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White House Denies Ransom Payment for Hostages; Supreme Court Blocks Transgender Bathroom Ruling. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired August 04, 2016 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00] NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is of course at the site of one of the most gruesome terror outrages in London's history, the 77 Russell Square underground bombing.
So, of course, any high alert here, John, is always going to raise tensions across the capital and across the country, notwithstanding the general level of high alert across Europe. London's police commissioner has come out and said they are not ruling anything out, although of their investigation is into the mental health of the individual who carried out this attack.
What is really noteworthy given the current climate across the continent, John, is how quickly police responded. Five minutes. Within five minutes of the distress calls coming in from the public, police were here on the scene. That gives you a sense, again, with this increase of armed police across Europe and across the U.K., that this is now unfortunately, these concerns, these alerts are the new normal, John, Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Concern everywhere, Nima. Thank you for that reporting. We'll check back as you get more developments.
Well, damage control at the undisclosed cash payment to Iran. Did the U.S. pay ransom for the release of four prisoners? We take a closer look at that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:35:15] CAMEROTA: "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting that senior officials in the Justice Department objected to sending a plane filled with $400 million to Iran at the very same time four American detainees were being released because they feared it would look like a ransom payment.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest denies that connection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No, it was not. It is against the policy of the United States to pay ransom for hostages.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Would those prisoners have been released had this payment not been de? Isn't it essentially a ransom payment then?
EARNEST: No, it is not a ransom payment. The United States does not do it that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: All right. Joining us no discuss this is CNN political commentator and contributing editor for "The Atlantic", Peter Beinart. And former lieutenant governor of South Carolina and Donald Trump supporter Andre Bauer.
Great to have both of you here.
Governor, let me start with you. The White House says this was the culmination of a long-standing financial deal between the U.S. and Iran that dates back to the 1970s. Back then Iran gave the U.S. $400 million in exchange for equipment, military equipment, that they never got. This was the U.S. finally paying it back.
Why do you think it was a ransom deal?
ANDRE BAUER (R), FORMER LT. GOVERNOR, SOUTH CAROLINA: I mean, of all days -- just give them the benefit of the doubt. Of all days they could have picked, the exact day, it just smells of improprieties. It's exactly why people are so turned off from government and so turned off from Washington because of deals that look like this.
And again, I don't know if it happened or not, but they had, I think, between when it happen, and this day, and it just happened to be this exact day. It's a terrible message for us to send to other countries around the world where we may have a hostage situation.
CAMEROTA: Peter, Republicans can't get past the timing and the timing is dubious, that it happened on that very day. Even if there was no ransom, why did the White House -- why would the White House agree to something they knew would raise questions like this?
PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, remember, they were scrambling to meet this deadline for the Iranian deal more generally and tie up all of these loose ends. I mean, I agree, with the details, it doesn't look good. I think you have to look at it in context. Donald Trump likes to talk about being a great deal maker.
The larger question is, was this deal good for the United States? As you said this wasn't even our money. Iran had given this money in return for weapons that we had never given them. Iran had taken us to The Hague and very well might have got an settlement where we were forced to give them more.
As part of this deal, Iran gets rid of 98 percent of its enriched uranium, submits to the toughest inspections any country is ever accepted on its nuclear program, and pour concrete into its plutonium reactor and we get hostages out. That's a pretty good deal.
CAMEROTA: But isn't this different than that deal? Isn't this -- this predates, this $400 million predates the Iran deal. This is from the military equipment deal from the '70s when the shah was in control.
BEINART: Right, right. But it was part of meeting the implementation day in January in which we were going to certify that Iran had met its obligations and we wanted to get the hostages out by then.
CAMEROTA: President Obama says this was not secret. He announced it back in January. He talked about this and the motivation for it. So let's listen to him in January.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States and Iran are now settling a long-standing Iranian government claim against the United States government. Iran will be returned its own funds, including appropriate interest, but much less than the amount Iran sought. For the United States, the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Governor, either way, Hillary Clinton was not at the heart of this. That's what Donald Trump is saying, that Hillary Clinton screwed this up, Hillary Clinton paid ransom for this. She wasn't involved in the 1970s when this was a deal with the shah, nor was she involved on the day that this transfer happened.
BAUER: Well, I think it's a bigger picture of the regime that's in there. She's tying herself to President Obama, that it will be his third term.
Again, the message isn't right, the messenger isn't right, and she wants to be a part of that message, which in fact the American people distrust. I mean, right now, he's riding incredibly high poll numbers. I think things like this will diminish his poll numbers. I think you'll continue to see this, and she'll distance herself from it because this is why people have such a distaste for where our American government is going now.
CAMEROTA: Peter, is it fair to say Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, they were dealing with Iran, she initiated the Iran nuclear deal, so she's somehow connected to this.
BEINART: Look, if the Republicans want to debate the Iran nuclear deal, I think Hillary Clinton should have that debate very forthrightly.
