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New Day

Storms Threaten U.S. Heartland; Comic Sparks Controversy with Monologue; Cavs Advance in Playoffs; Credit for North Korea's Movement. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 30, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:19] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news out of Afghanistan. ISIS claiming responsibility for twin suicide bombings in Kabul, the capital. Twenty-nine people lost their lives, including eight journalists. This first blast happened near the U.S. embassy and Afghan government buildings. A suicide attacker was disguised as a cameraman and detonated the second blast as journalists rushed to the scene. Among the dead, veteran AFP photographer Shah Marai. Forty-nine others were injured.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Dangerous storms threaten the U.S. heartland with the potential for tornados.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our forecast.

How's it looking, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It looks like spring. For the first time all year, we have the potential for big tornados in the Plains. Now, we have five categories of potential severe weather, one, two, three, four, five. This is one, the green, two is yellow. So we're Cat 2 tomorrow. Tomorrow we get all the way to the Category 3. Now, we never get to four and five, but there still will be tornados on the ground. There still will be hail damage to cars and even to people if you want to get out of the way. That's why you need to be inside your home when you hear that severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning for you.

Tomorrow, a little bit farther to the north. Omaha, parts of Wichita, all the way down to the south. But then on Wednesday it really builds again. The heat builds as well. Kansas City down to Oklahoma City, that's the orange, the category three. Now, we're not up to four or five. The higher the moderate. But, still, there's a chance.

Also, heat builds into the Northeast, Chris. Maybe you need to play hooky on Thursday and go fishing. Look at this, Thursday, all the way to 87. D.C. on Thursday, 90 degrees. Here comes spring and then summer like in four days.

CUOMO: I feel a cough coming on. Chad, thanks very much. I appreciate it.

MYERS: All right. Thanks.

CUOMO: I'll try and soldier through for the next three days.

"The Avengers: Infinity War," did you see it? Well, if you didn't, you're one of the few because it smashed box office records. The Marvel superhero mashup scored the biggest U.S. debut weekend ever. $250 million. And the biggest global debut ever, $630 million.

CAMEROTA: My son was one of them.

CUOMO: It was a big deal. Lots of surprises for the comic heads in here.

CAMEROTA: OK. All right. Maybe I'll see it. I don't know. I'll get back to you on that.

Meanwhile, did comedian Michelle Wolf go too far at the White House Correspondents Dinner? Critics say she gave President Trump ammunition in his war with the media. We discuss all of it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:51] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE WOLF, COMEDIAN: We are graced with Sarah's presence tonight. I have to say, I'm a little star struck. I love you as Aunt Lydia in the "Handmaids Tale." I actually really like Sarah. I think she's very resourceful, but she burns fat and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's lies. Probably lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Hash tag awkward. Comedian Michelle Wolf's roast at the White House Correspondents Dinner sparking controversy, forcing the association to issue a response. Here it is.

Last night's program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free speech press while honor civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer's monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.

Maybe next time ask the performer what they're planning on doing.

The president blasting the dinner as an embarrassment and Wolf's monologue as filthy.

Let's bring in CNN political analyst Julie Pace. She's on the WHCA's board, and host of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter.

So, let's start with you, Julie.

How do you feel about the reaction? Is it too much? Is it too little? I had to be coaxed, you know, into doing this because, you know, who cares about nerd prom in the first place.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hey. CUOMO: But it's become an issue. Do you think the criticism is warranted?

JULIE PACE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think some of the criticism is warranted. And I think that most people who I've talked to afterwards who were in the room felt like some of the more personal attacks did cross a line. I also think, though, that it's important to note that Michelle Wolf is a comedian. She was not there speaking for the press corps. She does not represent the press corps.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PACE: And I also think, though, that it is important to note, as we kind of discuss all the fallout from this, that one of the things that tends to hurt journalists standing with the public is when we take ourselves a little too seriously and overstate our own importance and overstate how much this is probably affects real people.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PACE: So while I think it's a worthwhile conversation to have, I would venture that most Americans this morning are not too worked up about this.

