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NEW DAY

Jogger Finds Kidnapped Baby; Search for Flight 370: Officials Discount Rise & Fall in Altitude; Team U.S. Battles Germany to Stay in World Cup; House Oversight Committee Has Questions About Lois Lerner

Aired June 24, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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


MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, two people killed in a deadly shooting in Miami. Several other people were wounded. Police say as many as six were shot at an apartment complex. So far, officials say no suspects and no motive in that shooting. We'll keep an eye on that story for you.

A huge victory in the war on child sex trafficking. The FBI says nearly 170 victims were rescued and over 280 alleged pimps arrested over the last week as part of a nationwide crackdown. This sting is part of the bureau's Innocence Lost program which has already recovered some 3,600 children since 2003. Officials say children are increasingly being prostituted online.

Want to show you an amazing rescue caught on camera. In Richmond, Texas, an officer pulls a woman to safety just seconds before a train rolled through. Yes. That's officer Ramon Morales, only on the force less than a year, we're told. He was alerted to a woman sitting on the tracks. He got there, arrived at the crossing arms as they were going down and ran to her just in time.

Fortunately, no one was hurt that. Woman was taken to the hospital for evaluation. That is a day on the job he will never forget.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely not, and she will never forget him either, let's hope. Thank you, Michaela.

Let's turn to another incredible story and incredible rescue in Houston. A jogger stumbled upon, if you can imagine, an 8-month-old baby girl on the side of the road, crying, strapped inside her car seat still. Police say the baby girl had been kidnapped hours earlier.

Miguel Marquez is here with much more.

The picture makes your heart stop.

MARQUEZ: This one is too much to believe. It's shocking. Hours earlier the mother had gone to a gas station, ran in to grab something, watches her baby and her car drive off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARQUEZ (voice-over): The photo heartbreaking, an 8-month-old baby girl alone abandoned in the woods crying out for help. Those cries heard by this woman (INAUDIBLE) who had just happened to be visiting from Vietnam and just happened to be on her first jog of the trip on this very day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just come and (INAUDIBLE) stayed there until the policeman come to keep the baby safe.

MARQUEZ: The baby abandoned after a car-jacking at a Texas gas station, the mother seen in tears moments after the abduction. Police say she left the car running with her baby Genesis while she made a quick run inside the store, within seconds the car and the baby both gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She went in it looked like a matter of a few moments.

MARQUEZ: The car found abandoned but for hours the search for Genesis came up empty until the cries were heard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were very worried, but I'm very glad that the jogger happened to just turn around and see her in her car seat.

MARQUEZ: And as heartbreaking as this photo is, this photo of the officer swaddling baby Genesis in his uniform is equally uplifting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whenever we can recover a baby that's alive, it's very reassuring in our job.

MARQUEZ: Now the manhunt is on for the person who left her in the woods. Police have released this sketch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She describes him as a young black male with a slight slant in his hairdo and he has a small white or blondish patch on one side. So it's a pretty distinct picture of him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: So the suspect is expected to be in the teens, maybe early 20s.

The baby was taken to the hospital and is now fine, was released from the hospital. Mom and baby reunited, and as weird as it sounds, police say that this is how this one played out.

PEREIRA: Thank goodness.

MARQUEZ: Amazing.

BOLDUAN: Makes you think -- we did another story, did an interview, remember, of the fireman who found an abandoned baby in a cemetery, and they were reunited.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: When she graduated high school.

PEREIRA: That's beautiful.

BOLDUAN: And can you imagine how this police officer, how that will stick with him.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, they said they had a connection forever. I'm sure that's what will happen here as well.

MARQUEZ: Happened overnight. Baby probably asleep until early morning. Maybe not.

(CROSSTALK)

MARQUEZ: Dirty nappy fell asleep.

BOLDUAN: You know that all too well, Miguel.

Thanks, Miguel. Thank you so much.

BERMAN: All right. It is CNN Money Time.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here.

I missed you so much. How are the markets looking?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, really close to 17,000 for the Dow, John. European shares mostly down this morning, futures lower but the Dow is super close to 17,000 which would be another milestone and phenomenal run. The Dow hit 16,000 for the first time just seven months ago.

Millions more cars are being recalled. Chrysler, Ford and BMW now joining the list of companies recalling vehicles with air bags made by a Japanese company Takata. The problem, the casing around the air bag's inflator can rupture and cause injuries. More recalls, amazing.

