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Trade Policy Takes Center Stage In 2016 Race; Interview with Sen. Chris Coons; Airport Bombers From Russia, Uzbekistan & Kyrgyzstan; Interview with Sen. Angus King; Trump On Foreign Policy Agenda: "America First"; 18 Million Americans Drinking Contaminated Water. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 30, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: That they are actually trying to help grow our economy, increase our jobs, and actually raise the standards. The TPP is a good example. Raise the standards of employment and management practices, not just here but around the world. There's a powerful influence here that I don't think is being fully contemplated when criticism about trade deals like TPP come up.

The bottom line is that this is good for the United States economy, it's good for our workers, it's good for jobs here.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: John Kirby, State Department spokesperson, thank you for making the case on NEW DAY, as always.

KIRBY: My pleasure, thanks.

CUOMO: Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's stay with trade. Can Donald Trump attract Bernie Sanders supporters by highlighting their common stance on trade? We'll ask a top Clinton supporter, Delaware senator, Chris Coons, next.

[07:30:50]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:34:45]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE: Bernie Sanders cannot stand Hillary Clinton, but I'll tell you something. You wouldn't think this -- you wouldn't think this but there is one thing that Bernie Sanders and I are in complete accord with, and that's trade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That was Donald Trump making an appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters, saying that he shares common ground with them on trade. So, could that move sway the Berners to Trump? [07:35:00] Joining us now is Delaware senator, Chris Coons. He is a

pro-trade Democrat and Hillary Clinton surrogate. Good morning, Senator.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, so what about that? That Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are more aligned in terms of their feeling about these trade deals -- they don't like them and Hillary Clinton has supported them in the past, and do you think that that will sway some Bernie Sanders supporters to Trump?

COONS: I don't think it will have any impact on Bernie Sanders' followers in the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders has had a consistent, reliable, longtime position on trade. And Donald Trump -- what do we know about him? He puts his name on everything, so before we let him put his name on the White House let's take a look at what Donald Trump has put his name on.

Trump ties are made in China, Trump suits are made in Mexico, and Trump shirts are made in Bangladesh. So, Donald Trump may be saying now, in the heat of a campaign, that he agrees with Bernie Sanders. The idea of a billionaire Republican casino builder actually agreeing with Bernie Sanders, I find somewhat interesting at the outset.

But his actual practices show he's somewhat of a hypocrite because he has benefitted immensely from integrated globalized trade.

CAMEROTA: OK, but the history also shows that Sec. Clinton has also flip-flopped, herself, on trade. Let's pull up some of the trade deals where she has a shifting position. In 1993, she supported NAFTA -- or, throughout the 90's, then she was against it in 2007 and 2011.

She was against the Colombia/U.S. trade deal but she then supported it in 2010. Same is true of South Korea's deal with the U.S. And then TPP, she supported, as you know, pretty vociferously in 2010, and then is against it now. So, doesn't that hurt her with voters?

COONS: Well, I think it's important to look at where each candidate would take us going forward and how trade plays into that. Donald Trump's big theme for his whole campaign is let's build walls. Let's build a wall with Mexico, let's build a wall to keep out Muslims, and let's raise tariffs and restore protectionism. Let's go back not to the 1950's, but the 1750's, and make America great again by protecting America from the global economy.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

COONS: That's just not realistic. Hillary Clinton does support active integration in the global economy. That benefits consumers, that benefits folks who work in manufacturing because it relies on exports. And if you'll look at that history, it's a history of looking closely at individual trade deals to see whether they are good for American workers or not good for American workers.

I also -- I voted against the Colombia free trade agreement, in large part, because Colombia wasn't committed to protecting the environment and labor organizers at a level I thought was necessary. But she has embraced the importance of open trade with our global partners.

If we're going to compete against China, if we're going to set the rules for trade for the 21st century, a strong, well-written trade pact with our Pacific partners could really lay the groundwork for that. So I, frankly, think what you're seeing in Sec. Clinton was someone who is clear-eyed about the opportunities of the 21st century.

