Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

North Korea Claims Another Nuclear Test; Trump Interview Airs on Russian State TV; Trump No Longer Talking about 'Birther' Controversy; War Against ISIS Intensifying as Syrian Peace Talks Held. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, September 9, 6 a.m. in the East. We do have breaking news overnight. A seismic event detected in North Korea. Allegedly, its most powerful nuclear test yet. It caused an explosion with a force of a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that could be felt across Korea.

[05:58:45] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Kim Jong-un's government says it can now make nuclear warheads small enough to be mounted on a missile. And many worry that that missile could reach the U.S.

So let's get right to international correspondent Will Ripley. He is live for us in Tokyo with more. Will, what have you learned?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this test, Alisyn, is being strongly condemned, not only by the Japanese prime minister here in Tokyo, but South Korea's President Park. Even China, North Korea's closest ally, is also condemning this action, saying it's a direct violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions that are supposed to prohibit nuclear tests, although North Korea has now conducted five, if this does turn out to be verified as a nuclear test.

The United States And Japan sent up sniffer planes to test for radiation. We know that President Obama was briefed overnight on the situation. He also had separate phone calls with the South Korean President Park and the Japanese prime minister to reiterate the United States' commitment to defend this region.

The U.S. is in the process of putting in those THAAD missile defense systems on the South Korean Peninsula to protect the 50 million people who live there in addition to the 25,000 U.S. troops. There are also 50,000 U.S. troops stationed here in Japan, along with 127 million people who are in the range of these North Korean weapons.

What does North Korea want to do? They want to develop a nuclear warhead that's small enough to fit on a missile that they then can put either on a submarine or they can launch from the ground and attack their No. 1 enemy, which is the United States and its allies here in Asia Pacific.

That's the great concern, that they are moving closer and closer to this goal. This test, last week, three missiles were launched. And the week before that a submarine-launched ballistic missile test. They were successful. Chris, the progress that they're making is troubling to many people, many people around the world.

CUOMO: And that's the issue, not just the test, but what it means about their capabilities. Will Ripley, thank you very much for the reporting.

Let's discuss now with author of "The Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World" -- that's the name of the book -- columnist for "The Daily Beast," as well, Gordon Chang.

Gordon, thank you for joining us. Five point three measuring as seismic activity. South Korea confirming that they believe this was a test of a nuclear weapon or nuclear capabilities. How big an event is this in terms of that seismic activity?

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "THE NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN": Well, it's big because some people say that there were ten -- ten kilotons. Other people say that it was in the 20 to 30 kiloton range. This is much bigger than the test in January, which was somewhere between six and nine kilotons.

So the North Koreans are making very fast progress. They may have a nuclear warhead for their short- and intermediate-range missiles. Within two or three years, they'll have a warhead that can hit the United States. They also now have two launchers that can hit the United States, the K-108 and the Taepodong 2. So the American people are now starting to be at risk.

CUOMO: So the question has always been it's easy, fairly enough, to detect what they're doing. It's been impossible to stop it thus far. Where are we in terms of understanding what leverage works? Sanctions haven't worked. International condemnation hasn't worked. What do you see on the horizon?

CHANG: Well, we have sanctions, of course, the United States and the international community, but those sanctions are not as tough as they could be. As Assistant Secretary of State Russell says, "Look, our sanctions are design to bring North Korea to its senses, not to its knees."

Now, the Obama administration has been tightening sanctions, especially with the June 1 designation of North Korea as a primary money laundering concern.

The most important thing is enforcement of sanctions, though, and also we need to have some very difficult conversations with China, because North Korea's nuclear envoy was in Beijing on Tuesday. And North Korea would not have set off this device on Friday if they thought the Chinese would impose real costs on them.

CUOMO: What do you make of the Chinese coming out and saying this breaks the U.N. security regulations, that this is wrong conduct? That's somewhat unusual in the context of these tests. But in light of what you just said about the North Korean emissary being there at the same time, how do you read the situation?

CHANG: Well, I think China supports North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and the United States and other members of the international community have got to start to recognize that.

