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NEW DAY
One-on-One with Harry Reid; George Clooney's Latest Project; Discussion of Flight 9525's Co-Pilot; Honesty in Medical Questionnaires; Trevor Noah to Take Over "Daily Show". Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired March 31, 2015 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:31:24] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Senate Majority -- Minority Leader, pardon me, Harry Reid stunned the political world last week with the announcement that he wasn't going to seek another term. In his first television interview since that announcement, Reid tells CNN exclusively how he made this decision and why he didn't want to over stay his welcome this Washington. CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins us live from Las Vegas.
You scored a big interview. I am so fascinated by what he had to say.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, especially, Michaela, since if he did decide to run and he won, he would be 83 at the end of that term. In the real world, that's old. But in the Senate, people have stayed actually a lot longer. And it is because he watched people stay way past their prime, he told me he decided he wanted to go out on top.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Harry Reid is such a fighter, the former boxer says he actually wanted to call it quits before his last election, but didn't want to give in to his opponents.
SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: One newspaper here in Nevada kept beating up on me. And I said, I'm not going to let the bastards beat me. And so I decided to run last time.
BASH: Now he's 75 and says it's time to leave before he gets too old.
REID: I wanted to be remembered for my first 34 years, not my last six.
And I have done my best.
BASH: On New Year's Day, Reid, a workout addict who ran 20 marathons, had a brutal exercise accident that left him severely bruised and, for now, blind in one eye.
BASH (on camera): It had to have cemented the decision. REID: Well, I'm not sure it cemented the decision. The first three
weeks I couldn't do anything except feel sorry for myself. I'm sure it had some bearing on my not running, but it wasn't the decision-maker.
BASH (voice-over): Reid has led Senate Democrats for nearly 10 years, spearheading epic legislative battles like Obamacare with the scrappy style he learned fighting his way out of an impoverished childhood, growing up in this shack with no running water, which he showed us several years ago.
BASH (on camera): A wide variety of adjectives have been written about you. It's a --
REID: Some good, some bad.
BASH: Some good, some bad. Let me just read a few -- scrappy, tough, blunt, canny, behind-the-scenes master mind, ruthless. Are all those fair?
REID: Well, that's what people think, and that's what they think, they are entitled to their opinion.
BASH: How would you describe yourself?
REID: I worked very hard. I always have.
BASH (voice-over): Reid has been a most unlikely political leader in today's media age. Soft-spoken and gaffe prone.
REID: I recognized a long time ago that there is people who can speak a lot better than I can. There are people better looking than I am. There are people smarter than I am. But there's nobody that can work harder than I am -- than I work. I am very concerned about Nevada. I always have been. I'm concerned about the country. And my style may not be someone else's style, but that's who I am.
BASH: One thing he is not concerned about, what people think of him.
REID: I don't really care. I don't want to be somebody I'm not.
BASH (on camera): You're a polarizing figure and a lot of Republicans actually blame you personally for the way Congress and Washington in general has gotten so highly partisan in the last couple of years.
REID: That's interesting. I served as a whip for a long time. And the Republicans were (ph) (INAUDIBLE) even their praise for me.
BASH (voice-over): That was before he used the Senate floor to go after GOP mega donors, the Koch brothers, and accused Mitt Romney of not paying his taxes with no evidence.
REID: Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn't.
No, I don't regret it at all. The Koch brothers, no one would help me. They were afraid the Koch brothers would go after them. So I did it on my own. BASH (on camera): So no regrets about Mitt Romney, about the Koch brothers? Because some people have even called it McCarthy-ite (ph).
[08:35:06] REID: Well, they can call it whatever they want. Romney didn't win, did he?
BASH (voice-over): Reid is most proud of using his Senate power to help Nevada, bringing home the bacon from renewable energy to revitalizing Las Vegas, like this neighborhood where we spoke.
REID: It was "U.S. News & World Report" would come out every year with the biggest porkers. I was so upset when I wasn't in the top two or three. So now I'm proud of what I did with earmarks. If you work hard for these jobs -- and we all do -- and you have some power, you should use that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Now, Reid wouldn't name names but he told me some of his more polished colleagues are very popular, but they're so afraid to make a move to change that, they don't get enough things done.
