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NEW DAY

Amber Alert Manhunt; Swiss Hot Air Balloon Crash; Crash Landing at LaGuardia; Interview with Sen. Chuck Schumer; Immigration Reform Stalled; McCain: Morsy Ouster Is A "Coup"; President Obama Will Attend G-20; Usher Swimming Pool Accident; Heart For Hits?; Own A Movie Icon

Aired August 7, 2013 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everybody. It is Wednesday, August 7th. I'm Chris Cuomo.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. We are here with news anchor, Michaela Pereira.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone.

BOLDUAN: Coming up in the show, New York Senator Chuck Schumer joining us live here in NEW DAY. We're going to talk with him about everything from immigration to what we should do about Russia that's ahead.

CUOMO: Plus, this is a situation you don't want to be in. Locked in a coffin and dropped from a plane at 14,000 feet. No, it's not an accident. It's on purpose. You are going to meet the daredevil who pulled off the feat. A lot of news this morning to tell you about so let's get to Michaela right now.

PEREIRA: Something pretty emotional. Some breaking news that we're watching as a house of horrors comes tumbling down. Live pictures of the demolition happening with Ariel Castro's house, the house of horrors, the man who kidnap three young women holding them captive for nearly a decade. In a symbolic move, Gina Dejesus' aunt took the first hit on that house. She had a little assistance in operating the crane, really a symbolic move and really a beautiful move.

Another victim, Michelle Knight, there she is. She arrived with balloons that she handed out to neighbors. It's not really clear what the city of Cleveland is planning to do with the land once the home is torn down, but that effort continues today. You can imagine it is quite an emotional scene.

Concern for the well-being of a California teen and her little brother who police say were taken after their mother was murdered. Police are looking for this man, James DiMaggio. There is the alleged abductor. The children's father making a desperate plea to DiMaggio, a former close friend saying I'm begging you to let my daughter go. You have taken everything else. Then to his missing 16-year-old daughter Hannah he said, if you have a chance, you take it. You run. Authorities in Switzerland investigating a hot air balloon crash that killed the son of a wealthy American family. The 55-year-old Grant Adamson died in the crash. The balloon was carrying he and his family when it crashed into an electric power line during the attempted landing. Adamson's wife and children were air lifted to a hospital with life threatening injuries.

The pilot to that Southwest Airlines plane that crash landed at New York's LaGuardia Airport swap controls apparently less than 400 feet off the ground. That last minute cockpit switch is move that experts say is unusual. The NTSB did not reveal the captain's explanation for it. We are told it was the captain's second flight into LaGuardia.

And finally a cardboard cop is fighting crime at a Cambridge, Massachusetts subway station. The cut out features the image of a real life Boston Transit Officer David Silent. The station is having problems with bike theft. Since this cardboard officer went on 24- hour duty, bike thefts apparently are way down. The officer is glad his cut out is helping. So his fellow officers can concentrate on more serious crimes. Getting the job done.

BOLDUAN: He's scary.

PEREIRA: He's imposing. Even as a cut out.

BOLDUAN: That's pretty good.

CUOMO: Only solutions to the tough issues as a cut out. All right, let's talk about a tough situation here. Immigration reform seems hopelessly stalled in the House. Now it is not clear not only when, but if the House would even pick up the bill. New York's senior Senator Chuck Schumer is one of the "Gang of Eight" working for immigration reform. He joins us now. Senator, welcome to NEW DAY.

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Good morning. It's great to be here. This is the nicest set I have been on in any morning show in all the 30 years I have done politics. It's very nice.

CUOMO: High praise.

SCHUMER: It's really nice. Has that New York touch.

CUOMO: So let's talk about immigration reform. You have been working very hard for it. Your friend, colleague in Congress, Mr. Boehner says let's not do one big bill. Let's break it up so people can get what they want. Why doesn't that make sense given the fundamental opposition involved? Half of you say it's about getting people out. Half of you say it's about helping people stay in. Why not do it his way?

