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New Day Saturday

Iranian Missile Launch Investigated; Phoenix Police Department Being Sued; David Ortiz Shooting Investigation Continues; Trial Begins For Navy SEAL Gallagher; Maloney Fights For 9/11 Responder's Medical Costs; NYPD Suicides On The Rise; Ice Melting In Greenland. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired June 15, 2019 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But, of course, you give it to the FBI or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an attempt at damage control after sounding curious about collusion.

TRUMP: I think I said I'd do both. But how are you going -- if you don't hear what it is, you don't know what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody should ever, ever take any foreign intelligence or any information from any foreign government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A tanker still smolders in the Gulf of Oman. While a U.S. Official tells CNN's Barbara Starr, Iran is trying to prevent it from being towed.

TRUMP: They're a nation of terror. They were unstoppable. And now they're in deep, deep trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another strange twist in the investigation into the shooting of David Ortiz. The alleged trigger man Rolfi Ferreira Cruz yells to reporters Ortiz was not his intended target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a potential organization here. It's not just a case of mistaken identity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: Well, good morning to you. Welcome to your "Weekend." I hope it's treated you well so far. I'm Christi Paul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN HOST: And I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell.

This morning, new claims that Iran was involved in an oil tanker attack in the Gulf of Oman. A U.S. official is saying that Iran launched a missile at a U.S. drone flying over the gulf hours before the attack. The missile missed and fell into the water.

PAUL: Now the drone was able to capture these images, take a look here of Iranian boats closing in on the tanker but officials did not say whether they were actually seen carrying out the attack.

SAVIDGE: Officials are also saying that Iranian boats blocked the path of a U.S. Navy ship that was trying to reach the tanker right after the attack. Iran continues to deny any involvement.

PAUL: We have team coverage this morning of all of this; CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Iran, Boris Sanchez at the White House.

Gentlemen, thank you for being with us.

Fred, we'd like to go to you, first, what is Iran saying about some of this latest information that they aren't letting boats back in to tow the tanker away?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Iranians haven't been, Christi, saying much about any specific allegations. It was quite interesting because essentially there's sort of three things out there. There's one that the Americans are saying that the Iranians not letting that tanker getting towed away and then there's the other one with that drone allegedly getting shot at and finally that video that we just showed of that Iranian boat coming next to that tanker after it was - and allegedly taking off what appears to be possibly a mine that didn't explode.

Now, the Iranians are not saying anything about any of those three things specifically, but they are generally saying they were not behind the attacks on these tankers. One of the things - it's getting a lot of air play, actually here in Tehran as the Iranians are saying the company that owned that tanker that was on that video, apparently the sailors from that tanker told their bosses they don't believe that tanker was hit by a mine. They say some of the sailors allegedly saw projectiles being fired and then hitting that tanker.

Of course, very much unclear how much situational awareness those sailors would have in that situation as those explosions going off, but certainly, that's something that's getting a lot of air play in Tehran. And if you look at the government and the leadership here in Iran, they're sort of verbally attacking the United States now. The foreign minister, Javid Zarif, he came out and he said that the U.S. was trying to sabotage de-escalation here in the Persian Gulf area.

Of course one of the things that we always have to point out is that this tanker attack took place as Iran's supreme leader was actually meeting with the prime minister of Japan. The Iranians are saying, look, why on earth would we have attacked tankers as this meeting was going on, guys?

SAVIDGE: All right, Fred Pleitgen thank you very much for the view from Tehran. Meanwhile now let's get to President Trump, because he is convinced that Iran was behind the attack. The big question is if it turns out Iran was responsible, what's the U.S. going to do about it. PAUL: CNN White House Correspondent, Boris Sanchez is at the White

House. So look, we know that there are key U.S. ally who is supporting the president's claim about this responsibility. What else have you learned about where the U.S plans to go at this point?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christi and Martin. The next steps are still unclear. You heard Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just the other day reiterating the claim that Iran was behind this attack but it's still uncertain exactly how the administration plans to move forward. And you're right, the United Kingdom put out a statement saying that plausibly, it could not have been anyone but Iran to carry out the attacks against these tankers and President Trump, as you said, is standing firm on his assertion that Iran was behind this.

