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NEW DAY

High Point For Hillary Clinton?; Bergdahl, Feinstein Calls Out Kerry; California Chrome Controversy; Manhunt For Escaped Prisoners

Aired June 9, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. Here's a look at your headlines. What drove a married couple to murder three people in cold blood including two Las Vegas police officers? Authorities say the suspects had extremist views toward law enforcement. Those officers were shot while they were sitting, eating lunch. A third person was gunned down at a nearby Walmart before the couple took their own lives. Police say the two had a suicide pact.

Breaking overnight, 28 people are now dead. Dozens others injured in an attack in Pakistan's busiest airport. That assault began late Sunday night at the international airport in Karachi. Ten of the dead are militants who stormed the cargo area with guns, grenades and suicide vests. Pakistani Taliban said it carried out the attack as retaliation for an American drone strike that killed their leader.

Comedian, Tracy Morgan's publicist says that he is showing signs of improvement following a car crash, but remains in critical condition after that deadly highway crash this weekend in New Jersey. Comedian, James McNair, known as Jimmy Mac was killed in that crash. Three others were injured when police say a tractor trailer slammed into their limo. You can see how mangled the wreckage is. The truck driver, 35-year-old Kevin Roper is due in court today.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: What a terrible situation. The pictures of that thing.

PEREIRA: It's really hard to look at that vehicle.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: If you've ever been in a limo, do buckle up.

PEREIRA: Or even just those vans.

CUOMO: You have to. Weeks in the hospital, that's more than broken bones. We wish Tracy Morgan well.

All right, a lot of intrigue going on in politics. We've been telling you about it all morning. So let's get deeper "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with Mr. John King. It doesn't get deeper than you.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Well, it doesn't get more fun than this week because we've got, I don't know if you guys have noticed, Hillary Clinton, she wrote a book? BALDWIN: She did? Get out of here.

CUOMO: Is she going to run? Is there any speculation?

KING: We don't know. We're going to try to figure that out right now. With me this morning to sort through those tea leaves, Maeve Reston of "The Los Angeles Times" and Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times."

Let's start, Secretary Clinton is doing a whole series, a huge media blitz. This is a very well choreographed roll out. Diane Sawyer of ABC tries to get her to say when will you tell us for sure about 2016?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I will be on the way of making a decision by the end of the year, yes.

DIANE SAWYER, ABC: But probably not announced until next year?

CLINTON: I'm not positive about that, but I think, you know, the way I make decision, that's probably likely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I'll be on my way to making a decision by the end the year. She insists, Meg, that she's not freezing out all the Democrats if Governor O'Malley of Maryland wants to do something or Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado wants to do something, go for it. Get out there. Parallel universe, no Democrat can do anything, right?

MAEVE RESTON, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": Exactly. The entire world is frozen. But I do think she has the luxury of time here because of the infrastructure that's been built over the Clinton dynasty will spring up around her. And she's got, I mean, that's the real issue, the donors are frozen on the sidelines.

KING: Donors, staff, the whole Democratic armada as moved into --

RESTON: Right.

KING: Armada is a hard word for it. The question, Jonathan, people are looking for, does she say anything in the book or anything in this roll out that gives a hint, I have to say she's leaning in. It's a point-by-point rebuttal of criticisms as her time as secretary of state. It's her point-by-point of things she did wrong in 2008. She is very honest saying I made a mistake in the Iraq war. I regret it.

She wouldn't say that in 2008. She tries to be a little more human. The polling numbers for her right now are off the charts. ABC in conjunction with that interview conducted a poll with "The Washington Post," 69 percent of registered Democrats support her nomination. This is interesting to me, 58 percent of registered Democrats want a challenger. So they want her to earn it.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Those numbers are better than what they started with in '08. Keep in mind, she started pretty well in '08. I think your point, in the intro, John, is key. Yes, the content is striking in terms of how cautious she is, in terms not wanting unduly anger anybody. To me, what is more telling in the words in the book is what she and her staff are doing for the so- called rollout.

People in public life who have their careers behind them, do not do these kinds of orchestrated pronouncement and leaks for weeks and weeks. They just write the book and it comes out and they go on tour. This is not a book tour. It is an organized campaign frankly ahead of a campaign.

