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CNN NEWSROOM

James Boulware's Father Speaks Out; Hunt For Two Escaped Convicts Continues; Rachel Dolezal Says She Will Confront Her Critics Wild Animals Roaming Georgia Streets; Tensions Grow As Russian and U.S. Jets Nearly Collide Over Eastern Europe. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired June 14, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:05] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we have so much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM, and it all starts right now.

Hello again, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Investigators in Dallas are piecing together evidence hoping to understand exactly what happened in yesterday's attack on the Dallas police department. The suspect, who identified himself as James Boulware, a man with a long and violent criminal past, used pipe bombs and an armored van to go after police. He was killed by a police sniper. No officers were injured in the attack. And now his father is talking to CNN.

Sara Sidner is live from Dallas with this interview -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Fred, Jim Boulware, James' father, is in deep grief as is his mother. The two divorced years ago. But he did talk about his son and the anger that was inside of his son because of a custody battle over his son's son, his grandson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULWARE, FATHER: Every one of us has a breaking point. Every one of us.

SIDNER (voice-over): Did your son hit his breaking point?

BOULWARE: He hit his breaking point.

SIDNER: Jim Boulware is teetering on the edge himself, filled with grief after his son, James, attacked police and was killed for it. He says James was the man behind the attack on the Dallas police headquarters. Three hours before the attack, he was sitting right here with his dad.

BOULWARE: He told me he loved me and he was going back to west Texas. And I told him, have a safe trip.

SIDNER: But that is not what happened. Before the sun came up, James Boulware was dead, killed by a police sniper after threatening to blow police up for taking his child. He could have, his van was laden with explosives that police eventually detonated.

BOULWARE: He left from here. He mowed my yard yesterday. Told me he was going to be back in ten days to mow it again.

SIDNER: Did you have any idea when he left --

BOULWARE: No. No. I knew he was angry with the police. He blamed them for taking his son. I tried to tell him, the police didn't do it. The police were doing their job to enforce the laws. If you want to get to that, you've got to go back to the liberal people that put these laws in place to where CPS can grab kids out away from him. They are just imposing laws.

SIDNER: James Boulware had recently lost custody of his own son to his own mother, the boy's grandmother. The family fight in 2013 preceded the custody battle.

BOULWARE: Her mother, her half-brother and James had a fight in her house.

SIDNER: James Boulware was arrested in Paris, Texas, for multiple assault charges on family members. The charges were eventually dropped.

BOULWARE: While he was here this time, he said, dad, I've lost my house, my tools, my son. I'm going through every dime I've got. I can't find a job because I've got domestic violence on my record. He said I've lost everything. And then you have hopelessness.

SIDNER: Why didn't he get some help?

BOULWARE: Where? Where does a white male get help?

SIDNER: He says his son, James, was angry and desperate.

BOULWARE: I think he was trying to make a statement to get the system to understand he had lost his son and it cost him his life.

SIDNER: But it was the wrong way to go about it, wasn't it?

BOULWARE: Yes. To a sane person, regular person, yes.

SIDNER: Was he not sane?

BOULWARE: When you reach that breaking point, I don't know what you call sane and what you don't anymore.

SIDNER: He's been called a lot of different names after what's happened. One of the names is domestic terrorist. Is he a domestic terrorist?

BOULWARE: No, no. Not ever.

SIDNER: What did you say to him as he was going through all this anger?

BOULWARE: I told him that we needed the police and I brought up the McKinney and the pool party and all over there. I kindly took the police's side. And that's when he told me he didn't care. Anarchy would be better. And I said no.

SIDNER: He said he didn't care about the police?

BOULWARE: You don't want anarchy. You don't want it. Yes, it would be better. Now, he did say that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:05:02] SIDNER: His father, destroyed. His mother left a note outside of her door saying that the family was grieving at this time and that they did not want to talk to the media -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then, Sara, what about tracing the events leading up to yesterday. What are police able to do? What are they able to retrieve as it pertains to his behavior, any kind of social media, you know, footprint or perhaps even the acquiring of that van that was used?