So yesterday he was asked about it during an interview on a cable news network and he effectively pointed to that video that we just referenced of an Iranian ship purportedly removing that unexploded mine from one of the tankers. The president used that opportunity during that interview to bash his predecessor, President Barack Obama saying that Iran is essentially desperate because the United States has left the JCPOA, the Iran Nuclear Deal and because of the harsh sanctions that the United States has imposed on Iran's economy.

Despite all of this, again, it's not clear what the administration plans to do moving forward but as Fred mentioned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Iran this week. That led to speculation that there might be some kind of meeting brokered between American and Iranian officials. President Trump tamped that down yesterday during that interview saying that these two sides are still way too far apart to sit down one-on-one. Martin and Christi.

PAUL: All right, Boris Sanchez, thanks so much for the update.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

SAVIDGE: And in the wake of this attack the president's Iran policy and arms deals are facing an uphill battle in Congress. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to implement some initiatives to prevent any more confrontation with Iran. Joining me now to discuss this is CNN Political Analyst and Congressional Reporter for "The Washington Post," Rachael Bade.

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

SAVIDGE: The article that "The Washington Post" has is pretty insightful here. First I'm wondering, the president usually is the one that dominates when it comes to any kind of international agreements or international relations and yet Congress is trying to insert itself here.

BADE: Yes, absolutely. I mean if you look at the constitution, it specifically lays out that it's Congress' job to declare war and this has been an issue that lawmakers have faced for the past 15 years. There was right after 9/11, Congress passed this authorization of the use of military force that basically allowed the White House to deploy the military to go after Al Qaeda.

However, presidents since then, both Bush and now Obama and now potentially Trump have been using the same authorization to justify it in the Middle East. Lawmakers on the Hill, they have said over and over again that the White House can't do that and they need to come to Congress and justify military action in different places.

And you also mentioned concern about arms deals. With all of the tension with Iran, the White House has basically declared an emergency to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, when traditionally, they're supposed to get permission from Congress. And so there are a lot of unhappy lawmakers, not just Democrats. A lot of defense hawks too like Lindsey Graham who was a top ally of President Trump's.

SAVIDGE: Well, and that is an interesting point here that you do have Republicans that are coming forward and seem to want to get involved with limiting perhaps presidential powers or at least some of the deals the president has worked out. What does that suggest about where Republicans -- the party are on this versus the president?

BADE: I mean, they're clearly unsettled here. Lindsey Graham has never been a fan of Iran. He criticized Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal. Same with Rand Paul from Kentucky, Mike Lee from Utah, both Republicans. Rand Paul another top ally of the president who is very concerned what is going on. But the question here is what can they actually do? The president has the veto pen.

If they try to pass some sort of resolutions that block these arms sales or somehow say he can't do any sort of show of force with Iran. He could just veto it. And so what you need to watch in the next couple of weeks is this defense authorization bill that must be passed every single year. This is perhaps their one shot to actually tie the president's hands.

The president needs this bill every year to tell him how he is supposed to spend military money and basically what we're going to see is Democrats in the House and maybe even some Senate Republicans are going to attach amendments to this bill that will do different things to try to tie the president's hands. So that's their one shot at this.

SAVIDGE: Yes, so an interesting strategy. Overnight, Iran also said it was going to "reduce compliance." That's a quote, actually, with a nuclear deal because the other signatures are not doing enough to insulate them from the impact of U.S. sanctions. So here's the question, is the administration's maximum pressure strategy failing here and if so, where does the U.S. go now?

BADE: You know, I think we're starting to see why not only Democrats but even some Republicans who were originally critical of the Iran deal had concerns about, you know, just withdrawing willy-nilly. You know, there is an international sort of world order that was built around this deal. It wasn't just the United States and Iran. It was a bunch of our allies as well. Our allies are really concerned when the president sort of blew that deal up, when he took the oath.

[08:10:00] And so, now, we're starting to see the effects of that because Iran,

they're about to potentially reverse course and started doing things that they promise they would halt just a few years ago under President Obama and that again, creates a sort of instability not just in the Middle East, but worldwide.

SAVIDGE: Right now, there doesn't appear to be any indication that Washington or this administration is preparing for a military response. However, I'm wondering, we've already talked about lawmakers, the influence they could have on budgets. Is there anything they could do to perhaps prevent the president from launching a military strike or even going to war if that were the case?

