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New Day Saturday

20 Hostages Dead in Dhaka Cafe Attack; Terror in Turkey: Two of Three Attackers Named in Turkish Media; Toxic Algae Prompts Florida State of Emergency; Lynch Regrets "Shadow" Cast on Clinton Investigation; Race Heats Up to be Trump's VP Pick; Olympic Obstacles: Body Parts, Zika, "Super Bacteria". Aired 7-8a ET

Aired July 02, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.

[07:00:03] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard three really loud gunshots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were people saying that there was news of that attack at the restaurant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This neighborhood is one of the most, if not the most secure neighborhoods in Dhaka.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a huge bomb blast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a very posh neighborhood. It's always been very secure. Everyone is just stunned that something like this could happen here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So grateful to have your company on this Saturday morning. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you.

And we're starting with the breaking news overnight. Hours long hostage standoff in the capital of Bangladesh ended a short time ago with an intense police raid. Now, in the aftermath, commandos found the dead bodies of 20 hostages, all of them foreigners, all of them apparently hacked to death.

Now, this begun when gunmen seized the cafe popular with westerners in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka. This site is just a mile or so from the U.S. embassy.

PAUL: Now, the numbers are preliminary, but an army official says at least 13 hostages were rescued after police stormed that restaurant to end the siege. Six attackers were killed in the operation and ISIS has claimed responsibility for that attack. But some U.S. officials are casting doubt on that claim.

I want to get straight to CNN international correspondent Sumnima Udas who has the very latest for us.

And, Sumnima, can we talk about the reports that perhaps there is one of those terrorists who survived who may be in custody right now?

SUMNINA UDAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, that's what the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has said that one of the terrorists survived. And that is hugely helpful for authorities, of course. Because through that one terrorist, hopefully, they'll get more information as to who's responsible, who's behind it and why all of this happened.

Now, authorities have only been able to give us the facts in terms of death toll, 20 civilians who died. All of them foreigners, all of them killed with sharp weapons. Also in terms of the hostages, that there are 13 hostages who were rescued, three of them foreigners, one of them Japanese, two Sri Lankans.

But other than that, very little detail as to how exactly these 12 to 13-hour siege unfolded. What we've been hearing though is from eyewitnesses, or witnesses who were there, a cafe worker who managed to escape as the gunmen were storming into that restaurant.

They arrived with guns. They were shooting in the air, but they did not kill anyone at that time. They did not hit anyone. They just really wanted to instill fear in everyone. That's when everyone in the restaurant, a lot of the clients their hid under tables, hid under chairs.

The cafe worker, though, managed to escape. Here's how he described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHUMON REZA, CAFE EMPLOYEE (through translator): When we got out they were on the roof. When they threw the bombs, the whole building was shaking, more than 10 or 12 bombs. They kept throwing and throwing. We thought they were progressing forward. When we thought it wasn't safe anymore and jumped from the roof.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UDAS: Just gives you a sense of how fully armed they were. The cafe workers said they had explosives, they had guns, and the military said they had AK-22s, low caliber rifles as well -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: So, when we get back to the claim by ISIS of responsibility for this, what are you hearing from Bangladesh authorities about their confidence that ISIS was indeed behind it, or could it have been al Qaeda or some other entity?

UDAS: That's right, ISIS claimed responsibility pretty much hours after the siege began many hours ago. Now, the Bangladesh prime minister has said that ISIS is not responsible. And authorities have said that in Bangladesh.

But, of course, we do not know at the moment, some U.S. officials and also analysts have doubted the claim that ISIS could be behind it and that's because ISIS really didn't have a large presence in Bangladesh and the Indian subcontinent in general. Al Qaeda is much more active in this region. Al Qaeda has taken responsibility for quite a few of the attacks against bloggers and atheists and writers that we've been talking about for the past years, more than 40 of them have died. Al Qaeda has taken responsibility for some of them. ISIS has as well. But every time ISIS has claimed responsibility, Bangladesh authorities have denied that ISIS is present and they have always attributed those attacks to homegrown militants -- Christi.

PAUL: Sumnima Udas, grateful for to you make time for us today.

[07:05:00] Thank you for being here.

