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NEW DAY

Army Chopper Crash: 7 Marines, 4 Soldiers Missing; Jurors See Tsarnaev's Bloody Note; Could Iran Use GOP Letter to Scrap Nuclear Deal?; Is OU Doing Enough to Combat Racism?

Aired March 11, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We are following breaking news. Seven marines and four soldiers now missing after their Black Hawk chopper went down during a night training exercise. This happened near Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. Search and rescue crews finding some debris in the remote stretch of beach.

The cause of the crash still unclear, there was dense fog. We're being told there was weather conditions this is a live look at weather conditions in Pensacola right now. We will keep you updated on this breaking story.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And new fallout from the letter sent by 47 Republican senators to Iran, warning against any nuclear deal with the U.S. The White House expressing concern that hardliners in Iran could use that letter to scrap an agreement. Meanwhile, it appears the GOP letter may have violated a federal law, the Logan Act, which dates back to 1799.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: It's believed Russian hackers attacked the State Department email system. Officials say it happened over the course of the past year. They say it is the worst ever hack attack against a federal agency. The suspects are also thought to have been behind attacks on the White House email system and against several other federal agencies.

CUOMO: Do you remember how the song "Blurred Lines" couldn't came out and said it kind of sounds like Marvin Gaye? Well, you know what? You are right if you thought that. The family of Marvin Gaye says justice was done. They had a copyright suit over that song. The 2013 hit "Blurred Lines." Los Angeles jury found Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, too similar your song to Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Gotta Give It Up", awarding Marvin Gaye's family $7.4 million.

Here are the two songs, you be the judge.

(MUSIC)

CUOMO: What do you think? Attorney for Pharrell said they're considering an appeal, full

disclosure.

What do you think?

PEREIRA: It's going to open Pandora's Box, isn't it, when you think about it.

We had the discussion in the makeup room this morning. There are so many songs that automatically make your ear think or your brain think of other songs in the atmosphere. I feel like this is going to be the beginning.

CAMEROTA: I mean, there's sampling, that's a real thing that happens. But this went beyond that, it sounds like.

CUOMO: First of all, you have all of these new license agreements that they use for sampling to avoid this situation. But this may be an issue of how much cowbell there is.

CAMEROTA: Never too much.

CUOMO: The cowbell test as Christopher Walken would talk about. Should they have use more cowbell and they could have avoided this.

CAMEROTA: I think yes.

PEREIRA: Sound off. We would love to hear what you think. Twitter, Facebook, you know how to race us.

Meanwhile, a bloody bullet-hole-ridden message scrawled on the inside of a boat could be the key to a conviction in the Boston marathon bombing trial.

CNN national correspondent Deborah Feyerick live from Boston this morning -- Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, prosecutors really believe that's a confession, sworn out by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev when he was hiding in the boat in which he was found.

However, his lawyers say no, it shows the ramblings of a fragile man under the influence of an older, radicalized brother. And the defense wants to show the jury not just the note, but the boat in its entirety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): After Tsarnaev's capture, a Boston police bomb technician sweeping the boat for weapons and explosives discovered the note. Punctured by bullet holes and streak with his blood, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev believed his dead brother had reached paradise.

"I'm jealous of my brother," he wrote, explaining God's plan for him was to stay behind to "shed some light on our actions." Tsarnaev references the mujahedin, "You are fighting me who looks into the barrel of your gun and sees heaven. How can you compete with that?"

And in his words, a possible motive, "We Muslims are one body," he writes, "you hurt one, you hurt us all."

Tsarnaev's writings on the boat arguably, one of the most critical pieces evidence in a trial with so much evidence, it is stored in a warehouse the size of two football fields. More than 30 witnesses in four days have testified so far with potentially dozens more expected to take the stand.

Judge George O'Toole Jr. yesterday dismissed court early to see the boat firsthand, accompanied by lawyers from both sides. The judge deciding whether prosecutors can show jurors cut-out panels of the boat containing only Tsarnaev's writings or whether Tsarnaev's lawyers will be able to show jurors the entire boat, bullets, blood, writings and more, into the complete look into the mind of an admitted terrorist now fighting for his life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And Tsarnaev's defense team was able to make inroads yesterday. They actually challenged some Twitter posts that had been entered by the prosecution. The prosecution says that also points to guilt and motive in terms of his actions. But the defense said the majority of the tweets in fact dealt with girls and school and studying and even getting stoned.