BADE: It's going to take a lot of bipartisan cooperation which we don't see a lot on the Hill, but again as I mentioned earlier, the defense bill, this is a must-pass bill that has to pass every year and it basically lays out how the defense department is allowed to spend money, and if they actually put language in there trying to block any money from being used to transfer arms to Saudi Arabia, for instance, which is a cause for a lot of tension right now, that would tie the hands of the president, potentially.

They could also try to, again, blow up the authorization of the use of military force that they passed in 2001, that the White House has been using for 15 years, to justify interventions in various countries. While that has a lot of Democratic support, Republicans are a little leery about that and so, I think that Republicans right now are really grappling with the sense to want to check the president and knowing that their words to him and their advice to him is being ignored.

But also being concerned about undermining the White House and potentially responses to threats in the future, so I think Republicans right now will be interesting to watch as they sort of figure out what is the best balance here. Really, it would take them to be - it would take a very aggressive approach by both parties to try to check the president, but there's a real question about are Republicans really going to be willing to do that and will there be enough of them.

SAVIDGE: Yes, that's the most fascinating part of all of this. Rachael Bade, thank you very much for coming and talking to us about it.

BADE: Absolutely.

PAUL: Well, the Justice Department now says the Treasury Department was correct in rejecting a request for the president's tax returns. This was a blistering opinion. Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel called the request by the House Ways and Means Committee, quote, "unprecedented" and said while House Democrats say that they are seeking oversight, what they really want is to make the president's returns public. The next step is most likely federal court.

SAVIDGE: Coming up, a shocking profanity-laced shoplifting arrest. It was caught on camera in Phoenix and now the couple is planning to sue the city for police brutality. Coming up what we're learning about the video that has sparked outrage all over social media. PAUL: And a Navy SEAL on trial for murder wasn't allowed to his family for months. His wife is coming to his defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

ANDREA GALLAGHER, WIFE OF EDDIE GALLAGHER: He's a war hero. This is asinine that this man had to go through what he went through.

(END VIDEO)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:00]

PAUL: It's 16 minutes past the hour right now. Take a look at the right-hand side of your screen, a mother and father in Arizona are planning to sue the city of Phoenix over the incident you're watching there. Officers pulling a gun on them and their two young children when the couple says the officers approached their vehicle with guns drawn, after their young daughter accidentally walked out of the dollar store with a doll.

SAVIDGE: The video shows the woman, who we should point out is five months pregnant struggling to comply with commands from officers as they curse and make violent threats. We want to warn you, this video may be hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

(BEGIN VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your [ bleep ] get your hands up! Get your [bleep] hands up! Get your [ bleep ] hands up! [ bleep ]. Get your hands up. Get your

[bleep] hands up. I'm going to (inaudible). Get them up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the other open apartments. I promise it doesn't open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Get your [bleep] hands up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't help...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out the [ bleep ] car. Get out the [bleep] car right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What open this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, get out now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out the [bleep] car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [bleep] [bleep].

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you recording it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm recording it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up. I don't [bleep]. You put your hands up. Hands up. [ bleep ].

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't put my hands up. I have to... [bleep] I can't, I'm pregnant. This is awful, you're just overdoing it.

[bleep].

(END VIDEO)

SAVIDGE: The parents were not charged with a crime and they now say they intend to sue the city for $10 million.

PAUL: Yes and the Phoenix police are responding now to that video. There are conflicts about what appears in this video and what appears in the police report and Zach Crenshaw, from CNN affiliate KNXV, makes those comparisons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZACK CRENSHAW, KNXV CORRESPONDENT: The cell phone video begins with a man on the pavement, hands behind his back, being handcuffed by a Phoenix police officer. Seconds later, he's yanked off the ground. And then pushed up against the squad car, his feet about shoulder width apart. That's when the officer aggressively sweeps his legs then yells...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell you to do something you (inaudible) do it.

CRENSHAW: The person recording then asks...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where the girl at?

CRENSHAW: That girl is a mother. Watch the officer here, gun drawn and the maroon SUV. Out walk a pregnant mother and her two daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, look at these kids.

SERGEANT TOMMY THOMPSON, PHOENIX POLICE: And the minute he saw that there were children involved that's when he holstered his weapon.