BLACKWELL: Again, the siege is over but it lasted about 13 hours. And police say the attackers entered this popular cafe armed with rifles, explosives and a lot of sharp weapons is their characterization.

Our Andrew Stevens has more on what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An unidentified man carried from the scene. Teams of police and bomb disposal experts and ambulances lined up waiting for the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two shots and two shots fired in the air. And then I heard an explosion.

STEVENS: The sounds of terror rocking the streets of Dhaka. Gunmen targeting a cafe frequented by foreigners. Some were lucky to escape. Others were taken hostage.

SHAMA HUSSEIN, WITNESS: My cousin actually has four friends inside being held hostage right now. So it's very tense. We're very worried.

You have to remember, it's also Ramadan right now, this is the time when people go out to eat, especially on a Friday night. So the restaurant would have been more crowd than usual, I would think.

STEVENS: The siege went on through the night. Hour after hour, with no word of what was happening inside the Holey Artisan bakery and then this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within five minutes they charged in.

STEVENS: A gun battle followed by an eerie silence. That silence broken not long after by explosions as security forces swept the restaurant. The military say troops rescued more than a dozen hostages shooting dead six gunmen and capturing at least one alive.

But then the shocking news that the military had also found 20 bodies in the restaurant, all hacked or stabbed to death.

ISIS claimed responsibility even before the siege ended, but U.S. officials say there could be other players involved.

SAJJAN GOEL, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTOR, ASIA PACIFIC FOUNDATION: What's happening in Bangladesh is disturbing because effectively, it's become a battleground for the ISIS-affiliated group and the al Qaeda- affiliated group.

STEVENS: Terror has struck Dhaka in the past. Secular bloggers and minority religious leaders have been hacked to death by Islamic extremists. The government recently launched a nationwide crackdown. But authorities haven't placed anything like the scale of this terror on Bangladesh's soil before.

LORI ANN WALSH IMDAD, TEACHER: I think we are seeing a rise in radicalism in this country. And no one really expects to s something like that take place.

STEVENS: Andrew Stevens, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Now, one of the victims as we get this new information is just coming in is a woman, 19 years old. A student at Berkeley, she was from India. According to a tweet from India's minister of external affairs, he has confirmed that an Indian student at Berkeley is indeed one of the victims who died in this attack.

BLACKWELL: Well, Islamic extremists are targeting secular and minority groups as we heard there from Andrew with alarming frequency, leaving behind a trail of bloodshed. There have been at least 35 hacking attacks carried in Bangladesh in just 14 months, that's according to the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh. Of those, 23 attacks have been claimed by Islamic terror groups.

Reports of hacking deaths go back to 2013. Thos targeting bloggers and those asked going against Islam.

PAUL: And Turkish media is this morning now naming the three suicide bombers who launched an assault on the Istanbul airport earlier this week.

BLACKWELL: Now, the investigation is focusing on a man nicknamed Akhmed One-Armed. He's a top ISIS lieutenant who may have planned the attack.

CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigators are focused on who trained and equipped the three bombers, apparently seen here exiting a taxi at the airport. As well as who may have planned their deadly attack. Officials say they now believe this man, Akhmed Chatayev, a well-known

lieutenant Russian jihadist and ISIS lieutenant may have coordinated the assault on the Ataturk airport. Chatayev known as Akhmed One- Armed is battle hardened veteran whose whereabouts are unclear.

REP. MIKE MCCAUL (R-TX), HOMELAND SECURITY CHAIRMAN: He's a Russian, was one of the probably the number one enemy in the northern Caucasus region of Russia. That says a lot. He travelled to Syria on many occasions.

WATSON: Today, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu quoting an anonymous prosecution source named two of the terrorists, Rakim Bulgarov, and Vadim Osmanov. Police are continuing to fan out across Istanbul showing this photograph to neighbors who live in the area where the men rented an apartment and questioning anyone who may have interacted with them.

[07:10:02] Investigators have now detained more than 20 people in connection with the attack.

Meantime, tonight, as Turkey continues to mourn, the prime minister of this majority Muslim country is insisting the attackers betrayed their faith.

PRES. TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKEY (through translator): They will end up in hell because if you kill even just one person in this world, it's equal to killing the whole population of the world, whether women or children or elderly people. They indiscriminately kill people. They're innocent people. You don't have the right to do this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Well, Ivan Watson reporting for us there from Istanbul.

