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NEW DAY

Governor Christie Wants To End Common Core; Jeb Bush: Experience, Leadership Matter; Moving Ohio Primary Could Benefit Kasich; Ten Years Later Possible New Lead In Holloway Case; Riley Curry: Most Valuable Toddler. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 29, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: -- it's brought distance between our teachers and the communities where they work. And instead of solving problems in our classrooms, it's creating morale problems in those classrooms and at home. And when we aren't getting the job done for our children, we need to do something different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": He says, Sara, he's heard it every day. I'm going to edit a bit and apparently every day since 2013 when he said in 2013 just two years ago, a little less than two years ago, "It's one of those areas where I've agreed more with the president than not," meaning President Obama.

"I think part of the Republican opposition you see in some corners in Congress is a reaction, a knee-jerk reaction, that's happening in Washington right now that if the president likes something the Republicans in Congress don't. What happened here?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: He has seen the light. Chris Christie has seen the light. No, reality is these standards are not very popular with a lot of Republican voters and it does give him another way to contrast with Jeb Bush, who of course, has been a big proponent of common core.

And even John Kasich, who has been a proponent of these things, but basically everyone else, who is running for the Republican nomination or is looking at running for the Republican nomination has run away from these standards and now he's jumping on board.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Two things, let's stipulate first that parents do have some real grumbles about the common core standards. So his point in that clip you played is actually real.

But look from a political standpoint candidates for the presidency on either side are basically to have a certain amount of deviation from party orthodoxy and Christie probably already has his share.

And this is one of those issues where, you know, it's not something near and dear to his heart. So if you can take this rock out of your bag along the way to lighten your load politically then it makes some sense.

KING: Rick Santorum got into the race officially earlier this week. He's a guest here on NEW DAY in the next hour. He's a big critic of NEW DAY. Might be interesting to see if he applauds Governor Christie here or maybe a Johnny come lately. We'll see how that one plays out.

Let's move on to the aforementioned Jeb Bush. He does pick issues with his base. He says common core, yes, might need to tweak it but national education standards are a good idea as long as most control at the state level.

He disagrees with his base on immigration. He is trying to make the case. Listen to him here in Michigan, yesterday, saying, look, you might disagree with me on a few issues, but the next president you want someone with a deep resume, like me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: The challenge I think in America today is that experience is somewhat discounted and given a mighty fine speech is somewhat elevated. Look, there's going to be all sorts of disasters that take place whether they're natural disasters, attack on the homeland.

It's a certainty in an uncertain world that this president, the next president is going to have to confront all sorts of challenges where his leadership or her leadership is going to matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN: Take that Marco Rubio and Scott Walker.

KING: Maybe Ted Cruz too. Mighty fine speech is that where he's going there.

MARTIN: It's not very subtle. He recognizes that he's got to step it up here. He's trying to make the case to primary voters who have real concerns about President Obama's leadership to put it mildly that the answer to Obama is not Obama.

And that they need a steady hand at the tiller at a very tumultuous time. Whether or not that's going to be him or not is obviously up for debate. But you start to see him in that clip framing what is going to be a contrast I think will come into a sharper focus in the months to come.

KING: He also said the next president, him or her, was that his way of saying you need a Bush to beat a Clinton?

MURRAY: Well, I think it does -- it is his response to the argument that we need a young fresh face, right. A lot of Republicans are probably going to throw that at Hillary Clinton. This is his way out of it.

We had a young fresh face with President Obama and if you're a Republican voter look where that got us. You're not very happy with that. Instead, let's not overcorrect here. Let's still bring in someone with a deep bench of experience like he's saying.

KING: And remember, folks, Jeb Bush has not officially announced yet but he's running, Chris Christie not officially announced yet. He is most likely running. Another Republican governor, some big names in this Republican field, John Kasich of Ohio, former House Budget Committee chairman, now the two-term governor of Ohio, more proof he's running.

Number one, he's hired some good help up in New Hampshire. Number two, his home state, the Republican legislature, just changed the primary ho-hum, they just moved the date back a little bit so that now under Republican Party rules, the way they moved it back a little bit, winner take all.

So if John Kasich can win his home state of Ohio gets a pretty good basket of delegates.

MURRAY: It is a really big prize for John Kasich now assuming he signs this into law, which is hard to imagine --

KING: Coincidence, right?

MURRAY: Coincidence, yes, I'm sure. This makes Ohio even more important I think because it does become winner takes all and makes it a really big prize for John Kasich, who let's be honest has an uphill battle if he is going to have a shot at differentiating himself from everyone else in the race.

You know, he's not the most popular guy in this field. Most people don't know who he is. He's polling at something like 1 percent or 2 percent. So he needs a big win like this if he wants to land on the map.

MARTIN: But it's remarkable how few folks have turned down the chance to run. There have been a couple obviously, but much more you have seen the answer being yes, not no, which I think speaks to the perceived vulnerability of Jeb Bush.

[07:35:09] But also, John, the notion that the White House this time around is very much winnable if you're a Republican.

KING: Four hands, four hands to count the Republican candidates by the time they're all in. There's no clear frontrunner right now so why not? If you're a credible candidate why not get involved if you can raise the money.

