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Trader Joe's Recalls Cashews; Is Trump's Appeal to Evangelical Voters Authentic?; Levinson Family: Weren't Told About Prisoner Swap; Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith to Boycott Oscars. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 19, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:21] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A splinter group of the Taliban is claiming responsibility.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, expected to be front and center during the governer's State of the State address tonight. Governer Rick Snyder acknowledging the situation in Flint is a quote, disaster, and admitting it is fair to call this his Katrina. The mayor of Flint will be in Washington today hoping for more help from the White House beyond the federal emergency declaration.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: For TJ fans, something you need to hear about Trader Joe's recalling a specific lot of raw cashews over salmonella fears. A supplier advising the grocery chain that its raw cashew pieces marked with the code on your screen, it may be tainted.

TEXT: TRADER JOE'S RAW CASHEW PIECES: BEST BEFORE 07.17.2016TF4

PEREIRA: Trader Joe's says no one has reported getting sick but they are asking people to have these packages with that code, come to your TV to look, to throw those throw cashews away or return packages to the store for a refund.

BERMAN: Donald Trump with a bit of a misstep on the campaign trail, flubbing a bible reference while trying to court evangelical voters at Liberty University. Listen for yourselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Two Corinthians, 3:17. That's the whole ballgame. Where the spirit of the Lord, right? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, some people see Trump calling the bible verse two Corinthians instead of second Corinthians as a sign of a disconnect between perhaps his real knowledge of the bible and his professed knowledge of the bible. So, does this appeal to evangelicals come across as maybe inauthentic?

Joining us now to discuss, columnist for "The Daily Beast", Patricia Murphy, and political correspondent for "The New York Times," Patrick Healey. Two Corinthians versus second Corinthians, Patrick. Is this it? Is Donald Trump completely sunk now?

PATRICK HEALEY, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I don't think it's time to go home yet. He has an outreach challenge here, especially in Iowa. He's looking hard to go at Ted Cruz. He needs every vote as possible, especially peeling off some of those Ben Carson supporters who are seen as potentially soft and up for grabs. So everything that Donald Trump does to reinforce the notion that he's not one of them, that as Ted Cruz says, he's this guy from New York and what does that mean, is a problem. People's ears are tuned to what candidates are saying right now.

And saying, two Corinthians, is going to probably reinforce for, at least some evangelical voters, OK, this guy's not one of them but if he's still saying the things we want to hear, that probably is more important.

CAMEROTA: Well it did reinforce it for Bobby Jindal, a previous rival of his. Patricia, listen to what Bobby Jindal had to say about this flub.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: You may have recently heard and seen that Donald Trump said that the bible was his favorite book. Yet when asked he couldn't even name a specific or a single bible verse that was important to him, that had an impact on him. Well do you know why? It's clear, Donald Trump's never read the bible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Oh, sorry, that was from September. I thought that he was referring to this, but it's the same category of, is he an authentic bible quoter? Patricia --

PATRICIA MURPHY, COLUMNIST, THE DAILY BEAST: Yes, well I think that this reinforces what we've known about Donald Trump, that he's not a big bible quoter. He's probably not a guy who hangs out at church every Sunday and goes to bible readings on Wednesday night. I think that's baked into the cake for people looking at Donald Trump right now. And the fact that that video is from September, he's been making these mistakes all along but he's still winning among evangelicals nationally so I think he's meeting a threshold for some evangelicals, in fact, most evangelicals, in these national polls. Can he actually deliver those votes in Iowa? That's the biggest question. There are about 60 percent of people in Iowa, the caucus-goers say that they're evangelicals. Can he combine his message and his organization to get those peopleto caucus for him and win? I think that's the wild card here.

BERMAN: The truth is, evangelicals are a big voting bloc but they don't necessarily all vote on bible fealty.

HEALEY: That's right.

BERMAN: And Patick, you've been out in Iowa. You've seen the effort to recruit voters of all stripes right now. How are evangelical voters being courted on the ground there?

