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New Day

Nine Children Killed in Fiery, Multi-Vehicle Crash on Highway; Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) Narrowly Edges Trump in 2024 Straw Poll; CNN Reports, Subpoena That Netted Info on Two Lawmakers Appears to Have Started as Probe of Congressional Staffer. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 21, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Instead passes it.

[07:00:01]

Then under a minute to go, Sixers were down four, Danilo Gallinari puts the game away with a steal and a dunk on the other end, Hawks shocking the Sixers, 103-96 to make their second eastern conference finals in 50 years. And I'll tell you what, John, it is certainly going to be one long offseason there in Philadelphia.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: It is why I don't understand basketball anymore. Really, it is impossible to figure out who's going to win these things right now.

SCHOLES: Yes, I mean, the hawks continue to pull the upsets.

BERMAN: Andy Scholes, thank you very much. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, NEW DAY: Andy Scholes in studio, we should say.

American Airlines will be canceling hundreds of flights through mid- July. So, this is going on for a while here. And this is in part because of labor shortages. The airline has already canceled more than 100 flights and it is projecting 50 or 80 cancelations per day going forward.

Let's talk about his with Pete Muntean. Okay, so what should customers who have already booked their flights on American do?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're going to be caught by a big surprise by this just because the airlines have been caught by surprise of the sheer volume of people coming back to traveling.

I just want you to look at these numbers. The TSA screened more than 2 million people four individual days during this month alone. The record of the pandemic setback on Sunday, the 13th, went almost 2.1 million people flew.

These numbers are so significant, the elusive 2 million passenger mark, because we have not seen these numbers since back in 2019. And they are about 75 percent of 2019 levels, so, so many people are coming to flying.

And American Airlines says it's facing labor shortages of not only its own crews but also contractors. So now, it's having to cancel flights by the hundreds. It canceled 188 flights on Sunday. That's 6 percent of its schedule overall. 710 flights were delayed just yesterday, 23 percent of its schedules overall. So these are big numbers and a inconvenience. And now, American says it is going to cancel about 1 percent of all of its flights going into mid-July.

These are real growing pains as the airline sort of struggle to get back to normal. So many people are coming back to flying, but, remember, airlines trimmed their schedules and their airplanes and their people because of the pandemic. So this is a bit of a struggle for them.

KEILAR: Yes, they're adjusting. But, man, if you are a passenger, it is annoying for sure. Pete, thank you so much for taking us through that.

New Day continues right now.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Monday, June 21st.

And this morning, a team of federal investigators is on the scene of a gruesome, it is terrible, this chain reaction crash in Alabama that killed ten people over the weekend. Nine of them were children, the youngest was only nine months old.

BERMAN: So, eight of the victims were traveling at a van from a home abused and neglected young girls. They were headed back from a beach trip and just a couple of hours from home when the crash occurred on Interstate-65 in Butler County.

CNN's Martin Savidge is live in Camp Hill, Alabama, for us this morning. Martin, this is just devastating.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. It is. There's no other word. We're at the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, which is where many of the victims were either from or connected. It is horrific in so many levels, loss of life, ten people killed, number of children killed, nine. And many of those children had previously suffered traumas in their own life, which is what brought them into this foster care program.

This accident occurred at 2:30 in the afternoon Saturday, I-65 northbound to south of Montgomery, Alabama. We don't know the exact cause. That's why NTSB is joining the local authorities here to try to determine. But we do know the weather was a problem at that time. We had a tropical system that had been moving through the area with storms.

17 vehicles involved in this pileup, two of them are semi-tractor trailer trucks, seven of those vehicles caught on fire. Most of those who died were in that 15-passenger van from the ranch here. They have been returning from a vacation at the beach. One survivor, that is the ranch's life director, a woman was pulled from the wreckage by passersby. She was unconscious. She lost two of her own children in this wreck.

The CEO of the ranch here says that everyone is just devastated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SMITH, CEO, ALABAMA SHERIFF'S YOUTH RANCHES: We lost eight young people that can make a difference in our world. We lost eight young people that did not have a chance to have their own children. We lost eight young people that can't break the cycle of where they have been and change it for their children. It is a sad day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: There has been a GoFundMe account that's been set up for the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch because now they have eight funerals that they must plan and pay for.

[07:05:09]

But most of all, what they are asking for from everyone else is your prayers. John?

BERMAN: it is just horrible, Martin. Again, there is that GoFundMe page. Thank you for your reporting. I will check in with you in a little bit.