There are reports from both Israeli and American North Korean experts who studied missiles, who say, for instance, that that August 24 launch of the submarine-launched ballistic missile, that was probably a Chinese missile. The technology was given to the North Koreans. That has not been confirmed.

But nonetheless, we need to have some very difficult conversations, because we know that in the last three weeks, Beijing has been much more angry at the U.S. and South Korea for the THAAD missile defense system than it has been against North Korea. And so the North Koreans saw a big, green light, because they realized China's not going to do anything.

You know, China has not been enforcing sanctions. There have been uranium hexafluoride canisters and other elements for their nuclear weapons program have been crossing the China-North Korea border in recent months, despite the sanctions.

CUOMO: Gordon Chang, thank you very much for the perspective on this. Appreciate it -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Turning to the presidential election, national security and foreign relations still dominating. Donald Trump continuing his praise for Vladimir Putin, even doing it in an interview that aired on Russian TV. Hillary Clinton slamming those comments.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny following all of the developments for us. Jeff, what have you learned?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Donald Trump, already under fire by Democrats and even many Republicans for praising Vladimir Putin, is now giving new ammunition to his critics. In an interview appearing on a TV station funded by the Kremlin, telling Larry King he believes it's unlikely the Russian government is meddling in the 2016 election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE (via phone): I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe -- maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows? But I think that it's pretty unlikely. But you know, who knows?

I hope that, if they are doing something, I hope that somebody's going to be able to find out so they can -- they can end it, because that would not be appropriate at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ZELENY: Now, this is all over the hacking into the DNC and other entities, computer operations.

[06:05:05] But Trump's team says they did this interview to Larry King as a favor, not knowing it would be aired on "Russia Today." Spokeswoman Hope Hicks is telling CNN this: "Mr. Trump recorded a short interview with Larry King for his podcast as a favor to Mr. King. What Larry King does with the interview content is up to him. We have nothing to do with it."

Now, Hillary Clinton is seizing on all of this as the latest example of how she says Trump is unfit for the presidency. She talked about this, those Putin comments specifically, as she campaigned yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That is not just unpatriotic. It's not just insulting to the office and the man who holds the office. It is scary; it is dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, Trump's running mate, Mike Pence also said that what Trump said about Vladimir Putin was accurate and it was fine to praise him. But so many Republicans did pile onto that and say Putin may be actually using Trump, maybe trying to flatter Trump. And Hillary Clinton is using this as the latest example to say that she believes he's not ready for the presidency.

CAMEROTA: So Jeff, has Clinton's team told you that they have a strategy shift and that they're going to start focusing more on her positives than his negatives?

ZELENY: A bit. She is going to start delivering some new speeches next week, starting with an economic speech on Tuesday in California. Will also be giving a speech on national service, children and families, that will be more about her than him, aides told us yesterday.

But Alisyn, it's also clear that he is still their opponent and they know that they need to draw strong contrasts with him. That's what they're doing this morning in a new ad out in swing states airing today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Donald Trump says he alone can fix the problems we face. Well, I don't believe that's how you get things done in our country. It takes Democrats and Republicans working together. That's how we got healthcare for 8 million kids, rebuilt New York City after 9/11, and got the treaty cutting Russia's nuclear arms. We've got to bring people...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That is a different message. ZELENY: No doubt about it. And it is part of her effort to get some

of those Republicans back to her team. That's the way Donald Trump has closed this a little bit, closed the gap, because he is short of some Republicans. She's trying to get some of them back to her side by saying, in this very contentious election, that she would be a uniter, not a divider. He doesn't agree, of course, but that's her message.

CAMEROTA: Right, right, that she can reach across the aisle. OK, Jeff. Thanks so much for all of that -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. We have an addition to the garbage fire of political talk in this election to report for you. Birther talk is back. After a heated debate involving one of Donald Trump's top surrogates, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, we have a turn in this story. CNN's Jason Carroll here with more.

What happened now?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you have to wonder if this is something that Donald Trump is ever going to address again. Trump has said repeatedly that he does not want to talk about the birther issue. His running mate, Mike Pence, has said he believes the president was born in the United States.