HEALEY: Right. The Trump people are going out and saying, OK, these are the issues that Donald Trump cares the most about in terms of immigration reform, doing immigration kind of the right way. Putting border security first, not citizenship or amnesty. Looking at protecting the borders from Muslims coming into the country. They're going to voters and they're saying, here's a guy who doesn't just talk the usual political babble. Here's someone you can trust. Is he necessarily someone who you're going to see at your church every week? No. But he's a leader who says what he believes, who is taking positions that are about as conservative as you're going to get in this race. And for a lot of people, that's the authenticity that matters. It's not what has his history been in his particular faith. They're not looking at Donald Trump as sort of the preacher figure Mike Huckabee was or that they might have seen in Rick Santorum. That was never part of his appeal and to be fair, that's not what they're selling about him in Iowa.

CAMEROTA: Patricia, we can debate all these philosophical issues all day long but at the end of the day, it's about the ground game and who you're going to get out to the caucuses. So, does Donald Trump have a ground infrastructure in place in Iowa?

MURPHY: We know he does not have the kind of infrastructure that Ted Cruz has, especially with evangelicals. Ted Cruz has a pastor in every county who is reaching out to other pastors in those counties to speak to their congregations, to get them to come out for Trump in a way that doesn't cross over into the land of actually what's actually not legal. He has a weekly prayer chain for Christians who can sign up on his website. He has an incredible ground game there that's designed to deliver evangelicals.

Donald Trump has what we know are going to be a lot of new caucus- goers. He also has a lot of new volunteers. I think that's specifically a problem for Donald Trump. The volunteers that he has out there, many of them have not caucused themselves, are not doing the traditional types of follow-up that we would see people following up with caucus-goers the way they have in the past. Will it matter? Do you have to be out there doing retail politics? Do you have to have a ground game if you're a celebrity like Donald Trump? We'll find out in two weeks.

BERMAN: The other guy who was seen as having a good ground game in Iowa over the last couple months is Ben Carson. And Patrick, you brought up Carson right now. And look, his campaign is nowhere near where it was in November so there are some voters there who may be right for the choosing. Do they want that religious figure? Can Carson identify more with that or do they want the outsider, which also Carson identifies with?

HEALEY: That's absolutely right, John. And Trump is going to the parts of Iowa where they see Ben Carson voters being particularly strong, in terms of going to Western Iowa, Northwest Iowa, they very much see these voters up for grabs, partly because these voters are moving away from Ben Carson through doubts but they still want an outsider. They don't necessarily want someone from Washington. They may not be necessarily sold on a Ted Cruz or certainly a Marco Rubio who's in the senate.

They see Donald Trump as someone who is going to be sort of a fresh voice in the system. Whether he's able to sell that, though, goes quite to the ground game. He doesn't have the same organizational strength as a Ted Cruz in Iowa.

CAMEROTA: Less than two weeks away, it will be fascinating to see what happens in the next two weeks. Patricia, Patrick, thank you very much.

MURPHY: Thanks so much.

CAMEROTA: Michaela --

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. While the families of those freed American prisoners celebrate, another family is left agonizing over the fate of their loved one. Former FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran nine years ago while on assignment. His family feels betrayed. We're going to speak to them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: One American notably missing from that prisoner swap with Iran is Robert Levinson. Levinson, a retired FBI agent and CIA contractor went missing in Iran nine years ago. His family demanding answers. Why wasn't he part of that deal and where is he?

Joining us now are Christine and Daniel Levinson, Bob Levinson's wife and son. It's nice to have both of you here. I know these past few days have been very hard for your family. Of course you're happy for the other families and them being reunited with their loved ones but you say you feel betrayed, Christine, by the U.S. government. How have they betrayed you?