New Yorkers go into the polls tomorrow to vote in the fiercely contested Democratic primary for mayor, crime really the number one issue for voters. And over the weekend, street crime became personal for the frontliner, Eric Adams. Adams revealed that one of his campaign volunteers was stabbed multiple times with an ice pick in the Bronx.

And joining me now is New York City Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. This campaign worker, how is he doing?

ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: He's doing fine. He's out of surgery. We visited him and I spoke with him at the hospital. And the video was just horrific. Someone came up behind him and repeatedly stabbed him.

BERMAN: Was this at all campaign-related? Was he stabbed because he was working for you?

ADAMS: We don't know and hopefully not. The police department is conducting a thorough investigation. The video is there. And that's why it's just so important to use technology to add another layer on top of protection in the city.

BERMAN: Obviously, crime has become the major issue in this campaign. What does it tell you about the state of this race in the city?

ADAMS: It states a lot, because while the incident was unfolding, I was at the home of the husband and wife and her three children, the young children who were shot at by a gang member on the street. Imagine this, the parents, they were looking out the window to make sure their children were going to store safely and they saw the actual shooting unfolding before them.

BERMAN: Yes, thank God, those kids are okay. But you were there visiting with one family and another crime was being committed.

Listen, two of your main opponents, Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang, campaigned together over the weekend. That seemed to bother you. Why?

ADAMS: Well, because it just sent the wrong message. It was on June 19th, Juneteenth, the federal holiday that was just signed into law. They sent a signal, as you have all of the African-American and Hispanic candidates in the race, what message will you send during this time. They were talking about how do you empower various ethnic groups in politics.

BERMAN: You tell me. What message do you think they are sending by campaigning to together?

ADAMS: Well, Kathryn Garcia, number one, she stated that she was not Andrew Yang. Andrew Yang stated that he was endorsing her. And his attitude was just, basically, we want to make sure that we're keeping Adams and others out of the place of mayor. It just is the wrong message for those in our city.

BERMAN: Are you suggesting it is racial?

ADAMS: No. I'm suggesting that those who are running in office in New York, those who are looking at the candidacy in the field, they felt as though it sent the wrong message on Juneteenth to make that announcement on Juneteenth, with all the diversities that was in the field of African-American and Latin-speaking candidates.

BERMAN: So, your specific problem was the date they decided to campaign together. If they had campaign together yesterday on June 20th, you would have been be okay with it?

ADAMS: I would have look at it something differently. I think it sent a wrong signal and the wrong message. And that is how many of African- American and Hispanic candidates felt after these stories (ph).

BERMAN: Some of your campaign supporters are suggesting somehow that by doing this, it works to suppress the votes. I'm not sure I understand how that works.

ADAMS: Well, I can't speak on behalf of my supporters but I do know this --

BERMAN: So you disagree then that it's suppressing the vote?

ADAMS: No, no. As I was about to say, I could say this, that African- Americans are very clear on voter suppression. We know about our poll tags, we know about the fight that we've had historically, how you had to go hurdles to vote. And so they feel, based on their perception, that it suppressed the vote, then I respect their feeling. It is not for me to interpret their feelings.

BERMAN: What is your message to Eric Adams supporters this morning, because there is this rank choice system, where people can fill in however many people they want to vote for in order. Obviously, Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang campaigned together, specifically, I suppose, endorsed one another. They campaigned together. But is there someone that you would suggest to your supporters for whom you're their number one choice that they should put in as number two or three?

ADAMS: Here is my desire for them. I want them to go in first, rank Eric number one, then I want them to look at all the candidates that are running and state, we want to rank them in order that they desire. I want them to participate in the entire process. I know I want them to rank Eric Adams number one. I believe Eric Adams is the best mayor for these times to deal with our economic recovery, make our city safe and end inequalities. I think I fit that description.

BERMAN: Eric Adams, we appreciate you being with us. Please send our best to this campaign. All the other campaigns and candidates sent their best as well, obviously.

ADAMS: Yes, and they're going to be appreciated with that.

BERMAN: They're all thinking about you. Thank you.

ADAMS: Thank you.

BERMAN: That is New York City Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams. Brianna?

KEILAR: Will Donald Trump run for president in 2024? It is the question that many in the political sphere are dying to know the answer to.

[07:10:02]

And now, new early straw poll data suggests that if the former president does throw his hat in the ring, it is not a given that he'll be the Republican Party's nominee.

