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British PM: Police Know Identities of London Attackers; Trump Under Fire for Response to London Terror Attacks. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 05, 2017 - 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.

[05:59:53] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, June 5, 6 a.m. here in New York, and we do begin with breaking news, because Prime Minister Theresa May says police now know the identities of the three attackers who carried out the London attack that killed seven people and injured 48 others on Saturday. Police in London are carrying out a series of raids. Eleven people are in custody at this hour.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: So we had the emergency there in London and now, obviously, the resulting investigation. Then there's been a parallel story, which was the political reaction by President Trump to that attack. He took to Twitter again. He started off with a tweet that was unverified from "The Drudge Report" about how many people had been injured. The president of the United States used "Drudge Report" instead of all of his intel resources to talk about the event.

And then came the series of tweets that seemed to play for his own band and attacked the mayor of London.

CNN has every angle covered. Let's begin with senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward, live in London. Obviously, the message there is resolve and shared strength, but this political undertone with the president and the mayor is playing, as well.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And three attacks in three months. I mean, that certainly has an impact on a country, Chris.

We're here at the Borough Market. You can see behind me there's still a large police presence. Yesterday, authorities were giving the message that they did not believe there was any larger network beyond the three attackers who were killed.

Today, we've seen them roll that language back a little bit and say that they are working hard to investigate and ensure that there is no larger network. They know who the attackers are, but so far police have not publicly identified the three assailants. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): British authorities are scrambling to determine if the three attackers are connected to a foreign terror network. London's Metropolitan Police carrying out a number of raids and arrests as ISIS claims responsibility for Saturday's attack. Although no evidence currently exists to back up the claim.

Neighbors at this raided apartment complex stunned after recognizing one of the dead attackers, who they describe as a quiet family man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man I know is -- he was a wonderful guy.

WARD: One woman, however, did have concerns, which she claims she brought to police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden, we saw this gentleman -- individual speaking to the kids and cuddling (ph) them for the last -- it was three afternoons already, and speaking to them about Islam. And showed them how to pray.

WARD: Locals showing CNN the mosque they believe one of the attackers attended, though authorities have not confirmed his identity.

London police say the three attackers began their killing spree using a rented white van that sped across London Bridge around 10 p.m. Saturday night, plowing into pedestrians.

MARK ROBERTS, EYEWITNESS (via phone): He knocked over several people. Came within about 20 yards of where I was. It knocked somebody nearly 20 feet in the air.

WARD: Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene as police responded to more violence at Borough Market, where the attackers had driven, before getting out of the van, wielding knives and randomly attacking people inside restaurants and cafes.

JACK APPLEBEE, EYEWITNESS/LOCAL RESTAURANT OWNER (via phone): There were these three -- three men standing there, one of which with a machete. And this one girl was, like, saying that "They're stabbing everyone. They're stabbing people."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He only stepped outside the pub for a second. And a man run up to him and said, "This is for my family for Islam." Looked him straight in the face and -- and stabbed him.

WARD: These patrons hunkering down, fearing for their lives as others fled the scene.

LUKA MILACIC, WITNESS/CANADIAN VISITOR: People were just literally running away as fast as they possibly could.

WARD: Minutes after the first calls for help, London Police say eight officers shot 50 rounds, taking down all three attackers. One bystander was shot in a hail of bullets.

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There is, to be frank, far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.

WARD: Britain's prime minister condemning the three recent terror attacks, vowing a sweeping review of the country's anti-terror laws. MAY: Enough is enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: A lot of people here -- a lot of people here are hailing the heroism of the police, and that's partly because, firstly, several of them were injured trying to defend people from these attackers.

But secondly, from the time the attack began, Chris, to the time that police were successfully able to kill all three of them was just eight minutes. A really rapid response. And part of the reason they were so quick to use lethal force is because all of the attackers were wearing fake suicide vests. Though of course, at the time, authorities would not have known -- police would not have realized that those were fake vests, and they weren't taking chances about a much greater casualty toll -- Chris.