RESTON: It's good practice for her. She's been at this for a while. To your point, I mean, the idea, I think some of her people think it would be helpful to have a challenger on the lap to sharpen her up the way Barack Obama did. A lot of her answers are wordy and long. She's got to kind of get back in it.

KING: I also think she hopes -- I'm assuming she runs, I believe she's running unless something happens, that she's going to answer a lot of these questions about her record, about the criticisms about the so-called negatives are baggage in 2014. And if a Republican brings it up in 2016, if she's a nominee, she says, I want to talk about the economy. I want to talk about the challenge Americans are facing at home.

That's one thing her husband did brilliantly when he was running for president and one of the controversies will be about the Clinton machine as you said, the Clinton dynasty. Bill Clinton when he left the White House made a lot of money giving speeches. Hillary Clinton since she left a foggy bottom. The State Department making a lot of money giving paid speeches. Diane Sawyer asked her why she needs all that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We came out of the White House, not only dead broke but in debt. We had no money when we got there. We struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education. You know, it was not easy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Fourteen years later -- and it has been 14 years, that's the striking part to me. Look, the governor of Arkansas when Bill Clinton didn't get paid a lot of money. The president now gets paid $400,000. She gave up a lucrative law career to be the first lady. So there's no question they could have been making a lot of money in the private sector. They also had a lot of legal bills. I remember it wasn't just the Clintons, their staff.

RESTON: And by bringing that up, that's actually interesting that leads the conversation back to Whitewater. But at the same time, that's a way for her to sort of connect with the average voter who is struggling to put their money for their mortgages together. And she's been floating in the very elite circles for quite some time now and she is going to have to do a lot of that showing people how she can relate, you know, saying she's been through the same kinds of struggles that other Americans have.

MARTIN: One of the critiques that I hear from the left, is the fact that Hillary is giving speeches, but she's appearing on Wall Street, talking to some of these firms when they just don't need the money that badly. You hear that critique over and over again. Why would see --

KING: It more likely be a challenge from the left than in the general election?

RESTON: Yes, exactly. I mean, this will certainly come up, I mean, how the Clintons have made their money. The connections to donors overtime and that will be explored in depth.

KING: Let's move on to the Bowe Bergdahl controversy. I was struck yesterday for the second Sunday in a row, the administration has sent out one of their heavy hitters. Last week, it was Susan Rice. She said Bowe Bergdahl served with honor and distinction and she was panned for that.

This weekend, it was Secretary of State John Kerry, doing an interview with CNN's Elise Labbot. Listen to John Kerry here. There's been a lot of concern to release these five ranking Taliban, former commanders. A lot of people worried there aren't a lot of restriction on them. John Kerry says don't worry. We got this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: How confident are you that the Qataris are able to keep a close eye on these guys?

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: They're not the only ones keeping an eye on them.

LABOTT: The U.S. is monitoring them?

KERRY: I'm just telling you, they're not the only ones keeping an eye on them and we have confidence in those requirements. If they're violated then we have the ability to do things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: But listen here on "Face The Nation" yesterday morning on CBS, Diana Feinstein, a Democrat. The question wasn't even specifically about this and she brought it up to Bob Schieffer saying, sorry, John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: So there are concerns over, and I heard John Kerry this morning say, don't worry about them in Doha. You can't help but worry about them in Doha.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Democrats, Democrats not just Republicans going out of their way to essentially question the credibility and the candor of top Obama administration officials. What does that tell you about how deep this ditch is?

RESTON: I mean, that's very deep. I mean, it's interesting that we don't have a lot of the facts about this deal and what the assurances are. I mean, in that interview, Kerry was very vague about what would be done to monitor these prisoners who have been released. So I think, you have an opening, certainly, Democrats are talking about it, and Republicans to argue, are we safer, is the Democratic administration makes us safer by not telling us how we're going to watch these guys.

MARTIN: I think it's the natural result of what has been six years of frustration among Democrats on Capitol Hill towards the Obama administration in terms of information and flow. On a really sensitive issue like this, I think you'll see a lot of those frustrations spill over.

