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New Details Emerge about Man Who Broke into White House; Interview with Rep. Mark Meadows; ISIS Continues to Expand; Forensic Link Between Two Virginia Cases; Democrats Hold Edge in New Generic Ballot

Aired September 30, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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


MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No one was able to tackle Omar Gonzalez during his run, no dog was released, and Chaffetz says the alarm inside the front door that is there to signal a breach apparently never sounded, silenced allegedly at the behest of the White House ushers who didn't like it making too much noise. So that guard may not have even known immediately there was a breach over the fence.

The Secret Service has had its officers show restraint in dealing with Gonzales, who was later found to have more than 800 rounds of ammo in his car and was arrested in July in Virginia with 11 guns in the car.

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, (R) UTAH: These incidents seem to be getting worse, not better. But to have such an epic failure from top to bottom really begs the question -- why did they decrease the number of trainings that were going on at the same time that the house was actually appropriating even more money? Why is it they tout the idea there's tremendous restraint by these officers? I want to see overwhelming force repel anybody who is trying to get into the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: You know, one day ago the story was that back in 2011, it took the Secret Service four days to realize and investigate that some shots fired out here had actually hit the White House. And then the Secret Service defended its actions here because this case is under investigation. They're not commenting. But we could see a wide range of tough questions for the director of the Secret Service today. Chris and Michaela?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Michelle, there's no question about that. I mean, there's reporting out there that it wasn't the Secret Service that discovered the bullets that had hit the White House, it was the housekeeping staff.

So let's get some perspective here. Let's bring in Republican Congressman Mark Meadows. He sits on the House Oversight Committee which will hold this morning's hearings to examine the Secret Service response to White House security breaches. You also sit on the foreign affairs committee, congressman. I'm going to ask you questions that are germane to both. Let's begin with the White House. How big a problem do you think you have with the Secret Service?

REP. MARK MEADOWS, (R) NORTH CAROLINA: Well, obviously we have a problem with leadership and training when we have an event like this. It shouldn't be harder to get into a Nationals playoff game than the east room of the White House. And so we need to address it.

CUOMO: And is this, in terms of what the fix is, what do you think the solution is here?

MEADOWS: Well, part of it is making sure that this security detail is indeed an elite security detail. All of us have believed that the White House should be the most secure place not only for the president but for the president's first family. And for this kind of event to be leaked out by whistleblowers is very troubling. We need the director to be honest and forthright today. Hopefully she will do that. But we need to restore the confidence of the American people and certainly for the first family.

CUOMO: When you talk about confidence and you talk about ensuring that you have the best of the best, the words "special operations" comes to mind. Is this a point in time to consider whether the Secret Service should be the detachment protecting the president. You have elite military forces. Should you be looking elsewhere?

MEADOWS: Well, the Secret Service and the capitol police are trained. They're budgeted to do this very act of protecting the president in the first family. It's not a lack of funds. It really is a lack of leadership as I see it.

You know, in the very press releases, it said they showed great restraint and discipline. Those two words combined in a press release that's put forth sends the wrong message. Really I see a lack on both of those areas. And what we need to make sure of is that they make decisions, not once, not twice, but over five times different decisions were made that put the first family and certainly those in the White House in jeopardy.

CUOMO: Let me ask you something, if you had to protect your life tomorrow, you knew the threat was coming and it was severe, who would you want to protect you, the Secret Service or SEAL Team Six?

MEADOWS: Well, obviously SEAL Team Six is a great fighting force, but they have two different missions. And the Secret Service mission is very clear. They're there to protect. They have a good history. We just need to refocus.

CUOMO: Right, because I'm just saying, as you're in that hearing today it's always nice to think about outside the box. You've been complaining about the Secret Service for a long time. There's been a big history of problems, the change isn't happening. Pierson is there for a year and a half. We'll have to wait to hear what she has to say. But solutions are going to be at the top of the order.

Let me ask you about two other big-ticket items this morning while I have you. The first is there's talk that Nancy Pelosi may talk to the Republican leadership about having a vote, bringing you guys back to D.C. to get debate and, you know, consensus on a plan for the war against ISIS, which, by the way, is already going on. Would you come back and debate and vote?