[06:40:00] The truth is, it's been an excellent deal for the United States. Even top Israeli security officials are saying Iran is clearly further away from a nuclear weapon. Again, 98 percent of enriched uranium, the toughest inspections any country has ever submitted to, its plutonium program, it poured concrete into that reactor. All without war? I think Hillary Clinton can defend that proudly.
CAMEROTA: Why does Donald Trump hate it?
BAUER: He hates it more than anything for the image. What does it say to other countries that we're concerned about that it looks like a pay to play.
CAMEROTA: You're talking about the ransom. You two are talking about two different things.
BEINART: The ransom is part of the larger Iran deal, right? Donald Trump doesn't even know the details of the Iran deal. He keeps talking about $150 million payoff to Iran. In fact, it was $100 million. It was already there, frozen assets.
The reason Donald Trump can't win this debate is because he doesn't know the basic details of the deal.
BAUER: I don't think most American citizens know the details.
BEINART: Shouldn't the guy who's going to be president?
BAUER: Well, everybody should know. The American people should know the details, but it shouldn't be thrust upon them. Oh, the day we give this money up is the day we get the hostages.
So, the timing is just so poor. The president could have said, look, let's wait a week or two, let's wait a month or two, but not the exact day.
CAMEROTA: Look, this is the optics that we always talk about in Washington. The optics, I think everybody agrees, are bad, but the devil is in the details. If people want to learn more about the origin of this deal, they certainly can. It's on our website. You can go and read all of that.
Also, President Obama, we should mention, will be speaking this afternoon. This is likely to come up. We'll talk more about that as well. Thank you, gentlemen.
Up next, we have dramatic video of that Emirates plane crash we first showed you yesterday. It landed and burst into flames at the airport in Dubai. We'll show you the chaotic scene inside as 300 people on board were scrambling to get to safety. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:45:50] CAMEROTA: Police in Phoenix are linking another shooting to a serial sniper still on the loose. Investigators say the shooter targeted a man and young boy in a car on July 11th. This brings the total number of incidents to nine since March. Seven victims have died. A reward for the shooter's capture is being raised to $50,000.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama setting a single-day record for commuting federal prison sentences. The president granted clemency to 214 inmates, 67 had life sentences. He's now commuted the sentences of 562 inmates in his presidency. That's more than all of his nine predecessors combined. CAMEROTA: We're now getting a look at the frightening moments inside
that burning emirates jet as passengers tried to evacuate. Watch this.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
OK. You can see the chaos. People screaming and getting very crowded in the aisles. They were trying to grab their carry-ones. Then they jumped down the slide, which you'll see in a moment. They caught a brief glimpse of that engine on fire.
Moments later, this happened. There was a huge explosion. Dubai's government says one firefighter died while saving the others. All 282 passengers on board and 18 crew members did evacuate that plane safely, 13 people suffered minor injuries only.
BERMAN: The opening ceremonies for the Olympics not until tomorrow, but the U.S. women's soccer team already started its quest for a fourth straight gold medal. The team beat New Zealand 2-0. U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo, who was booed during the second half. Fans chanted "Zika" whenever she got rid of the ball. Not very friendly.
Solo has been outspoken about her concerns about Zika in Brazil. Also, violent protests broke out as the Olympic torch weaved through Rio. Police used tear gas and pepper spray on folks upset over the high cost of hosting the games.
CAMEROTA: OK. So not all going well or smoothly.
All right. Put down that dental floss. All the fuss over flossing may be overrated. In today's "New Day, New You" the dental guidelines quietly dropped its recommendation for daily flossing. Dental groups acknowledged the evidence for flossing is weak. But a spokesman for the American Dental Association says it's confident that brushing and flossing are beneficial.
I mean, this is a scandal.
BERMAN: I floss for like three days before I see the dentist because I don't want the lecture. Have you been flossing? Sure, for our day and a half.
CAMEROTA: I'm sure you're doing that.
BERMAN: The Supreme Court steps in with an emergency ruling on transgender bathroom use. What the justices said and how this could affect the legal battles going forward. We're going to break it all down next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:52:53] BERMAN: A divided Supreme Court blocked a ruling that would allow a transgender student in Virginia to use the boy's bathroom. So what exactly does this mean?
Let's discuss with Joan Biskupic, a CNN legal analyst and Supreme Court biographer.
Joan, thanks so much for being with us, because I think this is confusing. There are really two issues that were brought up in the last 24 hours. One has to do with the makeup of the court. The other has to do with how the Supreme Court will address, I think, transgender issues going forward.
First, simply, in 15 seconds or less, tell us exactly what happened. It was really Justice Stephen Breyer who stepped in yesterday.
JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No, it was the whole court, but Justice Breyer was the key vote because it takes five justices to block any lower court action. Yesterday Justice Stephen Breyer, who you singled out rightly so because he's usually quite liberal on these issues, flipped over with the conservative justices to block t effects of a lower court ruling, which would have allowed this transgender student in Virginia to use the boy's bathroom, as the student wants to do.