CAMEROTA: But, Julie, because you're on the White House Correspondents Association, or connected with it, could you have asked her beforehand, what are your jokes? Could you have given her -- I mean I know freedom of speck, but, obviously, you could guide what somebody's going to say. Can you say like take down your normal riff a notch?

PACE: I don't think you really can. I mean that is the beauty and the messiness of the First Amendment, that you both, as a citizen, have the opportunity to say whatever you want in whatever form you want and then you have the opportunity to disagree with it.

CUOMO: But, Julie, you don't have to go online. It's not about the right to do it. It's not about the right to do it. It's about it being right to do it. And if you say, well, this year we want a tone of civility and we want to try and lower the temperature because the, you know, nation's being ripped asunder and let's try and do it a little differently tonight, you could have had that conversation. I mean I have that happen all the time when I'm MC-ing events. They come up to me and say, hey, what are you going to say, because this is what's important to us tonight. And they don't tell me what to say --

PACE: I think it is -- I think --

CUOMO: But she could have had her freedom and still you could get a head sense of what she was going to do.

PACE: I think it -- I think there is a really fine line that we, as journalists, though, have to -- have to be careful not to cross. If we're going to be talking about tone, that's one thing. I think that's fine. But, also, we're not going to be able to censor someone. And we shouldn't be able to censor someone.

[06:40:13] CUOMO: But I don't think it's censorship, but I take your point.

CAMEROTA: President Trump, Brian, has made hay of this, talked about how, you know, offensive it was, how embarrassing it was. This is why journalist and why the White House Correspondents Dinner is such a joke, et cetera, et cetera.

As you know, President Trump has made lots of off-color jokes and offensive --

STELTER: What?

CAMEROTA: OK. I'm glad you're testing us.

STELTER: Seriously?

CAMEROTA: We do have -- we do have the proof. Here's the evidence.

CUOMO: Some.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ah, I don't know what I said. Ah, I don't remember.

Rosie O'Donnell's disgusting. I mean both inside and out. You take a look at her, she's a slob.

He's a war hero --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five and a half years in a POW camp.

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you.

Jeb Bush is a low energy person. For him, to get things done is hard.

Maxine Waters, a very low I.Q. individual.

TRUMP: We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Pat on the shoulder of the Native American.

Now, we -- our dispute before this, Julie, just to bring you in on the family conversation was, I did not think that that was a very good representation of some of the really ugly and intentionally divisive things that this president says as a matter of course, as a matter of (INAUDIBLE).

STELTER: Yes, but to be fair, we only have an hour.

CUOMO: Right. And this was -- these were supposed to be his jokes.

CAMEROTA: Right. But my point was that these -- I mean he said some of those -- Pocahontas, he's jokes, he says.

CUOMO: So we were doing jokes, apples to apples, jokes to jokes.

STELTER: Well, I think I have solved the White House Correspondent Association's problem. I think it's pretty simple. Here's all we have to do. Next year's comedian gets up on stage, just reads President Trump's words out loud. Some of those controversial comments. See if they sound like jokes when they're read from a stage. That is actually the --

CUOMO: Avlon had a good idea, that person -- that person --

CAMEROTA: Like celebrity autobiography, read the lines.

STELTER: That might be the answer.

CUOMO: John Avlon says that person should be dressed as Abraham Lincoln.

STELTER: That's' also really interesting.

We're going to solve all the association's problems because it's really -- this is a problem. Let's face it. I know most Americans don't care about this, but the association, within the organization, there is a lot of dissent and disagreement about what the right approach is, whether there should be a comedian, how far is too far. I do think, as with everything else, Trump has changed this entire conversation. Everything is political now. And even raunchy jokes told at a fun dinner are -- is now political (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: Right. But it wasn't fun for Sarah Sanders. We talked about this before on the show with "Saturday Night Live."

STELTER: It wasn't fun for George W. Bush. It wasn't fun for Barack Obama.

CUOMO: I got you, but these --

STELTER: He sat there.