MEADOWS: Well, certainly that's not Nancy Pelosi's call. That's Speaker Boehner's call. But indeed many of us have already expressed a willingness to come back. The security of Americans is paramount. We're willing to be here, you know. I'm back for this hearing today. But that's certainly is not out of the realm of reasonableness.

CUOMO: Then why hasn't it happened?

MEADOWS: You know, really I think what we're looking at right now is Speaker Boehner, I don't want to speak for him, but working with the administration to make sure that we're there. And I know that Republicans are ready to come back and take a vote and have debate on what is best move forward with regards to Syria and ISIS and the American people's safety.

CUOMO: A little hypocritical, though? Do you think on one hand the Republicans are suing the president over his executive actions but you just gave him a pass on going to war without responsibility under the constitution that you have to declare war?

MEADOWS: You know, there was over six hours of debate. There's a number of ways that we look at this that we were debating before we left. As we've dealt with ISIS, you know the current strategy right now is air strikes with arming the Syrians. Certainly a lot of our generals and military folks want to make sure that we have a comprehensive plan. I'm committed to do that. I think a number of us are.

CUOMO: All right, before I let you go let me just get a quick take on the porn bill you're bringing up. You've introduced a bill to ban federal reserve employees from watching porn. Didn't know it was allowed. It's a good thing to know what my tax dollars are doing. Is the porn problem that bad in Washington that you need a bill?

MEADOWS: You know, I would hope that we wouldn't need a bill. But what we're finding is agency after agency after agency has issues with this. It's something that I'm hopeful that the agencies will take up on their own. But if not, then certainly Congress is willing to act and look at that because, like you say, you didn't know that it would be even legal to do that. Simply blocking those sites and making sure that the American taxpayer get their money's worth is what I'm all about.

CUOMO: Well, Representative Mark Meadows, I look very forward to the debate on that bill. It will be very interesting to see if anybody opposes it. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. We look forward to what happens in the hearing with the Secret Service.

MEADOWS: Thank you so much.

CUOMO: Over to you.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris, thank you so much. We have new details in this morning about the surge of ISIS in Iraq. Police in Baghdad telling CNN the terrorist carried out several attacks Saturday on Iraqi army patrols and checkpoints south of the capital. Several Iraqi soldiers were killed.

We turn to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She's here with the very latest. Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. ISIS by all accounts now making key advances on two fronts. In Iraq, the reports are that ISIS has now been fighting within five miles south of Baghdad. That puts them essentially in walking distance of the Iraqi capital in Syria. Now in northern Syria the town of Kobani near the Turkish border, ISIS said on the advance there said to be very close to taking that town. If they do take that town, this will be a major issue. It will give ISIS free reign across northern Syria from their self-declared capital of Raqqah all the way to the Turkish border. That puts them up against the southern flank of NATO of course, Turkey being a member of NATO. It also puts them within range of the smuggling route, foreign fighters often coming into northern Syria from Turkey.

There have been some minimal U.S. and coalition air strikes in northern Syria in that area. One of the key questions is -- why is the coalition not going on the offense against all of these ISIS positions? Why are there not more air strikes? The dynamics on the ground appear to be now ISIS can move faster than the U.S. air strikes can catch them. Michaela?

PEREIRA: Thanks for the latest on that, Barbara. Later this hour we are going to get the very latest on the air strikes and the fight against ISIS from Pentagon Spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby. Stick around for that. Right now, though, let's turn to John Berman who has got the headlines of the day.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A rare glimmer of positive news for Democrats with five weeks to go before the mid-term elections. This is according to our brand new CNN/ORC poll. Likely voters were asked their choice for Congress in November, and 47 percent picked Democrats, with 45 percent choosing Republicans. That is a six-point swing for the Democrats since the U.S. began its air campaign against ISIS in Syria. A majority of Americans now have more confidence in president Obama than Republican lawmakers when it comes to the ISIS war strategy, that by a margin of 48 percent to 41 percent.