SIDNER: You know, we found out from the father something about the van. He told us that just last week, his son went to the Carrollton bus station, got on a bus, took the bus to Georgia and bought the van there, picked it up in Georgia. He said he brought the van back. In fact just a few hours before the shooting happened, his son was at his father's house with that van. He had told his dad that he bought it because he needed a place to stay. He wanted to use it as a place to sleep at night because he had sold his house to pay back debts and he didn't have anywhere else to stay. So he told his father that the van was his new home, so to speak. His dad said that he noticed that the van was odd, but these days people are doing all sorts of different things to their cars and so he didn't think anything of it. He said his son said good-bye to him and he'd see him in a few days. That isn't what happened.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sara Sidner, thanks so much for bringing that interview to us.

So as police scramble to subdue the shooter emotions, obviously, ran high, CNN's Nick Valencia gives us a glimpse into what Dallas police were going through as this ambush unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a brazen overnight attack on police. An ambush that included an armored vehicle, heavy gunfire and explosives. Police radio transmission captures the emotion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been rounds that hit the glass that did not penetrate.

VALENCIA: The suspect arrives at Dallas police headquarters just after midnight on Saturday and opens fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The suspect refused to give me his name. He said he's got the van rigged with explosives. VALENCIA: At one point he uses his armored van to smash into police

squad cars. The front of the building still freckled with bullet holes. The assault so dynamic, police initially believe there is more than one shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All suspects got into a vehicle and are current low being pursued.

VALENCIA: Dallas police say that this is one of the first cars that the suspect engaged. At least two police officers were inside this vehicle at the time of the shooting. Just hours after the shooting, please tell the media this is the first where the first of several pipe bombs exploded. No one was injured in the blast. This is what's left behind of the car.

CHIEF DAVID BROWN, DALLAS POLICE: We believe that this suspect meant to kill officers and took time to discharge that weapon multiple times to accomplish their wanting to harm our officers.

VALENCIA: Evidence tags mark the spots where fragments of shell casings are still left behind. Police say on this day they got lucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure you advise them that if this suspect runs out of this vehicle and gets mobile throughout the neighborhood, they need to provide cover at that point.

DAWN MANN, EYEWITNESS: Extremely scary.

VALENCIA: Dawn Mann was just feet from the shootout. She says she could be dead right now.

MANN: You could see gunfire hitting the armored truck. You could see like the sparks coming off the front end of the armored truck. You could see police everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got one of the shooters on the phone.

VALENCIA: The shooter led police on a chase that ended 20 miles away. After a several-hour standoff, a police sniper fires into the front window. The suspect killed, and the van up in flames. Now investigators will try to determine the motive, while they reflect on how much worse it could have been.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Dallas, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And still ahead, nine days in and several upstate New York communities remain on edge as the hunt for two escaped murders continues. The latest on the manhunt, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:12:24] WHITFIELD: New details emerging on the growing manhunt for two escaped killers. Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out of an upstate New York maximum security prison nine days ago. CNN has now learned prison worker Joyce Mitchell charged with aiding in their escape has told investigators about the plan. The district attorney spoke with CNN's Sara Ganim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW WYLIE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK: The information that we have is that they were going to meet down by the power plant, drive -- I'm not going to say until the sunset because it was after midnight and it was dark out, but they were going to drive away from the area potentially to an area that was about seven hours away. She never indicated to us where that location was, it was just that's the information that she was told by matt and sweat, that it was about seven hours away.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So has that information helped you guys at all in the search since she didn't actually pick them up?

WYLIE: Well, I mean it helps them in the sense that she was planning it. Plan a didn't work out. We don't know of a plan b yet, other than walking away from the village, entering this valley here and trying to survive.

GANIM: Have you guys narrowed down your search area at all?

GANIM: From what I understand speaking with, you know, the New York state police officials, that they are continuing to bring the perimeter in, but it's still an active -- still an active search. I can't tell you how wide the search is right now because I haven't been out. I haven't been out there, I haven't been up in a helicopter to look at it and see where it's at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So how far could the escapees gotten? A seven-hour drive means they could have gone as far as 400 miles.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is covering the manhunt and joins us live from West Plattsburgh, New York.

So Miguel, we're learning these inmates through this interview also may have rehearsed this escape. What kind of detail are they getting? Does this come from Joyce Mitchell?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well again, this is from Joyce Mitchell through the investigators, something that she told them that for as long as a month, they had cut the holes in their cells and were able to get down into basically the belly of the prison and figure out sort of map it out and figure out what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. Just if it is true, although I think a lot of people have uncertainty how much they can believe that comes from Joyce Mitchell, if it is true, though, it's just another sort of stunning fact that they were able to have such free rein of what is meant to be a maximum security prison -- Fredricka.