SCHUMER: Well, we would much prefer a big comprehensive bill, but any way that the House can get there is OK by us. I actually am optimistic that we will get this done. I have had a lot of discussions with various members of both parties in the House. Things are moving in the right direction. The initial reaction was the House isn't going to take up any bill. That would have been very bad -- no bill.

Now they are doing it in pieces. A couple of their pieces are very similar to our bill on agriculture and high tech, letting high tech people in. Others are going to be different, but if we can get together at the end of day and compromise, that will be a good thing.

You also have this August you have very conservative parts of our country lobbying heavily, lobbying Republican House members. You have the high tech industry. You have all the chambers of commerce that always go against Democrats. You have the Catholic Church. You have the Evangelicals. You have all the big farmers.

CUOMO: Maybe a rationale though for smaller bills. The reason I'm coming back to it is your party has been stuck on we want one big bill. We want one big bill. So it's interesting to hear you say you would look at smaller bills. That would be something you would go for?

SCHUMER: Well, if they pass individual smaller bills they will get agglomerated as we go to conference at some point. I'm not dictating to the House what they should do. Look, there are certain bottom lines for us. We do need some kind of path to citizenship. We do need to reform the broken system. That's the issue here.

Everyone except for a small few on the hard right who want to do nothing knows the system is broken. Here's what we do. We kick people out of the country who create jobs. We let people cross the border who take jobs from Americans. It's backward. Whatever bill we end up with is going to fix that.

Now at the end of the day, you're going to see and I think a lot of our Republican colleagues are realizing that what we did in the Senate is a lot closer to what they think. They say no amnesty. Well, we sure don't have amnesty.

BOLDUAN: Senator, let me ask you about another developing situation I know you have been watching closely as well. Your colleague, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, they have been on the ground in Egypt. While there very significantly they say this was a military coup. They also are warning that maybe Congress should be pulling that $1.5 billion of aid to Egypt annually. Do you believe this is a coup because the administration continued to avoid saying it?

SCHUMER: I agree with the administration. John and Lindsey are among my best friends. I talked to them while they were over there. As you know we have worked together on many issues. But democracy is a complicated thing, if 51 percent of the people vote to take away all the rights of 49 percent of the people that's not democracy. And to try and get some semblance of real democracy, I don't have much faith in Morsy.

I think he took away lots of people's rights. He tried to do this exclusively the way he wanted, which you can't do in a big diverse country like Egypt. So I am hopeful that the military people who are in there don't want to stay. That they want to set up something that's going to work better so I would not be precipitous in (inaudible). I don't agree with him.

CUOMO: Do you agree with the administration about what to do with Russia -- go in there and do the G20, kind of taking a slap in the face.

SCHUMER: No. I think, well, look, the number one thing we can and should do -- and I urge the administration to do it is not have the bilateral one on one talks with Mr. Putin. What's the point?

BOLDUAN: Do you get a sense that the president will reconsider that at this point?

SCHUMER: I do. I get a feeling they are looking at it seriously. Look, Putin doesn't deserve the respect after what he's done with Snowden. He goes out of the way to stick a knife into the United States. I know what he's doing. I mean, he's trying to make Russia a big power again. But there are good ways and bad ways to do it. Good ways, builds up the economy, create freedom and strength.

Bad way, step on somebody else's back. That's what he's doing. To show him respect at the bilateral talks makes no sense. I would reiterate my call to the administration. Go to the G-20. I wish they hadn't but that depended on a lot of allies who were skittish. The bilateral summit with President Putin is a decision we can make alone. We should pull it.

PEREIRA: What do you want to see done with Edward Snowden? Do you think we're going to see him ever here in the states?

SCHUMER: Well, I hope we will. You know, whether you agree or disagree with Snowden's outlook on things he's not doing this the right way. He's a coward. He's consorting with Russia, Ecuador and China, countries that have fewer rights and freedoms and rights of privacy than we do. You know, the great people at the time who did passive resistance, of course, Martin Luther King and Ghandi, but even Daniel Elsburg. They stayed here. They made their case and took a trial to try and make it. Snowden is a coward.

