for the future of the country. For Donald Trump, it's strength. For Hillary Clinton, it's a steady hand. Two issues we saw again last night in the wake of that terror attack in Istanbul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had another suicide bombing, Istanbul, Turkey. Many, many people killed.

[07:15:08] MATTINGLY (voice-over): The airport attack in Istanbul leading presidential candidates to once again address terrorism on the campaign trail.

TRUMP: We better get smart, and we better get tough, or we're not going to have much of a country left, OK? It's bad.

MATTINGLY: Hillary Clinton refraining from any mention of the terror attack during a town hall in Los Angeles Tuesday night. Instead, releasing a statement, pledging that the "attack in Istanbul only strengthens our resolve to defeat the forces of terrorism and radical jihadism around the world."

Contrast that with Trump, who is again arguing for using torture in the fight against terror.

TRUMP: So we can't do waterboarding, but they can do chopping off heads.

We have to be so strong. We have to fight so viciously and violently, because we're dealing with violent people.

MATTINGLY: The presumptive GOP nominee coming under fire once again for his rhetoric.

TRUMP: The Transpacific Partnership is another disaster. Done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our country.

MATTINGLY: Trump, provocatively vowing to rip up international trade deals, spending most of Tuesday laying out his economic plans and arguing that Americans need to take their country back.

TRUMP: Globalization has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very, very wealthy. I used to be one of them. It's left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.

MATTINGLY: Clinton saying she's sympathetic to people drawn to Trump's message.

CLINTON: They have lost faith in their government, in the economy, certainly in politics and most other institutions. I am not sympathetic to the xenophobia, the misogyny, the homophobia, the Islamophobia, and all of the other, you know, sort of dog whistles that Trump uses.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And Victor, whether on economic policy or national security, Donald Trump making clear he's going to continue to try and tap into that vein of uneasiness that very clearly exists in the country.

One of the big questions going forward, though, is in what way? We saw two different responses from Trump last night to the terror attack. A very formal statement, if a somewhat muted statement from the campaign. And then Trump on the campaign trail, kind of a window into what's going on inside the Trump campaign as they try and figure out how to structure themselves for the general election ahead -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Phil, thank you so much. The candidates are talking tough, but who do Americans think is stronger on terror? We'll discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:21:40] TRUMP: Folks, there's something going on that's really, really bad, all right. It's bad, and we better get smart, and we better get tough or we're not going to have much of a country left, OK? It's bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Donald Trump responding to the Istanbul attack at an Ohio rally, renewing his call for waterboarding terror suspects. Hillary Clinton calling for more international coordination to fight terror. So how will all of these terror attacks impact the 2016 race?

Here to discuss, CNN political commentator, Democratic strategist and senior advisor for a pro-Clinton super PAC, Paul Begala; and CNN political commentator and Trump supporter Kaleigh McEnany. Great to have both of you here.

Paul, let me start with you. Let's talk about how voters are feeling about how this will impact the 2016 race. Let me pull up a new poll just out this morning. It's Quinnipiac. Which candidate would be more effective handling ISIS? Trump wins this one, 52 percent to Hillary Clinton's 39 percent.

However, on Sunday, ABC News/"Washington Post" asked a differently worded question. Which candidate do you trust to handle terrorism? Clinton wins this one, 50 percent to Trump's 39. So what's going on here, Paul?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you're going to see the polls move around a lot. Quinnipiac poll, which basically shows a tied race. The national average is a 6.2 percent lead for Hillary nationally. That's all very early.

When you drill down into these more specifics, Quinnipiac, they found out Hillary was slightly more trusted in deploying troops, significantly more trusted in handling an international crisis.

And the biggest question, the most important question, I think, who do you trust to handle nuclear weapons? They prefer Hillary by 9 percent. People don't want Donald Trump's finger on the button. And if her supporters like me keep raising the stakes -- and God help us, my heart goes out to everyone in Turkey -- we know the stakes are very high. This isn't just a political thing.

So you ask people, look, we have a volatile world. Do you want a volatile president? That, I think, endures to Hillary's benefit. Whose finger do you want -- whose finger do you want on the nuclear button, Donald Trump, who thinks we should allow the Saudis, the South Koreans, the Japanese to have nuclear weapons, or Hillary Clinton?

CAMEROTA: Yes. But in terms of terror and in terms of ISIS, which is what the questions are right now, Kaleigh, let me ask you, I mean, people do like Donald Trump's message. He said we have to get smarter and we have to get stronger, but what specifically does that mean?

KALEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It means strength and resolve and executive capacity in our foreign policy. You see Hillary Clinton's response to this attack. You look at her statement. She advocated diplomacy, working with our allies. That's something we are already doing. That's not the counterterrorism strategy.

And I think yesterday's Benghazi hearing was very instructive. When they were deciding whether to send rescue forces in, they were concerned with whether the Libyan government would approve that. That's not the issue. The issue is protecting American lives, putting America first, and that is Donald Trump's foreign policy.

CAMEROTA: And what would he do differently?

MCENANY: What would he do differently? It means bombing ISIS more than we currently are, and it means stopping terrorism at our borders, because people are getting into our country that want to destroy the country.

CAMEROTA: And how do you know who's a terrorist at our border?