But the issue that matters most to voters is clearly the economy. About two out of every three Americans say it is more important to them than any military action.

Thousands of protesters in Hong Kong standing their ground, jamming city streets and refusing to back down, that despite repeated requests to leave. A live look right now. Look at the crowds. The chief administrator in Hong Kong says China will not give in to protesters' demands and urged people to clear roadways -- they're clearly not -- listening, saying they might pose a risk to public safety. Nearly 60 people have been injured in violent clashes with police as the protests started over the weekend.

A terrifying moment in South Korea after a sight-seeing ship runs aground with 109 people aboard. A 171-ton ship did not sink. Everyone on board was rescued. The accident of course brings back vivid memories of April's ferry disaster with more than 300 people died. Most of them, you'll remember, were school children.

The long-awaited security pact between the United States and Afghanistan is now a done deal. Both sides signed the agreement at a ceremony in Kabul this morning just a few minutes ago. About 10,000 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan to train, advise, and assist Afghani security forces beyond this year. The deal was repeatedly delayed by now former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

So Chelsea Clinton's newborn baby girl, Charlotte, is now at home. Here they are, leaving the hospital. That's Chelsea along with Charlotte and her husband, Marc. There are also a couple of people behind them. Well-wishers on the New York City sidewalks, people were yelling congratulations to the happy family.

Looking ahead, the baby's schedule includes sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating, and probably more sleeping and eating.

PEREIRA: You forgot something kind of important in there, involving diapers.

BERMAN: It's implied.

CUOMO: And only gentle cries in the beginning, growing to ear- piercing capacity in no time at all.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Did you get to the point where could you change the diaper with one hand?

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Don't forget, I had two at once. I had two at once. So I could change two at once, sort of.

CUOMO: Is that true?

BERMAN: I can hold one down and --

CUOMO: That's not the same.

BERMAN: With the other hand. But I cannot change two at once. But I could begin the process.

CUOMO: In a television-friendly version, tell Michaela, what's the most important thing to do when changing a diaper with a baby boy.

PEREIRA: Trust me --

BERMAN: Coverage. PEREIRA: Coverage. I have 10 nieces and nephews, I know that only

firsthand, or at least back away.

CUOMO: That is very high on the list of things I never learned the first time well. Same mistake repeated thrice. Parenting, it's all good. Just bad for the laundry.

We have startling new details in the disappearance of UVA student Hannah Graham. The man suspected of abducting the 18-year-old has now been linked to a previous murder case. We'll have the details.

PEREIRA: We also gave you some poll results. What about this question -- how do Americans feel Congress has handled the situation with is? We're going to crunch own more of the numbers. We'll take you INSIDE POLITICS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIL HARRINGTON, MOTHER OF MORGAN HARRINGTON: They've got plenty of time to sort it out and make sure that this is indeed the person who killed Morgan Harrington and who is responsible for the disappearance of Hannah Graham -- which is really paramount. I mean, we know where Morgan is. Morgan is in a box over there. Hannah Graham is still missing and her family needs to know where she is. We need to bring Hannah home.

(END VIDEO CLIP

PEREIRA: That was Gil Harrington, the mother of Morgan Harrington. She is the Virginia Tech student who was killed in 2009. You hear her there expressing concern about Hannah Graham; she is the UVA sophomore who has -- went missing more than two weeks ago. Now, a forensic link has been found between Harrington's murder and the suspect in Graham's disappearance. It really could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Want to bring in Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic scientist to help us walk us through all of this. Good morning. Nice to see you again, Larry.

LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Good morning, good morning.

PEREIRA: Thank you so much. We want to tap into your forensic mind and help us understand this. This is your world; it is not ours. A forensic evidence, forensic link. Give us an idea of what falls under the scope of forensics here.

KOBILINSKY: Well, generally, when you have crime, you try to link a suspect to a victim or a victim to a suspect or a crime scene. That linkage is very critical. You can usually do it through physical evidence. Sometimes --

PEREIRA: Give an example. Like clothing?

