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New Day
Clinton's Loss to Trump; Food as Fuel Focuses on Calcium; CNN Series "Soundtracks" Premieres Tonight. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired April 20, 2017 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:33:14] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the "Five Things to Know for Your New Day."
Fox News firing its prime time star Bill O'Reilly after what the company calls an extensive review of sexual harassment claims against him. O'Reilly calls the allegations completely unfounded.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling for a comprehensive review of the Iran nuclear deal. He warns that Iran will emerge as a nuclear threat much like North Korea if left unchecked.
CUOMO: The USS Carl Vinson extending its deployment by 30 days, as the aircraft carrier now heads towards the Korean Peninsula. This comes amid confusion over the Trump administration's conflicting statements about the ship's movements.
CAMEROTA: Are we sure it's heading there?
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Secretary John Kelly heading to El Paso today. They'll be checking out southern border operations.
CUOMO: The attorney for the family of ex-NFL star and convicted killer Aaron Hernandez is investigating the circumstances surrounding his apparent suicide in prison. Authorities in Massachusetts are also looking into the death.
CAMEROTA: For more on the "Five Things to Know," go to newdaycnn.com for the latest.
CUOMO: All right, a brand-new book takes an unflinching look at what went wrong with Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign all through the eyes of staffers and insiders. What is the message of the book "Shattered," next
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[08:38:13] CAMEROTA: So there's this new book called "Shattered" and it gives an in-depth look inside Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and it includes stunning details about why and how she lost to Donald Trump. Earlier, we spoke with the authors about why the campaign manager, Robby Mook's strategy won out over Bill Clinton's. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN ALLEN, CO-AUTHOR, "SHATTERED: INSIDE HILLARY CLINTON'S DOOMED CAMPAIGN": Robby Mook comes from this newer generation of people who are so focused on data and the efficiencies that are created by data. And what they found was most efficient was to try to turn out people that already supported her. And what cost more to do, what was harder to do, was to persuade people that weren't with her. So they abandoned the traditional persuasion techniques. A lot of the door knocking that you would normally do. And, look, there is room for art and science in politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: All right, let's bring in CNN political commentator Jason Miller. He was the senior communications advisor for the Trump campaign. I'm sure he delights in the details of this book. And CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen.
Hilary, great to see -- great to see both of you.
Hilary, I want to start with you.
I know that this will pain you, this autopsy of looking back and they have all of these sources unnamed and named about what went wrong with Hillary Clinton's campaign. Let me just read one little passage from it and then get your response. They say, "the campaign was an unholy mess, fraught with tangled lines of authority, petty jealousies, disported priorities and no sense of greater purpose. No one was in charge and no one has figured out how to make the campaign about something bigger than Hillary." Do you agree with any of that, Hilary?
[08:40:00] HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I think that every campaign goes through its sort of -- you know, every losing campaign, its back fighting about staff and dysfunction and organization and all those things, about process. But I think, you know, what was most interesting to me about this book was the -- the conversations, for instance, that they had after Hillary lost the Michigan primary to Bernie Sanders and there was a conversation with Hillary, Bill and the staff about what happened. And the staff was very focused on process. We didn't do this. We didn't do that. And Bill and Hillary sort of said, we didn't really have an economic message. And I -- my view is, they seem to know that they didn't have a solid enough economic message, but that they didn't do anything about it. So, ultimately, obviously, Hillary is responsible for this.
I do think, you know, we're getting a lot of staff pushback over the last 24 hours on this book and that's natural because, you know, when you put your heart and soul into a campaign for 18 months, it's -- it's hard to just look at a couple of gossipy passages and think that that reflects the effort. But it would be nice --
CUOMO: Yes, but is that -- but is that the right way to look at it, though, Hilary?
ROSEN: It would be nice to have a little bit of -- CUOMO: I mean, of course they're going to say we don't like this representation of our efforts, but they're not pushing back, as the author said, about the facts. And while they might not like it, is it untrue?
ROSEN: Well, and they're not doing something else, Chris, and -- they're not doing something else. And, you know, I'll say this frankly, they're not sharing with the rest of us what we've heard was a very rigorous, you know, analysis post campaign about why they lost. I'd like to hear that. I'd like to hear a little push back from them not on sort of, you know, the gossip of the moment in the book, but, you know, what their analysis and investigation about why they think they lost other than Jim Comey.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
ROSEN: You know, that's something that I think we're still hungry for.
CAMEROTA: Jason, what's your take from the other side of the aisle, the winning side?
JASON MILLER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Alisyn, I might surprise you a little bit here. I very much agree with what Hilary was saying. I think books like this are completely disrespectful to candidates who run for office and I think, quite frankly, disrespectful to the opponents on the other side who worked so hard for their candidate.
Look, we woke up every single day and fought to try to elect President Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton, but now the election is over. And I think these insider, back-biting, off the record, unsourced accounts that really just set out to try to tear down people like Secretary Clinton and Robby Mook are terrible for the political process. I mean, look, we're talking about stopping North Korea, we're talking about potentially a nuclear Iran and this terrible deal that needs to get ripped up and these folks are out there trashing talk -- talk trashing. I mean it really goes to this whole cash me out side culture that you see from too many in the consultant and political class. I think it's terrible.