CHRISTINE LEVINSON, WIFE OF ROBERT LEVINSON: Well first of all, they didn't let us know that this had happened. I was with my daughter at her house and another daughter called up and told us that this had happened and we turned on the TV and found out it was true. No one had gotten in touch with us and let us know this was happening.

CAMEROTA: You wanted to be kept in the loop, of course. You are looking for information about your loved one. Dan, what have they told you about where they believe your father is?

DANIEL LEVINSON, SON OF ROBERT LEVINSON: They haven't told us much, especially since this happened over the weekend. We had that one phone call and we haven't heard from them since. We are expecting to hear from top administration officials. We would like to meet with President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and others to hear what are their next steps? What is their plan to get my dad home? Now that everything else has been done, everybody has won. The nuclear deal happened, Iran got what they wanted. They had sanctions lifted, they had Iranians come home. The U.S. has gotten the Americans home and the only people who are suffering is my family at this point. My dad, he's over there, it's been almost nine years. He's suffering an unimaginable nightmare and he was the only one of these Americans who was over there serving his country. What does that say about how the U.S. government treats people who are over there abandoning them even after they've been serving our country?

CAMEROTA: We just had deputy secretary of state, Tony Blinken on, and he said that they are working on this and that they're doing all they can. Let me play for you what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLINKEN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: I genuinely understand how they feel and if I were in their shoes, I suspect I'd feel exactly the same way. All I can add is, we have done everything we can. We will continue to do everything we can to find him and bring him home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Christine, why are you shaking your head?

C. LEVINSON: That will never be enough. He's not home yet. And this case has been going on for almost nine years now.

CAMEROTA: But do you believe they've done everything they can? When he says, we've done everything we can we continue, do you believe that?

C. LEVINSON: I, no. Because he's not home yet. If they had already done everything they can, he would be here with us.

D. LEVINSON: Here's what's particularly troubling to us. After -- we have been hearing this for years and years and we want to believe them and we have no choice but to, but I have seen a media report that says that when the U.S. government was negotiating these people -- the other Americans' released, they gave them a list of names and my father's name was not on there. And if that is true, if those reports are true, then that would be absolutely devastating to us, because they willingly abandoned him and left him behind. And I can only hope that they are really doing everything they can. President Obama has promised that. Secretary Kerry has promised that. But it hasn't given us results. We've been hearing this for years and years now.

CAMEROTA: In 2011, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that you received a proof of life video, as it's called, of your husband. Let me play just a little snippet of that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT LEVINSON: 33 years of service to the United States deserves something. Please help me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Christine, I know that that's terrible to watch. He doesn't look well.

C. LEVINSON: No.

CAMEROTA: What makes you sure that he is still alive?

C. LEVINSON: I just know in my heart that he is alive and trying to figureout some way to get home to his family. And of course we'll never stop searching for him and trying to get him home. And I want him to know that, especially if he can see this. We love him. We miss him every day and we want him home safe and sound. He needs to be strong.

D. LEVINSON: At the same time, the government officials we've spoken with have told us there's no evidence to suggest that he's not alive. So, of course, and they're operating under the assumption that he's alive. So why wouldn't we? People who had suggested that he wasn't alive years ago, this was before we got the video, before we got pictures six months later. So why is this any different now?

CAMEROTA: When we talked to Tony Blinken, the deputy secretary of state, he said we don't even know if he's still in Iran. He said it twice. Do you believe that he is still in Iran? Why does the state department have doubts?

D. LEVINSON: We believe that the Iranian government certainly knows where he is. He was picked up on an island and it's very unlikely he's still on that island. The Iranians picked him up, which the reports in the state media said so, they could easily move him across the country, they could move him across the border of Pakistan, Afghanistan, so it's a very porous border. So that's a possibility, of course. But we are certain, and the U.S. government believes that Iran knows where he is exactly.

CAMEROTA: Your daughter wrote in a CNN article that your family's at the breaking point. What do you plan to do now?