KING: Maeve Reston, Jonathan Martin. Thanks for coming in.

One more footnote we want to make, guys. The Texas Republican Party has its convention over the weekend. It was an interesting event. One of the things they did was they passed language saying the state should not pass a law, any law, that bans so-called reparative therapy. Those very conservative participants in the Texas Republican Convention making their case that they believe that if you are gay, you can get counseling or some sort of therapy.

You see there, we recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients see seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle." Interesting to me, you know, half the country now supports a constitutional amendment allowing gay marriage.

It will be interesting to me because you have Ted Cruz, Kate and Chris, you have Rick Perry, the governor of Texas thinking about running for president and the statement from the very conservative Republican convention. It's not a state wide ballot, but if they run for president, does this follow that?

CUOMO: Well, I hope so, I guess. I think whenever you're having any litmus-type test on a social issue like this, you want people to be pushed to say exactly where they are on it. I have to tell you, that's going to be very troubling to people. I don't know, John, you'd know better than we do, how do you spin that in a way that's close to neutral?

KING: I think they said delegates at the convention said it, we see candidates all the time, Democrats and Republican presidential candidates run from pieces of their party's national platform. What it means when standing on a debate in Iowa, New Hampshire, somewhere else, the question comes up. That's the question for Republicans do we want to keep talking about gay rights or problems with demographics. Young people, for example, I don't think would like that language.

CUOMO: Young people? I think it would go broader. Who still thinks that homosexuality is an illness?

BALDWIN: There are --

CUOMO: I don't know. Hopefully, we turn the corner on that. John King, thank you very much.

BALDWIN: I wasn't correct him. The other Bolduan on vacation.

Coming up on NEW DAY, a daring escape leads to a massive manhunt after a prisoners uses a helicopter to get away.

And a brazen prison break. Not the first of its kind. Find out what authorities are now telling the public.

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CUOMO: California Chrome is back on the west coast and on the mend after suffering a nasty hoof injury at the Belmont Stakes coming out of the gate, his gutsy bid to capture the Triple Crown overshadowed by fiery comments by co-owner Steve Coburn. This morning, Coburn is refusing to back down. You could say he's doubling down after calling who defeated his horse coward.

CNN's Richard Roth joins us with more. He's obviously disgruntled, Richard, but he's really taking his case.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris. I think there are some in the horse racing industry who really don't mind some controversy because people are still talking about the Belmont and racing, for a sport that has dwindled in public attention. However there are some anger and disappointment in the racing industry about Steve Coburn's post-race rants with handicappers rating him a sore loser.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH (voice-over): California Chrome is back home on the west coast this morning, after a flight from New York. The horse left Belmont Park with praise for his performance in the Triple Crown. Co-owner Steve Coburn will not depart New York this morning with the same respect from the racing establishment.

Seconds after California Chrome finished tied for fourth, his co-owner blasted competing horse owners who skipped the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness to gain in his view an advantage over a tired California Chrome in the Belmont. The third race in the crown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a coward's way out in my opinion. This is a coward's way out.

ROTH: He didn't back down from post-race assault on Sunday.

STEVE COBURN, CALIFORNIA CHROME CO-OWNER: Hold out two, and come back and run one. That's me like me at 6'2", playing basketball with a kid in a wheelchair.

HANK GOLDBERG, ESPN SPORTS: It's beyond the imagination that somebody could say something he said this morning, about being able to beat, you know, a physically challenged person in a basketball game. I mean, where did that come from?

ROTH: Horses can skip the Derby and Preakness for various reasons, including time to recover from injuries. Even the 77-year-old trainer of California Chrome did not support the accusations.

ART SHERMAN, TRAINER FOR CALIFORNIA CHROME: Horses aren't cowards and people aren't cowards. You know what I mean. I think it was out of text myself. He was at the heat of the moment.

ROTH: But Coburn keeps bringing the heat saying if he ever gets back in the Kentucky derby with the horse.

COBURN: We'll run in Kentucky and then the hell with the rest of them.