CRENSHAW: Sergeant Tommy Thompson says Phoenix police got the video Tuesday like us.

THOMPSON: We look at every allegation of misconduct very seriously. CRENSHAW: All ready the case has been referred to the Professional

Standards Bureau.

THOMPSON: Chief Jeri Williams has told PSB to conduct an investigation into this.

CRENSHAW: The officer who swept the young man's legs...

THOMPSON: He's on a non-enforcement assignment right now.

CRENSHAW: That same officer screamed profanities at both parents and tried to take the mother's baby from her arms. Neither adult charged with any crime nor arrested and the officer who had his gun drawn remains on normal patrol.

[08:20:00]

THOMPSON: We're looking into that matter to see was excessive; we don't know.

CRENSHAW: A family spokesperson claims the call was over a doll allegedly taken by one of the kids from a dollar store.

THOMPSON: That's part of it, but again as I've looked into it, I think there's a little bit more to it and that will come through - no that will come through in the investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now the Phoenix Police Department posted on Facebook the following: "The Phoenix Police Department takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and for this reason this incident is currently being investigated by the Professional Standards Bureau."

SAVIDGE: Prosecutors in the David Ortiz shooting say they hope to release details on the motive in the case as soon as this week. Nine suspects are in custody right now after the baseball legend was shot in the back at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic. Dominican police are looking for a possible tenth suspect. The accused gunman said that Ortiz was not the intended target and he got confused by Ortiz's clothing.

PAUL: According to Dominican media outlets, Rolfi Ferriera Cruz was told reporters that he was hired to carry out a hit but was only told the color of his victim's clothing which Ortiz happened to be wearing that night. Prosecutors say he's making that up. Cruz is also wanted in New Jersey on armed robbery and other charges. Ortiz, meanwhile, is recovering from his injuries in Boston.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile some of this own military teammates will testify against him but his wife is standing by his side. The murder trial for Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, it starts Monday. What we're learning and while we're learning more about the allegations against him, we're also finding out how this trial could unfold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:25:00]

SAVIDGE: The trial for a Navy SEAL accused of murder starts Monday and it is riddled with controversy. Gallagher has pleaded not guilty in the death of an injured teenage militant in Iraq in 2017 but just last week, a judge removed the lead prosecutor over allegations that he was involved in tracking the defense team's emails.

PAUL: Yes this is a case that's captured the attention even of the president. Today, support from another political figure as well, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, he tweeted this, "Eddie Gallagher is a decorated Navy SEAL, his court-martial for allegedly killing an ISIS terrorist is very questionable. But worse, the government misconduct shocks the conscience. Prosecutor dismissed, you can't violate constitution to prosecute a terrorist, but you can a SEAL? Gallagher's wife, meanwhile, says her husband is a war hero not a criminal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: People try to minimize what he's gone through because they can't apprehend what it would be like to be thrown in jail when you're innocent and held with rapists and pedophiles and sex offenders. He was thrown in with people that have done horrible atrocities. He's a war hero. This is asinine that this man had to go through what he went through but in all honesty, what everyone else meant for evil, God used for good.

He's stronger than ever. He is more solid than ever. I've never seen anything like it. He comes through in the worst of times and he shines, you know, the brightest I think. He is, my brother-in-law always says it, but he is what is best about this country. He is what we want to see in the resiliency of the American spirit and the American people, like what we've gone through, we're never going to quit. We're never going to stop fighting for him and he's never going to stop fighting. This man has put this life on the line again and again for this country and in my mind, this has given him a new path and a new purpose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now, I talked to Lieutenant General Mark Hertling about the precedent of the case and with Dave Phillips from "The New York Times" who have obtained a confidential navy criminal investigation report. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIEUTENANT GENERAL MARK HURTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: One of the talking points that they've offered, and that's really been picked up by conservative media and by members of Congress who are championing his cause is hey, look, this is a hard fight. They're fighting against an enemy that doesn't play by the rules, that doesn't wear a uniform and it is not fair for us to judge them when they get home.

And I think that is a very powerful argument and we certainly want to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I think the people that understand the subtlety of that difficult situation best are the people who have been in that situation and so, his platoon members saw what was going on in Mosul, Iraq, a very dangerous and confusing place.