MCENANY: Well, here's the thing. This is why he's proposing the temporary ban from terror countries, from 33-some-odd countries is the proposal that was put forward in the Senate. And there's data to back that. Ted Cruz looked into the Department of Justice data and found that of 580 terrorism convictions, 380 were foreign-born. We have a problem with people coming into this country wanting to engage in terror. It's not everyone, but it's some.

[07:25:11] CAMEROTA: OK. Paul, what about those specifics? Those resonate with people.

BEGALA: Donald Trump has said -- and this is a direct quote -- I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me. Well, we don't believe him. That's nuts. That kind of narcissism that drives Trump to say -- well, with all respect, we should bomb ISIS more. Really? Who, where?

We're killing an ISIS leader one every three days. We've driven ISIS out of half of its territory in Iraq and about 20 percent of its territory in Syria. There is a war going on right now. Mr. Trump may have missed it, because he's busy putting a new sprinkler system in his golf course in Scotland. He literally last week said that. He said, well, rehabilitating a golf course is a lot like running the country. Actually, no, it's not, Mr. Trump, and we don't want your finger on the nuclear button.

MCENANY: Democrats are deluding themselves if they think terrorism doesn't start at the border. Yes, not everyone coming into this country is a terrorist, but it is -- it does, in fact, start at the border and who we're letting into this country. And Hillary Clinton can live in some alternate universe where that's not an issue, but it is. And Americans are sick of people dying. Fourteen dead in San Bernardino, 49 in Orlando. The one in San Bernardino, she got here on a K-1 fiance visa. So you are deluding yourself to think that immigration has nothing to do with it.

CAMEROTA: OK, guys...

BEGALA: I think you're deluding yourself if you think Donald Trump can be trusted to fix anything more than a sprinkler system on a golf course.

CAMEROTA: Let's move on to his speech yesterday on the economy. Donald Trump put out a seven-point jobs plan, he called it. Let me run through those for our viewers. He would reject the TPP. He would appoint tough trade negotiators. He would utilize international law to end trade violations. He would renegotiate NAFTA. He would label China a currency manipulator. He would bring trade cases against China. He would impose tariffs on China.

Kaleigh, even the Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, normally a Republican-friendly organization, did not like this plan. They were critical of it. They put out several tweets. They said, "Under Trump's trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs, and a weaker economy."

They then put this out: "Under the best-case scenario, Trump's tariffs would strip us of at least 3.5 million jobs."

I mean, basically, their argument is that you can say that you want to impose higher tariffs on China and Mexico, but that would thrust them into a recession. That would then have a ripple effect on us, and we would lose jobs.

MCENANY: The Chamber of Commerce, it's no secret that they are huge proponents of free trade. It's interesting, because you point out that typically, they do endorse Republican candidates. But that's because trade is something that, frankly, the left and the right have ignored. We've had 50,000 factories shut down because of unbridled free trade.

Donald Trump is not against trade. He's -- he wants to remedy the imbalances that are in the market, and he wants smart trade. And I think that the Chamber of Commerce should step back and consider that.

CAMEROTA: Paul, for people who have lost jobs here, that's a message that they want to believe in.

BEGALA: And they've lost jobs in part because Donald Trump has been the king of outsourcing. On his own blog at Trump University, hilariously, he wrote this. And I'm quoting him. "Outsourcing creates jobs in the long run." Trump defended outsourcing. He participated in outsourcing. Trump's shirts are made in Bangladesh. His ties -- Trump ties are made in China. Trump's suits are made in Mexico. Trump barware is made in Slovenia. Trump picture frames are made in India. He is the king of outsourcing.

What this is, is a total con. And some people will always believe a con man, but not most Americans. They really won't. The notion that Donald Trump somehow now is a born-again defender of building things in America -- by the way, this tie, made in America. This jacket, made in America. By union workers, by the way.

CAMEROTA: Paul Begala, made in America.

Kaleigh, what about that? Isn't that a problem for his message, that he himself has outsourced some of his manufacturing?

MCENANY: I don't think so. He was being a smart businessman. Look, when you're a businessman working in the economy, abiding by the same economic principles as your competitors, that means that you have to accept the market as it is. He was not in a position to change the laws then. As president, he can change the laws. He saw as a businessman, "Hey, it is cheaper to make things abroad. That's a problem. And as president, I will change that."

CAMEROTA: But is he changing his principles in order to do that? I mean, in other words, he used to believe in outsourcing. And now he's saying terrible.

MCENANY: I haven't seen what Paul's referring to with Trump University, but I wouldn't take what's in a manual at Trump University to be what is the position of Donald Trump, who is not overseeing directly Trump University.

BEGALA: It was his personal blog. I sent your producers a link to this. It was Trump University's, his own blog in 2005. And I'll be glad to post it on Twitter so you can read what Donald Trump said in 2005.

MCENANY: But Paul, there have been -- there have been anchors on this network -- there have been anchors on this network who have said they've heard Donald Trump three decades ago espouse the problems of unbridled free trade. He's been on the right side of this issue for decades. And there are many people who can confirm that.

CAMEROTA: All right. I will check whatever you have sent to us, Paul. Thank you for that. Paul and Kaleigh, thank you for the debate.

What is your take on all of this? You can tweet us, @NewDay, or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay.

Let's get over to Victor.

BLACKWELL: Imagine what it was like to see the death and the destruction after the blast went off in Istanbul's airport.