ROTH: So it's now going to be 37 years since a horse won the Triple Crown. Only 11 horses the last Affirmed have won the crown. The test of endurance winning three races of different distances in just five weeks is why it's horse racing's greatest yet elusive achievement. Coburn got cheers from some of the 100,000-plus people at the track Saturday. Most racing observers would probably like to wave goodbye to this upstart owner.

GOLDBERG: It's a shame. I think a lot of people in the racing business just wish he would disappear right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: Coburn wants only horses entered in the Kentucky Derby to be allowed to be entered in the Triple Crown races. However, some of the elite in the Triple Crown overcame new shooters in the Belmont. Seattle Slew beat seven other horses who never ran in the Derby or Preakness to win the Triple Crown in 1977. And even Medal Count on Saturday finished ahead of California Chrome and he ran in the Kentucky Derby.

BALDWIN: Quickly, do you think what he said was fair? You're a big fan of racing for years?

ROTH: I think it possibly stages a debate on whether the races are held too few days between, but I don't want to tamper with history. One racing analyst said are you going to change the Triple Crown of baseball now.

CUOMO: And you make a strong point in'77 the Triple Crown winner went against similar odds and in '78 Affirmed went against somewhat similar odds. So to be a great horse, you have to overcome great odds.

ROTH: I don't think any horse owner wants to win the Triple Crown with a softer schedule, so to speak. I think they want to go against history. CUOMO: Richard made a great point in his piece, people are still talking about this. That's unusual in horse racing. We're going to keep it going because it's worthy of the discussion. We'll have California Chrome's assistant trainer, Alan Sherman, he's been on NEW DAY before. He's going to give his take on the comments by the horse's co-owner and what he thinks happened and what should happen next.

BALDWIN: Richard, thank you so much. Meantime, coming up here on NEW DAY, a made-for-Hollywood prison escape. You heard about this? Three inmates now at large after fleeing in a helicopter and, get this, the second brazen chopper escape there in just over a year. The details coming up next.

CUOMO: Choppers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: How about this one this morning? This massive manhunt is under way for three men who pulled off this stunning jailbreak in Canada, escaping in a helicopter after brazenly touching down in the detention center courtyard. All three of these guys on Quebec's top ten most wanted list as the search effort expands. CNN's Alexandra Field is here with the latest. Alexandra, good morning.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brooke. This is the third day the police are searching for these three men and while it was clearly a very well coordinated escape, the more concerning part for Canadian officials is the fact that it is not unprecedented.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): A daring jailbreak out of a Canadian prison in Quebec where three prisoners managed to escape with the help of a helicopter. Believe it or not, it's the second time in just over a year they've seen a brazen helicopter jail escape. According to police around 7:45 Saturday night, the three inmates fled the jail climbing into a green-colored helicopter that briefly touched down in the prison courtyard and quickly took off heading west, possibly toward Montreal.

SGT. GREGORY GOMEZ DEL PRADO, NATIONAL POLICE OF QUEBEC: There's a massive hunt with our partners, not only in Quebec, but also in Canada and the states, so everybody is giving a hand to find them as quickly as possible.

FIELD: Two of the escaped inmates were arrested in a drug bust in 2010 and were awaiting trial. Police aren't revealing too many details about the investigation for fear the escapees are monitoring the media. Not only does it sound like a scene ripped from the pages of a television script, but this latest dramatic escape mirrors one that unfolded in Santro Prison also in Quebec just 15 months ago.

When two men posing as tourists hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot at gunpoint to swing down and hoist up two inmates with rope in broad daylight. Within a few hours, police had those escapees and hijackers in custody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: While police are searching for those three men, they're also still searching for the helicopter that they took off in. At the same time they're talking to prison officials trying to figure out how exactly the inmates were able to pull this off.

BALDWIN: Find the helicopter, find the guys, right? Alexandra, thank you.

CUOMO: It does suggest a larger criminal enterprise. Logistically not easy.

Coming up on NEW DAY, a couple goes on a deadly shooting spree in Vegas and kill two police officers who were just having lunch. Today we're learning about their disturbing motive or really just a straight up sickness. We're live in Las Vegas with the latest.

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