And I'll tell you, Chris, one of the veteran reporters here, John Ralston (ph), said that Reid's quiet ruthlessness engenders so much trepidation people don't do things, they don't make a move just because they're afraid of what he might do. And I can tell you, Reid spent decades proudly building that reputation, Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Dana, let me tell you, you did a great job at getting him to express himself in a way that we don't often see. No surprise there either because you are the best. Dana, thank you very much for bringing it to us.
BASH: Thanks, Chris.
CUOMO: All right, we have today's "Impact Your World" for you. George Clooney, known to help those impacted by violence in Sudan, of course. Well now he's spreading the net wider. Here's CNN's Richard Roth, who spoke to the actor about his latest project.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George Clooney was signing on, not to a new movie but another humanitarian campaign. The actor/activist and his Not On Our Watch organization has joined forces with the 100 Lives Initiative.
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR/ACTIVIST: Not just to talk about the atrocities, but talk about the heroism.
ROTH: It's now 100 years since more than a million died in what is now eastern Turkey at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Aurora was the 17th girl in line.
ROTH: Aurora would have been the next Armenian to be hanged like those before her. A descendant announced the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A global humanitarian prize named after my relative.
ROTH: With a million dollar grant to empower modern day saviors.
CLOONEY: So let's look forward and say, let's find the people who are doing really heroic work now and let's find a way to not just -- not reward them personally, but reward their actions.
ROTH: Clooney said apathy is the enemy in fighting genocide. From Armenia to Sudan, it's a constant battle to gain attention to crimes against humanity.
CLOONEY: There's a group of people that won't care, but there's a group of people that do care. Sometimes we forget that there were these great, heroic moments and these unbelievably brave people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, back to one of our top stories. The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 suffering a host of mental problems, we're learning. And he did not drop any hints to his employer. Is there anything that can be done to prevent another tragedy like this?
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[08:42:18] PEREIRA: New questions are being raised this morning about the medical history of Andreas Lubitz after word emerged that the Flight 9525 co-pilot had been treated for suicidal tendencies before getting his pilot's license. Should pilots be subjected to routine medical testing? Could tougher standards prevent another tragedy like Flight 9525?
Here to weigh in, CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector David Soucie, CNN aviation analyst and PBS science correspondent Miles O'Brien.
Gentlemen, good to have you with us.
And I actually want to start with a little piece of news that we've just been given. We've just received word that Lufthansa is going to cancel their anniversary celebrations upcoming 60 year anniversary of the company. They are cancelling the originally planned festivities, which were planned for the 15th of April, 2015.
Miles, obviously, this is absolutely the right thing, the right tenner and tone to be doing this, to cancel those celebrations. Even though they have cause for celebration of being around so long, they can't do it in light of the terrible, terrible tragedy.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: No, I think that's probably the right call. And you can imagine how that would play. So I think they're doing the right thing there from a public relations standpoint. It is -- it is a proud airline with a great history, but this is not the right time to be celebrating.
PEREIRA: Yes, hopefully they'll be able to do some sort of commemoration down the line. But, obviously, they have other things that they need to focus on right now.
And the focus, David, of the investigation is motive. That's what they're really digging into right now. And, of course, this idea that Lubitz feared that he would no longer be able to fly because of the medical issues he was said to have thought he have -- he thought he had. But here's the question for you. When we look at all of this, what safeguards protect us, the passenger, from a rogue or mentally ill or homicidal pilot?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Their -- it's important to separate the difference here between the triage of this event. The reaction. Do we have an a imminent safety hazard here? And I don't believe that we do. I honestly don't. This is a very, very rare thing. So we have to look at it in two aspects. That's that triage part.
But as far as the -- historically, the systems in place have worked very well. Now, though, we have these challenges, these problems that do come up and those will present vulnerabilities. So they are being dealt with and there are systems in place, safety management systems, to mitigate these risks and improve it. But there are some safe guards in place, but it does, again, the key point is it relies on the honesty and being the pilot being forthright about what we know about his psychological condition. So there is a (INAUDIBLE).