So, here to break these numbers down, CNN Senior Political Writer and Analyst Harry Enten. Well, that's surprising. Walk us through this.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes. It was a little bit surprising. So, look, straw polls are not scientific but I like to know what activists are thinking because, oftentimes, they sort of get ahead of the way.

And there was this western conservative summit this past week and they conducted unscientific straw poll, approved for president in 2024. Look who is number one. It was Ron DeSantis. 74 percent of the attendees said that they approve of him being the president in 2024. Donald Trump was just at 71 percent.

Look at though where Mike Pence, the former vice president, all the way down to 22 percent. And we are actually seeing that in some of the national polling. So, look here, this is the 2024 top choices for nominee, my average. When Donald Trump was asked, look, Trump was still way out ahead with 50 percent, Pence, DeSantis way back. But look at this. When Donald Trump was not asked, look who is number one, Ron DeSantis at 24, Mike Pence all the way back at just 15 percent. So, beyond Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis right now is being favored by a lot of Republicans.

Now, the question is, why is that necessarily the case? Well, take a look here. Fox News mentioned, so mentions on Fox News or Fox Business over the last two months, Ron DeSantis, 456 mentions, Ted Cruz just 354, Mike Pence all the way back to 116. And if we learned anything from the 2016 campaign is that media mentions are such a large thing with Republican primaries. They can really drive support. And right now, Ron DeSantis is the one who is getting most of those media mentions in the conservative media.

The last thing I'll note, take a look here. Why is Ron DeSantis up and Mike Pence down? What do Republicans believe? Well, 76 percent of Republicans believe that people are too easily offended, and Ron DeSantis is really pushing this cancel culture angle.

The other thing I'll note, vaccine passports are a bad idea. DeSantis against those, 64 percent of Republicans believe that.

And, finally, look here, the 2020 election was stolen. 61 percent of Republicans believed that. Remember, Pence was the one who helped certify those votes in Congress on January 6th. And January 6th protesters were not mostly peaceful, just 40 percent of Republicans believed that. So, DeSantis up because he's on the side where Republicans are, Pence is not on a lot of the key issues.

KEILAR: That is fascinating. Harry Enten, thank you so much.

Let's talk about that, those surprising straw poll results, with CNN Senior Political Analyst Kirsten Powers and CNN Political Analyst David Gregory.

Okay, yes, this is a straw poll, but I wonder if looking at this -- you know Donald Trump will look at this, does this change potentially change the dynamics of a potential field for 2024? Do you think so?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think that Ron DeSantis is definitely at the top of the pack by any measure. I think anybody would think that. So, yes, it's a straw poll but it's noteworthy. I think it's noteworthy especially because we tend to look at the Republican Party and certainly Republicans often talk about it as the party of Trump, right? So this is telling you that there are people who among the base, among the activists who are actually open to somebody other than Trump.

So we can't read too much into it but we also can look at a little bit sort of as the tea leaves of saying that it is not a foregone conclusion that if Trump wants to run again, that he's the guy.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I agree. I think one of the big strains that I've noticed is that Republicans would like a way to distance themselves from Trump but hang onto his people, right, hang on to his base and embrace Trumpism.

DeSantis is a perfect example of that. The reason he has so many media mentions is because of COVID, because he opened the state early, he took on COVID. There's a lot of questions that may be answered in his favor, about keeping schools open in Florida, among other aspects. So he is really the face of taking on particularly political progressives on the question of COVID and restrictions and all the rest.

The other part of this is the cancel culture, campaign against liberal excess. We talked about this last week. This is going to be a major strain for conservatives to run against. And I think there is no question. He gets enough of Trumpism without being Trump to get the activists excited about as prospects.

KEILAR: Yes. He's been very savvy, we should say, for sure with courting Republicans. So we'll see if that does persist.

I want to talk about the Idaho governor's race because Ammon Bundy has announced that he is running. He, of course, is that rancher who captured national attention in 2016 when he led an armed occupation of federal land in Oregon. That went on for a while. It lasted 41 days. There was this huge standoff with police. One person died. What do you think? Does he have a chance at being governor, David?

GREGORY: Well, it is -- we were saying before we came on the air, it's a crowded primary field.

[07:15:02]

I think he's certainly within a strain of the Republican Party right now which is antigovernment, which is sort of flying the banner for liberty and freedom. And this is Idaho after all, where there may be a more captive audience. So it is something to watch.