Here's proof, I guess, maybe this is too cynical, but you hit double digits in the polls your past comes back to haunt you. Bernie Sanders, the independent now Democrat, a senator from Vermont, who has declared his candidacy as one of Hillary Clinton's only declared rival at the moment.

Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor gets in on Saturday. Bernie Sanders having to answer now essay he wrote back in 1972 in a "Mother Jones" article this was reported, first revealed where he talked about women fantasizing about rape and some other things.

It's the morning. There might be children watching. I'm going to stop right there. But it's pretty heinous and pretty beyond the pale what Bernie Sanders was writing about.

His staff says, a statement from his spokesman, "It was a dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication and in no way reflects his views or record on women. It was intended to attack gender stereotypes of the '70s," but here's the key part, "it looks as stupid today as it was then."

MURRAY: Yes, I think you see they basically have no excuse for it and you don't have any excuse for writing that kind of thing. Look, whether you're a politician or not a politician, here's what you should say about rape. It's terrible. It's awful. We should do everything we can to prevent it. End of commentary.

KING: No satire, no humor.

MURRAY: No. You don't need to go beyond that and, you know, now Bernie Sanders is having his past come back up because he's sort of having his moment and we'll see how he -- how they deal with it going forward.

MARTIN: Our friend and colleague, Jeff Zeleny, has made this point, it's true. There are areas between Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders and one of those similarities is apparently when you've got a sort of well-defined ideological viewpoint in the past you've either said stuff or written stuff that's over the top or can be perceived as offensive. And I think that's what you're seeing here. There's a reason, John, why protest candidates are just that.

KING: When you run for president, Alisyn, everything you said back to whenever especially in the social media age, but all this stuff Bernie Sanders pre-internet people still find it. It exists.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And that's why I'm not running for president, John. Happy Friday. Have a great weekend.

KING: Thank you, you too.

CAMEROTA: All right, make sure to watch John King and his inside politics panel break down all the best political news of the week every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Meanwhile, a new possible lead in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway coming almost ten years to the day that she vanished in Aruba, we will go live to Aruba next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:54]

CAMEROTA: Tomorrow marks ten years since Natalee Holloway disappeared during a high school trip to Aruba. Now a possible new lead is surfacing from a man who claims to have been an eyewitness all along. CNN correspondent, Martin Savidge, spoke with him one-on-one

and Martin joins us live from Aruba. Tell us what you've learned -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. You know, I think it's pretty clear that authorities here, the Holloway family and a ton of other people have always believed that ten years ago Natalee Holloway either met with foul play or some kind of accident, but her body ended up in the ocean. It's an island after all.

However, we ran across a man who says, you know what, they're wrong and they've been wrong for ten years and they're looking in the wrong place. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Jurrien de Jong says he's something the Natalee Holloway case has never had, an eyewitness.

(on camera): You were the last person to see Natalee Holloway alive?

JURRIEN DE JONG, CLAIMS HE WITNESSED HOLLOWAY'S MURDER: Yes.

SAVIDGE: So where have you been because it's been ten years.

(voice-over): Actually, De Jong isn't new. He's been speaking out for years. In 2008, he even called Natalee's father and said.

DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: She's on land and I know where her body is hidden. And my initial thought was, this is another crazy.

SAVIDGE: He's gone to the police numerous times, even given a sworn statement.

(on camera): What happened?

DE JONG: Nothing.

SAVIDGE: Here's his version. On the night Natalee Holloway vanished De Jong says he was doing something illegal at a construction site. He won't say what. But around 2:00 a.m., he says he sees a young man who later he identifies as Joran Vander Sloot chasing a young woman into the site.

DE JONG: I thought first a playful way like I'm going to get you.

SAVIDGE: He says the couple disappeared into a small section of construction.

DE JONG: After 5 minutes he came out with her in his arms.

SAVIDGE: And it was what he saw the man do that told De Jong the woman was dead.

DE JONG: He slammed her and then you don't start hiding this person in the crawl space.

SAVIDGE: Joran Vander Sloot is serving 28 years in prison for the murder of a young woman in Peru. He's never been charged in the Natalee Holloway case. Now De Jong's testimony seems to practically solve the mystery of what happened to Natalee and nearly ten years after she disappeared authorities have finally got around to investigating it.

ERIC OLTHOF, ARUBA PROSECUTOR: I don't know if he's lying. I can only say that his statement can't be true.

SAVIDGE: That construction site in 2005 is now a 12-story vacation property owned by Marriott and the prosecutor says Marriott informed him at the time Natalee vanished there was no construction.

OLTHOF: Because when there's no construction, Natalee Holloway can't be buried in the crawl space under the foundation.

SAVIDGE: That certainly seems true, but Dave Holloway believes Marriott may be possibly wrong about those construction dates. Holloway led a number of searches for his daughter on Aruba, and he remembers the place.

HOLLOWAY: I was there on June 1st and there was definitely construction in that area, June 1st, 2005.

[07:45:08] SAVIDGE: And this Google Earth view from June 2005, a short time after Natalee vanished, appears to show a construction site and the fuzzy shapes of structures.