And in Donald Trump, someone who's, during the campaign, putting his head in the sand and saying that the global economy from which he's benefitted and where the products that he's put his name on have come from in developing countries --

CAMEROTA: So, you're saying that even though --

COONS: -- he's now saying that he agrees with Bernie Sanders.

CAMEROTA: Sure. So you're saying that even though she has shifted -- you're saying that comes from analysis and that voters will forgive her for those shifting positions on trade.

COONS: Well, I think voters should recognize that she's someone with the temperament, and the experience, and the insight into the global economy to recognize that we can't roll back globalization. We can't build walls between the United States, the world's leading economy, and the rest of the world and be successful.

Trade deals have led to winners and losers in different sectors of our economy. And I do think that Sec. Clinton, as president, would be a tougher and more effective trade negotiator and trade enforcer than Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: Senator, I want to ask you about this meeting that has come to light between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former president, Bill Clinton this week. They met on, it sounds like, a tarmac on a plane -- a private plane. They met together, I think, by themselves in a parked private plane and Loretta Lynch has said that this was just a -- this was in -- give me a minute -- Monday evening in Phoenix.

And she said this was just a social meeting. She asked about his granddaughter. Many people have said was this appropriate for the attorney general of the U.S. to be meeting with the husband of the candidate who is still in the middle of this ongoing email investigation that the attorney general is overseeing? What do you think about the impropriety or the appearance of that?

[07:40:00] COONS: Well, Alisyn, I've just heard about this, this morning. My impression of the meeting was that the attorney general was coming into Phoenix to give a speech about community policing and that the former president asked to talk to her briefly about community policing. I do agree with you that it doesn't send the right signal.

I am impressed with Attorney General Loretta Lynch -- the work that she's done in combating violent crime and in leading the Department of Justice, and she has generally shown excellent judgment and strong leadership of the department. And I'm convinced that she is an independent attorney general. But I do think that this meeting --

CAMEROTA: Should she have said --

COONS: -- sends the wrong signal and I don't think it sends the right signal. I think she should have steered clear, even of a brief, casual, social meeting with the former president.

CAMEROTA: She should have said no, thank you, I'mnot available to meet right now?

COONS: I think she should have said look, I recognize you have a long record of leadership on fighting crime but this is not the time for us to have that conversation. After the election is over I'd welcome your advice and input.

CAMEROTA: Senator Chris Coons, thanks so much for your perspective this morning on NEW DAY.

COONS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, Alisyn, we do have breaking news on the Istanbul terror attack. We now know where the attackers are from. What does that tell us about ISIS and whom they are attracting? We're going to talk to Sen. Angus King, next.

[07:41:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:44:40] CUOMO: We do have breaking news. Turkish authorities now confirming the nationalities of the three attackers at the Istanbul airport. The suicide bombers were from the Dagestan region of Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Does this mean this was the work of ISIS?

Joining us now, Independent senator, Angus King, of Maine. He's a member of both the Intelligence & Armed Services Committee. You got a briefing last night, Senator. What can you tell us about it and how does this information maybe change what you were told?

[07:45:00] SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: Well, yesterday's briefing was more about ISIS and the war ongoing in Syria and Iraq, so we didn't get into this. This information wasn't available until late last night or early this morning, but I think it does indicate that this could well be -- is likely ISIS. It certainly bore as I think Director Brennan said, the hallmarks of an ISIS operation.

And a lot of people think of ISIS as strictly an Arab -- a Middle Eastern group of people but, in fact, they've had fighters come from all the over world. And as Michael Weiss pointed out -- or, Weiss -- pointed out this morning, some of the toughest and most dangerous of their fighters came from that region of Russia and the caucuses. CUOMO: So, people take the starting point that ISIS is Syria and the Levant, right, that area. Then they hear well, they can also be from the caucuses, you know, this area that we're talking about now, and it speaks to their growing footprint. That they're growing and that means we are losing. Do you agree?

KING: Well, it depends on how you define it. We're not losing on the ground in Syria and Iraq, for sure. I mean, that was what the briefing was about yesterday. They've lost a tremendous amount of territory. They just lost Fallujah. They lost a good deal of their army, as you saw last night in those airstrikes on the people escaping Fallujah, so they're in a squeeze and I think the next targets are going to be Mosul in Iraq and Al-Raqqah in Syria.