And American Apparel's ousted CEO, guess what, he is fighting back? Dov Charney, the man behind the racy ads, he's threatening to shake up the company's board. If he succeeds he just might be able to reclaim his title as CEO. Remember, we told you that they fired him.

BOLDUAN: You guess it had.

ROMANS: Didn't I say. I said this guy is going to fight.

BOLDUAN: You said he was going to fight. That's exactly what you said.

BERMAN: A lot of allegedly naked stuff went on.

BOLDUAN: Or partially naked.

ROMANS: Well, I mean, right.

BOLDUAN: Christine, just stopped. PEREIRA: That's what stuck out with you.

BERMAN: Well, no. I mean, one of the things is that he allegedly performed inappropriate behavior while in the hospital that involved alleged partial nudity. So, this is an issue.

BOLDUAN: There are too much allegedly right there for me.

BERMAN: Naked, I'll say it without the alleged, naked.

BOLDUAN: And he's still fighting, as you guessed, Christine.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, a new twist in the Flight 370 mystery. Investigators thought the plane rose and fell to dramatic elevations but we're now learning that may not be true. What the information means for the search.

BERMAN: Plus, next up for the U.S. men's national team, the biggest match of their lives ever.

BOLDUAN: Ever, ever.

BERMAN: We will look at their chances against Germany. Germany's good at soccer. We'll also talk about what happened after that because there will be an after, I promise you.

BOLDUAN: Allegedly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

A new development in the search for missing Flight 370. Investigators are set to reveal a shift in the plane's search area after they say unreliable information led them to believe that the plane had dipped in altitude. In fact, it may have stayed in a controlled flight hours after losing contact.

Now, after three months without any leads, officials are focusing the search hundreds of miles southwest of where they had been looking.

For more, let's bring in David Soucie, CNN safety analyst, and former FAA safety inspector and author of "Why Planes Crash."

We haven't seen you in months. You look so different, my goodness. It must be the beard. Good to see you, David.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Thank you.

PEREIRA: There's a few things we should wade through here. First off, the search coordinator Angus Houston discounting radar equipment that indicated these altitude dips, something we talked about right here on CNN. The plane went up. It went down.

You have said from the beginning, if I go back through my mental hard drive, you had said from the beginning that the altitude data was an assumption. Is that primary radar even reliable for determining altitude?

SOUCIE: Not for altitude. No, not for altitude, Michaela. It's really designed to tell you where the aircraft is, what direction it's going and what speed it's going. It has to be very carefully calibrated and looking for altitude.

And in addition to that, it needs a secondary primary radar to give them verifying information as well to be very accurate about altitude. So, I'm really surprised and a little disappoint that had they actually used that in their calculations to determine the fuel consumption. It's really surprising to me.

PEREIRA: Help me understand that. Why would they have used that in their calculations initially? That set us back a fair amount of time here.

SOUCIE: Yes, it really did. Now you have to understand that when you're in an investigation, especially when there's just a few pieces of information, you over-rely on what information the people are giving you, and so you end up being led down wrong paths.

And I think that's what happened here is they wanted to grasp at paths. They wanted to find out what's going on. There's a lot of pressure going on.

And so, you've kind of ultra focused on things that seemed to offer good answers but in fact, they don't. It takes a while before they finally sink in and say, well, that's not it. We're looking in the wrong place.

PEREIRA: OK. With this steadier altitude then, the plane would have behaved differently. Fuel consumption would have changed, et cetera. So tell us how that then changes this new search area that we're told they will be embarking on.

SOUCIE: Well, what it changes is the amount of time and the distance that the aircraft could have flown. If it did go up in altitude beyond its normal range and it dipped way down and come back up again, it would have used a lot of fuel and that's the case where it would have ended up on the arc would have been much different.

And so, with those assumptions, they were more in the northern part of that arc which would have been less distance flown and that's when it would have run out of fuel. But now, they're saying that because of this, it's just on a constant altitude, it would have flown farther. So, they are confident it's on the arc. That's a good piece of information but it's going to be now further down south than where they looked originally.

PEREIRA: And we should point, that's an area that has not mapped yet. That ocean floor has not been mapped. The southwest portion of this arc is unknown right now.

