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New Day

Airport Shooting Suspect Went Into FBI, Said He Heard Voices; Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary Magic; U.S. Intel: "High Confidence" Russian Hacking Helped Trump; Russia Responds To U.S. Intel Report On Election Meddling; Trump Cast Doubts Over U.S. Intel On Russia For Months. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 09, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:30:00] RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the chaos there are stories of heroism. Mother of two recalls one stranger willing to risk his life to save hers.

ANNIKA DEAN, AIRPORT SHOOTING SURVIVOR: A man basically climbed on top of me and told me I will protect you and brought me comfort during the most terrifying experience of my life. He just wanted to protect me.

CRANE: Her protector, Anthony Bartosiewicz (ph) was unharmed.

ANTHONY BARTOSIEWICZ JR., SON OF HERO PASSENGER: It makes me incredibly proud to hear that he did something like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CRANE: Now at 11:00 today, an arraignment will be held where he will face three federal charges. All of which are eligible for the death penalty -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you for the reporting. We're going to pick up on this story. A lot of big issues that have to be addressed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the driver who plowed a truck into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem is an ISIS sympathizer. A warning for you, the video of the attacker we are going to show you is graphic. It's also the truth of what happened.

The driver killed four soldiers and injured 10 others on Sunday. Police shot and killed the suspect, he is a 28-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem. Authorities have arrested nine people since the attack.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it was a clean sweep for "La La Land" at the 74th Golden Globe Awards. The musical won a record setting seven awards including best musical or comedy film and acting awards for its two stars, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

There were other big winners last night. "Moonlight" taking home the Golden Globe for best dramatic film. Casey Affleck winning best actor for a drama for his role in "Manchester by the Sea" and Isabelle Huppert winning best dramatic actress for the French film "Elle."

I love watching the fashions and the dresses and the glamour.

CUOMO: Up next, more on this deadly attack at the airport this did not have to happen. Mental illness neglected by the health system, by our gun laws. We are going to show you what was missed or ignored and what still needs to change?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:18]

CAMEROTA: New details in the shooting at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. The FBI revealing that the shooter, Esteban Santiago, walked into the Anchorage FBI office two months before his rampage. Agents say that he told them that he heard voices and that they were forcing him to watch ISIS videos.

Let's discuss more on these warnings signs with Philip Mudd, our CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism offiCIAl. Phil, just explain the protocols here. You have been in the FBI. You worked at the FBI.

When somebody comes in who is seemed apparently mentally ill says that the voices in his head are making him possibly want to do violent things or at least watch ISIS videos, what does the FBI do?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Certainly, we wouldn't be opening a substantial case on this. We reviewed counterterrorism cases every morning, thousands of cases, when I was at the bureau. If this case ever came to the table, we would be laughed out of the room. Look at the elements of this case, an individual has a weapon. That's his constitutional right.

CAMEROTA: Right. This is the weapon in the car -- so that's not an alarm bell --

MUDD: Of course, it is. But he also says I have voices in my head, one of them is ISIS. What if he says one of the voices is telling him that his neighbors are Russian agents, is that a counter intelligence investigation? What if he says his mom is a cocaine dealer? Is that a drug investigation?

CAMEROTA: Well, I don't, but aren't these just warnings signs that you should fly somebody? They did fly somebody. They called the local police and brought him to a psychiatric hospital.

MUDD: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Where he stayed for three days.

MUDD: That's right.

CAMEROTA: Now after that shouldn't the FBI follow up? MUDD: No, what's the federal violation you're pursuing? Mental illness? Acquisition of a weapon? Claiming because of schizophrenia that you have inspiration by ISIS? What is the federal violation you like to be investigated?

CAMEROTA: I understand what you're saying that there has to be a violation, but what about the fact that this is a precursor to a violation.

MUDD: Hold on a minute, 3,223 million Americans, do you want to investigate everybody who says, hey, I've heard a voice that tells me maybe I should be inspired.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I think that possibly somebody schizophrenia or the symptoms of schizophrenia and a weapon, yes I do think you should check back with that person.