[15:15:14] WHITFIELD: And then talk to me about what you are witnessing today in the search. And what kind of tools are being used, how they are going about it, what's happening?

MARQUEZ: It is much the same that we have seen over the last several days, still focusing in that one area where they had their best lead yet, which was scent dogs picking up the scent of the two fugitives. If it is true that she didn't pick them up and they had no plan b, then law enforcement believes that they are somewhere fairly close to the prison itself. They have been focusing and moving in in that area in a refined sort of way, putting up hundreds of law enforcement officers along the roadways there, the major highways through this area, and then moving them through the brush to the next major road, clearing out everything.

Also keeping tabs on every single house in the neighborhood, whether it is -- whether people are saying there or whether it's a seasonal house and maybe empty at the time. Going back time and time again to make sure nobody is staying there, nothing is disturbed. We've had some rough nights of very terrible weather here, getting fairly cold in the mid to high 50s here as well, which if you are wet, miserable, cold, tired and hungry, you could get hypothermic pretty quickly out in these woods. During the day, the bugs, everything from ticks to chigars to mosquitos to the biting flies here, miserable. A swampy condition as well. It is not the sort of place you want to be on the run -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Miguel Marquez, thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, the woman at the center of a controversy. Is she black or is she white as her parents claim? She says she till tell her side of the story. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:33] WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top stories now, Columbus, Ohio police have a murder mystery on their hands there searching for the person who shot and killed two men and two women in a home. And a woman was found outside wounded. Columbus police say it may have been a robbery. So far no suspects. Police are asking for the public's help.

And a South African court has banned the president of Sudan from leaving the country. The international criminal court called for the arrest of president Omar al-Bashir during appearance at the African summit in Johannesburg. Bashir is wanted for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide rising from the Darfur conflict.

And according to our affiliates in Spokane, Washington, the president of the NAACP will confront her critics who say she has been lying about her race. Rachel Dolezal has been at the center of a controversy ever since her parents came forward saying she is white. Dolezal's adopted brother who is African-American tells CNN quote "she told me not to blow her cover about the fact that she had this secret life or alternate identity." Ezra Dolezal says she told me not to tell anybody about Montana or her family over there.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has more on the woman behind this puzzling controversy. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seems like an easy question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are your parents, are they white?

ELAM: But for Rachel Dolezal it was enough to make her run from a local reporter. Dolezal is president of the Spoken chapter of the NAACP and professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University. For years the 37-year-old has claimed she's black, reinforcing that belief by posting pictures like this one from the Spokane NAACP Facebook page. The caption underneath says her father, presumably this black man, will be a special guest at one of their events.

But this is the birth certificate CNN obtained from Rachel's parents. This is her biological mother and this is her father, proving that Rachel Dolezal is white. The couple says their daughter has never claimed to be black in their presence, but due to a legal dispute, they haven't talked to her in years.

RUTHANNE DOLEZAL, RACHEL'S MOTHER: That's at her request. That's because Rachel has chosen to distance herself from the family and be hostile toward us. She doesn't want to be seen with us because it ruins her image.

ELAM: An image the Dolezals, who adopted four black children, say came about gradually around 2007.

R. DOLEZAL: Rachel has always been interested in ethnicity and diversity and we had many friends of different ethnicities when she was growing up.

ELAM: So interested in black culture that Dolezal left Montana to go to college in Jackson, Mississippi, before earning a master's degree from Howard University, a historically black institution in 2002. Throughout her career she's fought for racial equality. Here he is with Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are going to carry on the meeting.

ELAM: Dolezal was also appointed to oversee equality on the police department. On her application, however, she indicated that she is white, black and Native American. Now the city is checking to see if this new revelation has violated any policies.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The truth here is that she is a white woman, is exercising extraordinary privilege to try on blackness, as some people say to try on everything but the burden and to decide when and how she wants to be this thing that she can always walk away from.