CUOMO: Signature Brit resolve on display. We heard about those who might have been victims fighting back, obviously, rallying around the other victims. And of course, that huge concert that showed the British people coming together to show that terror will not stop their ideas of how to live a good life.

[06:05:21] Clarissa is going to be back. So the investigation is intensifying into what happened Saturday night in London. The British prime minister, Theresa May, just made some news for us moments ago.

With the latest on that, let's get right to CNN's Alex Marquardt, live in the London suburb of Barking with breaking details. There've been a lot of searches and arrests in that area. What do we know now?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There have been, Chris. There have been two new raids overnight here in Barking and a neighborhood nearby. Eleven people so far taken into custody, including seven women. So far it's unclear how they are connected to the attackers.

Earlier today, we heard from the London Metropolitan Police, who said that a huge amount of forensic material has been seized in raids over the past few days.

We are getting a fuller picture of how this attack took place but few details publicly released about these attackers. But a short time ago, Prime Minister Theresa May said that the identities of the attackers are known. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY: The police have now identified all three of the attackers. And when progress in the investigation permits, Metropolitan Police will release the names.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So the bigger question going forward is going to be how to prevent these attacks. There have been three major attacks in the U.K. in just the past nine weeks. But this morning on the BBC, the Metropolitan Police commissioner said that, in that same timeframe, five have been foiled. Commissioner Cressida Dick saying that the majority of the threats that we're facing are not from overseas, meaning that this is homegrown terror -- Alisyn, Chris.

CAMEROTA: All right, Alex. Thank you very much for that update.

Let's bring in our panel to discuss all the latest threads. We have Clarissa Ward. She's still with us. Also with us, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank and CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, Chris and I have just been talking about how -- what a different approach it is that Britain is using in the aftermath of this. They now know the names of the attackers, but they're not releasing them to the press and to the public in the United States. When the police need help, they put out pictures of the suspects or the attackers. They ask the public for help, but the British are playing it much closer to the vest.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right. Some of this may be a reaction, of course, to the leaks in the Manchester attack two weeks ago. A sort of concern by the British that loose lips sink ships.

Also, we have to remember that this is an ongoing investigation. These round ups that we're hearing about, in particular, the women who are being arrested, is a sort of new sign that family members will be held responsible if there's any hint that they may know what's going on, in the hope that that might deter future terrorists. So if you bring in the mother or the wife or the daughter, that may have a deterrent effect. This will unfold, as we've seen these cases unfold. Some of these arrests will go away.

And the biggest concern right now is, is there an international tie to the conspiracy of these three men to kill on Saturday night? That's got to be a key interest to the British to ensure that others aren't behind them, planning similar attacks.

CUOMO: Paul Cruickshank, let's talk about something that hasn't gotten a lot of notice now, but it should, now that the investigation is going forward, and it seems they know the identity of those responsible in London.

A big difference between the U.S. and U.K. The idea of assimilation of the Muslim population into the main population and of outreach. Of course, right now, the U.S. has its own political problems in terms of how it deals with the Muslim community. But how big a factor is that in the U.K.? The understanding of that community, the relationship between the authorities and government and the Muslim community there?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, the police here have a phrase, Chris, "Communities defeat terrorism." There's a lot of outreach, a lot of engagement between the Metropolitan Police here in London and the Muslim community. They've received a lot of tips over the years, even just in the last few months, which have prevented terrorist attacks on the streets of London. They believe, the British authorities, that that outreach is

absolutely key to countering this threat and that they can do all sorts of covert intelligence. But actually, these tips, information coming from the Muslim community, it's going to be absolutely critical to identify people who may be moving towards violent action.

That being said, I think there are strong arguments that the British could be doing more to empower the Muslim community to take on this ideology. We've reported on a number of Muslim community groups that are really bravely taking the fight to this ISIS ideology on the streets of London, elsewhere in the U.K. Groups like that need more funding, need more support from the government.