I mean, again, you can't go through this Trump period and look at some of the strains on the right around some of these issues without thinking that somebody like this has a shot.

KEILAR: What do you think?

POWERS: Yes, I think that's right. I don't think at this point you can rule anybody out. This also, we have to consider the fact, this is a person who also was charged with trespassing, all these other things. And, again, this is the law and order --

KEILAR: Could that work in his favor though, Kirsten?

POWERS: Yes. But this is what's so interesting. Like the law and order party, right, has shown us that that's actually something that they hold Democrats to but it is not something that they hold themselves to. We saw it with the -- what happened on January 6th, we've seen how they don't want to have any accountability, we've seen how they've treated the officers who protected them.

So they have really shifted -- there is a shift that we are kind of watching them away from this law in order being a central tenet of what they look for in their candidates. So they'll still use it against Democrats but they're not holding candidates to it.

GREGORY: And this is what we're going to talk about, I think, in a moment too. This idea that liberty is what matters, that somehow too many Americans are captive of unorthodoxy in the country. That's either the federal government or it's liberals and their rules about speech, and that you need to sort of break free of that, I think, touches the nerve.

It is like the gun debate is so much bigger than guns for a lot of people. It represents -- it is a proxy for your way to live, how you want to live. And I think just this is going to be a big part of our politics here in the next two, certainly, to four years.

KEILAR: Coming into politics, art, Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame, of course, apologized last week after his film, In the Heights, was criticized for featuring darker skinned Afro-Latinos in really background and dance scenes but not in the main roles. And this is Bill Maher said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAHER, HOST, REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER: Stop the apologizing. You are the guy who made the founding fathers black and Hispanic. I don't think you have to apologize to Twitter.

This is why people hate Democrats. At some point, people are going to have to stand up to these bullies because that's what it is. It is just bullying. I can make you crawl like a dog and I enjoy it. I mean, he's a Latino making a Latino movie with a Latino cast, not good enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What do you think Kirsten?

POWERS: Yes. I don't agree with this take, really. I thought the way -- well, first of all, I just want to address the fact people don't hate Democrats, so I don't even know what he's talking about. I guess he hates Democrats but Democrats enjoy like a nine-point lead against Republicans in terms of approval so -- and party I.D. So that's not actually an accurate statement. Maybe he meant people -- liberals. I don't know what he meant.

But I think if you look at what Miranda said, I think it was actually a really good example of how to respond to criticism and that he heard what people said, that he did the best that he could. But just because you did one good thing over here with Hamilton does not mean that you are perfect. And it's okay for people to say, he recognize -- if you look at his statement, he says, there's a lot of pain around colorism, which is the favoring of light skinned people of color over darker skinned people of color.

And so, yes, Twitter is all out of control. We all can see that. But the point is that doesn't mean that there aren't some actual, real criticisms here, and all he said was, I am listening, I hear you and I will try to do better. KEILAR: Speaking to this issue though of apologies, because that was something that Donald Trump really changed the dynamic on.

GREGORY: I don't think this is a Trump -- I mean, there's a Trump phenomenon here, and, yes, well, of course, Trump does not apologize For anything. I have a slightly different view to Kirsten, and that I think that Maher is saying out loud something that a lot of voters are feeling, and I think it's not just conservatives. I think it is Democrats, many of whom say, God, this is why people hate Democrats, this is why people hate liberals. This kind of cultural excess and orthodoxy, I do think, it's going to be a role and I do think it's going to hurt the Democratic Party writ large the extent to which it plays out in national politics, which Republicans certainly want it to do.

So I don't think this is just an issue of the conservative activists. I think there's a lot of people for whom Bill Maher is saying something out loud that they might be afraid on their own. Now, that's what he has made a career out, of course. So, that's his form of entertainment. But I think there are some potency to this, whether it's in the college campuses or in entertainment.

POWERS: Right. Well, there is a difference between having potency. It's absolutely going to be the cancel culture thing is going to be -- and we can already see it. It is a core political strategy on the right, which is not what Bill Maher is part of.

[07:20:03]

I mean, he's not part of the conservative movement. Bu I think that -- and I think it is true, that he is saying out loud of what a lot of people think.