PAUL: Well, New York police are going to be stepping up patrols at Macy's annual Fourth of July celebration. The NYPD stressing there are no credible threats here to that show. They're just adding extra officers, security check points for the hundreds of thousands expected to show up for Monday's event.

Coming up in our next half hour, too, we're going to take you live to New York's Penn Station have a look at how officials are increasing security at places of mass transit and soft targets this holiday weekend.

BLACKWELL: Listen to just the roar from these flames, intense flames breaking out after a gas main exploded just a couple hours ago this morning, outside of Detroit. Our affiliate says that a car crashed into that gas main. The fire department in Melvindale evacuated part of the city. The fire is out there, good news there. More good news, no reports of injuries. But the pictures here are just amazing.

Now, something that's not so amazing to look at. Slimy, green, toxic algae plaguing Florida's beaches. Completely stopping Fourth of July plans for some tourists and starting a state of emergency.

Our Jennifer Gray is there covering for us.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Victor, four countries under a state of emergency because of this. Look at this green, blue algae across much of the inner coastal waterways and canals across several counties in Florida. We'll have an update coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Algae so thick, look at this, it's along the Florida gulf coast, it's being compared to guacamole floating on the water. The stench so bad, people avoiding going outside. Marine life suffocating here in the thick blanket of the sludge.

You can see a manatee here peek up, you can imagine how difficult it is to get that head through, that thick gunk floating on the water.

PAUL: Thanks to whoever it was that left that hose running over the side there for that manatee.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: The sea life is something that a lot of people are concerned with. You have to wonder we've got gotten anywhere. And we'll have to check on it, as to whether they're going to be doing anything, certainly, they can clean some of that up and scrape it off the top in some areas.

BLACKWELL: You have to imagine they can. I mean, we look at that manatee we saw a couple of moments ago, there are so many regulations in Florida, and rightfully so, to protect the manatee, you hope they can scoop some of this off the surface of the water.

PAUL: Not just the manatees, but other sea life. CNN's drone flew over to give us a look at this from above these blooms. It is nasty. It is dangerous at the beaches. People say, as Victor says it does not smell good.

Several counties along the state's treasured coast are under states of emergency. Take a look. We've got a map here in a couple minutes but these are the kind of things impacted by toxic levels. And these are toxic.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is in Florida.

Help us understand what it's like for you, as you stand over there?

GRAY: Well, it smells horrible, for one. And like you said, guacamole. That's actually a really good description. I'm going to stir it up a little so you can get a better idea of what we're dealing with. You're talking about that manatee.

Some of this algae stretches all the way through the entire water column. In some location, it's not just on the surface. It's actually through the entire water column. This is a problem that's not just impacting the fourth of July. This is a problem, it goes way beyond that. This has been going on since 2002. This is a water management issue. They have to regulate Lake

Okeechobee, especially getting ready for the rainy season. To have to do that, they have to discharge a lot of water. And they're discharging it into the rivers, into the canals and eventually out into the ocean.

Unfortunately, with that water comes not only algae blooms within Lake Okeechobee. You have runoff from all the agriculture industries. You have urban runoff. So, there's a lot of chemicals in the water and it's creating these toxic algae blooms. Now, boaters did pass Amendment One last year to buy out a lot of land south of Lake Okeechobee. It passed but nothing has been done.

So, unfortunately, this has become a huge political issue across the state, and now, many of the canals and rivers look just like this. Now, a lot of it is not getting out to the beaches. We don't want to let people think all the beaches if floor are green. They're not. There has been a little algae stretched on the beaches. People are going out there. They're testing it. Not all the algae blooms are toxic, they're testing to see which ones are.

If they are toxic, they're closing those beaches. Not what you want to hear going into the fourth of July weekend. But, guys, it's a huge problem not only for the fishing industry. That's a $5 billion just for recreation fishing, but you also have the tourism industry that Florida relies heavily on, almost $70 billion industry.

And so, this is the last thing you want. So, like you're talking about that manatee, of course, it's suffocating the fish with oxygen and sunlight that can get through the algae blooms. And so, this story has so many layers, guys. And it's just a huge problem for this beautiful state.