Former New York City mayor and Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani says he also believes President Obama was born here in the states, but so far nothing from Trump.

For years, Trump was one of the most outspoken backers of the birther movement, one which supported the false claim that President Obama was not born in the United States. Giuliani now says Trump does believe he and the birthers were wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: I want to know whether you believe that your candidate for president believes he would succeed a legitimate president or not.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Yes. He believes...

MATTHEWS: Does he believe he would succeed a legitimate president?

GIULIANI: Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States, but that issue was raised originally...

MATTHEWS: When is he going to say it?

GIULIANI: That issue was raised originally by Hillary Clinton's campaign.

MATTHEWS: When is he going to say that this president is legitimate? This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not?

GIULIANI: He believes...

MATTHEWS: You believe it? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it?

GIULIANI: I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: He believes it, but again, still no word from Trump admitting he was wrong.

Many in the African-American community viewed that birther movement as being racist. Trump, as you know, has been trying to court the African-American vote.

Hillary Clinton putting pressure on Trump to admit his mistake. She addressed the issue at a Baptist convention just last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We are facing a candidate with a long history of racial discrimination in his business. Who traffics in toxic conspiracy theories like the lie that President Obama is not a true American. If he doesn't even respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Well, Clinton also taking aim at Trump for another false claim. Trump continues to say he was against the war in Iraq before it started, despite an interview Trump did with Howard Stern back in 2002 where he said he favored it -- Alisyn.

[06:10:14] CAMEROTA: All right, Jason, thanks so much for updates on all of that.

As we prepare to mark 15 years since the September 11th attacks on Sunday, there's new CNN polling this morning that shows people are more concerned today than five years ago about a potential attack.

Half of Americans believe an attack of some sort is likely in the U.S. in the coming days. This is a spike from five years ago, when fewer than 40 percent of Americans thought an attack was likely around the tenth anniversary.

Since then, the rise of ISIS and domestic attacks, including the San Bernardino shootings and the Boston Marathon bombings, have of course, changed the landscape. The polling also captures a sense of the frustration. The number of people feeling sad, angry, and fearful when they think about 9/11 has all increased in the past five years.

CUOMO: And the wars that started after 9/11 still rage on. U.S. and Turkish troops are getting set to join forces, targeting ISIS in the Syrian city of Raqqah, while the battle to reclaim Mosul from ISIS in Iraq is still ongoing and intensifying.

This comes as Secretary of State John Kerry is in Geneva holding high- level talks with Russian officials, trying to strike a peace deal for Syria.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Geneva -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris, Secretary Kerry is in that meeting with his Russian opposite number, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Look, the key here going into this is knowing that just in this past week, the G-20, President Obama said the gaps for agreement were too big. President Putin came off the back of that and said, "We can still make a deal." I think trust and expectation on Secretary Kerry's side is low, but he says he wouldn't be here if there wasn't some hope of getting a positive outcome.

Key is Aleppo, humanitarian access, and the specifics of a cease-fire agreement there that wouldn't reward Russia and Assad for stalling the talks and allowing them to effectively take territory on the ground.

Not clear if we're going to get a deal today, but it is a step closer. Certainly the opposition, Syrian opposition say that they want a deal and they want one soon.

Meanwhile, you've got the United States and Turkey getting agreement on how they can tackle the ISIS headquarters in Syria and Raqqah. And in Iraq, the authorities there, backed by the United States, have been continuing with, if you can call them, shaping maneuvers around Mosul, cutting off key supply routes for ISIS there and taking towns close to that city.

So it is moving forward, expectation these key fights against ISIS territory within the next few months -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Nic. Thank you very much for all of that update.

Well, Donald Trump going on Russian TV and criticizing U.S. foreign policy. Why he did that and what he said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:58] CUOMO: The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is now about national security, and it's certainly going to grab headlines. Donald Trump discussed his feelings about an alleged Russian cyber-attack on the DNC in an interview that appeared on Russian state TV. Here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (via phone): I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe -- maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows? But I think that it's pretty unlikely. But you know, who knows? I hope that, if they are doing something, I hope that somebody's going to be able to find out so they can -- they can end it, because that would not be appropriate at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: Well-known Russian Larry King there. What's going on in this situation? Let's bring in "Washington Post" reporter Philip Bump; CNN political commentator and political anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; and CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for "The New York Times," Maggie Haberman.