And even then, they said, you know, no, this is wrong. Which I think should give us all pause and, you know, open up the possibility that something else happened that is beyond just the confusion and fog of war.

PAUL: Have we seen people who become unstable after things like this?

HURTLING: Absolutely.

PAUL: General Hertling, help us understand what that's about.

HERTLING: In fact, there was one time in my final combat tour in Iraq in 2007 and '08 and in fact it occurred in Mosul where I had to relieve a battalion commander, an individual who was in charge of about 600 soldiers because I saw in his eyes and some of his actions that he was becoming immune to the dynamics of the battlefield. That he was becoming more of a killer than a leader. He was doing some things and saying some things that caused me to say this guy is not fit to uphold the rigorous discipline and standards that are required in a combat situation.

That certainly also occurs not just at the leader level but at the individual soldier level. We ask young men and women to give up part of their humanity when they go into combat and it's unfortunate, but it's the controls of discipline and the controls of leadership that prevent massive killings from happening and that's what's critically important in this case and then people who have not been in combat may not understand.

PAUL: Do you get the sense that his platoon members were afraid of him?

DAVE PHILLIPS FROM "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think they were afraid of him in Iraq and I think that they are afraid of him now. I have spoken to some of them. One of them, a sniper, said that he bought, you know, a home defense shotgun the day that Eddie Gallagher was let out of the brig.

PAUL: Do you think the president should pardon war criminals, General Hertling?

HERTLING: I don't. I think it would send a horrible message not only to the forces in the field but also the leadership, as well as the military court system. Again, having sat on court-martials, having applied court-martials, I know what they go through. They take all the evidence into question. They do the right things.

They mitigate the circumstances based on the conditions and they can do it better than court. To interfere by pardoning someone who has been accused and maybe convicted of murder would send a terribly ineffective message to those who are on the battlefield on what they should and should not do under the laws of war and under the way America goes through combat.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: I want to thank General Hertling and Dave Phillips for that conversation. It's a tough one. It is hard, because this is a man who has served the country.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

PAUL: You know, there were a lot of conversations that we couldn't get into the piece about taking care of the people who serve this country and the mentality and the stress and what that does for you.

SAVIDGE: Yes, I've seen it firsthand.

PAUL: Yes, you have. Yes you have.

SAVIDGE: AND it is a difficult call.

Meanwhile, after angry testimony from Jon Stewart, the 9/11 first responders bill passed unanimously out of its committee. Next, though, a sponsor of the bill on how she thinks it's going to do in the wider House.

PAUL: And a sudden spike in suicides among NYPD officers has the police department worried. We're going to take a look at why the NYPD chief is calling this a mental health crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:00]

SAVIDGE: New victims of the September 11th attack are coming forward every day.

PAUL: Yes, there are thousands of people who came down to help with that cleanup, and they were told it was safe and then of course, years later, we found out they have cancer. And now, they need help. The victim's compensation fund was set up to help them but that fund is now broken.

The woman trying to fix it Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Democrat from New York is with us now.

Representative, thank you so much for being with us. I want to make note of what you're wearing, first and foremost, your firefighter's jacket. Please tell me about that, first. You've been seen in a firefighter's jacket many times now. There is, as you say, a purpose to your fashion?

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: Yes, it's fashion with a purpose. It was given to me the day that we introduced the bill by some firefighters and I said at the press conference that I'd wear the coat until we passed it and it's been a wonderful education tool. Members of Congress continue to walk up to me and ask me why I'm wearing it. I explain it and usually they go on the bill and it's part of the reason we have over 300 bipartisan sponsors of the Victims Compensation Fund.

SAVIDGE: So, let's start talking about the compensation fund. There was money originally set aside. Now it turns out, of course, year, later that it wasn't enough?

MALONEY: That's true. We passed a bill in 2015 that made the health care permanent that extended the Victim's Compensation Fund for five years until 2020. So, we would have to reauthorize it. But earlier in February, the special master came out and said they were running out of money, so they've had to cut the allocations from 50 to 70 percent, depending on when people went into the program.

What we have now is a bill that would replenish the program and make it permanent so that the heroes of 9/11 would have the health care and support they so justly deserve. We said we would never forget. Well, this is the way to never forget. Give them the support that they deserve.