KOBILINSKY: Well, physical evidence, clothing, hair, fibers, trace evidence, soil. It could be anything. But nowadays we rely a great deal on DNA. It's the gold standard. And it's one of those tools that we can use to directly identify a suspect by looking at evidence.

PEREIRA: It sounds as though this case, and perhaps even Harrington's, will hinge largely on forensics. Give us an idea of the pressures that crime scene investigators will face when they come to a scene, not knowing what they're encountering, perhaps.

KOBILINSKY: It's a good point.

PEREIRA: There's a lot of pressure on them, right, to make sure that that is all locked down?

KOBILINSKY: Sure. The evidence collection team now, let's say, has a search warrant. They go to a vehicle, or a home, as is in this case. And they have to collect evidence, something that will help them solve the crime.

What are they looking for? Well, they're looking for a hair brush, because there's hair evidence. They're looking for a toothbrush, DNA evidence. They may be looking at clothing because of trace evidence on clothing. If you find evidence of the victim on the suspect's clothing, that's a linkage. For example -- and this may be the case here -- there may have been hair foreign to the victim, Miss Harrington, found on the body. That hair, if you have nothing to compare it to, doesn't lead anyplace.

PEREIRA: That's a good point. But when you suddenly do get --

KOBILINSKY: That's right. When you go to a home and you find a hair brush, now you have hair; you can do a mitochondrial DNA comparison and establish a linkage. And I believe that that may be what happened here.

PEREIRA: And all of this takes a great deal of time and patience. We in the media are always looking for answers and obviously the families desperately need answers and are hoping to still find their child alive. But this kind of thing is meticulous, slow work.

KOBILINSKY: It is meticulous, slow work. We are getting better at rapid DNA analysis. You can do a nuclear DNA analysis in about 75 minutes now.

PEREIRA: Oh, interesting.

KOBILINSKY: But it does take time. It takes patience. But, at the very end of the game, you have a linkage between suspect and a victim.

PEREIRA: Now speaking of time, though, we look back at the timeline -- Morgan Harrington disappeared in 2009. We're talking five years ago now. Time is such a factor. Talk to us about DNA and forensic -- all of these forensic -- do they degrade over time? Is there a concern about evidence degrading?

KOBILINSKY: DNA is pretty hardy, but still in all, under the right conditions, it will degrade. Now we have a national database. We have the national system, the state system; the local labs have a part of this database. There's even a database for missing individuals. Apparently there was no match, no linkage, given that this Harrington murder case happened in 2009. So many years have elapsed and there was no linkage to a suspect. So it really had to wait until a suspect turns up in another case, which is the Hannah Graham case. And here we have the search warrant, evidence and a linkage established, perhaps.

PEREIRA: I'm curious how you look at all of this -- and even some of the other cases that our Mel Robbins was saying -- there are missing women. There are missing cases. These are cold cases -- well, not even -- some of them, well, they're cold, essentially. These women are still listed as missing.

As a forensic scientist, what does that bring up in your mind? What do you start thinking about and concerning yourself with?

KOBILINSKY: Well, you know, people ask is there such a thing as a perfect crime? Sure. Any crime that's not solved is the perfect crime. But this looks to me like a cluster. Law enforcement looks at clusters. And that could mean that one or a small group of people may have perpetrated these crimes with whatever motive.

And so if you solve one, you might have an inroad to solving the others. There's already a linkage between the Harrington murder and a sexual assault that took place four years earlier. I know Jesse Matthew has been accused of rape back in 2002. I think this is an example where the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. And it's the physical evidence that's going to do the linkage.

PEREIRA: It's interesting that you choose the word cluster. A lot of people are wanting to use the word serial. You make a distinction there?

KOBILINSKY: Well, not necessarily. It could very well be serial; it could be copycat. It could be individuals that just happened to be in the same location. But I think cluster, what that means is things are happening in a geographical location, that could imply that there is one individual that is perpetrating all these crimes.

PEREIRA: Bottom line, in that area of Virginia, along Route 29, there are women that are missing, there are women that are being killed. This is a concern. We want to keep our young women safe. Obviously that is the paramount concern here.