ROSEN: I will say, though, that in response --
CUOMO: I mean, Jason, are you kidding me. The president tweeted --
CAMEROTA: I haven't heard (INAUDIBLE) Cuomo --
ROSEN: You know, I will say in response to --
CUOMO: Hold on a second, Hillary. The president tweets about this election all the dang time.
ROSEN: That's just what I was going to say.
CUOMO: He was doing it just a few days ago. The idea -- look, I love the noblesse oblige that you're exercising here right now. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, let's call it what it is, my friend. This book makes it seem like she lost, you didn't win. You can play that as fair/unfair. But to say that it's time to move on, we are not seeing any proof of that from the highest ranks of our government right now.
MILLER: Well, Chris, let's -- well, Chris, come on, let's go back for just a moment.
CUOMO: Please.
MILLER: Yes, I do think that we need a post-election postmortem to go through and would love to see what the Clinton camp thought they did right and what they thought they did wrong. But what we're talking about here are these anonymous, off the record sources who are going through and trashing people at a personal level. I don't think that does anything.
Now, there is a continued debate that we see in, I think, too many on the Democratic side and too many in the media want the campaign to continue. We see the continued efforts to try to delegitimize the president and, again, I think that -- too many are trying to keep this campaign going.
But, look, the president is clearly focused on creating jobs and keeping our country safe. I think he's moved on and that's clearly where his focus has been.
CAMEROTA: OK.
MILLER: And so, anyways, I think books like this are terrible and I hope they find out who some of these leakers are and they need to be taken to the wood shed.
CAMEROTA: OK. We've -- Hilary, we've got to leave it there. We are -- we've had a very full show. We're out of time. But we will see you very soon.
Hilary and Jason, thank you.
MILLER: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, Melissa Etheredge is about to join us to talk about tonight's premiere of CNN's sound track "The Songs That Defined History."
CUOMO: All right, but, first, how about a little health news. Calcium is key for good bone health. We know that. But don't just rely on dairy products to get your fill. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has some good sources of calcium for you in "Food as Fuel."
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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Calcium naturally occurs in many foods beyond just dairy. Take kale for example. It has more calcium per calorie than milk. And the calcium in bok choy or broccoli is easily absorbed in the body. Certain kinds of fish are also high in calcium. Three ounces of canned
sardines have more calcium than an eight ounce glass of milk. Canned salmon is another great source of calcium because of its soft, edible bones.
[08:45:00] Your body needs help adsorbing calcium, so try to get in some Vitamin D at the same time. It's naturally in foods like fatty fish and egg yolks and it's added to other foods like orange juice and cereal and soy milk.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA ETHERIDGE, MUSICIAN (singing): Come to my window. Crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window, I'll be home soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: That's an awesome music video. That is the Grammy Award winning song "Come to My Window" by Melissa Etheredge. It's just one of the songs featured in the brand new CNN series "Sound Tracks: Songs that Defined History," which premieres tonight.
And Melissa Etheridge joins us now.
Great to have you here.
MELISSA ETHERIDGE: Hey, what a pleasure. What a pleasure.
CAMEROTA: It's fun to watch that old video.
ETHERIDGE: That's -- you know, time -- every time I see something like that, I think how quickly time has flown and here we are in 2017, you know.
CAMEROTA: Right.
CUOMO: Well, because they last. See, that's the point. Part of the genius of this series that you're in is that music can mark a moment. I guess it could work two ways, right? You could have a huge moment that then winds up inspiring someone like you to create music. It can also happen the other way. What's been your experience?
[08:50:11] ETHERIDGE: I've actually had both. I mean I grew up in the '60s and '70s. And that's why I really love this -- this show because it's -- you know, the '60s and '70s defined so much -- the music was a part of the culture. It was -- and it was back when -- in the '60s they were making music and they weren't thinking about money. Nobody had made a whole lot of money on music yet and so it was just very natural and just really great stuff.
CAMEROTA: And, you know, so the show, the series, is about sort of the defining musical moments and how that's interwoven with history. But then there's also the personal soundtrack of your life. And "Come to My Window" was a big one I mean personally, right, for you of what that came -- that song came to represent.
ETHERIDGE: Oh, it's kind of crazy because I wrote that song. A very, very personal song to me. And I even almost didn't put it on my album, I know (ph) a lot of people, because I thought it was -- it was just kind of a simple, you know, achy kind of relationship. Is it ever going to be right? Is it -- you know, can't go through the front door, got to go to the window. And it happened to come out right when I actually came out, you know, publically. And those two things really gave power to each other and the song.
CUOMO: How surprising to you?
ETHERIDGE: Well, it --
CUOMO: Because we're talking like '93/'94.
ETHERIDGE: Yes.
CUOMO: It comes out. You'd already had a hit. I remember your first hit in 1988, "Like the Way I Do."