But Britain is widely seen as being one of the countries that does this the best, that have the best sort of engagement with the Muslim community, even though much more needs to be done in the future.

CAMEROTA: And yet, Clarissa, Prime Minister May's words have been curious or at least they have begged the question. When she says, "Time's up. Enough is enough," she sounds very fed up, as though there's more that could be done. As though they've been holding something in their back pocket and now, they're going to do more. And when she says there has been far too much tolerance of extremism in Britain. What is she referring to?

WARD: Well, I think it's a little disingenuous, to be frank, for British Prime Minister Theresa May to say that without mentioning the fact that she has been the architect of Britain's security policy. Before she was, of course, the prime minister, she was the home secretary, in charge of homeland security, essentially. So to a certain degree, there's a sense that she has been a part of this process.

I also think it's easy, in times of national grief and collective anger and indignance, in the wake of a major terror attack, to want to say like "Enough is enough. We've been too tolerant, and things have to change." But the reality is, the question is tough. How do you change it?

The one thing she alluded to that I think is very important that pertains to the kind of toxic ideology which is at the root of all this is the issue of cyberspace. How do you police the cyber realm? The reality is, the caliphate is being cracked down on in ISIS -- in ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria. The caliphate -- or I should say so-called caliphate -- is moving into a virtual realm. It is becoming online. I'm sorry, we have to move.

CUOMO: Go ahead, Clarissa. Go to a safe spot. We see that big truck there.

Juliette Kayyem. We'll talk about the politics and Trump and what he tweeted and what was wrong in the tone, and how it affected the mayor. But from a policy perspective, what we just heard from the police chief in London is this seems to be home center. Not about those who came from abroad. Similarly, the president of the United States was using the London

attack to justify his travel ban. But as we saw most recently in San Bernardino and, of course, in Orlando, we're dealing with the same situation here. It's not about who's coming from abroad; it's about who's being inspired right here at home.

KAYYEM: Yes. The tweet by President Trump was not based in facts and was cruel in some ways. I mean, in the immediate response of an issue like this, generally, a country like ours would show sympathy and support, which President Trump ultimately did.

The narrative President Trump is trying to create is that somehow the terror threat is them. It's over there. It's the other. And if we only put up more walls or have more bans, that will -- that will make us safe. We will no longer fear terrorism. Well, anyone knows that that's just not -- not reality based.

For one, you're not going to -- the travel ban will not impact all the people that could come to this country. But more importantly, in the United States, as we've seen in particular in Boston and Orlando and San Bernardino, these are people who either came here a long time ago or have -- were born here. And you know, that's a home-grown problem that needs to be addressed by -- by aggressive law-enforcement efforts, but also all the other things that Paul was talking about earlier: assimilation and limiting radicalization in our own country.

CUOMO: And the irony, of course, is that one of the strengths of the U.S. has been the ties of Muslim-Americans with government and the rest of society. The argument becomes is the president tearing at that with his anti-Islamic rhetoric?

All right, guys. Thank you very much. Clarissa got moved by the police. We'll get her back in the show soon. So this is not over in a couple of important respects we wanted. One, you have the investigation. Two, you have those who are still fighting for their lives. Twenty-one people are in critical condition after those attacks in London.

CNN's Erin McLaughlin is live at King's Hospital in London with more. What do we know about those people still dealing with what happened?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Chris.

Well, we're beginning to hear from the families of the victims who were killed in that horrific attack. Chrissy Archibald traveled from Canada to Europe to be with her fiance. They were both on the London Bridge that horrific night. She was struck by the terrorists' van and killed at the scene. Her family releasing a statement saying she was beautiful and loving and would have had no understanding of the callous cruelty which claimed her life.

We're also hearing incredible tales of heroism. Journalist Geoff Ho was at a pub at Borough Market that night. He intervened to try and help a bouncer fend off one of the attackers and was stabbed in the neck. Video posted to social media shows him walking calmly away from the scene, bleeding from his neck. We understand from his paper that he is going to be OK.