PEREIRA: His father says he doesn't think he's going to get a fair trial.

SCHUMER: Well, if you don't believe America has fair trials you are different 99.9 percent of America. I don't agree with him and I don't think hardly any American agrees with him. He will get a fair trial and he'll get a chance to make his point better than slinking away in Moscow.

CUOMO: Another situation that people wanted to discuss that's been pushed back from the party is what happened in Benghazi. Now without getting into details of Benghazi because it's controversial and frankly we don't know enough of them yet even though we did a great special last night here on CNN about it.

SCHUMER: Of course.

CUOMO: Do you see that the provocation of talking about Benghazi may have well help us make smarter earlier decisions with the threats this time with 19 embassies and consulates closing. Do you believe that that is a good precipitate of talking about Benghazi?

SCHUMER: Well, I certainly think that, you know, the State Department was being super cautious given the information we found. I agree with their decision to close the embassies because when it comes to terrorism I'm a New Yorker. We have experienced it. You can't be too careful.

CUOMO: Lesson learned?

SCHUMER: I don't know if you would say lesson learned. As you know, there were indictments. I can't talk about them. They are classified. But the really next step here is to go after the people who did this bastardly act. And that's what the administration is doing. I think there's been a lot of discussion about Benghazi, a lot of fingers pointed. What most Americans want is what the administration is doing and that is bring to justice the people who did the act.

BOLDUAN: Regarding this latest threat though, the president has said that we have al Qaeda on the run. But does this latest threat show the statement was premature and we under estimated the strength of al Qaeda and its affiliates?

SCHUMER: You know, al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan has been decimated largely by the drones. Now we are focusing attention on Yemen, which is al Qaeda via the Arabian Peninsula, which did this. I think give us a little time and they will be decimated as well. You know, we are very good at figuring out what the terrorists are doing and thwarting the plot.

I don't know if this is the case but often times they will announce we heard about this and if it stops it from happening dead in its tracks maybe that's why it was announced. We are doing a good job. Al Qaeda has to flee to other nations. Yemen is a lawless nation so they can hide.

BOLDUAN: There is criticism on the president on that that he was premature. Do you think it's unfair?

SCHUMER: The president has been tougher than anybody else. Remember, George Bush would not let the drone go into Pakistan and al Qaeda flourished. The president did and terrorism is way down. He is pursuing the same tact in Yemen and I think it's working.

CUOMO: So one of the things that changed a little bit of the complexion of the campaign for then Senator Obama was when he was pushed in an interview to say, yes, if Pakistan doesn't do what we need to do we'll do it ourselves, very provocative.

SCHUMER: And he did. He followed through on it to the benefit of everyone in America. We're safer because he did it.

CUOMO: I remember that because I was the one asking him. Senator Schumer, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY. SCHUMER: It's nice to be here. Good luck to your success.

BOLDUAN: All right, coming up next on NEW DAY, singer Usher's 5-year- old son recovering in an Atlanta hospital this morning after getting sucked into the drain of a swimming pool. We'll tell you his prognosis and also things you need to know about that very dangerous threat in your backyard.

CUOMO: Listen up, we'll see if we can get Senator Schumer into the pot, the Powerball jackpot now $425 million. Think about how you could help New Yorkers.

BOLDUAN: You're not a betting man.

SCHUMER: I never win.

BOLDUAN: Then you're not allowed in the pool. I'm sorry.

CUOMO: You wouldn't be here now.

SCHUMER: Hope springs eternal.

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BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. A terrifying swimming pool accident at the home of R & B superstar Usher to tell you about. The singer's 5-year-old son trapped under water after getting sucked into the pool's drain. The child is now recovering this morning in a hospital.

CNN's Tory Dunnan is in Los Angeles with the very latest. What is the latest, Tory?