Phil, joking around about Larry King's situation is not a joke. Larry King has a basically syndicated podcast program that gets picked up by different outlets. One of them is "Russia Today."

Trump says through his spokesperson, "We didn't know what he was going to do with the interview."

I don't know what is worse, going on Russian TV and attacking U.S. positions or not knowing that you're going to be on Russian TV attacking positions. What do you hear?

PHILIP BUMP, REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, the indications are that this is another situation of a way in which the Donald Trump campaign is not operating as a traditional campaign. Most traditional campaigns would do the leg work, do the background to know.

CUOMO: By traditional, you mean -- is that a nice word?

BUMP: Yes.

CUOMO: By traditional, you're saying they're not effective, that they're not thinking about what they do?

BUMP: Some words you're putting in my mouth there, yes. No, but that is what I mean. I mean that most campaigns are very thorough about vetting who it is that they're talking to, where the candidate is going to be seen, what is going to be done with it, in a way that the Donald Trump campaign has repeatedly shown they're less thorough about. Well, you know, there have been times in which his sons have done interviews with white nationalists, for example. There are ways in which the Donald Trump campaign is not doing the homework that it needs to do.

CUOMO: So you think there are mistakes? You think this is a mistake?

BUMP: I think this is a mistake.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, he says he didn't know. But Maggie, you talk to the Trump campaign all the time. What does the campaign think about his continuing praise for Putin?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: They continue to insist what you're hearing is not what you're hearing. He's not praising him. Look, he just said, and they will point to you, he's not praising him. He just said that he's a good leader of his own country. And it goes on and on and on like this. You know, we've all heard what he said. He has made these comments repeatedly. I think that -- I don't know if it was a mistake or not. My guess, knowing Trump, is that he heard, oh, it's Larry King, and a lot of his cultural references are -- are older. And I think he figured it's fine. And as Phil said, nobody checked, which is a hallmark of this campaign. They don't do a whole lot of vetting, as we have seen, on staff picks and all sorts of other issues.

But the issue is what he said. He went on TV, and he said -- I mean, yes, the venue was certainly problematic. He said -- he went further than he did the night before, where he had basically said it's not been proven who did the DNC hack. He now said, "Oh, it's unlikely that it's Russia." It's not clear what he's basing that on at all. Even Paul Ryan, the House speaker, yesterday indicated that the belief is that it is Russia.

[06:20:08] CUOMO: And just to the point that the campaign says Trump and the campaign are not trying to praise Putin, let's play what his vice-presidential candidate, Mike Pence, just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think -- I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that's going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Errol.

CUOMO: Did you just hear what I think that we just heard, which is him saying that Putin is a better leader than the president of the United States? Can you imagine what would happen during the era of Ronald Reagan if a Democrat came out and said the Russian president is better than the American president?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's right. And it's startling. And these are people, Donald Trump in particular, who were adults during the Cold War, at the height of the Cold War, which was a mortal peril, which was a serious -- which was serious business, which was really only 20 years, maybe, in the past, if you think about it.

And so for them to be, I think, aligning this campaign with this notion that strength is good, Putin is strong, and therefore, Putin is good or effective in some way, runs so far counter not only to 70 years of diplomacy in American history, but also sort of plays into the hands of what clearly seems to be the objective of Putin and Russia, which is to weaken the NATO alliance to sort of rearrange the pieces on the chess board, to be a player in the Middle East in a way that they haven't been in the past.

It's very -- it's a very serious set of issues that are, I think, now ripe for debate as we head into the presidential debates.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the issue of birtherism, which has not gone away, because it has not been resolved. Donald Trump has never come out and said, "Whoops, I got that one wrong. I'm sorry."