PAUL: No doubt about it.

Jennifer Gray, thank you for taking us there. We appreciate it.

Listen, just into CNN. We're getting new developments here in the search for answers into what brought down that EgyptAir flight in May. The committee investigating the clash says this morning, the cockpit voice recorder is in good enough condition for them to decipher what data is on it. It was put back together in France. It's on its way now back to Egypt for analysis.

Information from the flight data recorder released earlier this week indicated possible smoke in the front of the plane. But EgyptAir Flight 804 remember plunged into the Mediterranean on May 29, killed all 66 people on board.

BLACKWELL: All right. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she regrets meeting with Bill Clinton. Why she says the meeting will not affect her decision or the decision on whether to file charges against his wife in connection with the private e-mail server.

[07:20:00] Plus, speculation ramping up over who Donald Trump will choose to be his running mate. But there is one noticeable name that's not on the short list.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: They call themselves the never hashtag, whatever -- OK -- well -- well -- I just call them Republicans against Trump, or RAT for short.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she regrets meeting with former President Bill Clinton while speaking at Aspen Ideas Festival. That's when she said it. She's vowing to take the FBI's advice, also the advice from he career prosecutor in her department over whether charges should be filed related to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

CNN correspondent Chris Frates is following the developments as we move forward in this investigation.

Chris, what you have learned?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Victor.

Well, you're exactly right. Attorney General Loretta Lynch saying she going to accept the investigation of both the FBI and career prosecutors for weighing this case of whether or not to bring charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server, that infamous private e-mail server back when she was secretary of state.

But it's important to remember that Lynch came under a lot of fire this week when she meth Bill Clinton in Phoenix while both they're planes sat on the tarmac at the airport. Republicans immediately jumped on that meeting that it's clear that Lynch had a conflict of interest and couldn't possibly be impartial in her department's investigation into Clinton's emails.

But Lynch said yesterday that Bill Clinton's visit was simply a social call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN CAPEHART, THE WASHINGTON POST: So, you're well within your right to say, ah, get off my plane? What are you doing here?

Do you regret not telling the former president of the United States to leave the premises?

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: OK. So, as I said, I may have viewed in a certain light, but the issue is how does it impact the work that I do and the work that the Department of Justice does? And I certainly wouldn't do it again because I think it has cast a shadow over what it should not.

[07:25:04] Over what it will not touch. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, the attorney general also said she decided months ago to defer the recommendations of her staff and the FBI director. But not surprisingly, Donald Trump pouncing on this new. He mocked the explanation that Bill Clinton and Lynch just happened to run into each other.

BLACKWELL: All right. So, Chris, there are some people --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You're kidding, I don't believe it. I thought somebody was joking.

But it's not a joke. It's not a joke. It's a very serious thing, and to have a thing like that happen, it's so sad. As you know, Hillary is so guilty. She's so guilty. You can read them right off here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So, this episode, Victor, really allows Trump to hit Clinton where she's vulnerable with voters and that's her trustworthiness. So, that's something, you know, that is not exactly awesome news for Hillary Clinton, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. So, let's ask the question that others are asking here, Bill Clinton's impact positive or negative on the Clinton campaign? And here have been a couple of what some would call missteps so far.

Of course, the meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch. We were discussing that this morning. The verbal altercation with the Black Lives Matter protester. Bill Clinton accused Bernie Sanders of running a dishonest campaign. There was a lot of controversy surrounding that statement.

What's the impact thus far?

FRATES: Yes. Well, you know, this is a lot of what the Clinton folks will say Bill Clinton being Bill Clinton and this is the good and bad that you get with that. In fact, there's talk that maybe he should be fully staffed at this point. Maybe if a staff were with him, maybe they would have said, Mr. President, maybe it's not very good idea to go make an impromptu social call of the attorney general whose department is investigating your wife, the presumptive Democratic nominee's e-mail usage.

But that being said, you know, there are a lot of controversies as you just pointed out, Victor. And I want to get back to that one back in February, where essentially Bill Clinton argued that Bernie Sanders was being sexist. He took a lost heat for those sharp charges.

