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Muller Investigation Reaches 1 Year Mark; Flood Watches for New England; Fruit's Dirty Dozen; Vegas Shooting Survivor Meets Guardian Angel. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 17, 2018 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: Investigation as far as I know is supposed to do. You're a lawyer. I'm not. I'm concerned about this.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You sat with them. They asked you real questions. They seemed to know a lot about the campaign. You came out of there thinking, these are competent people, they know what they're talking about, true or false?

CAPUTO: No doubt about it.

CUOMO: I think that this is a dangerous thing that the president is doing. Here's my case. Why? If it objectively happened, he seems to have permanently conflated what Russia did to our democracy and what he thinks this process is doing to him. He cannot separate them. That's why he always echoes this non-fact, no collusion and no obstruction. Why is it a non-fact? Because we don't know that. We certainly know there is proof of collusion. Remember, I'm a lawyer.

CAPUTO: Right.

CUOMO: Collusion is not a crime.

CAPUTO: Right.

CUOMO: It doesn't exist in any statue. It's about conspiracy and all these different efficacy crimes of how you would effectuate a work with a criminal action.

CAPUTO: Right.

CUOMO: Coordinate. We don't know any of that, but we do know there's proof of collusion. That meeting alone that Donald Trump Junior ad those guys went to is proof that they were looking to work with people they had reason to believe were inimical to this election. It's not a crime.

CAPUTO: As every campaign does.

CUOMO: Not a crime by itself.

CAPUTO: Every campaign does that.

CUOMO: We -- first of all, we don't know that. And, second of all -- CAPUTO: I do. I'm a campaign worker. I'm telling you, they all do it.

CUOMO: Maybe you always do it, but we don't know certainly that it's a general practice.

CAPUTO: That's -- you know about the -- you know about the dossier, right? You've heard about it. That dossier was put together based upon Russian intelligence information, right?

CUOMO: Right.

CAPUTO: And that was paid for by Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: Right.

CAPUTO: So let's just stipulate right now --

CUOMO: Right.

CAPUTO: That both campaigns were doing opposition research.

CUOMO: That's not collusion.

CAPUTO: And they were colluding.

CUOMO: No.

CAPUTO: If your definition of collusion is working with someone to try to find information against your opponent, they were colluding with Russian intelligence, no question.

CUOMO: No. Here's the difference, OK, and then we'll leave it to Mueller. But here's the difference and it's a key one and it's simple. A lot of this stuff is complex. This isn't. You doing research with an intelligence operative with Christopher Steele as in working sources is different than going to someone who says the Russian government has bad information about your opponent, help us promote this effort by taking the omission.

CAPUTO: I don't see any difference.

CUOMO: Well, it's a -- there's a key distinction.

CAPUTO: There's no difference between hearing that the government might have something for you and taking a meeting and going to the government and asking them for it.

CUOMO: The difference is your intention to assist in a nefarious effort. You are assuming that Christopher Steele thought that he was getting false information.

CAPUTO: Yes, I am.

CUOMO: You're assuming that Christopher Steele thought that he was helping Russian efforts to undermine the election.

CAPUTO: Yes, I do.

CUOMO: Well, but those are gross assumptions.

CAPUTO: I don't think they're gross assumptions. I think a lot of (INAUDIBLE) of the dossier was planted in America by Russian intelligence.

CUOMO: But you have no basis for (INAUDIBLE).

But you have no factual basis for that point (ph).

CAPUTO: And there's no factual basis for you to say that Don Junior intended to collude with Russia.

CUOMO: Here it is. He gets messages from friends saying, I know someone who works for the government who says she's got bad stuff on Hillary -- or they have bad stuff on Hillary Clinton. He says, great. Goes to the meeting looking for. Disappoint when he doesn't have it.

You have to know that if you were to be meeting with an inimical foreign agent and they were giving you information like that, it could be bad, wrong and/or illegal. You have to know that. They should have known that.

CAPUTO: A couple of distinctions. A couple of distinctions.

CUOMO: They should have known that. So proof of collusion (INAUDIBLE) --

CAPUTO: But you know that this guy was registered with the U.S. government to lobby government officials on all sides on the Magnitsky Act. That was her clear registration with the United States Senate (ph).