MUDD: All right, well, you better pay for it. How many agents do you want? Half a million, a million? With the incidents of mental illness in this country and the fact that you cannot take somebody's weapon unless they're forcefully committed. You can't take away the guy's weapon. He has a right to have it.

CAMEROTA: They did take his weapon when he went to the mental psychiatric facility and three days later he got out and they gave him his weapon back. Now again it -- listen, to the everyday layman that sounds like obviously there is a disconnect (inaudible) somehow.

MUDD: There is. Excuse me. Don't call the FBI. Call your congressman and the question is do you want people who do not meet the standard of forceful admission to a mental health facility to have a weapon?

CAMEROTA: Here's what his brother says, "The FBI failed here. We're not talking about someone who emerged from anonymity to do something like this, but the federal government already knew about this for months. They had been evaluating him for a while, but they didn't do anything. I mean, Phil, aren't we just at a point where we need to be a little more proactive now?

MUDD: No, I have zero sympathy for people who say the FBI should do more for people with mental illness. The problem in this country is how you treat mental illness. Not whether you consider somebody that has schizophrenia a federal risk because he walks in and says a voice is talking to me. That is not a predicate for a federal investigation. Now not. Not ever.

CAMEROTA: How about the locals? So forget the FBI. How about the local police? Should they have given him his gun back?

MUDD: Yes. This is not a question of whether they want to. It's a question of what the state or federal law says.

CAMEROTA: So you're saying there are no laws on the books that prevents somebody who might be suffering from schizophrenia or some sort of mental illness whereby they hear voices from having a gun. MUDD: There are laws at the state level, but if you look at the federal level, the question is if you voluntarily go into admission can you get your weapon back? And the answer is yes. And people are turning to federal investigators and the FBI is saying, why don't you do something about this? When we have national debate about gun control that doesn't allow the feds to do something. What do you want us to do?

CAMEROTA: Do you think they should be able to have their guns back?

MUDD: Heck, no, but there is a flip side of this. I think there should be a combination of who has a weapon's license and when somebody goes in to say I'm hearing voices in my head. There's a flip side. People will say -- I don't agree with them, but they'll say you'll discourage individuals from seeking treatment and my answer would be if the cost of that is allowing someone that hears voices to have a weapon I'd say it's fine by mean.

CAMEROTA: Phil Mudd, thanks for helping us try to understand all of this. Great to have you here -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Donald Trump's inner circle now says he does accept Russia was behind the election hackings. What would have changed his mind? I think we know the answer to that.

Maybe it was a classified intelligence briefing, but what will the president elect say when he meets the press this week? Will he acknowledge what is so clear to so many and if not, why? We dig deeper, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:57]

CUOMO: Need a Hail Mary? Then you call a priest or a Green Bay Packers named Aaron Rodgers. Coy Wire live in Tampa where he is covering the college football championship game tonight. He has this morning's "Bleacher Report." What a throw and what a catch?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Unbelievable. We've seen that a couple of times before haven't we, Chris? I'm here for the epic rematch between Clemson and Alabama in the national title game. We'll get to that in a second.

First we have to check out O'Dell Beckham Jr. and the boat boys before the NFL playoff game in Lambo(ph) yesterday. No shirts, no pants, no problem, right? Wrong. The Giants receivers fresh off their much criticized Miami boat trip. Dropped and kept dropping Eli Mannings passes. Unbelievable.

Fans cannot be happy about that. Now the play of the game. Possibly the play of the year. End of the first half, time winding down and Rogers throws the Hail Mary to Randall Cobb and somehow comes up with a catch.

[06:45:00]This was the play that stirred the Giants, look at that. Rogers dropping that thing down the honey hole, Packers going to flow out the Giants, 38-13. Next up for the Pack, the Cowboys in Dallas.

Let's turn to the reason we're here in Tampa, rematch of last year's national title game in college football between Alabama and Clemson. One that saw Alabama barely winning the game 45-40, but here we are again both teams battling back for a chance to win it all.

Nick Saven's Crimson tide has simply dominated college ball. The nation's longest winning streak of 26 games. They won four of the last seven national titles. Power house as well. They're the only FBS school other than Alabama to win ten games in each of the last six seasons.