ELAM: CNN tried unsuccessfully to reach Dolezal for comment. As for the NAACP, the organization is standing behind Dolezal saying quote "we encourage Americans of all stripes to become members and serve as leaders in our organization. Dolezal is expected to speak at the Spokane NAACP meeting Monday night.

Stephanie Elam, Spokane, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now, just within seconds while Stephanie's piece was running there, we have just learned from the Spokane NAACP Facebook page that tomorrow's meeting is postponed and rescheduled. They posted this statement saying, quote, "due to the need to continue discussion with regional and national NAACP leaders, tomorrow's meeting is postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date. We appreciate your patience and understanding at this time," end quote.

And we'll have much more from the NEWSROOM after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:04] WHITFIELD: Hello again. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

A new report says Russia and China have cracked classified files obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. CNN has not confirmed the reports by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. It says western spies have been pulled from their posts out of fear of their cover being blown.

As CNN's Phil Black tells us, the report does little to explain how officials found out. The stolen documents have been decrypted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "The Sunday Times" reports that both Russia and China have decrypted top secret files originally stolen by Edward Snowden, the whistleblower and former NSA contractor. It quotes "multiple sources across intelligence agencies and government who say this development has disrupted operations by potentially endangering the lives of operatives, some of which have had to be moved as a precaution but none has been harmed."

The journalist behind the stories say the reports, what they were able to substantiate, but it does not attempt to explain how the governments of Russia and China may have obtained this information. Edward Snowden has always insisted he would never give it up voluntarily to any other country and always said his skills were sufficient to protect that information, even from governments highly skilled at extracting secrets.

Nor does the article attempt explain how the British government knows these files have been decrypted. The British government is by no official response to the story. It's standard policy for intelligence matters. But British intelligence services have long argued that Edward Snowden has damaged their intelligence capacity making (INAUDIBLE) to protecting national security, they say, much harder.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Glenn Greenwald fires back against "The Sunday Times" report. He is one of the journalists who first broke the Edward Snowden story. He says this is all part of a government smear campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLENN GREENWALD, CO-FOUNDING EDITOR, THE INTERCEPT: It's filled with lies. For example, Edward Snowden has always said that he took no documents with him when he left Hong Kong, that he's never had any documents with him in Russia. That he gave it all to journalists and then destroyed his own copy. So "the Sunday Times" reporter wants to help the government by claiming, no, Edward Snowden did have documents and the way they're saying that is my partner, David Miranda, was detained in Heathrow after coming back from visiting Snowden and receiving documents. That is a total lie. David Miranda was never in Moscow prior to being detained at Heathrow. He had never met with Edward Snowden.

I believe "the Sunday Times" has now just deleted that paragraph without any indication they did so or they say Snowden downloaded 1.7 million documents.

The NSA itself says that they have no idea how many documents Edward Snowden documented, that they are not able to figure it out because their system doesn't allow that. And so the article is just full with lies in order to help these anonymous people in government who are too cowardly to say these claims themselves.

In the article it says the government official, whose identity we're hiding, says that Snowden has blood on his hands. And then later it says there's no evidence anyone has been harmed. Well, if there's no evidence anyone has been harmed, how can he have blood on his hands? It's just a way of smearing whistleblowers and sources.

If you go back to 1971 when (INAUDIBLE) the Pentagon papers who is now widely regarded as a hero, Nixon officials did the same thing. They planted claims with the media that Elysburg had secretly passed sensitive documents to the kremlin, to the Soviet Union, in order to smear Elysburg. This is what they do in every case. Responsible journalists questioned whether or not there's evidence for it, (INAUDIBLE) whereas propaganda simply printed without any questioning of it and that's what the Sunday times has con.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:31:46] WHITFIELD: The U.S. charged Edward Snowden with espionage back in 2013.

All right, still ahead, big weekend in politics. Hillary Clinton is on the road just a day before Jeb Bush officially jumps into the race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [15:35:00] ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: These two doctors are driving across the country to drive home a point with men. Don't neglect your health. These two doctors from Orlando health commissioned a survey that found that 80 percent of men could remember the make and model of their first car way back when, but only half of them could remember the last time they saw a doctor.

And studies show that men are 24 percent less likely than women to have visited a doctor within the past year, and there are repercussions to this. Men are 24 percent more likely than women to be hospitalized for pneumonia that could have been prevented with a vaccination. They're also 32 percent more likely than women to be hospitalized for long-term complications of diabetes.