And I want to tell you what he said after that. It's important to remember, he said this, quote, "The hotter this election gets the more I wish I was just a former president and just for a few months not the spouse of the next one. I have to be careful what I say."

So, you know, Bill Clinton even there saying sometimes he gets ahead of himself, he gets a little heated and he needs to watch that. Certainly, I think the Clinton campaign still believes he's a positive even when he does something like this where the optics aren't so great, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Chris Frates, thanks so much.

FRATES: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: Well, 20 hostages have been killed in Bangladesh. Victims of terror attack in that country's capital. This morning, now, we're learning more about how it all unfolded and the commonality amongst all of those victims.

And mortgage rates, they inched up a bit this week. Here's your look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:32] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So glad to be sharing your morning with you. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

Top story this Saturday: Terror in Bangladesh. Now, the standoff is over but 20 people dead. All of them foreigners. At least 13 hostages were rescued.

This happened in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, just a mile from the U.S. embassy. Seven terrorists attacked a bakery there using rifles, explosives, sharp weapons, the description from the Bangladeshi military. Six attackers were killed, one taken alive.

So, a lot of information potentially can be gotten from that one survivor. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack. But officials have cast doubt on that claim.

PAUL: We're joined now on the phone by James Moriarty. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh.

Ambassador, thank you for being with us. This was less than a mile from the U.S. embassy as we were saying. It's considered a very safe, very posh secure neighborhood. When you first heard about this and heard where it was, since you're familiar with that area, what did you think?

JAMES F. MORIARTY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BANGLADESH (via telephone): Well, I was obviously saddened but in a way I wasn't totally surprised in the sense that the terrorists have been looking to up their game. And I think a lot of people who look at the situation in Bangladesh closely are expecting a more spectacular attack. And this obviously fits all the parameters of that. PAUL: The Bangladesh government, at one point, blamed an opposition

party. They are denying that ISIS exists in that country. Do you believe that there are factions of ISIS in Bangladesh and that they could have pulled this off?

MORIARTY: I believe that there are people who clearly have affiliation with ISIS in Bangladesh. Whether that means they've gone off to Syria or Iraq to fight in the ISIS cause there, or whether they're doing this by Internet with friends overseas, I'm not clear. I don't have that degree of knowledge.

But I think it's kind of hard to say that people -- that there aren't a small number of people there who follow the ISIS ideology and support ISIS aims.

PAUL: We're getting word this morning, some of the new information from the Bangladesh military that all of the 20 people killed are foreigners. Do you believe those 20 were intentionally targeted?

MORIARTY: Absolutely. And I think that the terrorists were trying to send two messages. One was to the people of Bangladesh who are predominantly Muslim but are predominantly non-extreme in their views. I think the message they want to send to the people of Bangladesh, look, we're Muslims. We don't kill good Muslims, remember that. You know, remember the definition of a good Muslim.

The second one was to the government of Bangladesh and the countries outside of Bangladesh that support it, which is, look, the government of Bangladesh is ineffectual. It can't protect citizens of other countries within its own territory.

So, they're sending two messages out there targeting foreigners.

PAUL: You just touched on something I want to ask you about, because when you look at the history here, just in the last 14 months. At least 35 hacking attacks have happened there in Bangladesh, 23 were claimed by Islamic terror groups. Do you have confidence in the Bangladesh government and the military and authorities there to get a handle on that?

MORIARTY: Well, I think they're in for a long tough slog. Again, the encouraging thing about Bangladesh is up until now, the terrorists are swimming against the sea. There isn't a lot of support for them within the populace at all. And the question is, can the government play off of that, and mobilize the people more effectively to use 160 million pairs of eyes in Bangladesh to get a better handle on the situation.

But until now, they haven't, I think partly it's because they've been distracted by their own belief that this is being sponsored by opposition political parties. Ands up until now, they haven't really come up with credible evidence for that.

So, I would hope more concentration on the part of the government might be for better results. They took care of pretty effectively of a terrorist back in the last decade. [07:35:06] And the question is, can they do it with these very

different sort of group they're facing now?

PAUL: All righty. Former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, James Moriarty. Ambassador, we appreciate your time. Thank you for being here.

BLACKWELL: Let's also bring in on the phone Zafar Sobhan, the editor in chief of the "Dhaka Tribune" and lives just across the street from the bakery that was attacked.