TORY DUNNAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, police say that Usher went to the hospital to be with his son right after this near drowning. The boy's mother is also telling CNN that he is doing OK. Investigators are saying that at this point they have to reason to believe there is any criminal aspect to this case. One thing is for sure, this is every parent's worst nightmare.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: Is he breathing?

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Is he breathing?

DUNNAN (voice-over): He is music superstar Usher's 5-year-old son.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: He's breathing.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: All right, stay with me.

DUNNAN: The frantic 911 call was placed by the boy's aunt in Atlanta. Police say Usher Raymond V fell to the bottom of the pool where he became stuck in the drain.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 OPERATOR: What's the status of your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Yes, my nephew was in the pool. He went -- I couldn't get him. I tried to get him.

DUNNAN: That's when police say two contractors working inside the house came to the rescue.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: They got him out now doing CPR on him.

DUNNAN: Police say the child was alert, conscious and breathing when taken to the hospital. Connecticut mom, Karen Cohn, knows the terror all too well. Six years ago, her 6-year-old son, Zac, drowned in a pool train accident.

KAREN COHN, THE ZAC FOUNDATION: Once you're stuck it's 450 to 900 pounds of pressure.

DUNNAN: Karen and her husband started the Zac Foundation to increase awareness, teaching the ABC and Ds of pool safety.

COHN: And then D for drain safety. A is, you know, for adult supervision and B is for barriers around bodies of water. C is for classes.

DUNNAN: Like the ones that teach CPR, which may have saved Usher's son. Sadly the mega star can also relate to a loss of a child. It was just last summer that his 11-year-old stepson died after a boating accident. The singer spoke about the tragedy with Oprah. Less than a year later, one of his other sons is recovering from a pool accident that could have been much worse.

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DUNNAN: From 1999 to 2011, a report shows that there were 106 victims of what's known as circular entrapment. So to put all this into perspective, breaking the suction of drains can feel like lifting 500 pounds. So, experts say it's really important to have one of these anti-entrapment covers to go over the pool drain that cost about $20 or so. Another thing to point out, Kate, it's unclear exactly what safety measures may or may not have been in place at the pool where Usher's son nearly drowned.

BOLDUAN: All you can wish is that he is recovering this morning. Thanks so much, Tory.

CUOMO: Remember that, if you have a pool, it probably has a drain on the bottom. That is the dangerous one. That is the cover that bubbles up. That's what you have to remember.

BOLDUAN: The flat surface that creates the suction.

CUOMO: That could be the risk. Just remember, if you have a pool, check out your drain. If you don't have bubble ones and you have kids, think about. It's pretty cheap replacement.

All right, it's 10 minutes to 8:00 here on the east. Coming up on NEW DAY, you remember this house?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: Anybody, anybody? This is the house from Fers Bueller, you wouldn't want it after that fall unless you're a great body man.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: That's what people say every time. Welcome to NEW DAY, everyone. It's time for the Pop Four with our Nischelle Turner, but we are so short on time. We can only get the best of the two.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Our number one, well, actually, we have a number two story today, Taylor Swift finally admitting that she only wants to date you if she can write about it. The country star told "Rolling Stone" is the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.

CUOMO: Sounds like a song itself.

TURNER: Exactly. That is a country song. Taylor Swift, keep those lyrics, courtesy of Chris Cuomo.

Number one story this morning, did you ever want to live in Cameron Frye's house? The iconic home from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is on the market. The house has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, 4,300 square feet and can be yours for $1.5 million. I'll come to your house --

BOLDUAN: You come with it? That is worth 1.5.

TURNER: By the way, guys, Mama's in. Mama's in. I got five on it. Not winning the jackpot.

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY, President Obama talks about the global terror threat and his advice to you if you're vacationing abroad.

CUOMO: You're looking at live pictures as demolition crews continue to tear down the house of horrors in Cleveland. One of Castro's victims was there this morning handing out balloons. We'll go live, back to Cleveland.

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