We're also hearing appeals for help. Marine Vincent is being treated at the hospital just behind me. According to a statement from a woman's organization, she was badly injured at the Borough Market. She'll require six to 12 months to recover. And they're appealing for donations so that her family can travel here from France to be by her side. One of the many lives forever altered by this horrendous attack, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, Erin. I mean, just seeing every single picture, hearing every single story, it just drives home how horrible these attacks are. Thank you very much for bringing us what's happening with the victims.

Meanwhile, President Trump's response to a terror attack at first seemed more connected to his political agenda. He also attacked London's mayor in some of his tweets. We discuss all that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: President Trump was criticized this weekend for stoking fears with his initial response to the London terror attack. The president tweeted many things, including an attack on the mayor of London and seemed to be pushing his political agenda before showing compassion for the victims.

[06:20:09] CNN's Joe Johns live in Washington with more on this.

Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

You know, the first public comments after the London attacks striking a somber tone in the tradition of other statements we've seen from other commander in chief in the aftermath of such attacks. Though Mr. Donald Trump also included a bold promise to keep this kind of bloodshed, which has already surfaced here, from coming to the U.S., saying he'll do all that is necessary to prevent the threat from spreading to our shores.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We renew our resolve stronger than ever before to protect the United States and its allies from the vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life, and it's gone on too long. This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: But earlier over the weekend, on Twitter and his reactions to the London attack, the president attracted criticism for interjecting himself in ways not seen as helpful in the circumstances. He seemed to use the attacks as an opportunity to promote his controversial travel ban, targeting travelers from six Muslim countries, which has been stalled in U.S. courts. He tweeted, "We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the

courts to give us back our rights. We need the travel ban as an extra level of security."

And in another tweet, he also seemingly mischaracterized, or at least took out of context, a statement by London's mayor. The president tweeting at least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and mayor of London says there's no reason to be alarmed."

While the mayor of London did say there was no reason to be alarmed, he was telling London residents not to be alarmed about the increased police presence in the city. The mayor's spokesman said he was too busy to respond to what he called "Mr. Trump's ill-informed tweet" -- Chris and Alisyn.

CUOMO: All right, Joe. A big difference between the comments that the president was given to say and what he decided to say on his own.

Let's discuss that right now with CNN political analyst David Gregory; and CNN national security analyst David Sanger. David Gregory, there is nothing more helpful than making the points about the president than the facts.

Let's go through the tweets. The first one that he went with. The man who has access to the best intelligence in the world, the president of the United States, retweeted from "The Drudge Report" an unverified accounting of what had happened that was, in fact, wrong, saying 20 people mowed down.

He then immediately, instead of addressing the catastrophe and the sympathies, which would be seen as presidential, as you often point out, he says, "We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the travel ban as an extra level of safety."

Two points: one, he said he'd take 90 days and come up with better vetting. He hasn't. Two, the police chief there says this was home grown, not about foreign actors, if that's where you went. Then, he says, "Whatever the U.S. can do to help out in London and the U.K., we'll be there. We are with you. God bless." He decided to make that manifest by attacking the mayor. He said, "We've got to stop being PC. We've got to get down to the business of securing our people." He then said, "At least 7 dead and 48 injured, and the mayor of London says there's no reason to be alarmed." Which was factually untrue and contextually insensitive.

And then he ends by saying, "You notice we're not having a gun debate right now. That's because they used knives and a truck."

The impact of these tweets from the president?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's not presidential- level leadership. It's not mature leadership in the face of a global threat, which we've been facing now in this kind of intense way since 2001. I think what President Trump needs to be focused on is the level of cooperation between our government and the government of Great Britain. Not only in an act of solidarity and to support our staunchest allies in the world, but with regard to intelligence sharing, with regard to best practices to deal with this kind of outbreak of terrorist violence.

