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Nine Arrested in London Jewel Heist; Clinton: "I Want Those Emails Out"; Concerns Over Biker Gangs Growing; Massive Airbag Recall Affects 1 in 7 U.S. Cars. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 20, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


[06:30:07] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Big news this morning: airbag maker Takata recalling 34 million cars, making this the largest in U.S. history. The problem is metal shards potentially flying into the faces of drivers and passengers when the airbags deploy. Six people have been killed worldwide, and more than 100 injured. The recall involves cars from 11 automakers, still no answer from Takata on how it plans to fix this problem.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Iran will not allow any sort of inspections of its military centers. That word from supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei. According to Iran's state television, he said the country has made it clear during ongoing nuclear talks he won't let foreign inspectors talk with scientists.

Iran is currently in negotiations with the U.S. and five Western powers in curbing the country's nuclear program in exchange for having sanctions lifted.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A cruise ship that ran aground near Bermuda and stuck there for more six hours, good news, now free. The Norwegian Dawn is said to be OK as are all aboard. Still, the cruise line is waiting on maritime inspectors to thoroughly check the ship before it returns to Boston.

CAMEROTA: Well, the New England Patriots will not appeal the NFL's Deflategate punishment. Patriots owner Robert Kraft says he reluctantly accepts the penalties which include a $1 million fine and the loss of two draft choices. But quarterback Tom Brady is appealing his four-game suspension.

PEREIRA: And the players association is wanting Goodell to recuse himself as the man who listens to that appeal.

CUOMO: Supposed to be an impartial person but he says it's my league, I need to show authority.

CAMEROTA: But the fact that the patriots aren't appealing, does that mean guilt?

PEREIRA: Reluctantly.

CUOMO: No, means they feel it's not worth it which is what Mr. Kraft said from the beginning. It will be very tough because the body that you're appealing to is the one that wants to punish you. I still think the problem for the fans is that this league has to establish itself as a moral authority. And the idea that now this is what it's going to make its case on cheating is cheating and you deflated the balls.

PEREIRA: But what about the argument this is the new NFL?

CUOMO: Right, I know, but same guys, same administration.

CAMEROTA: They have a ways to go.

CUOMO: I still think the way to punish Brady is make him play for the Jets.

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: That seems like a good punishment.

All right. This is quite a story. Nine arrests now in one of the biggest jewel heists in London history. The suspects, this is interesting in and of itself, they range in age from 43 to 76. They were taken into custody in a pair of raids. They're accused of pulling off a $300 million crime that reads like a Hollywood caper.

CNN's Max Foster has more live from London.

So, you could have gone that route, Max. Why not?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing.

I mean, this is what the typical front page we got here today. They're calling them the diamond weezers, pointing out three of the suspects are actually pensioners with a combined age of 533.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER (voice-over): A major breakthrough in London's massive jewelry heist. Nine British suspects arrested who they believe are connected to this break-in over the Easter weekend. The thieves captured on surveillance video stealing gems and cash. One former police official speculating that their loot may be worth as much as $300 million.

Now, a twist -- these suspects average age nearly 60. More than 200 officers sweeping London and the surrounding areas before detaining them on Tuesday, recovering, quote, "high valued property" during those raids.

The plan, sophisticated. The thieves repelling down the elevator shaft to the basement. Then, using a drill to bore through a six-foot thick wall, finally reaching the vault holding the safety deposit boxes.

This photo showing the large hole left behind. The thieves rifling through the boxes for possibly four days. The arrests come six weeks after the heist, a welcome development after the police received major criticism for their failure to respond to an intruder alarm that the burglars set off.

CMDR. PETER SPINDLER, METROPOLITAN: At times, we have been portrayed as if we've acted like Keystone cops. But I want to reassure you that in the finest traditions of Scotland Yard, these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice for the victims of this callous crime.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: You know, it has been embarrassing for the police because they didn't respond in the appropriate way initially. I think they would even accept that, but they're really responding now with 200 police officers involved in the raids. Searches are continuing. We don't know if they found all of the jewels yet. Only the high- value items have been found.

So they're taking it seriously now if they didn't to start with, Chris.

CUOMO: Very fascinating because of the age. And we always kind of enjoy jewel heists.

[06:35:03] CAMEROTA: It is like a movie scene, a movie plot.

CUOMO: If they're so old does that mean they are of the age of knowing better?

CAMEROTA: Yes!

CUOMO: You know the commercials I'm in the age of knowing. They hit home a little bit.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

PEREIRA: What a story.

CUOMO: The age of knowing better. What do you think? Tweet me about that joke.

After a month of dodging the press, Hillary Clinton is finally taking questions from the media again. Five minutes worth, woo hoo! She has plenty to say about those e-mails on a private server from her days as secretary of state. We'll tell you what she did and did not say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: After nearly a month of not fielding questions from the press, Hillary Clinton was confronted yesterday.