Zafar, first, because of your position there just across the street, were you at home at the time of the attack? Are you there now? Can you tell us what you saw and what you're seeing?

ZAFAR SOBHAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, DHAKA TRIBUNE (via telephone): Sure. I live at home. At the time I'm at my office now. I wasn't able to get out of my home and go to the restaurant, because the moment it happened we were under lockdown. But very close and aware of what was happening. I also have my reporters who there on the ground that's coordinating with the newsroom, with the newspaper.

So, you know, kind of a crisis there of what was a good understanding of what was going on.

BLACKWELL: OK. So, a good understanding there, Zafar. I know one of the questions that you were trying to get an answer to and we are as most news agencies is why this went on, how this went on for 13 hours. Have you gotten any insight into that?

SOBHAN: No, I mean that still remains the most baffling part of this, is that it started like 8:30, 9:00-ish last night. And people didn't move in until 7:30 this morning. There's incredibly long time period and there's no real explanation why it took that long.

So far, the authorities, law enforcement, they've been a little tight lipped, they're playing it very close to their chest as to why they took the positions they took presumably they're keeping that. But over the next day or days they'll be more forthcoming. And a lot of this information as to the details of the operation and why they made the decisions they made will come out.

I think that saying that they wanted to make sure that they got everything just right. They wanted to coordinate all of the various agencies who are involved, getting together. Nevertheless, it certainly seems to me, and for many people, that that was an excessive period of time. And people asking the question, you know, were they -- had they gone in earlier, would more lives have been able to be saved?

BLACKWELL: Yes, certainly a question that you have, that we have. Understandably, in some respect that law enforcement at this point is keeping those details out of the public, hopefully we get those very soon.

SOBHAN: Right. BLACKWELL: Zafar Sobhan, thank you for joining us to answer just a couple of questions about the investigation moving forward.

PAUL: Some really disturbing news coming outside of Rio this week. Body parts washing up on the beach. You couple that with the Zika virus, falling buildings and of course, Rio being the home to the next Olympics, makes a lot of people wonder, are they going to be able to pull off the big games?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:13] PAUL: Forty-one minutes past the hour.

And the race is on to see who finishes first when it comes to being Donald Trump's number two.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Names like Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich has been on the rumored short list and now, Indiana Governor Mike Pence could be pushing those two aside.

Trump and Pence are scheduled to meet this weekend. CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott is following the story.

So, what do we know, Eugene, about this Pence-Trump meeting?

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well what we know, it is happening this weekend in Indiana. And that Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort has been a long supporter and fan of Mike Pence and wanted Trump to consider him and it's looking like that is increasingly a possibility.

Pence has some really big decisions he has to make really soon regarding what he's going to do about his future in politics and future thinking it could happen within the next couple of weeks.

BLACKWELL: So, the way that you're characterizing this, and correct me if I'm wrong, this is a courtesy to meet with Governor Pence. Is he really a contender in this fist fight?

SCOTT: It seems like he really could be. I mean, had has to decide whether or not he's going to run for governor or vice president very soon. Trump is going to have a fund-raiser in Indiana in the next couple of weeks. Pence have been very vocal about his support for Trump and Trump's concern about jobs being shipped elsewhere. I think that is known that Pence did initially endorse Ted Cruz, but Trump came out victoriously in the Indiana primary, and Pence has been vocal about his desire to get on board since then.

BLACKWELL: All right. Control room, let's put up the slate of possibilities for Donald Trump as he chooses his number two. The first thing we've learned just over the last couple of days, Eugene, is that the announcement won't come at the convention. We think it will happen before the convention.

Any idea of why it's happening before the convention? SCOTT: Well, there has been, you know, quite a bit of dissatisfaction

on the Republican side with Donald Trump. And I think the campaign is hoping to stir up some excitement and interest in the campaign. And perhaps if someone can get on board who has more favorable ratings with voters. Then Trump would have greater interest.

Also it will be just more -- another avenue, issue to keep people engaged.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SCOTT: To know who the next candidate can be. The next vice presidential candidate.

BLACKWELL: Could offer a fund-raising boost as well.