C. LEVINSON: Well, the first thing is get meetings in D.C. I've been trying to get meetings since late November and haven't been able to do that.

CAMEROTA: And what have they been telling you?

C. LEVINSON: Nothing. That's why I'm trying to get meetings.

CAMEROTA: So in other words, your e-mails, your phone calls are going unanswered?

C. LEVINSON: I have had a couple of phone calls but nothing -- but I have not had face-to-face meetings which is what I'm looking for because you can't talk over the phone the way you can talk to a person in person.

CAMEROTA: Who do you want to meet with?

C. LEVINSON: I want to meet with President Obama, Secretary Kerry -- I would like to meet with Susan Rice. I'd like to meet with director Comey, John Brendan at the CIA, everyone who is involved in this case.

CAMEROTA: Dan -- D. LEVINSON: Everyone and anyone. And the fact that we still haven't heard -- the state department, it would have been nice to have heard from them before we did this interview and heard anything, but the one phone call we've gotten since was the apology that we hadn't been warned ahead of time. Nothing since, nothing about what's going on, nothing about the next steps. We're desperate for answers. We're really going to push hard and we're not going to go away. They need to know we're not going to go away.

CAMEROTA: We know that. Dan and Christine, your family are in our thoughts. Thanks for sharing all of this with us and of course, we'll follow every step of the way.

D. LEVINSON: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: Let's give it to Michaela.

PEREIRA: Alisyn, imagine just not knowing for that long. All right. Another story that we're watching out of Hollywood, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, director Spike Lee, both taking a stand, taking a stand against the academy awards saying they're going to boycott the ceremony over the lack of diversity among nominees. The academy is now responding. Will this protest spur change?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: For the second year in a row, black actors, any actor of color, has been shut out of Oscar nominations. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith and director Spike Lee are now calling for a boycott of this year's Oscars in protest. In response, the president of the Academy of motion pictures announced that the organization is taking drastic steps to try to address the problem.

I want to discuss this with "Entertainment Tonight" host and CNN contributor, Nischelle Turner, and CNN political commentator and Op Ed columnist for "The New York Times", Charles Blow. Great to have you both here. First of all, Nischelle, I can imagine that it's been a lot of the talk in Hollywood there and you had a chance to hear from lots of people.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

PEREIRA: I understand there are people that don't think a boycott's the right way to go.

TURNER: Well yes, I mean, news flash. Black actors aren't monolithic people. There are a lot of people that feel differently about this. I think that the general consensus, though, Michaela, is that everyone does believe this is a problem, that it is an issue, more so a bigger issue in Hollywood than just in the academy, but there are a lot of people I spoke with, actor Courtney B. Vance over the weekend, who said, he does not think a boycott is the way to go. He thinks that you need to keep pushing forward, keep doing the work, and that change will come, but staying away from the Oscars itself, he doesn't believe is the solution to the problem. PEREIRA: Charles, Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith announcing that boycott yesterday on MLK day, a powerful statement in and of itself, are you expecting to see more actors coming forward and supporting their boycott?

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, it's an interesting question and kind of tricky for them. This is, they're part of this system. You can look at it two ways. One is a boycott by the actors themselves who might show up. Will and Jada and Spike are in a position where they can easily do this and it won't be that big of a deal for them because they're big names. If you're a young actor, I don't know how you would negotiate this. It could be career suicide.

The other thing though, there is, the actual viewers, like me. The moment that the wars were announced, I thought, I'm not watching, because none of the films that I saw that I thought someone would be nominated and I could cheer for that person, well they're not nominated. It just (ph) help and it's not there. "Beast of No Nation" is an amazing film and it's not there. I think that Will did a great job in "Concussion." I think, "Creed" is an amazing film even though, and it's written and conceived by Ryan Coogler, and I'm thinking, of the films that I saw, my people are not there. But I think it's an even bigger issue than that. If you look back over the kinds of films where black actors have been nominated, it's kind of a very narrow lane where it's, race as either a historical phenomenon or a current sociological phenomenon.