But -- but they're going to try to maintain their international terrorist reputation and I think attacks like we saw in Istanbul are exactly the kind of thing they're going to do. In order -- I mean, in this weird world that they live in killing innocent people seems to be a recruiting tool so it does make them more dangerous in that sense. And they're establishing a presence in Libya. Wherever there's instability they're going to be trying to set up shop.

But there is something important about this, Chris, and I think -- I hope that this will wake up the Russians that they have a real interest in helping us to get rid of Assad in some way, shape, or form so that we can jointly take on this. They have a huge stake in eliminating the threat of ISIS and yesterday's attack in Ankara by what appears to be people from their region of their country, I hope, is a wake-up call for those guys.

CUOMO: Well, we know that the Russians and the Turks have recently resumed relations after a couple of deadly episodes involving the two militaries --

KING: Right.

CUOMO: -- and this also gives them the ability, Senator, I would suspect, to say leave Assad alone. That's nothing to do with this situation. These people were from our ring of influence here and that's just as important to ISIS using your own information that these are some of their deadliest fighters, so let's focus here.

KING: Right. Well, except Assad is the irritant that gave birth to ISIS in many respects, in the Levant, and if we can -- if we can -- right now, the people in Syria that are trying to get their country back are fighting a two-front war.

They're fighting Assad, they're being bombed by his people and sometimes by the Russians. They're also having to deal with ISIS, particularly in the far northeastern corner and the far -- the northwestern corner on the far eastern side of the country, so I think the Russians have an opportunity here to help us ease Assad out. Take that part of the discussion off the table then everybody can concentrate on ISIS.

CUOMO: This happened at an airport. We have a weird debate going on in this country with airports. I say that because everybody's afraid of getting attacked but they also don't want to wait in TSA lines.

KING: Right.

CUOMO: So, what does this mean about our state of vulnerability? Could this happen here?

KING: Of course, it could. We're a free country, Chris, and anywhere people gather, whether it's at an airport, or a ballgame, or a fourth of July parade, that's a vulnerability. That's who we are as a country and we don't want to give that up. There's only one country in the world that I know that could promise you 100 percent security from an attack like this and that's North Korea. I don't think any of us want to live there.

Here's my problem with the airport issue. Wherever you move the security perimeter people are going to be lined up. So you can move the security perimeter 10 miles away and the attack will come 10.1 miles away, so I don't think that's the answer. I think we do need more patrols, dogs, and protection along the perimeter of the airport, but simply moving those TSA lines out in the parking lot somewhere, I don't think eliminates the problem.

The problem is people gather together in a line. You go to a ballgame, you have to go through security and there are long lines outside the stadium. In fact, that happened in Paris. They killed a lot of people in Paris outside of the stadium who were lined up to go through security.

CUOMO: Right, we know that well. We were there covering it and it certainly seems that there's always opportunity if you're evil enough to find it.

[07:50:00] Trump gave a big rally up in your home state of Maine.

KING: Yes.

CUOMO: His policy, when it comes to foreign policy, is America first. Now, to some that smacks of the anti-war party in the 1940 election, you know, about isolationism. Why is that the wrong approach, in your mind?

KING: Well, it depends on what you're talking about. Isolationism, in general, is not only wrong in terms of the interests of our country, it's impossible. I mean, we live in an interconnected world and it's just no longer -- you just -- you know, you can't do it. There's just too much going on back and forth.

I do think -- I do think that Trump, and Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton are all onto something talking about the trade deals and whether or not we are adequately protecting our people, and our workers, and our jobs, and our economy in terms of the deals that we strike.

I've been critical of these. I voted against the fast track authority last winter so, you know -- but, if you go from let's negotiate better trade deals to let's be isolationists and try to cut our self off from the rest of the world, that's where I think it goes off the rails.

CUOMO: Senator Angus King, I wish you best for the July 4th weekend. Thank you for being on NEW DAY, as always.

KING: Thank you and, Chris, I'm headed to the airport right now. I'm not worried.

CUOMO: All right, be safe. Take care, Senator -- Alisyn.