And so, when they asked the FBI agent whether he looked at all of them in their entirety, the FBI agent said, "No, only those the prosecutor asked me to."

So, interesting, it was the first time the defense really challenged any of the witnesses, certainly in a meaningful way -- Michaela, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So many -- thanks, Deb -- so many interesting details and, of course, sickening to have to relive that. Deb, thank you.

Well, nuclear talks with Iran are set to resume this weekend. Despite that letter written by Senate Republicans to the leaders of Iran, and it is still triggering controversy. Some critics call the letter treason. Will it affect this next round of talks? We'll debate that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: New developments this morning concerning that letter sent by 47 Republican senators to Iran. How will the letter affect nuclear negotiations going on this weekend?

Let's bring in Ramin Asgard. He's a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He was the foreign policy adviser for the U.S. Central Command and a director at the Iran regional presence office at the State Department.

And Bobby Ghosh is a CNN global affairs analyst and a managing editor at "Quartz." Gentlemen, great to have you here.

Let's talk about this letter. Ramin, I want to start with you.

Given the fact that the senators basically sent it as a warning to Iran to say -- hey, when President Obama is no longer in office, this deal will not hold water as they believe. Do you think that this somehow scuttles negotiations this weekend?

RAMIN ASGARD, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Thank you very much.

I think that parties all in all of the countries understand that there are domestic political issues and considerations going on. This is an international agreement the six-countries are working on. I think that all of the parties understand in the context of an international agreement, that the -- there's a unitary government in each government that's responsible for conducting its foreign policy.

I think the Iranian side, the other -- P-5 plus-1 countries all understand that. So, I think it's all been taken into consideration. That there's going to be some concerns, opposition, input and so on. It's all part of the process.

CAMEROTA: Bobby, does it send the wrong message, however? And sort of damage the U.S. reputation to think that the president doesn't have his own house in order back at home here?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, anybody who has been paying attention to American politics for the last seven years knows that the president does not have the house in order in that respect.

I mean, I think Ramin is right -- if you look at the responses of the other members of the P5-plus-1, it's been silence. Nobody is giving this thing any oxygen. They understand the domestic politics. No one really believes the (NAUDIBLE).

No one really this letter was meant for the Iranian supreme leader. This is a letter for a domestic audience this is a letter designed to show support for Israel. This a letter designed for domestic political donors. This is not really literally meant to be a message to the grand ayatollah.

CAMEROTA: Ramin, not only are you a foreign policy expert, you're also an Iranian-American. So, you have expertise and you have sort of emotional insight into this whole negotiation and process. Is there going to be a deal struck?

ASGARD: Well, that's -- you're absolutely right. This is this is a deal which would change a great number of things across the board.

I think that the deal is within reach. I do think that along the way, all of the different parties who are affected by the deal have to have input into the process. And I think that they're all exercising that input.

But I do feel that the deal is within reach. The P5-plus-1 has done some extremely hard work getting to where we are today.

And I think that the key will be actually making the deal work. Even if there is a deal, there is no doubt that the implementation will be challenging. So the reaching a deal, as hard as it's been, it's been a year and a half, is only the first step.

CAMEROTA: Bobby, you know, Ramin just said all the key players want to have some sort of role in this, and that's exactly what motivated the 47 Republican senators to write the letter. They felt they didn't have any say in this.

Let me read to you this morning, there's an op-ed written by the author of that letter, Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas. Let me read to you what he says. "The Obama administration has so far completely bypassed Congress in its negotiations with Iran. The administration cares little about what will win congressional approval. If the president won't share our role in the process with his negotiating partner, we won't hesitate to do it ourselves."

They feel as if they've been cut out of the process.

GHOSH: Yes, I think that's a little self-serving to say that they've been cut out of the process. Surely, there are other way force them to get the White House attention and get information from the White House.

The negotiations have been taking place in secret. We don't really know, we've been getting little drips and drabs of selectively leaked information. But we really don't have a full picture yet.

If I were a betting man, I'd say they'll probably be another postponement, even if there's a deal, this is only meant to be a framework, an outline by the 24th of March. Then, there's meant to be more discussions to put meat on those bones for the middle of June.