The Tigers got after number three Ohio State last week so they get back to this moment, but now they're going into the ring with the reigning king. It's motivation Monday, Alisyn, so I'll leave you with Coach Dabo's response when asked about dealing with huge challenges he said how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

CAMEROTA: I know that, Coy. I live by that motto. Thank you very much for all of that. See you soon.

So what are people in Moscow think of U.S. intel report on Russia's meddling in the election? What is President-elect Trump now saying about it? All that is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A declassified report reveals new details about Russian hacking. The U.S. intelligence community concludes that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered, quote, "An influence campaign to harm Hillary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump. So how are Russians reacting to this report?

[06:50:10]Former CNN Moscow bureau chief and contributor, Jill Dougherty, joins us now from Moscow. What are they saying there, Jill?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey, Alisyn. Well, just a few minutes ago, we got off the phone with a briefing by Dmitri Peskov, the spokesperson for President Putin and it's a really interesting response essentially saying, listen, there's not even enough in that report by the intelligence agencies of the United States about the hacking to even comment.

And then he went on it is unsubstantiated and emotional and amateur and hardly reflects well on some type of high level professional working by the intelligence services. He also rejected categorically he said any involvement by offiCIAl or unoffiCIAl Russians in that hacking.

And then he went on and said, you know, we're really seriously tired of all of these allegations and it reminds us of a witch hunt and he admitted Americans have had experience with witch hunts before so a reference to the McCarthy time and did President Putin read it?

Mr. Peskov, the spokesperson did not specifically say whether the president did read it, but he said it was accessible. The public report was accessible to the president but again who would want to read it because it was so thin.

So I think you're getting the point that this is really just kind of dismissing the report as not having any information and in the same breath saying, look, we had nothing to do with it and we're tired of being accused of that -- Chris, Alisyn.

CUOMO: Jill, to be sure, I guarantee that Russian authorities would love to hear more about how U.S. intel tracked down these hacks and their sources and methods, but hopefully that does not happen. Appreciate the reporting.

Incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, now saying that Donald Trump does believe Russia is behind the election hacks. Has he changed his mind? He certainly has not said so and he does a lot of tweeting.

Let's discuss with James Woolsey, the former CIA director and briefly he served as a Trump adviser, and Evan McMullin, a former CIA officer and former chief policy director to the House Republican Conference. He ran as presidential or candidate for independent conservative in 2016.

Gentlemen, thanks both for being there. My words are tripping over each other because I'm trying to think about how to approach this in the most productive way. But let's start with this, one point of interest, Mr. Woolsey, why do you stop advising President-elect Trump? There's a lot of speculating going on about that, about your lack of desire to clean up for him or what is it something else?

JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CONVENTIONAL FORCES EUROPE TREATY: It really isn't very interesting. I hadn't been used for some time as to go to meetings, as to go to do anything. So I felt uncomfortable flying the flag essentially that I was a Trump advisor. I wasn't being used as such and so I just took my name off the list. It wasn't any more complicated than that.

CUOMO: Fair enough, now this morning you can advise me on how we're supposed to understand this situation. Evan McMullin, let me jump over to you about this and again the reason I'm trying to find a way to separate the politicizing of this and the practicalities of this.

From what you understand and I know you don't have the classified read out, but from what you understand of why these men and women that you used to work with came to these conclusions.

Do you have a basis for doubt about whether or not they got it right? That Russia was motivating directly or through intermediary what we saw here with the hacks of the DNC and elsewhere.

EVAN MCMULLIN, FORMER CIA OFFICER: No, I don't and I think this is an important question and the answer is also critical, of course. Russia undermines democracy across Europe and now in the United States. They used in this election the very same tactics that they use in Europe in a variety of countries. So Europe understands that this is what Russia does. We are catching up to that now and so because Americans are experiencing this for the first time, I believe that the Trump -- the soon-to-be Trump administration and many of his supporters and his top advisers are taking advantage of the fact that Americans just haven't seen this before.

So you have them denying, denying, denying, making counter accusations and this is an incredible disservice at a time when the country really needs to understand very quickly what is going on. But there's no doubt because most of this attack, most of the effort, it wasn't just hacking.