CUOMO: And those e-mails say nothing about Magnitsky.

CAPUTO: How -- how -- I know, but that -- we know now that that's what was discussed in the meeting, right?

CUOMO: How is that relevant?

CAPUTO: But it -- it's relevant because the Russian intelligence agents that were working with the DNC and Hillary Clinton dossier were not registered with the U.S. government.

CUOMO: It's a meaningless distinction.

CAPUTO: It's not meaningless because Veselnitskaya, whether you like her or not, whether you consider her connected with the Kremlin or not, was registered properly for what she did.

CUOMO: She said she was.

CAPUTO: I mean I don't think she was doing anything wrong. I think the meeting was a mistake, all right.

CUOMO: But I'll tell you why it's -- of course it was a mistake. Of course it was a mistake.

CAPUTO: But at the same time, Don Junior was working with the registered agent that was registered with the Senate, but -- and Hillary Clinton was working with spies.

CUOMO: He didn't go to the meeting looking to talk about adoption. There's no proof of that, OK?

CAPUTO: Right. But we also know that he didn't know what was going to go on in the meeting and he went there with an open mind.

CUOMO: Well, he did know, because he thought he was going to get bad information and he said as many in writing. Let Mueller decide all those things.

But what I'm saying is, when you distract from what we understand, I believe it's pushing a narrative that's reflect in this president's tweet, which is, we want to make this look bad. When you do that, you ignore a real problem and you ignore the search for truth into how it happened so we can stop it the next time. Whether or not that has anything to do with anyone named Trump.

CAPUTO: Right.

CUOMO: We need the truth. This kind of tweet is part of a concerted effort by this president to stop us from getting the truth. Fair criticism?

CAPUTO: I think it's going on, on both sides. I think it's a political tweet, purely and absolutely, all right.

CUOMO: Who's -- who's the president? How many do we have? We have one on both sides?

CAPUTO: I'm just telling you, that is a political tweet. He is -- he is taking a political stand on what's going on and the same thing is going --

CUOMO: You don't think a president has a different standard than Michael Caputo?

CAPUTO: I do think that he's -- the same kind of activity is going on, on the Democrat side. Schiff and all the rest of the Democrats are out there trying to sell the bogus Russian collusion narrative are doing the same thing on Twitter. The president feels like he -- he need to go out and defend himself. And he's doing it.

[08:35:07] CUOMO: Who has come out on the Democratic side?

First -- the first pushback is, there's only one president. He is the steward of this country's (INAUDIBLE).

CAPUTO: And he's political by nature and he's fighting a political battle.

CUOMO: But he's not -- but he's not just being political. He's making assumptions of fact that are untrue and he's doing it to distract and disturb a search for the truth. I think that's a (INAUDIBLE) distinction.

CAPUTO: That's your narrative.

CUOMO: But, also, you can't point me to a Democrat who said, definitely proof of crimes.

CAPUTO: Ted Lou (ph).

CUOMO: Definitely he is not -- Schiff, he is not someone in a position of power.

CAPUTO: Ted Lou's not?

CUOMO: He's a rank and file Democrat.

CAPUTO: No, he's on the committee doing -- that was doing the investigation (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: Not any more. It's done.

CAPUTO: Are you sure?

CUOMO: It's done. Are you --

CAPUTO: Schiff is still sending letters demanding information.

CUOMO: Wait, hold on. Lou -- you talked about Schiff and Lou now.

CAPUTO: I can continue.

CUOMO: Schiff has never said --

CAPUTO: Jackie Speier accused me of a crime and on CNN, live to the world, accused me of lying to Congress. A complete fabrication. An absolute political statement exactly like the --

CUOMO: But Jackie -- Jackie Speier has never said there are crimes that are being committed by the president or his staff.

CAPUTO: Yes, she did.

CUOMO: I know what she said about you.

CAPUTO: Well, she accused a staff member of committing a crime. That's what she said about me.

CUOMO: Of lying about something. You're right.

CAPUTO: Jackie smear lied on television about me.

CUOMO: Jackie Speier smeared, you mean to say. You said Jackie smear.