This is just step one of what promises to be a long and very complicated process. And even this step one has been so complex.

So, you know, we'll be talking about this deal and there will be arguments and the Republicans will have their say for months and months going forward.

CAMEROTA: OK. We will see what happens this weekend. Ramin Asgard and Bobby Ghosh, thanks so much for being with us. Nice to see you on NEW DAY.

Let's go to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn.

Two of the fraternity brothers in that racist video are now apologizing. They have been expelled, their fraternity shutdown. You're going to hear from a former member of the fraternity who says it wasn't always this way. There's some important perspective. How they got to this point, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back here.

Two University of Oklahoma students are apologizing now after being kicked out of school for participating in that racist fraternity chant. Their frat house, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was shut down on campus at midnight last night.

We want to turn to Jonathan Davis. He's an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter. In fact, the first African- American to be admitted to the fraternity since 1994.

Jonathan, good morning. You're joining us from Denver this morning.

Now, just to be sure -- you were, you were with the house from 1998 to 2003, correct?

JONATHAN DAVIS, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA SAE ALUMNUS: Yes.

PEREIRA: OK. Let's talk about the apologies, because in essence, the apologies were directed at you. You're a student, you're a frat brother and you're African-American.

Let's take a look at what Parker Rice had to say in part in his apology. "I'm deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and reckless. I made a horrible mistake for joining into the singing and encouraging" -- it's a little too fast for me. "For me, this is a devastating lesson, I'm seeking guidance on how I can learn from this and make sure it never happens again."

So, Jonathan, how does this say with you? Does this feel heartfelt?

DAVIS: I think that there is a degree of heart, you know, that because of everything that's happening in his life right now and massive changes that he's had to go through and the attention shined on him. So, I think he certainly does have a degree of sincere remorse, but I don't think that he fully understands of depth of his actions and how hurtful those words are to African-Americans and he clearly doesn't have a very good historical perspective and maybe has never been properly educated on those things before.

PEREIRA: Do you think expulsion is the right way to go for the school?

DAVIS: I think so, I think so. I -- the amount of hatred in those words, I think that you know, if you -- I feel for the African- American students at the University of Oklahoma. My heart is broken particularly for them, because these are people that -- this is someone that's their peers. And he's -- he's literally just jovially referring to the cold-blooded murder of African-Americans through lynchings. And that is why this is so extremely offensive.

PEREIRA: Take me back a little bit to your experience there. You were there and involved in the fraternity for a good long time. You were the first African-American to be initiated after the second time the fraternity was chartered. What was your experience? Did you feel included? We heard if some of the members of the Unheard Coalition saying, you know, as African- Americans, they don't feel there's a spirit of inclusion on the OU campus.

DAVIS: I never felt excluded in that house. And when I went through rush, the fraternity rush, you know, I guess the first week of school for men and they do it in the evening time, they walk around to each one of the fraternity houses on the campus. And to be honest with you, SAE was the only house that I truly felt comfortable in.

I went to houses where I could really feel the sense of elitism there. And I was, you know, let out the back door of those, you know, fairly quickly on and that's kind of the symbol for rush, that you know, we don't think you're a good fit here, we don't think you're good enough.

And SAE was -- I never once felt that at SAE. And I saw the diversity there at SAE. And my experience was, couldn't be any more different than what it's turned into today.

PEREIRA: So, what do you make of this then, Jonathan? Because this is egregious, and you would agree, you look at this video -- it's horrifying. We've seen the founder come out -- one of the founding fathers of the fraternity come out and say, this does not stand for anything that we believe in, but we also know the fraternity has had issues nationally in other chapters. It's not the first time SAE has been in the spotlight.

These are your brothers, what do you make of that?

DAVIS: Yes. Well, I don't necessarily think is solely an SAE problem.

PEREIRA: OK, fair enough.

DAVIS: SAE is one of the largest fraternities in America. And I think this is more of a broader problem that we have. And that this is, there's more than just one -- again, my heart is broken for all of the people, all the students at the University of Oklahoma, because the light is shining so brightly on them right now and that is not an accurate portrayal of the University of Oklahoma. It's a very diverse university campus.