What the justices said was, first of all, that they were blocking it and that they were signaling that they have an interest in taking up this issue. Now, just so your viewers know, they didn't say they would take the issue, but their criteria for deciding whether to intervene as they did yesterday involved a test of whether it's likely that they'll want to take up the issue and even whether it's likely that the challengers might win.
So this was a very big deal because it was the first time the justices were coming in on a case involving transgender discrimination.
BERMAN: Hinting that it's likely or possible that they will look at this further because this issue of transgender students, which bathroom they use, has come up in state after state. There are a lot of things at play here in a way that it makes it likely that the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal level will have to make a decision.
BISKUPIC: That's right. Because here's the situation. The Department of Education and Department of Justice earlier this year, as you know, issued guidance saying that under Title 9's prohibition of sex discrimination, transgender students are also covered because they're essentially being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation.
[06:55:13] So it's a big issue. We saw it in North Carolina. There's a case pending there, a federal government challenge to that state law saying that students must use the bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex, not the way they identify sexually, in terms of their sexual orientation.
Then, you have several states in other jurisdictions suing the federal government. But this case was the first one to come in about an individual student. So this individual student, a 17-year-old by the name of Gavin in Virginia, had wanted to use the boy's restroom. The Supreme Court action yesterday blocked just him from doing it.
Again, when I refer to the standards that the court used to decide this, one of them is that they felt like there could be irreparable harm to the school district if this young student had been allowed to use the s facility when school starts probably just in a couple weeks.
BERMAN: And again, not to harp on Justice Steven Breyer, but it's a 4-4 split in the court right now after the death of Justice Scalia. Everyone is waiting for a ninth justice to be at some point approved by the Senate, whether it happens before the New Year or not is anyone's guess at this point.
But my reading of what Justice Breyer said was, I'm not making a statement about what I think about transgender students using bathrooms forever. This is not me weighing, siding with the conservatives forever. This is me saying that I think for now we should wait until the whole court can weigh in on this decision.
BISKUPIC: Yes, let me address that. I'm going to tell you to look at Justice Kennedy a bit too. With Justice Breyer, you're absolutely right. They needed his fifth vote to block this. What he was saying was I'm giving the conservatives essentially a courtesy vote here because it takes four justices to agree to hear a case. But it takes five to block this lower court action.
So, Justice Breyer said, look, we already have four justices who want to hear this case. As a courtesy, we'll put all this action on hold right now. We'll block the student from using the boy's bathroom until the issue can be heard on the merits.
So, yes, it was a key move by Justice Breyer, but I just want to add, another justice made an interesting move here. That would have been Justice Anthony Kennedy, who, as you rightly understand, is normally with the conservatives. When it comes to cases can of sexual orientation, he has been a swing vote himself. He wrote the gay marriage decision last year.
He obviously was firmly with conservatives to say we want to stop what the lower court did here. We don't want this young student to be able to use the boy's bathroom until we decide whether we want to take the whole thing up on the merits.
BERMAN: Every reason to believe this is an issue the Supreme Court will be dealing with for some time. Joan Biskupic, thanks so much for being s and helping us understand what is a complicated issue. Thanks so much.
BISKUPIC: Thank you.
BERMAN: What's your take on this? Tweet us @NewDay or on Facebook.com/NewDay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would say right now it's the best in terms of being united.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don't see how I get to Donald Trump anymore. NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: What Trump has done is just very
self-destructive.
PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The turmoil.
This is another Clinton narrative being put out there.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Trump is unqualified to be president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lesser of two evils. That's still evil.
BERMAN: President Obama enjoying his highest approval rating of his second term.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a warning sign for Donald Trump.
TRUMP: We paid $400 million for the hostages. Iran sent us the tapes, right. It's a military tape.
JOSH EARNEST: It is not a ransom payment. The United States does not do it that way.
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama put a price tag on the head of every American traveling abroad.
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Chris is off this morning. The hardest working man in TV news is here, John Berman.
BERMAN: Godfather of news.
CAMEROTA: Great to have you here.
BERMAN: Nice to see you.
CAMEROTA: Donald Trump denying any turmoil in his campaign, saying his campaign is more united than ever. This despite reports that some members of his team and party leaders are frustrated with some of his messaging on the trail.
BERMAN: Donald Trump is now touting a big fundraising month, a very big fundraising month. He brought in about $80 million in July. That's the good news for Donald Trump.
The not-so-good news, a new national poll shows Hillary Clinton expanding her lead over Trump to ten points.
Let's start our coverage this morning with CNN's Phil Mattingly.
Phil, give us a sense of what's going on. PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Donald Trump's advisers are very clear. There are real opportunities. John, you mentioned that fundraising number. They feel like they can capitalize on their attacks on Hillary Clinton. Now if they can only get their candidate on message.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: The campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united.