It's different. The nature of the threat is different than it was when 9/11 occurred. You have attacks that are springing up where and when they can. More limited in scope than the master design of, say, a 9/11. That's going to require different kinds of responses from governments. And not all of these responses are necessarily ever going to prevent this kind of threat. So we do have to contextualize it.

I think there's a lot of rhetoric you hear from President Trump. A lot of it is kind of scattershot in the immediate aftermath. And what we have to be focused on is what is he going to do constructively to work with partners and to focus on what the real issue is?

Our rights are being protected by our courts here in this country. That is a branch of government that should not be derided as the president does. But to allow that process to be finished and to focus more broadly than the idea of banning people from our country and focusing on what the real nature of the problem is and what, if anything, government can do about it.

[06:25:09] And some of the steps that can be taken are still limited, knowing that there are people out there who are going to do harm in ones and twos and threes, attackers that is very difficult to both detect and to stop.

CAMEROTA: To David Sanger, I mean, look, David points out a great point. Actions speak louder than words. We'll see what the president does. But in times of crisis, some argue that good leadership quells anxiety and quells fear and puts these things in context and tries to say we're actually not all under attack all the time, though it feels like that when we see these rapid-fire attacks.

But I think that President Trump would say that he's just being a realist. He's just pointing out to people that these things are happening too often, and we need to do something about it.

DAVID SANGER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They are happening too often. And what he doesn't do, of course, is compare it to the number of people lost by gun violence in the United States every day and every week and so forth.

And the question is not do you need to stop these things. Of course, we need to go bring them down. But like everything else, bringing down the number of murders in New York, bringing down the gun violence in Chicago. You need to talk about what a strategy is to go do that.

The first thing that you often hear from people inside the government who've had a lot of experience in this is, it's going to hinge, particularly for these kind of attacks on truly exquisite intelligence. And you're going to get that intelligence largely inside the Muslim community. So going out and attacking the first Muslim mayor of a major western

European country; going out and repeating the talk about the travel ban, which, by the way, we were all warned in the White House press room by no uncertain terms is not a ban. Somebody forgot to tell the president again.

Those are the things that don't necessarily help you actually get at the problem. And you know, tweets are basically 140-character emotion. And that's why you see so many of the president's lawyers saying, "You know, we'd be in a lot better shape if he'd preview -- preview these."

CUOMO: David, right now, the president is listening to you, and he wants you to know that he doesn't care about your advice. He says...

SANGER: Wouldn't be the first time.

CUOMO: ... "People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is. A travel ban." He just tweeted that.

CAMEROTA: OK. Paging Sean Spicer. Start calling it that.

SANGER: I guess that frees up all the reporters in the -- in the press room to go -- go do the same.

CUOMO: But now, look, assuming sanity, right? Why does he say this? David Gregory, I'll suggest this to you about why he says it. Because politically, in his gut, he believes this is what people want him to say. This is what they want. The law, reasonableness be dammed. But what might it mean when it goes before the Supreme Court?

GREGORY: Well, that's a legal question that we'll see. He may very well prevail in the Supreme Court. He has not prevailed so far. And I think, you know, anybody who spends time in our judicial branch of government, as I did recently at an unprecedented argument or, I should say, a seldom-seen argument at the D.C. court of appeals that was en banc, the full court. Will be, I think, really impressed that the seriousness with which they approach it. But we need a sophisticated approach here that's about the legal and good leadership. And we'll talk more about that.

CAMEROTA: All right.

CUOMO: Just remember, he keeps saying, they keep telling us, stop calling it a ban. It's more reasonable than that. It's more selective than that. It's not about faith. It's not even just about geography; it's about threat. He just said, in all caps, it is a travel ban. The president in his own words.

CAMEROTA: David, David, thank you very much.

Up next, there were tens of thousands of people who turned out to see Ariana Grande with her message of defiance and love in this incredible tribute concert for the victims of the Manchester attack. We show you the emotional pictures and performances next. CUOMO: He just tweeted again.

CAMEROTA: What now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)