I mean my father, African-American, my mother, Caucasian, they met at the University of Oklahoma, and you know fell in love and got married, and that was back in the late 1960s. So, this is not accurate at all -- an accurate representation of the University of Oklahoma and I feel really terribly about it. I think --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: We've heard that from other students as well, who take great pride in being a Sooner.

I want to talk about some of the other aspects of this. We know this kind of thing does not happen in a vacuum. There's been collateral damage. Anecdotally, we know that the long-time chef, the cook of the house, Howard, is now out of a job because the fraternity house is shut down. And that's another unfortunate sidebar.

Where do you think this is going to lead the Sooners? Where this is going to leave OU? What kind of discussion needs to be had on the campus of your alumni?

DAVIS: Well, I think that -- I don't think that everyone at the University of Oklahoma, certainly not President David Boren, I don't think he had in idea this is going on. He's been so proactive, he's worked so diligently to build the University of Oklahoma into a place where people could come and learn in a safe and welcoming and open environment, for people of all ethnicities and religious back grounds, and even sexual orientations, and that really represents the University of Oklahoma.

And I think now maybe certain students were aware that there are certain parts maybe of the university that need to -- and I think specifically, the Greek system needs to be more open and they need to openly seek more diversity. And I see SAE falling into that.

You know, obviously, that house changed. I think the demographics of the house changed.

PEREIRA: Right.

DAVIS: And I think that leads to situation where intolerance and this type of behavior --

PEREIRA: OK.

DAVIS: -- can take hold.

PEREIRA: We would love to talk to you more about this and we're so glad that you were willing to speak out to us as an alum of OU.

Jonathan Davis, thanks for joining us so early this morning. We appreciate it.

Chris?

DAVIS: Yes, thank you.

CUOMO: All right. We have breaking news to tell you about. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Seven marines and four soldiers are missing at this hour.

CUOMO: An Army Black Hawk helicopter from Elgin Air Force Base has crashed in the Florida Panhandle.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I did not think it was appropriate for us to write to the ayatollah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that criminal? Is it treason?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whose names were not on that letter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The firestorm over the video extending to a Dallas community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not something that has been on going in this chapter.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I went above and beyond what I was requested to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are some questions she didn't answer.

CLINTON: I fully complied with every rule that I was governed by.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY, just before 7:00 in the East.

Marines and soldiers aboard an Army helicopter on a routine training mission are now missing after a crash near the Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.

CAMEROTA: A base spokesman making it clear this is a search-and- rescue crew operation right now and that wreckage has been spotted on a remote stretch of beach between Pensacola and Destin.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns joins us live with all of the breaking details.

What do we know, Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this was a convergence of a lot of different people and equipment from different places. A training mission in the Florida Panhandle involving the Marine Special Operations Unit from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. It was a Black Hawk helicopter that apparently went down. That aircraft apparently assigned to the Hammond, Louisiana Army National Guard. They were participating in a training exercise overnight.

The helicopter was reported missing about 8:30 last night. Now, debris from a chopper was located by search-and-rescue teams around 2:00 a.m. Search-and-rescue efforts apparently under way and continuing right now.

A second helicopter was also involved in this exercise. But the people on board that second chopper have returned and are accounted for at this time.

So, that's all we know. Waiting for more information from the Pentagon on what exactly happened and why -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Joe, we'll try to get some right now from Eglin, because on the phone is Eglin Air Force Base spokesman Andy Bourland.

Mr. Borland, thanks so much for being with us.

ANDY BOURLAND, EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE SPOKESMAN (via telephone): My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: Can you give us an update on the search and rescue effort?

BOURLAND: Well, actually, I think that the information you just heard was quite accurate. I would stress now that we're still waiting for daylight, probably another 15 to 30 minutes. But what is happening is the team from both the Coast Guard, as well as our county partners, as well as Air Force first responders, are currently forming near the scene.

We have begun to see debris washing ashore on both the north and the south side of the sound. It's an area east of the Navarre Pass, if you're familiar with the Okaloosa island area. But I will highlight also that the Coast Guard has already secured that waterway. So, that in the event of civilian watercraft that might be going through that area, fishermen for example, that area is secured now so that it will not be disruptive of the rescue and recovery mission.