Listen to her response when a reporter asked if she would break the silence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe when I finish talking to the people here. How's that?

I might. I'll have to ponder it. I will put it on my list, for due consideration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:40:01] CAMEROTA: She's pondering it.

Let's bring in editor and chief from "The Daily Beast" and political analyst Jon Avlon, and Republican consultant and CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover.

Hi, guys!

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: What was this cat and mouse game of the past month of not talking to reporters? What was the strategy?

AVLON: Calculation talking to reporters will cause more problems than it solves, but it's simply not sustainable if you're running for president. A, it really further poisons relationships with the press and you look like you got something to hide and that strategy which a lot of politicians are doing increasingly, saying we'll just bypass the press entirely is exactly ultimately dangerous for democracy.

CUOMO: Watch this one. Where is your outrage, Margaret Hoover, and you among the media who are letting Hillary Clinton just not answer questions? Just give her a pass, you would never do this if one of the Republicans was doing this. I'm not going to answer questions right now, I'm talking to people. You'd be on them like --

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: Ready for my answer? Ready for this?

It's really hard to answer hypothetical questions, Chris, because there are so many people on the Republican side fielding questions every single day we can hardly cover all their answers.

Backdrop: Hillary Clinton, one candidate, no questions. Communist election? I mean, it's like literally --

AVLON: Don't go there.

CUOMO: It does seem -- she's being chased about things. It's no question. We're going to get into the particulars.

But it does seem it's a little bit of light treatment for not answering questions.

AVLON: Look, I think, you know, play offense on this stuff by the way, this is something you increasingly see gubernatorial candidates doing, boycotting editorial board papers in states and this is now at the presidential level. And, obviously, you can get with the calculations, rights?

CUOMO: But why aren't we hounding her more?

AVLON: We should. We absolutely should.

HOOVER: I think we are.

CUOMO: I think right now we are. But in general, I feel like we've just been stating as a matter of fact she's not taking any questions.

HOOVER: "The Washington Post" has a minute, 40,150 minutes since she had last answered last question in New Hampshire. Like a clock ticking down. I mean, I think that's a bit of accountability. NPR is getting -- all of us are counting.

She's getting hammered. It's hard to get through the noise.

AVLON: The press needs to start boycotting the candidate as well to change the equation. But it's difficult when you have one person running who's straddling like a colossal over the rest of the Democratic crowd.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, when she was finally asked questions, and when she finally answered them, the issue of her e-mails came up, and when those would be released. Here was her response to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I have said repeatedly I want those e-mails out. Nobody has a bigger interest in getting them released than I do. I respect the State Department. They have their process that they do for everybody not just for me. But anything that they might do to expedite that process I heartily support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So she says she's calling on the State Department to release them as soon as possible. Why is that funny?

AVLON: Well, it's funny because obviously this is a problem of her own creation. So the idea that, you know, she's just been asking for expedition all the way through just doesn't ring true. But she's right to this extent. Actually, releasing them in January of '16 is arguably the worst timing politically for her. Because that's right as the caucuses get started and the primary goes in.

CUOMO: Why doesn't she send them in on hard paper? Why didn't she turn over the server if she wants to go away --

AVLON: Apparently the server is an empty cupboard now.

CUOMO: Then, why did you wipe the server?

HOOVER: That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

AVLON: Of course. But it's tough to ring that bell. This isn't exactly the straight talk express here. We're not dealing with that.

CAMEROTA: Old school reference.

AVLON: I'm about the old school references.

CAMEROTA: What about those Sid Blumenthal emails that she's not releasing with her close confidante? What's on them? Let me say this, does she have to release those? I mean, if those are private?

HOOVER: I mean, if you are the secretary of state and the federal government says that your business is the people's business -- you know, I know we're skating between the gray lines, but in my view, when I was a government employee every e-mail I sent had to be on a dot-gov server and that's all FOIA-able, FOIA as in Freedom of Information Act.

So, of course, all that the business she conducted as secretary of state is relevant to the people of the United States. This notion that she can keep them private and be the arbiter of what's relevant to people and what's not is what will continue to dog her.

CUOMO: She's a little beneficiary of it sloppy State Department protocol also.

AVLON: Yes.

CUOMO: She's a little bit of a beneficiary of not doing it well there. You said the word hard to say but FOIA-able, let's talk about that.

There are different categories of exemption. You have within different agencies people who do nothing but assess FOIA requests and whether or not you want to give them or don't give them.

But is it fair criticism, John Avlon, that they were unduly scrutinizing of what request came their way, specific to friends involved with the Keystone pipeline, et cetera?