KING: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Well, millions of Americans could be drinking water contaminated with lead, believe it or not. Why aren't regulators doing more to fix this problem? That's next.

[07:51:40]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:30] BLACKWELL: Consider this, more than 18 million Americans could be drinking contaminated water and that number may include House staffers on Capitol Hill who could have been drinking it for months. Are regulators doing enough to keep our water lead-free?

Erik Olson is health program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, what just put out a damning report on this issue. He joins us now. Erik, good morning to you.

ERIK OLSON, HEALTH PROGRAM DIRECTOR, NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: And I'll start with this. We all watched what was happening, and still is happening, in Flint, Michigan with frustration and, for some people, downright anger. But, unknowingly, there's a good chance that we were watching that while drinking from, according to this report, one of the more than 5,300 community water systems that's violating lead and copper rules. How was this allowed to happen?

OLSON: Well, it's unbelievable that we have such a widespread problem. A lot of people thought this was limited to just to Flint or a few communities, but we used EPA's own data and discovered that there is a widespread problem with contamination of water supplies with lead. Honestly, I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that their local community has a problem.

BLACKWELL: And we're talking big cities here.

OLSON: We're talking cities across the country -- large cities, small towns. Unfortunately, this isn't limited to just a few pockets. If you look at the maps that we were able to put together from the EPA's own data you'll see that it was really across the country in all 50 states we've got some lead problems.

BLACKWELL: So, the violations here -- failure to treat to reduce lead levels, failure to monitor for lead, failure to report test results. And you mentioned the EPA regulations here. They know about this and, again, according to your report, 90 percent of the violations in drinking water systems faced no formal enforcement. Only three percent faced penalties. Why isn't the EPA enforcing their own rules?

OLSON: That's exactly right. The EPA and the states really have not been aggressively enforcing. We say that basically there's no cop on the beat to make sure that the law is being enforced. And I think the reason for that is, in part, lack of resources at the state and federal level for enforcement.

But there's a lack of will, honestly, in a lot of these agencies to really crack down on the problem. And until we actually make it a priority to fix our infrastructure, to invest in it, and to enforce the law, we're going to continue to have this problem.

BLACKWELL: So you know the regulations, you're an attorney. Does any of the activity or, let's say, inaction reach the level of criminal charges?

OLSON: Well, in Flint we've seen criminal charges filed already by the state attorney general where allegedly a bunch of officials were covering the problem up. And part of our report looked at the situation and, believe it or not, Flint doesn't even show up on our map because the violations were never reported. We're worried that this is a widespread problem where water suppliers may be gaming the system to avoid showing up as having a violation and we really need to fix that problem.

BLACKWELL: You also talk about cozy relationships, which sounds a lot like what we talked about in '08 and '09 at the financial crisis. Put some meat on that bone for us.

OLSON: Well, it's a big problem. We've got a lot of regulators who hang out with the people that they're supposed to be regulating. The folks that are providing the water. And, of course, you want some cooperation there. But when you cross the line into becoming buddies and you're not willing to really enforce against the system that's supplying contaminated water, that's where you have a real problem and we really need to break that coziness.

BLACKWELL: Erik, finally, as mothers and fathers are listening here -- you've got about 10 seconds here -- they turn that suspicious eyebrow and look at the kitchen sink. What can they do to protect their families?

OLSON: Well, the first thing citizens ought to do is ask for their water to be tested. It's not that expensive. You can have it checked and you can also use a tap water filter if you're worried and you have children, but you've got to make sure it's the kind of filter that removes lead.

BLACKWELL: All right, Erik Olson, with the NRDC, thanks so much for being with us on NEW DAY.

OLSON: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

BLACKWELL: And we are following breaking news on the Istanbul terror attack. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS suffers setbacks.

BLACKWELL: Security is being ramped up at U.S. airports.

KING: Will it happen here? Nobody can guarantee that it won't.

CUOMO: New information about Tuesday's deadly bombing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a very scary moment. People were trying to reach the glass, trying to get out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard people yelling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said stop, stop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody is killing somebody.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE: Bernie Sanders cannot stand Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We know that the economy would be badly damaged if Donald Trump had his way.