We asked Marriott for clarification, but in a statement the company made no mention of the building saying only, "as we have done all along, we cooperate fully with authorities whenever they are conducting an official investigation."

HOLLOWAY: What he's describing in his story matches what's physically there at the time. So I'm thinking, man, this could be something. It's something that really needs to be looked at closely.

SAVIDGE: Holloway wants a search, but authorities say that's not going to happen.

OLTHOF: It's useless to search there with a cadaver dog or drilling or whatever. One thing will be sure, she's not lying there. She can't be lying there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: And the real question here is why wouldn't the prosecutors just check it out? It seems relatively simple. Dave Holloway says all they would have to do is bring in a specialized cadaver dog and drill a few holes in the foundation. No demolition work would be need. So why not do it?

The prosecutor says because it would give false hope. It would give false hope to the family. It would give false hope to a lot of people. They say they know she can't be there. I said they're always going to doubt you if you don't do it. He said, yes, I know. Back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: That's shocking. If there's any doubt, any shred of hope that it could possibly lead to the answer you think they would.

CAMEROTA: Particularly something so easy with a cadaver dog. You don't have to dismantle anything.

PEREIRA: Right or deconstruct --

CAMEROTA: What an interesting development. Thanks.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Martin was asking the right questions.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: I covered Van Der Sloot since this happened at ABC, we were the first ones to interview him and this has always been out there. And it is not unlike several times that the family's come forward and said what about this and lead wasn't followed up on. Obviously that's what gives you the false hope is that it's not resolved.

PEREIRA: Then it gives the air that something's being covered up.

CAMEROTA: Right or missed.

CUOMO: Marriott should do it.

PEREIRA: Marriott should do it. That would actually be really great if they did that.

CAMEROTA: That's right.

CUOMO: All right, the NBA finals are set, but the star of the show has already been crowned. And you know who it is? No, you don't. There she is. Stephen Curry's daughter, Riley. Jeanne Moos is going to introduce you to her. She deserves the introduction coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:43]

PEREIRA: We all know that kids do the darnedest things, right? Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, his daughter getting a whole lot of attention for her postgame performances, she may, in fact, be the league's most valuable toddler, however not everyone is smitten. Here is Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steph Curry may be one of the best shooters in basketball, but when his 2-year-old got her shot at the spotlight, Riley Curry dominated the postgame presser, she was on a tear. She just didn't take a curtain call. She wrapped herself up in one, not once but three times.

STEPHEN CURRY, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: Everybody has got to be determined to whatever comes our way.

MOOS (on camera): Sometimes he tried to sh her, and sometimes she tries to sh him, and Riley was not quiet about quoting the rapper, Drake. Whatever she said, the internet swooned.

Some of the press would have been happy to help her, help her right off the stage, and this was actually Riley's second postgame presser after her first one, some journalist braved popular opinion to say it makes asking tough questions difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was cute and last night was a little less cute, and do that about 38 more times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Riley is adorable, but I have seen enough because I am trying to listen to what he is saying and I can't even follow it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would prefer personally if they wouldn't bring their kids.

MOOS (voice-over): It has become a thing for players immortalized online, but at least not yet immortalized the way young Andrew Guiliani was, after he acted up as Rudy was sworn as mayor and it became fodder for "SNL."

Sometimes it's a fine line between cute and annoying, but when Riley gave her wad of gum to an attendant waiting in the wings, that's an image that stuck. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: It was interesting to hear from some of the players and the guys that cover the game, and I have been hearing from girlfriends, who are moms, and they are like, if I was that mama, you need to sit your butt down.

CAMEROTA: It's very cute, but there does need to be a little discipline as well there.

CUOMO: Those press conferences never reveal anything, and the only time Steph Curry is not exciting is when he is behind the mic, so I will take the kid.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it does provide more color, good point.

All right, meanwhile, back to one of our top stories, scandal in the world of politics this morning, former speaker of the House, Danny Hassert accused of agreeing to pay someone off for past misconduct. What does that mean he is hiding?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:58:35]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bombshell. A top Republican indicted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For lying to the FBI.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: As well as trying to hide large financial transactions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hush money is being paid to somebody.>

CUOMO: Flash flooding in Texas. This time it's Dallas.

CAMEROTA: More than five inches of rain slammed the region overnight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of the roads around Dallas this morning are covered in water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are calling it the freedom of speech rally round two.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aren't you playing into the narrative of ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: True Islamist terrorism.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am running for the president of the United States.

PEREIRA: Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum joins us live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, May 29th, 8:00 in the east. We are following the latest in real Washington stunner, a growing scandal involving former House speaker, Dennis Hasster. He once stood second in line to the presidency.

CAMEROTA: Hasster, the longest serving Republican speaker is accused of agreeing to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a longtime acquaintance and lying about to the FBI.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, is live in D.C. with the latest. What do we know, Joe?

JOHNS: Good morning, Alisyn. When the FBI got into this, they wanted to know among other things if Hassert was paying someone off as a cover-up, if he had been a victim of a crime, perhaps extortion or if there was some innocent excuse for the big cash withdrawals from four different bank accounts.