AVLON: That certainly appears to be the case. New article in "The Wall Street Journal" today showing that a lot of FOIA were going to her chief of staff. And to some extent, that was the final arbiter. So, that's somebody saying basically acting as gate keeper for Hillary Clinton and thinking about personal and political implications not just the due process.

[06:45:00] CUOMO: Do you believe Cheryl Mills is the type -- Cheryl Mills running things there on the Clinton Global Initiatives board, do you think she said, if you don't give me what I want in this FOIA, I'm not going to help with any FOIA request going forward.

AVLON: I'm not going to speculate on Cheryl Mills' character.

CUOMO: You must.

AVLON: I must, but I will not. But I do in all organizations --

CUOMO: Your wife will.

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: -- people that are incredibly protective and if they're lifers and they serve --

CUOMO: And not unusual. Not unusual.

AVLON: That's very common dynamic.

HOOVER: Also, the weightiness of somebody who's representing the secretary in an entire entity, an entire department where there are two people in charge of who are probably lower level, you know, career employees who are in charge of going through 20,000-plus FOIA documents, chief of staff comes down representing the secretary says no -- by the way, doesn't say for political reasons you can't release this. She says we're reviewing it now.

So, there are words that they use in order to protect them from being released --

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: Against the political weight of the chief of staff of secretary of state.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, every candidate has been asked in some form or another if the Iraq war was a mistake. You find Hillary's response perhaps the most interesting. She says, yes, my vote for it was a mistake, plain and simple.

AVLON: I think, honestly, it's elegant, it's clear, it's clean, it takes accountability. It also puts the issue behind her -- as opposed to these tortured back and forth, circular, well, it depends on perspective, her answer was really clean.

CUOMO: She has the best defense for her answer, which is you lie today me. You gave me bad information so I made a bad decision.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: Everybody can say -- the thing is her position probably isn't that different from where Jeb Bush ended up, what Marco Rubio said, but her answer was crisp and clear and in contrast with the tortured responses of the Republicans looks better.

AVLON: The next question is going to be in retrospect was the drawdown of residual forces under President Obama a mistake and how do Democrats answer that?

CAMEROTA: That's a good question. We're going to ask them that when they come on.

AVLON: All right. Let's do that.

CAMEROTA: John, Margaret. Thanks so much.

Here's the clock you were referring to of -- oh, no, this is the election countdown. She has spoken more recently than 537 days. That's the election countdown. We had better get going. We only have 537 days left.

AVLON: Giddy up, people. Giddy up.

CUOMO: Those numbers are racing by dizzying pace.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, guys.

What's your take? Tweet us #NewDayCNN, or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay.

Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn.

We are going to take a closer look at the Waco blood bath between rival biker gangs. Is there a growing criminal threat from gangs around the country? We're going to dig deeper with someone who spent a whole lot of time with a notorious Texas gang next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:41] PEREIRA: Law enforcement on heightened alert after concerns grow over rival biker gangs in Waco, Texas. The weekend's shootout sparking a national conversation over the threat of biker gang violence.

Joining us is Skip Hollandsworth. He's the executive editor of "Texas Monthly" magazine, and he spent a whole lot of time with one of the notorious biker groups, the Bandidos, and has some insight for us into the culture of that club and biker gangs in general.

Skip, your article was fantastic. It's a really compelling read. I hope a lot of people get a chance to see it.

First of all, I guess we got to talk about perception and reality. Are these bikers gangs or clubs, however you want to typify them, is it just a bunch of dudes riding around on hogs and leather with their pals? Or is there something more sinister to them?

SKIP HOLLANDSWORTH, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, TEXAS MONTHLY MAGAZINE: Well, it's both. And the fact that they are called terrorist organizations -- you know, organized criminal complicated organizations is a little extreme. But they do -- there are plenty of bikers in certain gangs and in certain clubs who will commit crimes.

Now, the big question is whether this whole operation is a criminal enterprise from the top down.

PEREIRA: What is your sense?

HOLLANDSWORTH: I don't think so. I mean, if you look at the people that were arrested for this shooting the other day.

PEREIRA: Uh-huh.

HOLLANDSWORTH: They don't have these elaborate criminal records. They've got DWIS. They've stolen motorcycles, burglarized someone's car. Got drunk at a bar and got into a fight.

They're not sophisticated in the way we think of the families up in New York -- the crime families up in New York.

PEREIRA: Right, right. Is there a distinction between a motorcycle club and a motorcycle gang?

HOLLANDSWORTH: Well, the gang word is put on by law enforcement agencies --

PEREIRA: OK.

HOLLANDSWORTH: -- that want to categorize these clubs as just trying to create crime.

And what I learned about the Bandidos during my time with them was that sure there's members that commit crimes and sure maybe they commit crimes to pay their dues, but these are not wealthy men. They are not men that are out to terrorize and rape and blunder towns. But they are men that feel this strange perplexing sense of loyalty to their club. And anyone --

PEREIRA: What is that about? You got a sense of it. And your article talks about it this loyalty, this brotherhood. Is there some sort of biker code?