PEREIRA: You make a good point. I'm going to interrupt you because "The L.A. Times" had an excellent Op Ed about the very fact, Nischelle, that many of the films that are nominated are more about white men overcoming adversity and it speaks to the very topic that many people feel is at stake here, is that the gate keepers, the people that green light projects in Hollywood or don't green light projects in Hollywood, that's where the diversity issue is paramount.

TURNER: Well I think that speaks to the bigger point that Spike Lee was trying to make yesterday when he said listen, there needs to be diversity at the decision-making table because that's where it starts. And that's when I say things like, there's a bigger problem, an overall problem in Hollywood with diversity because the decision makers usually look alike. And so maybe it's not an issue of outright racism or trying to keep black people off of the screen or out of the awards ceremonies. It's more so, when you're green lighting projects, you go to what's familiar.

But let's be honest here, Michaela, it's not joust just Hollywood. How many times have we had this conversation about this industry? So it's in a lot of different areas. The decision makers, the people who make the decisions who are at the table need to look like society and if they don't, then you're not going to get that reflection in whatever area you are in.

PEREIRA: Well it's interesting, we saw, and I want to pull up the statement from the academy president -- hold on Charles --

BLOW: But that is in fact what structural racism looks like.

PEREIRA: I think Charles can't hear us. I want to pull up the statement from the president of the academy. "I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation. It's time for big changes... We need to do more, and better and more quickly." Look, I'm curious what you think, Charles, they can do. We know that there is a black host in Chris Rock. I'm curious to see how he's going to handle things. We know there's a black producer of the actual telecast. And there's a black president of the academy. What else can be done?

BLOW: Right. So the pace of change is going to be slow. There's 6,000 plus members of the academy. They vote privately. So you're not going to know how they're voting but they're really homogenous. They're almost all white. They're mostly male and they're very old. And unless you are saying to us you are going to remove some of the seated members of the academy and replace them with other people, which what they're not going to do, that's not going happen, this idea of pace of change is going to be slow because they have new classes of voters. Last time, I think the biggest class they had, I think, was 400 plus people and it was slightly more minorities but I think it was something like 20 of that 400 were black or minority. And I'm thinking, if that is the pace of the change, it's going to be really, really slow.

PEREIRA: Well Charles, I'm going to guess that the three of us will be having these conversations more in the coming days. Obviously it is something --

TURNER: Can I be in Miami next time where Charles is?

PEREIRA: You might be able to be in Miami. We can maybe make that happen.

BLOW: This is amazing. I feel so badly for you guys.

PEREIRA: You feel badly for us. All right. If you want to get in on the conversation, join us, tweet us at NEW DAY or post your comments on facebook.com/newday. All right, following a lot of news, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We're going to protect Christianity. Two Corinthians, 3:17. That's the whole ball game.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ronald Reagan did not spend the first 60 years of his life supporting democratic politicians.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we need is a sensible, achievable agenda.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well guess what? That inevitable candidate ain't so inevitable today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These three men finally were able to spend some time with their friends and family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One American was notably absent from that prisoner swap with Iran.

BLINKEN: We've been engaged with the Iranians to work to find him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions of Eagles fans are remembering Glenn Frey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has certainly lived a rock star's lifestyle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: There you go, some Eagles tunes for you. Every single song is a hit --

PEREIRA: And a memory.

CAMEROTA: And we know all the words to it. I know. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, January 19, 8:00 in the East. Chris is off this morning. John Berman joins us. Donald Trump looking for redemption after a slip on the campaign trail. He stumbled while citing the book of Corinthians at the evangelical Liberty University and now he's looking to right the ship, courting more religious voters at three events today in Iowa.

PEREIRA: His main competition there, though, Ted Cruz trying to convince voters that he is the real conservative in the race, urging them to dismiss Trump's claim, he's the next coming of Ronald Reagan.