SOUCIE: That's correct. It's a place they didn't even look for debris. PEREIRA: OK. I want to bring up "The New York Times" reporting

suggesting that the settled search area will be based on a crucial assumption that this plane, as you mentioned, was on autopilot when it ran out of fuel, but you suggest, and you brought it up, that it was in a fuel efficiency mode on this particular model of plane.

Explain how that works and how it would change the workings of the plane.

SOUCIE: Sure. As the aircraft burns fuel, the center of gravity changes on the airplane, which changes the flight attitude of the airplane. So as the fuel burns and it starts to change the attitude, the auto pilot in efficiency mode is capable of understanding that and changing the air speed to make it more efficient and a better fuel consumption rate. So, if that's the case, then if it was on, which I assume it was at this point, it would have gone much further.

And, again, contribute together idea that it went further south and southwest on the arc.

PEREIRA: It's interesting because we've been talking and we've been talking before we went on camera and you brought up the fact that the area where they are now going to be searching, isn't this the area that NTSB had suggested that the plane potentially could be from the jump?

SOUCIE: Yes, you know. It was just a few weeks after the start of the investigation that the NTSB came out with this recommended search area. But remember at that time it really wasn't -- NTSB wasn't the primary drive of the investigation. It really hadn't been brought in as the primary people to talk about it.

So they did say this, and I think that attributes or that came from the fact that the NTSB would have been very familiar with this efficiency mode and would have known also that the primary radar is not something reliable.

PEREIRA: I read also that an executive from Malaysia Airlines made a comment to a London paper that he thinks that this could take a very long time, in fact, that it could take decades to find this plane. Do you feel the same way he does, or are you feeling hopeful still?

SOUCIE: Well, I'm not letting myself go there. I -- I really believe we need to find out much more quickly than ten years from now whether we're safe flying on international flights.

And there's been some great movements forward on tracking airplanes, but even if we track the airplane, that doesn't stop from happening what happened. So it's very crucial, very important that we continue the search and that we find the airplane and figure out what exactly happened and hopefully find out why.

PEREIRA: Good point to end on. David Soucie, always a pleasure to have you with us on NEW DAY.

John? SOUCIE: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, up next, for us on NEW DAY, John Kerry says Iraqi unity is necessary to stop ISIS militants. CNN's interview with the secretary of state in Iraq. That's ahead.

BOLDUAN: Plus, if the U.S. beats or ties with Germany on, I guess they call it a draw, if you will, on Thursday, the team will advance to the knockout round of 16 at the World Cup. What are their chances? We're breaking it down with a former soccer pro.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Can you feel it? Welcome back to NEW DAY.

The U.S. men's national team gearing up for the fight of their lives on Thursday when they play Germany. Germany's very good at soccer. They play in game three of the World Cup. This game is the difference for the U.S. between staying in Brazil or going home. But the results there, a lot of variation about how it can go down.

Greg Lalas is the editor-in-chief of mlbsoccer.com. He's here to talk about how Team USA can get through to the next round.

And, Greg, the easiest way is to win.

GREG LALAS, MLBSOCCER.COM: Absolutely. I mean, you have to go into this thinking you're going for the win. I think if anything from the last two games against Ghana and Portugal, the U.S. has to feel confidence in the way they played in both of them. Because the Ghana game, they didn't play well, but they got a win. Against Portugal, they played very well, still got the draw, so you have to go in thinking you're gonna win. But a draw will do enough.

BERMAN: A draw will do enough. And though they can lose as well.

LALAS: Yeah, I mean, I'm not mathematician in all this, but I mean, if they lose then it all comes down to goal differential depending on what happens with the Portugal/Ghana game, which is played at the exact same time.

BERMAN: I think the two things for the U.S. to keep in mind there, U.S. fans, don't get blown out by Germany if you're going to lose. If you have to choose between Portugal and Ghana, choose Portugal.

LALAS: Portugal. Yeah, I would -- definitely. I would go with Portugal.

BERMAN: All right, we're gonna talk about the odds here, because this -- this is who is going to advance. The odd-makers at 538.com, Germany virtually 100 percent chance of advancing. This has to do with issues of goal differential. They have about a million ways to move on, but they still think the U.S. has a good chance to go.