[08:44:54] PEREIRA: Let's talk about honesty and truth in disclosure. CNN obtained a copy of the type of medical questionnaire that the pilots are required to fill out every year that they get recertified.
We have it on the screen. It has a section that they are to check yes or no to a variety of issues, psychological/psychiatric, and suicide attempts.
First of all, David, is this similar to what with FAA requires U.S. pilots to fill out?
SOUCIE: Yes, it is.
PEREIRA: And then Miles --
SOUCIE: That's --
PEREIRA: Let's be honest. All of us have filled out medical questionnaires. Sometimes we gloss over facts about our height or weight or how much we have to drink in a week. This seems flawed. If it is just one little box, it's not nearly detailed enough.
O'BRIEN: I think you could say it's perfunctory. It's just checking a box. We have had a system that's worked for years based on the honor system, based on pilots checking each other out and evaluating each other in an informal way. That's by and large worked because there's been higher time pilots in the cockpits, not as much pressure on the pilots for on-time performance, for minimum fuel performance, for wage givebacks, you name it. So the system is a bit under stress and the pilots take the big brunt of this. So I think in the absence of this kinder, gentler era we need to start thinking about some more rigorous screening in the mental health realm. We screen pilots physically in every other way, why are we not checking out their brains?
PEREIRA: And then the challenge there is more stringent screening but not further stigmatization of those that have any sort of mental illness. That's always the challenge, that right balance, the nuance of it.
David, we know that another point of the investigation is that they are looking to talk to a girlfriend. It's kind of unclear his relationship with this woman. Talk to us about the point. They look into all of these people in a suspect's path, especially in an aviation disaster like this. What kind of things can they glean from her?
SOUCIE: What they are going to be looking for there is just his mental stability in the past. The purpose of that is to try to-as Miles said, we look into the psychology of this person. We also have to look into whether or not that type of person should not be in the cockpit. They will be profiling not only for this specific case, they are gathering information about what kind of person this is so that when we do work with pilots or understand their mentality and what's going on in their mind, that can be used to help mitigate that by getting those types of people or that profile of a person out of the cockpit.
PEREIRA: Miles, we already know that they haven't found the cockpit data recorder. We have about 20 seconds left. It's almost as though that's not going to fill in a lot of blanks. So many blanks have already been filled in. No? Or do you disagree?
O'BRIEN: I think we found the right black box, if we had to pick one, the cockpit voice recorder. It would be nice to have the flight data recorder. Why not have real-time streaming? I will put that plug in at the end.
PEREIRA: I'm glad you did because that's a conversation we need to be having again here on CNN. We had it post-MH-370.
Gentlemen, thank you very much. David Soucie, Miles O'Brien, we appreciate it. Chris?
CUOMO: All right, Mick. We have some news for you. Indiana Governor Mike Pence on TV this morning. Now we are told he's going to hold a press conference at 11:00 a.m. We'll cover it here at CNN. The big question is obviously is the governor going to move off his position about not wanting to change the religious freedom law and, if so, how?
Also after the break, Trevor Noah, we hardly knew you! I'm no comedian. He'll replace CNNophile (ph) Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. So if you don't know who this guy is, stick with us. We'll tell you. He's good-looking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:52:28] CAMEROTA: Are you asking yourself "Trevor who?" Well, fans of The Daily Show scouring the internet this morning looking to learn more about Comedy Central's pick to replace Jon Stewart. Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He went from rookie contributor --
JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW," COMEDY CENTRAL: Mr. Trevor Noah.
MOOS (voice-over): -- to host of The Daily Show.
TREVOR NOAH, COMEDIAN: Can I like ask you a question?
MOOS (voice-over): A question being asked is -- who?
(on camera): Trevor Noah, or is it Noah Trevor? No, it's Trevor Noah. Anyway, he's a 31-year-old comedian from South Africa.