CAPUTO: Well, I conflate the two.

CUOMO: I get why you're angry about that. I know the money that you've spent on this. I know you say you've done nothing wrong.

CAPUTO: But how is it different? It's not different.

CUOMO: Here's how it's different, because --

CAPUTO: Because she's a Democrat?

CUOMO: No, of course not. Look, it's got to be about the truth, Michael. At the end of the day, here's what we're going to come out with, this report.

CAPUTO: You see -- I mean the -- this is not the -- first of all, this is not the year anniversary of the Mueller investigation. This is two or three or six year anniversary. We've been at this for some time. As you know, Paul Manafort was under investigation for years before he went to work for Trump. Here's the problem.

CUOMO: Completely unrelated.

CAPUTO: Why is that?

CUOMO: For what they understood at the time about (INAUDIBLE) --

CAPUTO: Why didn't they charge him with information from that -- from that investigation?

CUOMO: Maybe they didn't have a case. Maybe they weren't looking to prosecute him. Maybe they didn't care. There are lots of different reasons.

CAPUTO: Well, one of the things that happened in this year of the Mueller part of the investigation is that journalism also died.

CUOMO: All I'm saying is this -- oh, please. Look, this very conversation is proof that that's not true.

CAPUTO: Well, I'm not saying it died here on NEW DAY. I'm saying it died today in "The Daily News."

CUOMO: When you say it -- when you say it died, brother, and I'm a journalist, you're saying I'm dead.

CAPUTO: I'm saying -- no. I -- that's not what I said. That's not what I said. You know, I come here because I trust you. I go on CNN shows that I particularly like because I trust the host.

CUOMO: All right, so let's not generalize about it all.

CAPUTO: When I opened "The Daily News" today and I see them state that I knew about the Don Junior meeting, that's a complete lie. A complete lie. And I told them seven times, seven times in an interview that I never heard about it until I read about it in the newspaper. They intentionally wrote in "The New York Daily News" today that I knew about the meeting. Why? To jam me up with Mueller so that I get called in again and have to spend another $30,000. The journalism died in "The New York Daily News" this year. CUOMO: If that's what happened, then that is wrong. But you don't want

to say that about everything because that's a false narrative as well.

CAPUTO: No, I don't. I --

CUOMO: But I get what you're upset about what happened.

CAPUTO: Some journalism died.

CUOMO: Done.

Thank you very much for making your case. You're always welcome to do that. If we can't debate these things, we're not going to get anywhere. This report's going to come out and it's going to be dead on arrival.

CAPUTO: You're always fair.

CUOMO: All right, thank you. Be well.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris, now to this important story. A survivor of the Las Vegas massacre finally meets the man who saved her life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you want to say to him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Without him I wouldn't be here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, you're going to see the moment when they came face-to- face, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:31] CUOMO: More rain on the way along the East Coast. Flood watches now in effects for parts of New England.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers, what do you see?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I see a lot of rain. Richard, Virginia, D.C., like you said, New England, as well, Chris. The rain continues right along a front that just won't move. Where it's raining, it will continue to rain. New York City, you have rain right now, but, D.C., you have heavy rain later on this afternoon and all day tomorrow. That includes Baltimore for the Preakness as well. Very wet stuff there. Could be four to six inches of rain especially south of there. D.C., you get to somewhere in the '80s, though, later on in the week.

Good weather for the royal wedding. Safe travels, Alisyn. Back to you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Thank you very much. Good news. Thank you. OK, so, listen to this. The Internet is blowing up in response to a video of a man going on a tirade at a New York City restaurant threatening to call immigration enforcement on workers and customers because they were speaking Spanish. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your staff is speaking Spanish to customers when they should be speaking English.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're being very violent (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every person on this (INAUDIBLE). He spoke it. He spoke it. She's speaking it. This is America. They're undocumented (ph). So my next calls is to ICE (INAUDIBLE) get them out of my country. If they have the balls to come here and live off of my money, I pay for their welfare, I pay for their ability to be here. The least -- the least they could do -- the least they could do is speak English.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) welfare. (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you intend on running a place in Midtown Manhattan, the chefs (ph) should speak in English, not Spanish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: He's worked up in quite the lather. That video's been viewed more than 4 million times on FaceBook. The man was identified as a lawyer with an office near the restaurant. CNN has reached out to him. We've left a message at his law office. So far no response.