LALAS: Yeah, and the odds actually went up when the U.S. got that draw against Portugal. So although everyone was deflated about that late goal, it actually was the result that helped the U.S. a lot. So I like these chances because all they need is a draw, ultimately, and they're through. And if you look at it even with a loss, technically the goal differential is probably in their favor.

BERAMAN: We talk about how good Germany is here. And you know, this is -- we'll take a look at the German team here. These guys know how to play soccer. The U.S. has played Germany in a friendly within the last year, and we did well.

LALAS: Yeah, they did well. Got a win. Now, look, that wasn't necessarily the A team for Germany, but it also wasn't the A team for the U.S. in that case. This time, this is a German team that is a machine, but I've talked --

BERMAN: Look at that. This is their machine. Look at them train.

LALAS: They're on machines right there. But if -- I've talked to some people who know the German team very well, and they said they are having similar doubts about their team as well, and they are nervous about this U.S. team.

BERMAN: So many teams with defensive struggles in this World Cup, including Germany, including the U.S..

One of the big problems for the U.S. will be recovering from this game we saw Sunday night. They played in the Amazon, in Manaus where temperatures were 85 degrees, 9,000 percent humidity. You know, we see Jermaine Jones right now dousing himself, of course. You know, they had the water break, the unprecedented first of its kind ever water break during that game. How do you think the recovery will affect Team USA?

LALAS: Well, I think it's tough when you look at U.S. playing on Sunday, whereas Germany played on Saturday. So obviously, an advantage to Germany in that case.

But look, there are ten players from MLS on this U.S. team, and those guys have played in Houston in August and July. They've played in Dallas or in Kansas City or even Washington, D.C. in the summer where it is hot and humid. And three or four days later, they have to play again at a very high level. So they know how to deal with this recovery.

If Jurgen Klinsmann is getting it right, it means the first 24 hours, 48 hours, it's a lot of water, a lot of rest, making sure their nutrition and getting vitamins back, and then they should be ready to go.

I think the U.S. actually has a chance in the conditions, 12:00 noon kickoff. So it's gonna hot and humid again, and I like the U.S. in those type of conditions against the Germans.

BERMAN: The U.S. generally a better conditioned team, one of the better conditioned teams in draws like this. Two concerns for me. You saw Clint Dempsey limping off the field at the end of the game. I don't know if that was fatigue. I don't know if it was acting. And then Matt Besler who is so key in defense, that hamstring of his that keeps being a problem.

LALAS: Well, the U.S. did not train on Monday, so we don't really have any update on anybody right now. But I think Clint Dempsey, he seems to always limp off the field at the end of a game because he puts so much into it.

Matt Besler, who has really proven to be an incredible player at this level already, world class, playing sporting Kansas City and MLS, and he's shown that he can jump to that next level, even with the injury. He was clutching his hamstring. But it's important to remember he didn't come out, and he continued to perform well in the second half as well.

BERMAN: And we're going to need him.

All right, this game, there will be two languages, perhaps. And there are a lot of players from both teams who speak both of them. I'm talking about, you know, English and German here. A huge German connection with five players on the United States team with a German parent, including, frankly, two of the most important for the U.S., Fabian Johnson and Jermaine Jones.

LALAS: Yeah, Jermaine Jones was arguably the best player on the field in the Portugal game, in particular. And Fabian Johnson has probably been the most consistent player so far.

And we should also throw in here that Michael Bradley played in Germany for a little while before he came back and played -- now playing for Toronto. So you have guys who understand the German system. They know the German players. I'm sure there will be some chirping at moments, but the key might end up being Fabian Johnson. He's pressing on that right side. Going against that weak German defense, they should be OK.

BERMAN: There's another German connection, too, of course --

LALAS: I've heard about this one.

BERMAN: -- the coach of the U.S. team, Jurgen Klinsmann. You know, Jurgen Klinsmann played in the 1990 West German World Cup championship team. He coached in 2002. His assistant coach in that tournament was Joachim Low right here. They know each other so well.

LALAS: They do, and by all accounts, they're still very good friends. Now, there's been talk about whether they're gonna have some sort of friendship agreement to make sure that they both get through and they get the draw. I don't think that's in their nature. I think Jurgen Klinsmann has something to prove and wants to go out there and beat his old team.

BERMAN: Now the U.S. has more to play for in this game. It doesn't seem likely there will be any kind of gentleman's agreement here, but if it's tied at half-time, if, you know, 0-0 after 45 minutes, what do you think you'll see in the second half?