It was propaganda. It was fake news. It was online trolls paid by the kremlin. This was done overtly and so there's no sense in denying something that's done elsewhere. It's being done overtly because it's just clear that it's happening.

[06:55:10]CUOMO: But there's a disadvantage for the government on this one, Mr. Woolsey and it is a "where's the beef" problem. In the declassified report, there are no sources and methods so it's inherently unsatisfying to read if you want to know the proof behind the accusation by the intelligence community, how do you bridge that? How do you create a consensus?

WOOLSEY: Those of us who had been in the intelligence business are delighted that you're frustrated and don't know anything about the sources and methods because the only way we are able to steal secrets and do the country's work on in the intelligence area is by hiding sources and methods. I hope you never find out the sources and methods are.

CUOMO: So you're talking to the American now, Evan, right, and they say, I don't know. I am suspicious of the government. I hate the political left. I think they are trying to bail out Hillary Clinton for her loss by saying it was only because of these hacks. I read the report. You have a lot of problems with Russia today and its propaganda wing, but I don't see how you nail that these are the Russians. What do you say to somebody like that?

MCMULLIN: Well, first of all, I would say that this is why leadership is so important. Our leaders are seeing the intelligence or the classified version of the report which by all indications contains the sources and methods that demonstrate the conclusions. In fact, that's why you have the FBI and the CIA, and the NSA, all saying together that they have a high degree of confidence that the Russian government directed this effort. So it's important that our leaders who see that classified report say look this is --

CUOMO: It's also important that we don't see consensus like this even on the WMD questions that are brought up now as a reason to be suspicious. So also in terms of -- one last question for you, Mr. Woolsey, because your former position as CIA director. The Russian reset that's going on, when the Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, said they wanted to reset and try to find a better way to deal with Russia. The GOP crushed them for being soft on a bad guy, but now it does sound like the president-elect wants to try the same thing. Will the GOP embrace it this time being nicer to Putin?

WOOLSEY: Depends on the Russians. I have negotiated with them four times on arms control matters. One negotiation I headed, the other three, I was a presidential delegate or adviser. The Russians on one of those negotiations were delightful to deal with mainly I think because the Berlin wall had just collapsed and their morale was a bit low.

In the other three, they were a royal pain, but we did what we could and one of those we got a modest treaty. So it depends. It depends on the Russians.

CUOMO: James Woolsey, I appreciate you being here. I look forward to using you for your perspective on NEW DAY. Thank you, sir. Evan McMullin, as always.

MCMULLIN: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thanks to you our international viewers for watching. "CNN NEWSROOM" will begin for you in just moments. For our U.S. viewers stick around. NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President-elect, it is very important that you show leadership here.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR TRUMP ADVISER: With all due respect to Hillary Clinton, we didn't need WikiLeaks to convince the American people that they didn't like her.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have to remind ourselves we are on the same team. Putin is not on our team.

MERYL STREEP, ACTRESS: This instinct to humiliate when it's modelled by someone powerful filters down into everybody's life.

CUOMO: A critical week for President-elect Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a lot to ask that people give transparency.

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: I'm optimistic that we'll be able to get up to seven nominees on day one.

CAMEROTA: Chilling new video that captured the gunman opening fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a planned attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amid the chaos, there are stories of heroism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A man basically climbed on top of me and told me I will protect you. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: We will be speaking to that survivor of the attack at the airport coming up in the program.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Up first, a critical week ahead for President-elect Donald Trump. Nine of his cabinet picks will be in the hot seat. Confirmation hearings beginning tomorrow. This as the Republican-controlled Congress moves forward on their plan to repeal Obamacare.

CUOMO: President-elect Trump also expected to be grilled about Russia when he holds his first press conference in months on Wednesday. Meantime, the president-elect firing back at Hollywood star, Meryl Streep, after she slammed him at last night's Golden Globes. Just 11 days away from inauguration day.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Jason Carroll live at Trump Tower in New York. I know it's cold. What else is going on?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you can see my breath you know it's cold out here, Chris. Clearly, the president-elect has a lot more on his plate rather than responding to Meryl Streep's Golden Globe speech. He's going to have to answer questions dealing with a number of policy issues.