We've also contacted the restaurant. A representative told us that everyone has a mind of their own, but disturbing other people in a public area is not right.

Now, we have heard from ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which says it's tip line, quote, should not be used as an instrument to intimidate or harass.

CUOMO: A Las Vegas shooting survivor finally meeting the man she credits with saving her life. This is a reunion and a reminder. We have it next.

CAMEROTA: OK, also, which fruit has the most pesticide residue? CNN's Lisa Drayer has some answers for us in "Food as Fuel."

CUOMO: The ones sprayed with Raid.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA DRAYER, CNN HEALTH CONTRIBUTOR: Different kinds of fruit contain differing amounts of pesticide residue, even after being washed. The Environmental Working Group put out its annual dirty dozen list of the most contaminated produce.

[08:45:02] Strawberries topped the 2018 rankings as having the most residue. Also on the list, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, and pears.

If this list is tricky to remember, just think thin when it comes to skin, as pesticides easily penetrate thin skinned fruit. And if you do buy organic, the group reminds you, it may not be higher in vitamins or minerals than a conventionally grown version.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, now we have an emotional reunion between a mother shot during the Las Vegas massacre and the man she calls her guardian angel. By most accounts, Rosemarie Melanson should be dead. But after months in the hospital and multiple surgeries, she finally got to hug the off duty firefighter who saved her life.

[08:50:04] CNN's Erica Hill is here with their reunion.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean talk about an emotional moment.

So Rosemarie's only been out of the hospital for about a month and it's really only in the last couple of weeks that she said she was ready to even talk to her family about what happened to her and what happened the rest of that night. And she's also ready to meet the man who saved her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (voice over): Rosemarie Melanson's daughters couldn't wait to share the Route 91 Music Festival with their mom. The tickets, a Mother's Day gift from her oldest daughter, Stephanie.

ROSEMARIE MELANSON, LAS VEGAS SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I pulled them by the hand and we went all the way up to the front. We were like kids in a candy store. I mean just so excited.

STEPHANIE MELANSON, ROSEMARIE MELANSON'S DAUGHTER: It was a blast. My mom never wears hats. She took my ball cap off, put it on backwards, kind of looked cool.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And to see her actually going up to the front and letting loose and just enjoying. We were living our best life.

R. MELANSON: At first I thought it was fire crackers, and then I saw bullets hit the tank -- tank. And then I realized, oh, my God, those aren't -- that's not fireworks, those are bullets. And immediately I was shot.

STEPHANIE MELANSON: She's face down in the grass and my first instinct was, my mom's playing it safe. And we're like, mom. And then she didn't respond.

We flipped her over and that's when we saw that she was shot.

R. MELANSON: They were just screaming and screaming, you know, yelling mom, mom. That's all I remember. Then I blacked out from there. And I actually had an out of body experience.

HILL (on camera): What happened?

R. MELANSON: My body just rose up and I could see my body laying on the ground. And I went to heaven. And it was indescribable the peace that you felt. But I was told it wasn't my time, that I had to go back.

When I came to, it was only a matter of a couple seconds, and then I could hear Don, the guy who saved my life, and then I blacked out.

STEVE MELANSON, ROSEMARIE'S HUSBAND: I do believe God put everybody at the right place at the right time to save her life. And Don was her guardian angel.

HILL (voice over): Don Matthews was separated from his girlfriend, Karen, as the shots rang out. When he saw Rosemarie, his 34 years as a Los Angeles firefighter kicked in.

STEPHANIE MELANSON: He just kept telling us that we had to leave. Get out of here if we want to live. You've got to run. And he said, I promise I will stay with your mom all the way.

HILL (on camera): How hard is that, though, for you to leave your mom there?

STEPHANIE MELANSON: I just said, I'll take a bullet. I'll take a bullet before I leave my mom if that's what it means me staying here. I'm not leaving. Like, you guys don't understand. It's my mom. She's my life.