What I am saying is that I think we need to think differently about this. I think that it is not always cancel culture. I think sometimes it is people just expressing feelings that they have not been represented in our society and that they want to see more representation. And there is nothing wrong with that. And that's what his statement acknowledged. I mean, he wasn't groveling, like crawling like a dog, like Maher said. He just went on a very eloquent statement saying like, look, doing the best I can, I hear you, there's a lot of pain, I am going to try to do better. And I think we need to normalize that in our society, just taking responsibility and just listening to --

GREGORY: We can normalize that in a social media culture that does call people out, cancel people, write people off instead of having this kind of conversation. I mean, the way you are expressing is not capturing a lot of how this dialogue goes. And there's a kind of -

POWERS: Well, we can do a whole hour on this probably and I think we are probably close to being out of time. But I think a lot of times what's called canceled culture is accountability and sometimes it is canceled culture, which is kind of a right-wing phrase that's been made up. But the idea of holding people accountable sometimes gets called cancel culture when people have tried -- for example, in this example, people raised this issue over and over and over again and they feel unheard. And so if they feel unheard, they're going to get a little more aggressive about it.

And so I think that Miranda recognized, and he wasn't defensive, and he just said, I hear you and I'm going to try to do better. I mean, I think that's something we can all do.

GREGORY: Brianna just said we could just go on through the hour.

KEILAR: I am just going to blow off the hour here. I do think it's -- look, it's a bigger issue about the underrepresentation too of Afro- Latinos. That's something that cuts across arts, it cuts across journalism, it cuts across politics and it's certainly a conversation that does need to be had. But is it a conversation or is it something that's kind of like a nasty fight. I think that's a very good point as well.

David, Kirsten, thank you so much for the spirited discussion.

We have some new details this morning about the 2018 subpoenas swept up the data of two Democratic congressmen. They were not actually the initial targets.

BERMAN: And the latest on the death of an American student in Russia, a suspect has just been charged with her murder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

KEILAR: New details about the 2018 subpoenas that swept up the Apple of data of two Democratic congressmen, their staffers and family members. A senior aide on the House Intelligence Committee may have been the initial target. What does that mean?

Let's talk with CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez joining me now. Okay, that's very interesting, these members of Congress weren't actually the initial target.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. And, by the way, this should not be some great mystery. The Justice Department has procedures for how to handle these types of investigations. You're dealing with a separate branch of government. And so there is a whole sensitivity about doing this kind of thing and who do you notify and make sure that all the bosses known. So far, all the bosses in the Trump administration seems to say, I didn't know what was going on.

And so what we've learned after spending days on this to try to unearth what happened, it appears that what investigators were doing was scrutinizing a senior aide on that committee, an aide who worked with Adam Schiff's office. And as part of that, they were looking for contacts from that aide and they came up with over a hundred numbers, and two of the accounts came back from Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell.

Now, it just so happens and why people have suspicions is that these were two of the prominent critics of the former president. And so a lot of people do not believe that this was not -- that Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein and others didn't know what was happening.

And that's why you see Adam Schiff still asking from Merrick Garland, the attorney general, to provide more answers because he believes there is more to this story. Listen to what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The inspector general is doing the investigation. I talked with the attorney general going about beyond that. I think he really needs to do a wholesale review of all of the politicization in the department over the last four years. What happened to our committee, what happened to members of the press, that's just a subset.

These are gross abuses of the independence of the Justice Department and we don't know how far they run. And our new attorney has to find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: I think what he's referring to there is obviously exactly what Garland and Lisa Monaca, the deputy attorney general, doing there, especially going through and trying to find where the bodies are buried. And there is a lot more of this type of political stuff that they believe has to be unearthed and we're going to find out, I guess, in the coming weeks and months.

KEILAR: It is hard to imagine the ones that goes from a staffer to Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, that higher ups don't get looped in.

PEREZ: That's the part that seems very, very hard to believe.

KEILAR: Yes. Evan Perez, great reporting, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: The disappearance of a U.S. student missing in Russia ended tragedy and the arrest of a suspect charged with her murder. The body of 34-year-old Katherine Sirow was found just east of Moscow on Saturday. Russian authorities alleged the suspect offered Sirow a ride home last Tuesday and then drove her into the forest where he stabbed her.

Salma Abdelaziz is live with the details here. Salma, this is awful. What have you learned?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely tragic and horrific new details now coming out from a local court in Russia that's in charge of this murder investigation. They say that Katherine Sirow was picked up by the suspect at a bus stop. She hitched a ride with this man. He then drove her to a wooded area. That's where some sort of altercation or quarrel ensued between them, according to Russian officials. And the suspect the punched Sirow multiple times, he then stabbed her at least twice with a knife he was carrying.

[07:30:06]