But yesterday something interesting happened. And it was that his surrogates, Giuliani, admitted, yes, Donald Trump no longer believes that. And everybody from Chris Matthews to Bill O'Reilly has been asking them about this. So let's watch this exchange, again, with Chris Matthews.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEWS: I want to know whether you believe that your candidate for president believes he would succeed a legitimate president or not.

GIULIANI: Yes. He believes...

MATTHEWS: Does he believe he would succeed a legitimate president?

GIULIANI: Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States, but that issue was raised originally...

MATTHEWS: When is he going to say it?

GIULIANI: That issue was raised originally by Hillary Clinton's campaign.

MATTHEWS: When is he going to say that this president is legitimate? This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not?

GIULIANI: He believes...

MATTHEWS: You believe it? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it?

GIULIANI: I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Philip, what's going on inside the campaign? Why won't Trump say, "OK, I got that one wrong?"

BUMP: Well, I think the key question here is if he changed his position, when did he change it and why? I think the Donald Trump campaign has done a lot -- there have been a lot of times the candidate himself has embraced these conspiracy theories, embraced the ideas that don't have any solid backing to it.

I would love to hear, if he has changed, what is it that caused him to change? And I think that the reason he's not willing to come out and say that is because he knows that he rose to prominence on the right, on the far right, by embracing this issue. That was what drove his candidacy, his almost-candidacy in 2012. I think that he doesn't like to backtrack from positions he's taken. But I would love to hear, if he has, why, because I think, you know, if he applies logic to those sorts of things, he can apply logic to a lot of other things.

CUOMO: Equally as fact-insensitive, Maggie Haberman, did Hillary Clinton start the birther movement?

HABERMAN: There were some supporters of Hillary Clinton who started the birther movement. Hillary Clinton never talked about it. There was some internal memo that leaked at one point, and then it never went anywhere. It was Trump, definitely -- this is not in dispute -- who in 2011 put what had been a fringe movement at that point that most conservatives, to be clear, avoided talking about. There's video of Ann Coulter, his most ardent supporter who just wrote a book about him, saying that this was a mistake to talk about at the time.

Trump rushed ahead with it. It helped him rise in the polls. I think that the reason we have not heard him -- he knows it has been a problem with him. It's the one thing he has been very disciplined about for a really undisciplined candidate, he's been very disciplined when he gets asked about it in just saying, "I don't talk about that anymore."

But there is no reason to believe that he has changed his opinion on that, other than Rudy Giuliani saying, "Oh, he's changed." So I think that, because Trump has said so many things that are so contradictory or that have, you know, not matched up or that have been not true, there is no reason to assume that, yes, this is accurate, and he has.

LOUIS: And to be clear, it was a package of lies. It wasn't just the original lie of the birtherism. And it doesn't really matter. We should be clear what he believes personally.

He went on television multiple times and said he'd sent investigators to Hawaii, that they had found all kinds of stuff. You wouldn't believe the things that they found. He didn't send anybody down there. They didn't find anything.

[06:25:00] So he didn't want to talk about it, because it will unravel the entire package of lies that really constitute his use of birtherism. And I think it underscores, you know -- I mean, Phil is exactly right -- that once you start getting into the outrageous things he said in order to get himself on the national stage and get the nomination, the whole thing starts to fall apart.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. Great to have all of you here today.

So two stores facing major backlash for trying to cash in on the 9/11 attacks. The shocking displays that you have to see when NEW DAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Wait until you see this dramatic rescue. This unfolded 12,000 feet in the air. I'm getting vertigo reading it. Thirty-three people were trapped in these cable cars overnight in the French Alps. At least three of them were children.

Initially. 110 riders were stuck when these cables got tangled up in high winds. Most of them pulled to safety by Italian and French helicopters. Now everyone is safe, and they are being treated for signs of hypothermia.

CUOMO: What a good end, any way you look at it. So Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein announcing she and her running mate announce are returning to North Dakota to face trespassing and vandalism charges. Why? Stein was protesting a controversial North Dakota pipeline. She admitted to spray-painting a bulldozer during an anti-oil demonstration.