(voice-over): And has graced the covers of South African editions of "GQ" and "Rolling Stone." He jokes about his mixed race. His mom is a black South African, his dad is a white Swiss-German.
NOAH: My dad was also - well, you know how the Swiss love chocolate, you know, she he was just-
MOOS (voice-over): Mixed unions weren't allowed under the old apartheid policy.
NOAH: Then they had me, which was illegal, so I was born a crime.
MOOS (voice-over): To audiences abroad, he's joked about Americans.
NOAH: They don't know much about Africa as a whole. Most of them don't know much about anything, but still-
MOOS (voice-over): And when he did three segments on The Daily Show recently, the laughter was underwhelming. Reaction to word that he was named host ranged from "Trevor Noah is kind of smoking hot," to "excellent dimples" to "So, they couldn't find an American for the job? That's pretty sad."
(on camera): One thing Noah will have no trouble doing on The Daily Show: accents. From American-
NOAH: Have you been in contact with Ebola?
MOOS (voice-over): -- to Middle Eastern --
NOAH: You probably want to check that gentlemen over there.
MOOS (voice-over): -- to what he called "crazy guy."
NOAH: Ask me why! MOOS (voice-over): Even what he described as "black Hitler."
NOAH: (INAUDIBLE) and Pepsi cola drinking.
MOOS (voice-over): And then an Oprah-esque (ph) imitation pegged to her African school.
NOAH: You're getting a beating, you're getting a beating! Everybody is getting a beating!
MOOS (voice-over): Eventually, he will be beating up on the media when, say -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry.
MOOS (voice-over): -- a weatherman finds a hanger he left in his suit, at least Trevor Noah is no empty suit. Jeanne Moos, CNN.
NOAH: The guy looks at me, he's like so you're a comedian? I said yeah. He's like, you don't look funny.
MOOS (voice-over): New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: (Laughing.) I can't wait.
CAMEROTA: Looking forward to see what he brings to the table.
PEREIRA: You?
CAMEROTA: You?
CUOMO: I think he's funny. I'm learning about him. It think it's a tremendous challenge but also an opportunity. You know, he's going to take it in a different direction. See what it is.
PEREIRA: I know funny, by the way, and speaking of, we thought we'd peel back the layers of NEW DAY a little bit and show you something that happened a moment ago-
CAMEROTA: No, no-
[08:55:00] PEREIRA: -- when the cameras thought they were rolling. Yeah, I don't know what happened here.
(VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: -- but we had to share.
CUOMO: That's a violation.
CAMEROTA: You record during commercial breaks-
CUOMO: That's a violation.
CAMEROTA: -- while I was playing air keyboards?
CUOMO: I think you knew. You always look at the camera. You have the best camera focus of anyone I've ever worked with.
PEREIRA: It's TV gold.
CAMEROTA: Because I am playing to the camera. But I didn't know my air keyboard was captured.
PEREIRA: You air keyboard (INAUDIBLE). You put it out there in the public sphere.
CUOMO: Now I'm getting yelled.
PEREIRA: We need Good Stuff after that. Come on.
CAMEROTA: I apologize for that.
CUOMO: Double agent. All right.
CAMEROTA: Good stuff.
CUOMO: Good Stuff is coming up. Suitcases are a clue. That's all I'm giving you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Time for The Good Stuff. In today's edition: suitcases. You need them when they travel. Have a good day. I'm kidding. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but you have to move everything you own, then they're a big deal. Especially when you don't have one. You know who that's the case for? Foster kids around the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIE PHILLIPPI -WHITNEY, CINCINNATI BUSINESSWOMAN: I saw a story about some foster children that had to move all their belongings in garbage bags. They said they actually felt like garbage at times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: That's true. That's Cincinnati businesswoman Julie Phillippi- Whitney and she gave us that story and she said the story inspired her to do something simple. She collects gently used luggage exclusively for the use of foster kids on the move. Started slow, suitcase here and there, and word got out, really took off.
[9:00:01] More than 5,000 suitcases in just a few months. Very needed, but also a sad reminder of how many kids we have in that system.
PEREIRA: Yes. And they need our help. Don't forget them.