CUOMO: Here's the thing. You can call these guys stupid. They don't get their things done. You made jokes about them. It's fine. I do think, though -- and, Julie, please weigh in on this. Alisyn and I have talked about it on the show before. I don't know why they go on her looks. When "Saturday Night Live" did it, and they were making fun of her weight and her looks, I thought it was mean. I don't think making fun of looks is funny unless the person is like so beyond approach, it's like making fun of a supermodel or like the guy who plays superman or something, then it's funny because the guy is known for being good looking. But I thought that that was a clear line that was passed here with this comedian as she went after Sarah for her looks and she had to sit there and take it. I thought that -- you know, that sucked.

PACE: It's a -- it's a cheap shot. And I think that a lot of people have felt the same way when the president has -- has made cracks about people's looks as well. I've said --

CUOMO: Yes. That's the irony is that people are complaining, Trump backers, that she went over the line, when he goes over the line all the time and they say nothing to him.

STELTER: I mean that's why this is so complicated.

CUOMO: Say nothing about it.

STELTER: That's why so many viewers are listening to this thinking, wait a second, why do you all care what a young comedian said? The president has changed all these conversations --

CUOMO: She's joking. He's actually telling his truth -- you know, he's telling his truth when he says these things.

STELTER: And Wolf's argument is, she wasn't talking about Michelle -- she wasn't talking about Sarah Sanders looks. Michelle Wolf's argument is, I was talking about her, quote, despicable behavior.

CUOMO: Yes.

STELTER: That -- you know, everything's upside down and, frankly, comedy's supposed to be uncomfortable. Maybe it's a good thing people in that room were uncomfortable.

CAMEROTA: All right, there's more to talk about with this, but we'll have on to rely on Chris' Twitter feed.

Julie Pace, Brian Stelter, thank you very much.

CUOMO: And it is vibrant.

Speaking of vibrant, LeBron James, a performance fit for a king. If you watch these highlights alone, you see why they call him el rey, leading the Cavs into the next round of the NBA playoffs. The "Bleacher Report," and it's a good one, is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:12] CAMEROTA: LeBron James willing the Cavs to victory in game seven against the Pacers. They are moving on to the second round.

Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report."

Nice to see you, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn.

You know, LeBron's still undefeated in the first round of the playoffs and he called his super human effort in game seven, quote, what the doctor called for in order to win the series. He came out on a mission in game seven, making his first seven shots. LeBron had played every minute of the game until the end of the third quarter when he actually had to leave briefly due to just being exhausted. But like halftime, it was seven year old's soccer game. He ate some orange slices and got back out there. LeBron finishing with 45 points in this one. Cavs win 105-101 to win the series over the Pacers. And after the game LeBron says he's just flat-out worn out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS FORWARD: I'm burnt right now. I'm not thinking about Toronto right now until tomorrow. I'm ready to go home. Can we -- I'm tired. I want to go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, for the Predator's game yesterday, the Tennessee Titans offensive line and quarterback Marcus Mariota were out there helping to hype up the cloud. And Taylor Lewan was wielding a giant catfish. And check him out there. Using the catfish as a beer luge (ph). Now, it's traditional to throw a catfish on the ice when the Predator's score. They got the chance to do that five times as the Predator's won 5-4 in double overtime.

And, Chris, I know you're quite the fisherman. Whenever you're out there on the water and you make a big catch, have you ever celebrate by taking some beer off of the fish?

CUOMO: I am pouring beer all over myself most of the time while fishing, which is why I don't catch. You have to be a real fan to hold a dead fish that size just waiting for an opportunity to throw it on the ice. It probably needs some alcohol lubrication just to muster the moxie.

SCHOLES: Yes, wonder what that tastes like, though?

CUOMO: All right, my buddy, thank you very much.

SCHOLES: All right.

[06:49:57] CUOMO: All right, so Kim Jong-un reportedly flush with goodwill. He is vowing to close the main nuclear test site ahead of a meeting with President Trump. Still, the White House says it has its eyes wide open. The question is, can the North, in all this enthusiasm, be trusted?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Reuters is reporting that South Korea's president says President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. This comes as the South says Kim Jong-un will close his nuclear test site soon.

Joining us now is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger to talk about all of this.