HOLLANDSWORTH: There definitely is a code. And what happens with these guys is they get into the group, they get into the club and they are ordered to pledge loyalty to their club just above anything else.

And for a lot of these men, this is a great kind of place for some kind of brotherhood. In weird ways, they are a lot -- you know, you see this happen across American society -- the Lions Club are men that wear vests that go to weekly meetings, they have a clubhouse.

[06:55:00] These guys are the same kind of -- have the same kind of drive except they love to be renegades. I mean, they're hardly Lions Club members.

PEREIRA: Yes, I was going to say golf club membership, et cetera, there is something about a brotherhood. We know that men can bond in that way. And these men bond over their shared love of sort of motorcycles and getting out on the open road, probably born out of the easy rider. You talk about that in your article as well.

One of the things that we found so unusual about this situation in Waco though was so much of this world sort of operates out of the public eye. I mean, of course they turn heads when they roar by a group on their Harleys.

But this was a massively huge public spectacle, taking the lives of eight or nine and dozens -- 170 people arrested. This was a very visible spectacle. What happened here? Was it just territorial as it sounds like it was?

HOLLANDSWORTH: It was a fight between two clubs, the Bandidos and an upstart club called the Cossacks. I mean, the Cossacks have been around for a long time, but they've filled themselves up with new young members who have said we're not going to let the big bad boys of motorcycle clubs, the Bandidos, boss us around.

What the Bandidos tend to do with other clubs in the state is you can't wear a patch on the back of your vest that says Texas. And you have to pay the Bandidos dues to wear your colors as you drive up and down the highways.

To outsiders like us it might seem silly to have fights like this. But to these groups, it's very vital that they are considered -- that they are given respect. And the Bandidos felt like the Cossacks were coming after them. And they said we're going to have no more of it.

And the Cossacks showed up at this restaurant in Waco. And they decided to do a confrontation. And the shootout began.

PEREIRA: And that's what happened.

Skip Hollandsworth, I really appreciate your insight. I tell you a middle-aged gal with a metro car does not understand this. So your insight and research and article has shed a lot of light on it. It's something that we'll be watching along with you.

Thanks for joining us this morning on NEW DAY.

HOLLANDSWORTH: Thanks a lot.

PEREIRA: All right. We're following a whole lot of news. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The largest auto recall in U.S. history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-four million vehicles, almost a dozen car companies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best thing customer can do right now is to reach out to their dealership.

PEREIRA: "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that when Clinton was secretary of state her staff scrutinized, sometimes even blocked the release of politically sensitive documents.

HILLARY: I want those e-mails out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ISIS is moving ahead in places far beyond Iraq and Syria.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president's plan is it working?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fall of Ramadi is a big deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've been heavily criticized for doing what you just did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are incredibly majestic creatures.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

Exploding airbags forcing the largest auto recall in U.S. history. The airbags from Japanese supplier Takata effecting 34 million cars, that's one in seven cars here in the U.S.

CUOMO: Of course the big question is, is your car one of those? We're going to tell you how you can figure it out, and also, how long it will take to get these airbags replaced. That number of time is going to be troubling to you. Officials aren't even close to figuring out what's causing the problems.

Let's get to CNN's Tom Foreman live in Washington.

What do we know about how long this will take and whether or not my car is one of them?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you this, Chris -- airbags explode at a rate of about 250 miles an hour. This is going to be a lot, lot slower than that as the entire auto industry tries to grapple with what is truly lethal problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): This is what the trouble is all about, airbags exploding firing metal shards into passengers with so much force police say some victims look like they've been shot. That's allegedly what happened to Corey Burdick. His lawyer says when Burdick had a minor accident in Florida, the airbag should have protected him.

RICH NEWSOME, ATTORNEY FOR COREY BURDICK: Instead, the airbag exploded and sent a three and a half inch piece of steel into his face taking out one of his eyes.

FOREMAN: Now federal authorities are saying enough, launching a recall of 34 million cars nearly double the original number thought to be involved.

SECY. ANTHONY FOXX, DOT SECRETARY: The airbag inflators we suspected did not work correctly. And we believe they have been responsible for at least five deaths in the United States.

FOREMAN: The airbag manufacturer is the Japanese company Takata. And for months, the company tried to limit the recall saying the problem was appearing only in areas with high humidity. The government didn't buy it, pounding Takata with more than $1 million in fines.

FOXX: Up until now Takata has refused to acknowledge that their airbags are defective. That changes today.

FOREMAN: The most serious accidents have occurred in Hondas. But the recall also involves Fords, Chryslers, Mazdas, BMWs. In all 11 manufacturers and parts suppliers, and there could be more.