PAUL: This still has to go to the Senate, though, as I understand it.

MALONEY: That's true.

PAUL: Have you talked to any of the Senators there, any of your counterparts, to see whether this is going to pass? How confident are you, how hopeful are you?

MALONEY: I am -- I'm very confident because it's the right thing to do. We still are to get it out of the House of Representatives and on to the floor for a vote. But that day, we'll take it to the Senate and hopefully by a fire truck and deliver it to the Senate, and ask them to put it on the floor immediately. Senators Gillibrand and Schumer are leading the fight there and Mitch McConnell has said, that he -- when asked about it, that he would look at it.

He supported it in the past and said he would deal with it with compassion. I find that encouraging because the compassionate thing to do would be to pass the bill and get it to the president's desk for signature so that our survivors and heroes and heroines have the support they so justly deserve. They were there for us; we need to be there for them.

SAVIDGE: Who would have opposition and what could they possibly say they are opposed to this?

MALONEY: Well, we had tremendous difficulty passing the first bill. It took us 15 years. It was a huge effort. Many people said it's not my state but this was an attack against our nation. These men and women are the veterans of the war against terror.

But my office documented that out of the 435 Congressional districts, 433 of them have survivors and first responders that participated in the rebuilding of the site and it's a double moral responsibility because not only were they there to protect us within five seconds was the reported time they responded to the disaster, but also our government told them, it was safe. Go back to work, when it clearly was not. And now, one of the reasons

that we're running out of money is that cancers are emerging. Now, a third of the claims are cancers. And soon, we will have more deaths after 9/11 than on 9/11. We lost roughly 3,000 people, but many, many thousands more have 9/11-related illnesses now.

SAVIDGE: A startling number.

PAUL: You mentioned that President Trump obviously has to sign off on that. He's been in the news lately for what he said about whether he would accept information from foreign governments regarding his opponents.

[08:40:00]

I want you to listen together with me here to former CIA Director under President Obama Leon Panetta and what he had to say about the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

LEON PANETTA, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, he's a national security threat in the sense when he says things like that, he is inviting Russia and China and North Korea and Iran and other adversaries to find ways to be able to directly influence our election process in this country and by doing that, there's no question that he undermines our security.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: He's talking to our own Ana Cabrera there. More of that interview is later this afternoon on her show. Do you believe -- do you think that the president...

MALONEY: Oh, I think it is disgusting. It is totally illegal. It is almost beyond belief that an American president would go on national television and invite foreign governments to attempt to influence our elections. It's outrageous beyond belief and it shows that he learned nothing from the Mueller investigations which is documented that the Russians had influenced our elections deeply and strongly.

They were part of a social media campaign to influence public opinion. They stole documents from Democrats and released it. There's a full documentation. I would like our president to be talking about how he's going to be limit and protect our democracy and the influence from foreign governments; in this case, he was inviting them to get information to him to help his campaign. It is illegal, wrong and disgusting.

PAUL: He has said that he will - he will take any concerns to the FBI now. He's done a bit of a reversal and he's walked back that.

SAVIDGE: He has.

PAUL: Are you happy with his clarification? MALONEY: No, I am not. I find it - I find it threatening to our

democracy, our independence. I would like to hear from our government what they are doing to stop the efforts to influence our elections, not invitations to give them more information that might help their campaign.

PAUL: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, we appreciate you taking time for us this morning; thank you, ma'am.

MALONEY: Thank you. Thank you for speaking up for the 9/11 survivors and hopefully we will have a passage and a bill signing.

PAUL: Hopefully, we'll be able to report on that certainly. Thank you so much.

MALONEY: And for the protection of the people. Thank you so much.

PAUL: Yes, yes, ma'am, thank you.

So, of course, she's a representative from New York. We want to talk about the NYPD because the commissioner there is calling the recent officer suicides there a mental health crisis saying it's imperative that officers seek help. Why has it gotten to this point? We'll talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So, listen to this, the NYPD commissioner is raising the alarm on a "mental health crisis," that's a quote, in the department because there's been three suicides in I think it's been 10 days and one 29- year-old officer died by suicide outside the precinct where he worked.