LALAS: I think you'll see things just naturally slow down. Part of that will be the fatigue and the conditions in there. I also think that it gets into the players' minds that maybe, you know, all we need to do is get through.

We're seeing this huge breakthrough of soccer in the United States in general. We saw the huge numbers of TV ratings from the Sunday game, in particular. And I think the U.S., players, coaches, everyone says it's so important just to get to that next knockout stage. It would huge if they can escape the group of death.

BERMAN: We believe.

LALAS: We do believe. We do.

BERMAN: All right, Greg Lalas, great to have you here, really appreciate it.

LALAS: Great to be here. Thanks.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN; John, thanks so much.

In our next hour, we're gonna have the family of Team USA superstar Clint Dempsey. He's gonna be joining us live. An important note, lots to discuss with them as they've got a big week ahead for all of them.

We are also following a lot of news this morning. Let's get straight to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS militants fast becoming the regional threat Secretary Kerry has been warning of.

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SEC. OF STATE: The stakes for Iraq's future could not be clearer.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: You lost Lois Lerner's e-mails. You don't even remember anything about that situation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember being told in April.

JORDAN: But you don't remember who told you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The V.A. bureaucrats returned for this hearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How could you say --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is a good system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman, yes, I do. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not -- not if you're a veteran, it's not good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're bumping one veteran for the other?

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Yeah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

A lot to get to, including the House Oversight Committee will question a top White House attorney over e-mails missing from the account of an ousted IRS Official, Lois Lerner.

Lerner was a key figure in the agency's alleged targeting of conservative groups, and last night there was a fiery hearing on Capitol Hill over all of it.

CNN's Athena Jones is at the White House with much more -- in Washington for us with much more. Athena, what's the very latest?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. That's right, today is part two of the hearing the House Oversight Committee is calling "IRS Obstruction, Lois Lerner's Missing E-mails".

And we expect to see some of the same fireworks we saw last night in part one of the hearing, which lasted more than three and a half hours and was punctuated by several heated exchanges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I asked a question.

JOHN KOSKINEN, IRS COMMISSIONER: And I answered it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have always believed that what happened in your agency with Lois Lerner is a crime.

JONES (voice-over): A contentious evening on Capitol Hill as members of the House Oversight Committee grill IRS commissioner John Koskinen over thousands of lost e-mails related to an investigation into the IRS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the e-mails we have will be provided. I did not say I would provide you e-mails that disappeared. If you have a magical way for me to do that I'd be happy to know about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My time is expired, and I've lost my patience with you.

JONES: Republican lawmakers contend the e-mails are a key part of the investigation into whether anyone else knew about or directed the targeting of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. The agency says the e-mails were lost when former IRS administrator Lois Lerner's computer crashed in 2011.

Lerner ran the division in charge of tax-exempt status and maintained she's done nothing wrong.

UNIDENTIFIFIED MALE: Do you have any ability to say no crime has been committed?

KOSKINEN: I have the ability to say I've seen no evidence of any crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, but can you not say what I've asked you that no crime has been committed?

JONES: But Oversight Committee Chairman Republican Darrell Issa openly accused Koskinen of a cover-up in his opening statement.

REP. DARREL ISSA, R-CA: You worked to cover up the fact that there were missing e-mails and came forward to fess up only on Friday afternoon after you had effectively been caught red-handed.

I subpoenaed you here tonight because frankly I'm sick and tired of your game-playing in response to congressional oversight.

JONES: Koskinen denied the cover-up claim. Issa went on to question his credibility, a move that did not sit well with some Democrats on the committee.

ISSA: We have a problem with you, and you have a problem with maintaining your credibility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I've seen a display of this kind of disrespect in all the time I've been here in Congress. This is an incredible thing, a public servant being --

ISSA: Would the gentleman yield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I will not yield.

ISSA: OK, the gentleman will suspend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I won't suspend either. I was in the middle of my time --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- will continue to ask questions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (on-camera): So there you have it, a lot of anger being expressed last night. And there are already multiple investigations under way by separate congressional committees into this, and there's now a new one to add to the mix. The IRS commissioner told the committee last night the treasury inspector general for tax administration has already launched an investigation into the matter of these missing e-mails. And he'll be providing an independent review. Kate?