DON MATTHEWS, RESCUED ROSEMARIE: I knew those kids had to leave. It was just a bad spot for them to be in.

HILL (voice over): Reluctantly, the girls fled.

HILL (on camera): Were you ever worried for your own safety?

MATTHEWS: Oh, yes.

HILL (voice over): With the help of other strangers, Don was able to get Rosemarie out of harm's way into a pickup truck. Eventually, she was brought to the hospital, but it would be hours before Rosemarie's family found her.

STEPHANIE MELANSON: It took 11 hours. That was the hardest 11 hours of my whole life.

HILL: Rosemarie was alive, but the mother of four would not be alert for weeks. R. MELANSON: I don't think I was expected to live, but I'm a fighter,

I'm a warrior. You can't keep me down.

STEVE MELANSON: I prayed a lot. I cried a lot. At one point I thought what life would be like without her.

HILL: In the months that followed, Rosemarie's guardian angel, Don, was never far from the Melanson's thoughts. Social media eventually brought them together. On Thanksgiving Day, Don and Steve spoke on CNN.

STEVE MELANSON: We're waiting for her to get a little bit better and we're going to get you down here and we're going to have a big reunion with you and with her.

MATTHEWS: Yes, I'll be happy to come.

HILL: After nine surgeries and six months in the hospital, Rosemarie is finally ready for that reunion.

HILL (on camera): What do you want to say to him?

R. MELANSON: Thank you. Without him, I wouldn't be here. No doubt.

MATTHEWS: I'm looking for Rosemarie.

So nice to meet you.

R. MELANSON: You too.

MATTHEWS: You couldn't give me a hug the first time.

R. MELANSON: I know.

HILL: Endless hugs and tears of joy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so grateful to you. I'm so grateful.

HILL: Rosemarie's 89-year-old mother embracing the man who saved her daughter.

HILL (on camera): Did you think that you would see Rosemarie again?

MATTHEWS: No.

HILL: Did you think she'd survive?

MATTHEWS: No.

HILL: And you're both here together now.

MATTHEWS: Yes. So, never give up. Miracles happen. And this one surely did.

HILL (voice over): Rosemarie is expected to make a full recovery and is anxious to get back to her old life. [08:55:00] R. MELANSON: I'm here for a reason. My job is not done. I

have no idea what that job is, but I guess I still have work to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: She is quite a force. Rosemarie actually goes in for her tenth surgery tomorrow. Don now firmly a part of this family. That was clear.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my God. You didn't warn us that we'd need tissues.

HILL: Sorry, I should have brought you tissues.

CAMEROTA: That was so beautiful. I mean -- thank you. I mean the idea of what one evil man and how many lives he can ruin in effect and then what one brave angel and how many lives he can effect.

HILL: Absolutely.

You know, one of the things he said too was, he said, look, I'm a firefighter, but I don't ever meet the people that I help after 34 years. Maybe sometimes I would check in with a nurse at the hospital just to find out if somebody made it. He said, this is totally different.

CUOMO: This was different. I mean to Alisyn's point, you know, in every one of these demonstrations are the worst of humanity, we also see the best of humanity.

HILL: Yes.

CUOMO: It would be nice if it were unnecessary, but you got to take lessons from it on both sides. And to see the emotion in him, you know --

CAMEROTA: I Know.

CUOMO: That he had to be so worried about, will she make it --

HILL: Yes.

CUOMO: Did I do enough. And now, at least, you know, he has the satisfaction of being there with her, holding her hand, and they'll always have each other.

HILL: And the daughters too. He was so concerned that they --

CAMEROTA: Right.

HILL: That they wouldn't leave her.

CAMEROTA: Of course.

HILL: And he just wanted them to be safe.

CAMEROTA: And he risked his own life. Oh, my gosh. HILL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Erica, thank you so much for bringing us that story.

HILL: Thanks, guys.

CUOMO: It cost me a hanky, but it was worth it.

CAMEROTA: Sorry. Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, CNN "NEWSROOM" with John Berman --

CAMEROTA: Oh, I'm sorry, could you guys hear that?

CUOMO: And Poppy Harlow will pick it up right after this break.

You can keep that.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:13] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm --