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NEW DAY

Chinese Cruise Ship Capsizes; TSA Administration Reorganized After Agents Fail Tests to Detect Potential Weapons on Passengers; Hillary Clinton's Latest Poll Numbers Assessed; Violent Crime on the Rise in U.S. Cities. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 2, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A frantic search is underway for survivors after a river cruise ship sinks in China.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The ship's captain and chief engineer have been taken into police custody.

[08:00:05] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A major security breach.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: TSA screeners didn't detect the fake weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it the technology that's failing, or is it the screeners themselves?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some say police are afraid to do their job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason that we've had these protests is because people want better policing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're identifying the spilt milk, but we're not talking about how to clean it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good-bye, Bruce, hello Caitlyn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a huge story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as the "Vanity Fair" comes out, I'm free.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, June 8th, 8:00 in the east. And we do have breaking news this morning, a desperate search underway to find any signs of life for hundreds of people after a river cruise capsizes in China, 458 people reported onboard. This was the scene earlier, rescue crews all over the capsized hull as it moves down the Yangtze River in China, the current so fast and so much ship underneath they can't get there to rescue so they are using hammers to listen. CAMEROTA: Look at the rudimentary means that they're trying to rescue

people. And this one only a handful of people have been pulled from the sunken ship. And among the survivors, the ship's captain and chief engineer who are now in police custody.

Let's get right to the scene live in China with CNN's David McKenzie. What's the latest?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, you can see that glow behind my shoulder. That is that search staging ground as they frantically search for any more survivors that have come from this tragic sinking of this river cruise boat which had several onboard and now still several hundred missing. They have only managed to pull out just over a dozen today and yesterday, and there are only a few survivors, including the captain and the chief engineer. And questions are being asked, how did they get off when all those passengers, mostly senior citizens are trapped on board?

They are hoping perhaps that they'll be air pockets. They're banging on the top of the hull to see if anyone bangs back. They've managed to pull out a 65-year-old woman many hours after the ship sank, and it seems according to state media a 21-year-old man many hours after that. And there are signs of hope, but hope is certainly fading fast as darkness falls here in China on the banks of the Yangtze River.

CAMEROTA: David, this tragedy harkens back to the one we saw almost exactly a year ago in South Korea in which 476 people were killed or were certainly stranded when that ferryboat capsized in South Korea, and, again, the captain was looked at there. Are there comparisons being made to this tragedy?

MCKENZIE: Certainly it's eerily familiar in the early stages at least. We can't draw any conclusions just yet as to what was at fault. There is a belief that this could have been some kind of weather event, a gust of wind or wave that tipped the boat over rapidly, it seems, but we just don't know at this stage. Yes, questions will be asked and the comparisons are there with the Sea Wolf ferry disaster off South Korea when the captain in fact was blamed for that accident. Here, we just don't know. And they've got a military around this whole area. They are not letting us beyond the point about 300 yards behind me because they are focusing on the rescue efforts now, and the hope is that they could rescue more passengers as the hours tick by. Alisyn? CAMEROTA: OK, David, thank you for that. We'll check back in for

updates. Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, breaking overnight, fallout at the Transportation Security Administration. The agency's acting administrator reassigned. Why? Dangerous security failures after a report reveals weapons and fake bombs made it past security screeners 95 percent of the time in an undercover operation.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live at Reagan national airport this morning with more. Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris, we all have stories, right? Remove your shoes and coat. They confiscate your bottle of water or shampoo. This is all in the name of maintaining security. In the meantime the TSA failing miserably at detecting the real stuff, the dangerous stuff. That is why there is a shakeup overnight at the top, and also promises of changes on the ground at airports throughout the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: This morning an interim TSA administrator is stepping in, replacing the now former director Melvin Carraway, acting Deputy Director Mark Hatfield now at the post.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson reassigned Carraway amid alarming security questions about the TSA's effectiveness. The Department of Homeland Security discovered TSA officers failed 95 percent of the time during undercover operations, the officers failing 67 out of 70 tests to detect mock explosives and weapons at airport security checkpoints.

[08:05:14] CHAD WOLF, FORMER TSA OFFICIAL: These are anomalies that TSA screener and/or their equipment should locate and at least flag for an additional screening.

MALVEAUX: The department's red teams posed as passengers, attempting to pass through checkpoints with the mock weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am putting a detonator into the plastic explosive.

MALVEAUX: Back in 2008 CNN was there for a similar covert operation. That time it was TSA testing its own officers. At the check point the testers were patted down right where the fake explosive device was concealed, but the screener missed it. It's not until the tester lifts up his shirt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see it now.

MALVEAUX: In response to the troubling failures, Secretary Johnson said in a statement that he is immediately directing the TSA to revise its screening procedures, conduct training, and reevaluate their screening equipment.

REP. JOHN MICA (R-FL), CO-AUTHORED LEGISLATION THAT CREATED TSA: This has grown complete out of control. It isn't doing the job we need to. What we need to do is be able to connect the dots and get intelligence information and go after people who pose a risk, and they can't do it with the current system.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Secretary Johnson really finding this as a failure when it comes to the equipment and also the personnel, the training of the personnel and supervision really from the top to the bottom. So I promised to make serious changes, and in the long term they say they are going to looking at new screening technology to make sure this kind of result just doesn't happen again, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Yes, it sounds like they need some new technology or new

something there at the TSA. Thanks so much, Suzanne.

Well, Secretary of State John Kerry back in Boston where he is set to have surgery this morning on a broken leg. But a cycling accident in the French Alps reportedly has not kept Kerry from working. Elise Labott is live for us in Boston. What do we know that is going on there this morning, Elise?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, Secretary Kerry arrived here at Massachusetts General Hospital behind me late last night. He flew in on that C117 military transport plane with his surgeon who will be setting his leg in a surgery just a few hours from now.

But Secretary Kerry started the day by calling into this ISIS conference in Paris which he missed after he had that bike accident in Geneva. And he says he is adamant to get back to work. I think the State Department really trying to tamp down the idea that his injury is going to affect the nuclear Iran negotiations.

Secretary Kerry really trying to show that he is going to be resuming his work and hopes to be resuming his travel schedule. I am not really sure how realistic that is, because, as you know, Secretary Kerry broke his femur, a very serious injury. He had a hip replacement in that area just a few years ago, and also isn't a young man. So obviously no one questioning his determination and dedication, but it's going to be a long recovery, although I have to point out a few years ago when he was out with his hip replacement, he was up and at them before many people expected. So I think he's going to take the rehabilitation with a real seriousness, but it's going to take a long road. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Elise, thank you very much.

So a growing number of voters are expressing trust issues with Hillary Clinton. How do we know? A new CNN/ORC poll revealing a strike for unfavorable ratings for the former secretary of state. Her best known rival, though, is having challenges with his family name.

So let's get some perspective from CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny. Numbers are early but also they matter to show the trend, and what do we see?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No doubt, Chris. I mean, Hillary Clinton is still the driving force in this Democratic presidential race, but her shine tarnished a bit after the first two months of her campaign.

Let's take a look and break down some of these numbers. And 50 percent have an unfavorable view of Clinton. Now, that is the highest since any point since 2001. And here is why. Only 49 percent of people believe she inspires confidence. Only 42 percent of people say she is honest and trustworthy. And only 47 percent of people say she cares about people like you. These key indicators are all down significantly from March just before she announced her candidacy. On the Republican side, there are warning signs for Jeb Bush. More

than half of people say, 56 percent, say the Bush name is not appealing and his connection to his brother and his father make them less likely to vote for him.

Now, we haven't seen a Republican candidate break out of this crowded GOP pack, but the head to head match-ups with Clinton are significantly tighter than they were one month ago.

[08:10:00] She now only has a one point edge over Rand Paul. It had been 19 points. She has a three point edge over Marco Rubio, down from 14 points. And over Scott Walker she has a three point edge down from 22 points.

The reason is this -- independent voters are shifting away from Clinton at least for now, and support among some Democrats has softened. So this is a very good reminder, Alisyn, we don't know who will be facing off in the general election next year, but we almost certainly know this -- it will be a close race in a still very divided country. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeff, let's get some context on all of those numbers. Joining us to break them down are our CNN political commentators, Democratic strategist and co-chair of a pro-Hillary super PAC Paul Begala, and Republican strategist Kevin Madden. Gentlemen, great to see you.

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning. Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Paul, you can't be happy about these numbers that Jeff just laid out. I mean, it does show an erosion of support for Hillary Clinton, particularly the one I want to put back up about honest and trustworthy. Now she's a 42 percent. A year ago she was at 56 percent. How do you explain this softening of the numbers?

BEGALA: She has made one terrific mistake. She has run for president.

(LAUGHTER)

BEGALA: That's what is going on here. Come on. You get into a race -- she was, of course, the secretary of state and before that senator and before that first lady. She, and particularly at the State Department, achieved almost iconic status in being above politics. Now she's in politics --

CAMEROTA: So just to be clear, you don't think that any of this has to do with the questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation funding or her lack of answers to the press, not wanting to talk to them for a month, you don't see any connection?

BEGALA: I don't see any connection with stiffing the press. Sorry, I don't mean to be mean, but more politicians than the press.

CAMEROTA: Sure, but we are their conduit, so that if we're asking questions she is answering them to the public.

BEGALA: It is must less that than just the mere fact that is a politician. This is 50/50 country. I have said from the beginning this is going to be a very, very tough race. She is going to have a real challenge for his party's nomination, although that doesn't show in the poll yet. It will, and when it does let's not get our panties in a wad. Let's say, hey, Begala told us this several months ago. It is a tough country, it's a tough race, it's going to be very close.

Now, what you have got to do, though, is look at the other side as well, because this is a referendum -- it's a choice, not a referendum, right. So my job at the super PAC is going to be also say let's take a look at some things. What's interesting to me, Hillary has been pillaged, she's been hammered, and yes, her numbers are down. Jeb Bush has not been hammered, and yet one four people who were for Jeb already have now quit Jeb.

CUOMO: You have dizzied me and frustrated Camerota's efforts to ask you obvious questions that go to the fact that Hillary not answering this questions is hurting her if for no other reason that's she's not able to spin her own narrative. Kevin, what do you see in her side of the poll and in the numbers of your own, the bracketing that we see now as new.

KEVIN MADDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: First, the Democrat talking point that the e-mail controversy and some of the questions about the Clinton Foundation, money fundraising, that that is not having an effect on voters, that talking point is absolutely dead. More than anything presidential elections are contest of issues, absolutely, but they are also a contest of attributes. And when voters start to question things like trustworthiness, leadership, and ability to connect, that becomes a very big problem. That I think is what is happening to Hillary Clinton right now.

On the Republican side, I think what's starting to shape the race is this appetite for somebody new and appetite for somebody different. If you look at a lot of the candidates that are floating towards the top, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, these are names that are relatively new to a lot of Republican voters around the country. So they are starting to gravitate to these new numbers. And I think if you are in the Jeb Bush campaign, and Paul is absolutely right on this, you do have to start to stake a very hard look at the numbers and figure out what is your path ahead.

CAMEROTA: Kevin, I just want to stick with you for one second, because we are taking Paul's cue to redirect towards the GOP, so let's do that for a second. In this match-up, the person who comes closest to Hillary is Rand Paul. So she gets 48 percent right now, he gets 47 percent. But if you dig a little deeper, what is interesting is his lack of support with women. So there is another poll that shows that Clinton, and this makes sense -- let me show you first this. Support for Rand Paul, Republicans only, from men, 13 percent and women, two percent.

CUOMO: Six times.

CAMEROTA: Why that divide?

CUOMO: And then this is him versus Hillary and the gender gap there.

CAMEROTA: Yes, so obviously there you see Hillary gets a lot of support from women, that's no surprise. But he gets so much less, I mean, 39 percent.

MADDEN: Well, that's one of the challenges any Republican will have. If you have a Republican who is a male running against a candidate who is female, the gender identification will become a challenge for the Republicans --

CAMEROTA: No, there is something particular about Rand Paul.

MADDEN: Look, if you remember during his announcement, he had some very high profile, tough interviews with women reporters. And I don't think that sat very well with a lot of women voters.

[08:15:02] So, he definitely has his work cut out for him should he become the nominee.

COUMO: Begala --

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, sir?

CUOMO: If it's not just those interviews, and I am suspicious of that, what could account for it? Is it being libertarians tend to skew males? Is that what's going on here? I mean, what has Rand Paul put out there that would be rejected to this degree by one gender?

BEGALA: I think that's part of it. What I really want to see if we can get into the (INAUDIBLE) of Paul maybe after the show is the marital status.

The truth is, there is not so much a gender gap in America as there is a marriage gap. Married women tend to vote Republican, sorry, but they do. Sorry for my party.

Unmarried women, though, in overwhelming numbers, they vote Democrat. And it may be that Rand Paul is doing less well with married women, which is a Republican group. And it could be -- I think that in particular the strict libertarian philosophy that Senator Paul seems to espouse goes against a lot of the values, that a lot of the American women, even in the Republican Party has, that could be the thing, that the libertarianism, it's got some real appeals especially with young people, and particularly guys, but I think it may fall short with single women.

CUOMO: Begala, let me ask you a question -- in your uncoordinated super PAC with the campaign, if you were advising Hillary Clinton would you say not talking to the press is not working for her?

BEGALA: She's talking enough. It's not about you or the press, it's not about you, Chris. It's not about Alisyn. She loves you. She'll bake your cookies or something. But no, it's about voters. She's going to go and see voters. That's what she's doing. She is better in a small group meeting with voters than anybody I have ever seen. So, I would not push her out of her comfort zone into big rallies.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDEN: But, Paul, she is not meeting with real voters. She is meeting with prescreened voters in this very sterile environment that are totally manufactured photo ops. They're not the real, you know, go past the rope line, meet the voters, where they live, talk about the issues they care about. Instead, it's a scripted photo-op where Hillary Clinton looks like she is reading from notes.

And, again, the attribute problem I think is a big one for Hillary, and that she doesn't look authentic. She doesn't look like she connects with real voters, and as a result, that's where the trustworthiness deficit that she has right now. And it's going to be a problem.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Hey, Paul, here is a suggestion. We don't need cookies. She could just come on NEW DAY and talk to us.

CUOMO: She could make you cookies.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: A week ago or something, she was in Iowa and she took a bunch of questions from the press.

CUOMO: This is the place. This is the crucible of testing of --

BEGALA: That's true. Hillary, she watches every morning.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDEN: Every Republican candidate does that every day. And you make it like it's a big deal when she does it.

CAMEROTA: There you go. Paul, Kevin --

CUOMO: Madden needs a cookie. He's upset now.

MADDEN: I do.

CUOMO: I agree with Kevin.

CAMEROTA: Guys, thank you.

BEGALA: Come on NEW DAY, Hillary.

MADDEN: Great to be with you, guys.

CAMEROTA: All right. Great to see you.

Well, one of the Americans held hostage by Houthi rebels in Yemen is free this morning. This action comes after two Obama administration officials met with Houthi rebels last week to push for Casey Coombs' release. Officials say the freelance journalists is safe and in stable condition in the neighboring nation of Oman, but three other Americans are still being held by Houthi rebels. A State Department spokesman says the U.S. is still working to release them.

CUOMO: Some good news there. Now, we have incredible video to show you and it ends OK. An out of control car jumps a curve, hits that kid in Brooklyn. The video, who wants to see this? The boy survives, OK? You can see the car knock the tree on into the boy and runs over him, and that tree may have saved his life.

They are telling us there was room between the tires and the tree, and they lifted the car and the kid was OK, and he was taken to a local hospital but only has minor injuries according to the local stations.

CAMEROTA: They said he was able to walk afterwards and he was so little he sort of slid under the car.

CUOMO: Quick debate, how do you feel about that video?

CAMEROTA: Terrible.

CUOMO: I don't know that it is worth even the happy ending. It scares me too much as a daddy.

CAMEROTA: It is terrifying, but I'm happy that survives.

All right. Let us know what you think about that.

All right. Meanwhile, another story that we're covering. Violent crime is on the rise in cities across the country. What is behind this spike? And should you be concerned about it in your neighborhood?

We'll discuss all of that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Here is the fact. A deadly crime wave is gripping some of America's biggest cities, period. From New York to St. Louis, gun violence is surging. Homicides are surging. Proof: Baltimore just suffered its worst month for murder in decades. Milwaukee is up 180 percent, even New York that boasts a good job at homicide is up over 10 percent.

Why?

Let's bring in senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of "Are Cops Racist?"., Heather Mac Donald, and CNN political commentator, Charles Blow.

This story is getting tricky because it's becoming a discussion of why it isn't happening which could be more important than why is it happening, and this is going on because of the reaction to the recent cases and the animosity towards police and the pullback in policing. Do you buy that?

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it would be a strange twist of logic to suggest that that is a blow back to policing because the police are not the people who are subject to the shootings, right? So, If you were seeing the police being the victims of the rise in crime, then maybe you could make this argument.

But I think the conflation of protests with rising crime and criminality itself actually kind of defames what the protests were about, and I think -- in some cases, it's an intentional tactic.

CUOMO: But you are hearing it though. You are hearing people saying this is the result of it. Is there any basis for that in criminology or in fact about why crime is going up?

HEATHER MAC DONALD, SENIOR FELLOW, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: Well, Chris, first, let me say that the pernicious history of the police's involvement in racism and slavery and de jure segregation informs police community relations even today, and that's a history that's going to be hard to overcome.

But the premise of the Black Lives Matter movement that the police are the biggest threat facing young black males today is simply false, and the animosity directed at the police on the streets today is having an affect. Let me give you an example.

CUOMO: Please.

MAC DONALD: On May 4th in Baltimore, police got a call of a man on the street with a gun, they arrived at the scene, saw somebody who matched the description.

[08:25:01] He was hitching up his waistband as if he had a gun, took off running. His own gun went off, whether he fired deliberately to the police or not isn't known. He fell on the ground and started screaming that the police shot him, the bystanders started throwing bricks, Clorox bottles and water bottles at the police. Somebody lunged at him --

CUOMO: Yes, this was in Baltimore.

MAC DONALD: Exactly.

CUOMO: Reporters started reporting he had been shot by cops. Witnesses are coming up and saying it.

MAC DONALD: People started reporting, this was completely false.

CUOMO: Yes.

MAC DONALD: This is what police officers are getting on the streets when they try to engage in the necessary police behavior that is going to protect the law abiding, they are getting incredible blowback. And yes, I have heard from many officers they are reluctant to engage in actions that could be misinterpreted on cell phone cameras --

CUOMO: Or body cams.

MAC DONALD: Body cameras I am in favor of because I think --

CUOMO: But I'm saying, it's going to put it out there in a raw way that often context is lost --

MAC DONALD: But we need to have the entire context. But it's causing officers to second guess themselves and not engage in the discretionary policing that has brought crime down.

CUOMO: Whether or not that's true, let's assume for the sake of argument, everything you just said, it is true, I still think that it could just be as likely that crime is speaking for reasons that have nothing to do with it, failed economic policy, and your general evolution of different policies, whether they're gun policies or otherwise.

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. First of all, I think that saying that Black Lives Matter says that that movement is about the police being the driver of the problems in the black community is defamatory and you shouldn't say that.

CUOMO: It's not true because young black are the biggest threat to young black --

MAC DONALD: Nobody is saying that.

BLOW: You just said that --

MAC DONALD: Nobody is saying that young black men are the biggest --

(CROSSTALK)

MAC DONALD: If we could have the same protests for market --

(CROSSTALK)

BLOW: No, no, wait, I just listened. You talked for a very long time.

MAC DONALD: All right. Go ahead, Charles.

BLOW: So, that is defamatory to those people. What is happening and what people never talk about because the FBI does not collect this data and we do a horrible job of collecting data in this country in general is the correlation between concentrated poverty and criminality. And those do happen to overlap with black and brown communities.

But we don't talk about it. We go straight to the race question and say, that this must be something endemic to you because of the melatonin in your skin, the culture that is embedded in your community, that is the problem for you as a whole. And that is a problem, that is a racist pathology argument and we cannot make those arguments.

CUOMO: Right, but the issue --

BLOW: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

MAC DONALD: Nobody is saying that. Nobody is saying it's melatonin.

(CROSSTALK)

BLOW: Once you get down to the race thing, once you start to say that black men --

MAC DONALD: Who is making it a race thing?

BLOW: You just said -- you just said -- you said it.

MAC DONALD: These black men movement.

BLOW: You said black men are the biggest problem for other black men.

MAC DONALD: They are.

BLOW: And I'm telling you that what is the biggest problem for anybody is concentrated poverty, and if that overlaps with people who are -- who happen to be black or brown or whatever --

CUOMO: Well, you're not disagreeing with the premise. You're disagreeing with the rationale.

(CROSSTALK)

BLOW: Correlation is not causation. The race is not the cause. It is the concentration of poverty that is the cause. And you're making it a racial pathology argument.

MAC DONALD: The crime is the cause. Can I respond?

CUOMO: Charles -- absolutely. So, Heather, just to be clear, are you saying that you think that black men represent the biggest threat to one another because they are black or because something else?

MAC DONALD: Because they are criminals. It has nothing to do with a race, it's because a culture has developed in certain communities where people are being shot. I would like the same attention to be brought to bear on Marques Johnson, whose name is not known in New York and throughout the country, who was killed on March 11th, in St. Louis, a 6-year-old boy, by a stray bullet in a St. Louis park, the same day protesters were converging on the Ferguson Police Department demanding the resignation of the entire department.

Marques Johnson is as important as Michael Brown, but we rarely talk about the victims of black on black crime with the same intensity as we do necessarily when there is an unjustified police shooting.

That is a tragedy. But the political discourse is so weighted to look at only police shootings. In New York City, police have saved 10,000 minority males because of the drop in crime and that was brought about by proactive policing that went into the communities and looked at data where people were being victimized, race had nothing to do with it and responded to community requests for policing. That's what saved lives.

BLOW: Now, let me tell you --

CUOMO: All right. Make a final point because I got to wrap this up.

BLOW: Right. Let me tell you why people respond in that way. The criminals do not work for you, right? The police do work for you. The police are charged with serving and protecting. You don't want to be in the neighborhood where you have to be afraid of the criminals and the cops, right?