SAVIDGE: Commissioner James O'Neill said that cops spend so much of their days assisting others but before we can help the people we serve, it's imperative we first help ourselves. Accepting help is never a sign of weakness; in fact, it's a sign of great strength. Joining me now CNN reporter Mark Morales.

And Mark, tell us about the suicides here.

MARK MORALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is something that investigators are trying to get to the bottom of and like the commissioner said, he's outlining how this is a crisis. At this point and just to put these numbers in perspective, over the last five years the NYPD has averaged anywhere between four to five suicides a year.

Like you said, in a ten-day span, they've had three. So they're mobilizing now. They're getting the word out. They're putting out phone numbers. The message is clear. If you're an NYPD officer and you're having issues, there are places for to you go and there's help that you can seek out.

SAVIDGE: The stresses that are compounding that are obviously building up in these officers. Is it - I mean there must be many factors? We have the story of the social media and how the cameras in Arizona captured police on the job and they're being judged in any ways on different levels. Is all of that playing into this? I'm just trying to understand what's changed that is raising these suicide rates.

MORALES: It's hard for any of us to really understand what is changing these rates. You have to understand that a lot of these NYPD officers are seeing the worst of humanity in a lot of really bad situations. They're also seeing good, but it's enormous pressure.

It's a very difficult job and it's like the commissioner says, they at this point are in a mode where they're trying to help themselves and before they can help out other people and that's the pressure of the job. The commissioner spoke about this at an event on Thursday where he talked about how NYPD officers are dealing with everyone else's problems first. You have to figure that has to take a tremendous toll.

SAVIDGE: It does, of course, yes. All right, Mark Morales, thank you very much for bringing that story to us.

MORALES: Sure thing.

PAUL: I want to ask you a question; do you know how much a gigaton is? A gigaton?

SAVIDGE: I didn't.

PAUL: Do you?

SAVIDGE: I don't.

PAUL: Multiply that by two, that's how much ice melted in Greenland in one day. We're going to clarify that for you, but I'm telling, it's a lot.

SAVIDGE: I'm looking forward to it. Tomorrow on "United Shades of America," W. Kamau Bell visits Pennsylvania to learn about the toxic manmade disasters that have polluted communities there for generations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHARON BRYANT, TEACHER: This is a public health crisis.

W. KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST: Sharon Bryant a teacher with over 25 years of experience has taught at Cassidy. Last year, Chelsea (ph) was one of her star students.

BRYANT: I believe Cassidy was supposed to be closed a few years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last year, they told people that we couldn't stay here anymore. So, then we had to move to a different classroom. The closet had this dust that made people sick.

BELL: OK, so in here, I don't want you to get sick by coming in here.

BRYANT: Is that my room, 302.

BELL: Yes, that's 302.

BRYANT: OK. That was the room when the dust sample testing came back, the results were alarming. I just broke down because I heard my kids turn that closet into a playground like an indoor playground and they were in there playing and rolling around on the floor.

(END VIDEO)

SAVIDGE: Watch "United Shades of America," that's tomorrow night, 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Here's a staggering number to contemplate. Greenland just lost two billion tons of ice in just one day.

PAUL: One day. CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, what is going on?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, yes, so you have to take a look at Greenland as a whole to understand why it's happening.

[08:55:00]

All of the red color you see here over Greenland is where we saw a lot of that ice melt. Now, here over here in the blue section, we actually saw an increase in ice. You're talking about a massive gain of ice there. That's because they had fresh snow in that particular area over the last week or so but really the entire western portion of Greenland, it's been the exact opposite.

Here you see the stats. This blue line showing 2019; this gray shaded area; this is what we would call average. Keep in mind, June, July and August is when we would normally see this ice begin to retreat or even melt. That part of it is not what's uncommon. It's the amount of ice that we lost in such a short period of time.

The concern going forward is what happens to the rest of the summer because when we talk about albedo, if you don't have that sunlight that's able to reflect off that snow guys, unfortunately what that may mean is we'll continue to see a rapid loss of that ice through the summer months.

SAVIDGE: That's such a staggering loss in such a short time. Thanks Allison.

PAUL: Allison, thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: And thank you for starting your morning with us. We will see you again at 10:00 a.m. Eastern right here in the "CNN NEWSROOM."

PAUL: We sure will. "Smerconish" is with you after a quick break. Stay close.

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