So, David, the president also was giving himself full credit this past weekend. And that's interesting. I mean it's interesting who deserves the credit for breaking this log jam. But what's more interesting is what's actually going to happen. And do you sense that North Korea is really going to get rid of its nuclear ambitions and technology? [06:55:13] DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY

CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, we're -- we're a long way from knowing the answer to that question. I was just in Seoul all of last week and I just got back yesterday and certainly the mood in Seoul right now is an extremely positive one, much more positive than I have seen in many years of going in and out of there. But we do have to also remember that things that Kim Jong-un said he wanted to get done here, that he would in return for a peace treaty and a commitment from the United States that we would never invade North Korea, that he would get rid of all of his nuclear weapons, that he would get rid of the production facilities and so forth, it's exactly the same commitment that the Bush administration extracted in a negotiation in 1995. And at that time, Condoleezza Rice, John Bolton's old boss, thought that, you know, this was a great breakthrough. And you saw what happened six nuclear tests later and a full sized nuclear arsenal.

Now, different Korean leader. Different moment here. Different pressure from the president of the United States. All that factors in. But we really have a long way to go.

CUOMO: But the credit aspect does matter on one level, I think. You tell me if I'm wrong, David. Is that -- you know, the president's saying, I had everything to do with all of it. That's, you know, just what we've come to accept as untruthful hyperbole from him.

SANGER: Right.

CUOMO: But Moon's role, Moon's motivation, his designer for this matters because it is a concern, as I understand it, with U.S. negotiators to make sure they're not getting boxed out, that this isn't about South Korea's economic ambitions and allegiances that may not fall in line with U.S. priorities. Is there an angle to that?

SANGER: Absolutely. And, look, President Trump definitely deserves some of the pressure here because I think had the sanctions not been as severe as they've been, and had there not been a fear factor on the part of both the North Koreans and the South Koreans that the president might do something extreme and take military action, I'm not sure that we'd be quite at this moment.

But as you say, Moon had a much bigger role in this because he made the outreach. Kim Jong-un, I think, has decided that he did so much testing, both on the missile side and the nuclear side last year, that he could now come and say I'm an established nuclear power, talk to me about arms control, not necessarily about arms elimination. And I think that all factored in to make a very big difference. Moon himself envisions himself right now as the mediator who can move between an unpredictable North Korean leader and an unpredictable American leader. He sees himself as the one who will sort of put this whole thing together, shuttling between the two of them.

CAMEROTA: Here is what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this weekend about what's going to be different this time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: This administration has its eyes wide open. We know the history. We know the risks. We're going to be very different. We're going to negotiate in a different way than has been done before. We're going to require those steps. We used the words "irreversible" with great intention. We're going to require those steps that demonstrate that denuclearization is going to be achieved. We're not going to take promises. We're not going to take words. We're going to look for actions and deeds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What do you think of that, David?

SANGER: Well, you know, I think he -- he was using the right phrase, that irreversible had to be taken seriously because remember what we've seen before. The North Koreans blew up a cooling tower at one of their major reactors, invited in lots of TV cameras to go see it, and two or three years later had that reactor up and running again.

Now, the difficulty is that irreversible means that you have to be able to have inspection throughout the country to make sure that not only the facilities you know of, but the facilities that you don't know about. The North Koreans have never allowed inspectors to go beyond one major nuclear site.

So this is going to be a big, long, complex process. It's going to take a number of years. I know a lot of people in the administration think they can get this done in six months. They can't.

And the additional problem here now is that if President Trump decides to exit the Iran deal, and even if he stays inside it, he needs a deal that actually is better than what Barack Obama got out of the Iranians. And Barack Obama got the Iranians to ship 97 percent of their fuel out of the country.

CUOMO: Right. I mean that's the irony is that Trump is bashing the Iran deal mostly because of the huff and puff of the campaign rhetoric. But now he seems, in North Korea, to be angling towards something that would be very much like it.

David Sanger, thank you very much.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: And thanks to our international viewers for watching. If you, CNN "TALK" is next. For our U.S. viewers, NEW DAY continues right now.

[07:00:03] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got Mexico to work with us, but we have the worst laws.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's so much at stake. So many people wondering, what will happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My God, are they going to prosecute children at the border?