ETHERIDGE: "Like the Way I Do." (INAUDIBLE), yes.
CAMEROTA: Now that --
CUOMO: (INAUDIBLE) in high school. Talk about sound track to your life.
ETHERIDGE: Those are good.
CUOMO: But did you have any inking that it would be the jet propulsion that that song was that really captured a social movement?
ETHERIDGE: I had no idea that every time I sing "I don't care what they think, I don't care what they say, what do they know about this love anyway," --
CUOMO: Yes.
ETHERIDGE: That it would be the, you know, fists in the air, people back like this. I had no idea --
CUOMO: And that's just me.
ETHERIDGE: That that was cathartic for so many reasons. I had no idea. I love that part, but it's wonderful when you can create something and then the society just takes it and it creates its own thing.
CAMEROTA: Right. I mean it's an anthem, you know, for lots of people.
ETHERIDGE: I'm grateful -- I'm grateful for it (INAUDIBLE).
CAMEROTA: OK, so, then, there's also the big moments in history that a song can always trigger our memory of and so the Berlin Wall.
ETHERIDGE: Oh.
CAMEROTA: You were there.
ETHERIDGE: I was there. People -- I don't -- I'd lived a very charmed life and really kind of crazy. We happened to be touring Europe in Germany exactly when the wall was coming down. This was a -- if you remember, 1989, which I do very well, this was when communism was kind of crumbling and they were leaving and walking through Poland and things were -- and we knew that the Berlin Wall, that something was going to happen that night. We're driving in on a bus and my tour manager, he was German, and he said, OK, I'm going to listen to the radio and if they start shooting people we'll turn around.
CAMEROTA: Yes, that's a good thing.
ETHERIDGE: But if -- yes. But if not, you know, who knows. And when I woke up, we were stuck in traffic with all the East Germans going into Berlin and the wall had -- it was -- I mean I get goose bumps just every time I think about it. Right there -- I remember CNN was brand- new and I remember seeing -- I almost went up and said, hi, I'm Melissa Etheridge. You might not love me, but I would love to do an interview with you, but I didn't. But, yes, so it was a --
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. You had the front row seat on that moment in history?
ETHERIDGE: I have a -- I have a memory. We even have footage of this little girl. She must have been six, seven years old. It used to be you couldn't even walk up to the wall. You had to stay a certain -- because there were armed guards around it.
CUOMO: Right.
ETHERIDGE: And I remember her walking up and she just kicked the wall. And I said, there it is right there. That's -- that's the future.
CUOMO: What do you think it is about music that is so powerful?
ETHERIDGE: Well, music goes -- music bypasses all the other channels that we usually process things with. You know, you -- your -- you listen to the news. You get some information and then you think about it and then it goes into your heart. Well, music goes straight into you. Music, you have rhythm, you have tones that, you know, we've had for ages and you hear it and then you think about it. And so it's good for us. It exercises the right side of our brain instead of, you know, the left side that we're also problem solving with and it's healthy for us to have music. It balances us.
CAMEROTA: Are there songs that changed your life, other than yours?
ETHERIDGE: Oh, absolutely. Oh, like I said, I grew up in the '60s and '70s and, you know, the -- it's funny, Crosby, Stills & Nash was so big in bringing the social issues --
CUOMO: No love for Neil Young? You don't throw him in there also with it?
ETHERIDGE: Love me some Neil Young. Love me some Neil Young. Little -- little, you know, David Crosby fathered two of my children. Long story. But, you know, so just the -- you know, Joan Baez is the -- the people who were not just writing about it, but were on the front lines. They're -- and they still are. They're the ones that are still commenting and saying, you know, music and social issues go hand in hand.
[08:55:02] CAMEROTA: So cool.
Melissa, great to talk to you about this.
ETHERIDGE: Always a pleasure.
CAMEROTA: And thanks for contributing to the series.
ETHERIDGE: Thank you so much.
CAMEROTA: Join us tonight for "Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History" at 10:00 p.m. only on CNN.
CUOMO: All right, how about you stick around for some more "Good Stuff," next.
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CUOMO: All right, it's time for "The Good Stuff." And this one takes the crown for kindness, OK?
CAMEROTA: OK.
CUOMO: You have Abbie Kano (ph), doesn't let downs syndrome stop her. She was nominated for prom queen at her Texas high school. But when this friend of hers was announced as the winner, guess what the teenager did?
CAMEROTA: What?
CUOMO: Something no one imaged. She gave her crown to Abbie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did it because I know at that moment she would be even more happier than me and I felt like she deserved it more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: What a nice gesture by Ms. Salano (ph). Abbie immediately lit up with joy. Her mom, of course, touched by the gesture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was like, oh my gosh, people are going to be, you know, mean to my child and everything because she's different. And that has not even remotely been the case. (END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:00:00] CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. What a wonderful message that high school sends.
CUOMO: And being prom queen is a big deal but this memory, I bet you, will mean even more.
CAMEROTA: There you go.
Time now for CNN "NEWSROOM" with John Berman.
Take it away, John.