BLACKWELL: Sure. As you know, dismal numbers came out of there. Let's put the faces back up. The baseball cards.

We've got Governor Chris Christie, former Speaker Newt Gingrich. They each have their pros and cons here.

SCOTT: Sure.

BLACKWELL: Detail them for us.

SCOTT: Yes, well, but I think the most the Trump campaign is that they all are more familiar with Washington politics than Donald Trump which is what he really, really needs. You know, former Speaker Gingrich has a lot of experience working on the Hill, deeply entrenched in Washington politics. But, he's not as popular with a lot of Republicans and certainly Democrats, as the Trump campaign would certainly hope. But I think he can give it the experience that it definitely needs.

Mike Pence is a new voice who is a cheerleader for evangelicals that Trump is convinced he can get their ideas and values if especially elected. And also, you know, Governor Christie has been very loyal to Trump since very early exiting the race himself. And he has significant experience. Even though most of his time has been in New Jersey as a former head of the Republican Governors Association, he's jus very familiar with how Washington works. He, although, had some issues in terms of temperament as well which has been a common critique of Donald Trump.

[07:45:06] BLACKWELL: Yes. And there's also the geographic question of what does a New Jersey governor bring to a New Yorker who's on top of the ticket? At least we've got Georgia there, yu know, Newt Gingrich, in Indiana from Pence.

Is there one candidate who has the edge over the other two?

SCOTT: The thought is its Christie. Christie has been very involved with the campaign since early on. Has helped draft speeches. And even a long-term friend of Donald Trump. And we've seen them get increasingly closer, their relationship. He's spent quite a bit of time at Trump Tower. He's spent a lot of time at fund-raising, campaigning and helping to get people on board.

The Trump campaign who has been more reluctant from the establishment side. The reality is, we still don't know, there's still time and it looks like the final decision has not yet been made.

BLACKWELL: And we know Donald Trump has said that he wants somebody who can know the inner workings of Congress and can push through an agenda. That would be feather figuratively in the camp of Newt Gingrich.

Eugene Scott, thanks so much.

SCOTT: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: Major city in the West Bank sealed off today after two deadly attacks in three days. What authorities are doing to try to get things under control now?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This one here behind me, fixed closures. They're using dirt to block a road. All of this after a series of attacks and sharp uptick in violence including the murder of a 13-year-old girl. All of this happening towards the end of Ramadan. We'll have that update in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Two deadly attacks in the west bank in three days has prompted the authorities to seal off a major city to send in more troops to are prevent more attacks.

PAUL: The latest attack killed a man as his family watched. His wife and two children were injured when their car was fired on in the West Bank.

And you got the victim of another attack, a 13-year-old Israeli- American girl stabbed to death as she slept in her home Thursday morning. The teen's uncle, as you can imagine says that her mother is just devastated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZVI ARANOFF, MURDERED TEEN'S UNCLE: I was just crying and crying, that she was crying. And I did not hear any blame from her or anger, but she is just completely devastated, as any mother would be.

[07:50:01] I was devastated, and everybody in the family is just shocked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Kind of going numb in those moments, I'm sure.

Oren Liebermann is joining us from Jerusalem. Oren, obviously, these are very e emotional stories. Are you getting a sense of how the authorities are trying to get some of this under control?

LIEBREMANN: Well, we have seen a number of measures and I want to correct you, I'm outside of Hebron and this is the focus of the uptick of the violence that we see, and that is why we are here. You can see that some of the measures are right here, a closure in and around the city of Hebron and some are fixed gates hike this closed this morning, others are the Israeli bulldozers to be covering the roads and make it difficult.

That is part of what the IDF, the Israeli military is doing to try to prevent more attacks and sudden surge, sudden uptick in violence that started Thursday morning.

One other measure is sending the battalion into West Bank to add more troops to the ones that are already here.

So, Thursday morning is when sudden uptick in violence started. That's when the Palestinian teenager here broke into the settlement of a home and stabbed a 13-year-old American Israeli girl, her name Hallel Ariel, to death in her sleep. The teenager was killed by security guards who came who came to the scene, another security guard there stabbed in the fight.