Lawrence Kobilinsky, always a pleasure to have you. Thank you --

KOBILINSKY: Thank you.

PEREIRA: -- so much for letting us tap into your brain.

KOBILINSKY: My pleasure.

PEREIRA: We appreciate it.

All right, turning to the debate over combating ISIS; it is stretching into the political campaign season. Candidates are using the issue to try and bring down their opponents. The question is will it work? We'll ask John King. He'll explore that in INSIDE POLITICS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: All right, 26 minutes past the hour. A lot of stories happening in the news today. John Berman is taking a look at it. Obviously we've been watching the situation at the White House, the intruder, the story develops each day.

BERMAN: Changes outright. "Develop"'s a nice way to put it.

The armed Iraq war veteran who jumped a White House fence earlier this month and broke into the executive mansion made it a lot farther inside than the Secret Service admitted. It turns out that 42-year- old Omar Gonzales overpowered a guard and made it all the way into the East Room before he was subdued. That is a much different story than we were initially told. Secret Service director Julia Pearson will be grilled about the breach and the changing story at a closed House hearing in less than three hours.

A fiery warning about ISIS and Hamas from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, the prime minister said the two organizations are both branches of the same poisonous tree. Both, he says, bent on world domination through terror. Much, he says, like the Nazis. The prime minister went on to tell the United Nations that Israel's fight against Hamas and the U.S. war against ISIS are part of the same cause.

The head of the FAA ordering a 30-day review of its emergency plan at agency facilities. This comes after the fire that snarled air traffic in Chicago and caused a ripple effect nationwide. The review will be coordinated with two unions representing air traffic employees. The FAA hopes to have the Chicago area center fully operational by October 13th. That's still two weeks away.

A junkyard inferno now extinguished in the Miami area. Look at that fire. More than 100 cars torched in this fire on Monday. Fire crews say a welder working at the junkyard when the fire started. Firefighters had to deal with thick black smoke and the danger that the stacked burning cars could just topple over. Luckily, no one was injured.

PEREIRA: Just a reminder, those guys -- every call they get, a little bit different than the last one.

CUOMO: Big challenges there too. Boy, so much flammable stuff, such tight areas to get in and out of. Thank you, John Berman.

Time for some politics. Let's take you INSIDE POLITICS on NEW DAY with Mr. John King.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Chris, Michaela, Mr. Berman, good morning. From car wrecks to politics, that's a pretty good segue, I would guess, right? Five weeks to Election Day. Let's go INSIDE POLITICS; some important new polling to discuss this morning. And with me to share their reporting and their insights, Julie Pace of the Associated Press, Ron Fournier of "National Journal".

Let's start with these brand new numbers. Democrats are going to like them; Republicans will probably say, oh, it's an outlier. But look at this. Democrats now on our generic ballot, you ask -- this is a national poll -- you ask Americans "Who do you plan to vote for, for Congress?", Democrats right now with a two-point edge. They were down, if you look to earlier in the month, the Democrats were down four.

I assume, Julie Pace, that the White House still think this is a good sign. They think, if anything, the Democrats could (INAUDIBLE) -- this is not like folks, it's not like Democrats or Nancy Pelosi is probably not going to be speaker. Democrats are probably not going to pick up Senate seats. But those better numbers five weeks out tells you something about this volatile climate.

JULIE PACE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yes, absolutely. And I think to have the numbers hit now, at a time when most Americans are going to just start tuning in to this mid-term election -- I mean, we have to be honest, a lot of people have not been paying attention for many months -- is good for Democrats, if they can try to capitalize on some this momentum.

I think one of the challenges for the president, though, over the next couple of weeks, is going to be what does he talk about? You know, as we get deeper into the poll, there's going to be questions about national security, about the Islamic State group. But for a lot of Americans, it's still the economy and what kind of message can he send on the economy over the next couple of weeks I think could be key to whether the Democrats pull this out or not.

KING: So let's look a little deeper. Forgive me, but let's look a little deeper before we get into. Because of the shift, Democrats now with a slight edge in what we call the generic ballot for Congress, is all because of men.