That began as hundreds attended in the funeral and condemnation not only from the Israelis, but the Americans, the Brits and a number of others. But it did not end there, because we are entering into the end of Ramadan, and at a time of tension with the Israeli restrictions who is allowed to the travel from the West Bank to the holy sites to pray. And also a relative of the extended family of the attacker from a day earlier was killed when a Israeli military member said she tried to stab border police officers at the site holy to both Jews and Israelis.

And then there was shooting attack at a car with four Israelis inside. The Israeli father in his late 40s was killed with two of the children in the car taken to the hospital as well.

And one Palestinian man died after inhaling tear gas when he went to Jerusalem to pray. So, this sudden uptick in violence coming right at the end of Ramadan, the Israeli military using these measures, closing off roads like this here behind me, putting in more battalions to try to put an end to these attacks, to try and put an end this surge, this sudden uptick of violence.

It is Saturday now, so it is quieter, and we will see where this goes.

PAUL: Yes. Oren Liebermann from Hebron, and thank you so much for the correction, as we have three days left here in Ramadan. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Debt, pollution, the Zika virus, and that is just the beginning of the curse of what is the 2016 Rio Olympics. ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Arwa Damon in

Rio where there are growing problems and security concerns ahead of next month's Olympic Games.

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[07:55:58] PAUL: Well, the Rio Olympics getting more and more negative attention, because more and more problems seem to becoming to light before the big games. And when I say problems, they're not the problems that we would think -- and they are not little problems.

BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean, this week, we saw a body part wash ashore, and there is the Zika virus, the athletes are backing o because of the Zika virus. Rio has also had this super bacteria in the water and a bike path collapsed killing at least two people. I mean, these are big issues.

Senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is live in Rio with the latest.

Arwa, what is the latest sense of confidence that they'll be able to solve these problems in time for the games?

DAMON: Well, it is quite interesting, because on the one hand, there is this sense that no matter what happened, the games are going to go ahead and the government will scramble together at the last-minute to ensure that it happens. Remember, Rio is fairly familiar with putting on these types of big events, and they had the World Cup, and they've had the things that they have dealt with every year on the regular basis. So, you have that.

But at the same time, you have all sorts of problems that have been plaguing these games with this mad rush to try to finish some of the venues on time, issues with getting the subway up and running, and all sorts of challenges that they are having with the infrastructure, and then at the foremost of everybody's mind and this is not necessarily terrorism-related security per se, but much more the issue that the city is constantly dealing with when it comes to the various different criminal gangs.

We have already had a number of robberies taking place, most recently the national German broadcaster had two of their massive trucks carrying most of the camera equipment to the main venue, and they were stopped on the road, and their driver was forced to divert elsewhere, and the containers were later found empty, of course.

And so you have a growing list of pro problems ahead of what is really meant to be a source of pride for this country, and what is most difficult for Brazilians at this stage is that when the country first won the Olympic Games there was so much pride and optimism that the games would bring about real fundamental changes especially for the people who need it most, and none of that has materialized.

PAUL: OK. We want to look back at some of the other games that have been plagued in the past, and you bringing up problems and it's not unheard of by any means. Rewind eight years to the Beijing Olympic, the big issue was severe pollution. And in London in 2012, the main issue was security. New recruits were failing tests, they were having hard time spotting fake bombs and grenades during x-ray screenings.

And then the Winter Olympics in Sochi, they ran into things such as the human rights issues with the Russian government, and clearly other games have had their fair share of issues.

What is the government there saying about their ability to handle whatever comes their way?

DAMON: Well, the government is continuing to put forward this confident face saying that these games will be a success and that all of the various issues that they have will be overcome. They say that things like the water pollution for example, the levels are not nearly as bad what is being reported. They say that the waters are in fact safe for the athletes, and well, speak to the athletes, and they don't want to end up accidentally drinking any of the waters.

And you an issue of the macro bacteria existing in some of the main areas where the water and sporting events are going to be taking place, and sure, every single Olympic games is plagued with its own set of problems, but people will tell you that that necessarily is going to excuse the fact that Brazil has its own issues that it is dealing with at this stage, especially because the government made so many promises years ago when they put their bid in for the Olympic Games, and ask the Brazilians and they will tell you that none of them have materialized and the various layers of the governance here are just using the Olympic Games for their own political gain at this stage.