So these doctors are telling men around the country it's great to love your car, but take care of your body too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, on to presidential politics now. Jeb Bush making it official tomorrow. The Republican plans to announce he is running for president. But as he makes his bid for the White House, some say he has to explain why he's different and how he's different than his brother.

On CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" Dana Bash asked him how he plans to do that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Jeb is different than George. Jeb is -- Jeb is who he is. My life story is different. I got to do that when I ran as governor and I got to share it -- share my passion for service when I was governor. Telling that story is going to be part of this. I don't have to disassociate myself from my family, I love them. But I know that I'm -- for me to be successful, I'm going to have to show my heart and tell my story.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you give me one little example of who Jeb Bush is that makes you feel like you are the guy who people should choose to be president?

BUSH: Well, I can make decisions. I've made tough decisions. I have a life experience that's full. Full of warts and full of successes. It's something that I think has been lacking in the presidency is to have someone who's been tempered by life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And you can watch Jeb Bush's announcement live tomorrow at 3:00 Eastern Time right here on CNN.

All right, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton weighed in on an issue dividing the Democratic Party, the pending trade agreement. And told a crowd in Des Moines, Iowa today that it would be a mistake to return what she called the failed economic policies of the Republicans. Clinton's rally today follows her big speech and rally in New York yesterday.

Joining me right now from Des Moines is CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

All right, good to see you again, Jeff. All right, so Hillary is jumping right into this campaign after yesterday's kickoff speech. What was Hillary's message today in the more intimate setting compared to what we saw at Roosevelt Island yesterday?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fredricka, good afternoon.

Apologies, we're in the middle of a rainstorm here in Iowa, which the Iowa farmers certainly appreciate. But Secretary Clinton was really emphasizing and amplifying her message that she gave in New York yesterday. She's trying to take this message on the road and say that she's a fighter for the middle class. That she is trying to stitch all of the pieces of her biography together to show she is the candidate to address income inequality and all these touchstone issues.

But she has some work to do because she is not out here Iowa alone. We've seen senator Bernie Sanders who's been gaining some traction and attention. He's been criticizing Secretary Clinton for not weighing in on trade. Well, today, she decided to do that and she started taking an implicit swipe at President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First let me start my saying no president would be a tougher negotiator on behalf of American workers either with our trading partners or Republicans on Capitol Hill than I would be. In order to get a deal that meets these high standards, the president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers to make sure we get the best, strongest deal possible. And if we don't get it, there should be no deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:16] ZELENY: And that is a significant thing that Secretary Clinton said right there, essentially siding with Nancy Pelosi against the president. She's saying that the White House should negotiate a -- work harder to negotiate a better deal. So all of that will play out this week when this could come to another vote in the House of Representatives. But Secretary Clinton is using it to try to show Democrats that she is fighting for them so it's one key issue finally weighing in on policy issues that we heard today -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, this on the prelude of tomorrow and Jeb Bush announcing his candidacy officially. So after that, he will be headed to Iowa. He's waited a long time to get in this race. But will it in any way impact, you know, how he is getting into this race? Does it in any way kind of, you know, impact his journey given he hasn't officially in the past, tomorrow it's official but he's kind of already intimated that he was going to be in?

ZELENY: Sure he has. He's been campaigning for months, sort of a shadow campaign, if you will. And he is going to announce officially in Miami. A lot of Republicans are waiting to hear from Jeb Bush. He was supposed to be frontrunner. He's certainly not that now, but he wants the chance to make his case. So as a candidate in the race, he'll be able to do that.

But Fredricka, he has a lot of work cut out for him. No question about it. That's why he's coming actually to New Hampshire on Tuesday then Iowa on Wednesday to begin fighting for that Republican vote. But in such a crowded field, he absolutely has his work cut out for him. He's going to try and emphasize more on the Jeb than the Bush as he's mentioned so we'll see how he does this summer as the rains keep continuing here in Iowa, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to get you out of the rain now, Jeff Zeleny. And hopefully you've got a spare shirt too. Sorry about that. All right, thanks so much.

All right, former president Bill Clinton tried to present a different side to his wife and family in an interview on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." The program's new host, Jake Tapper, asking him if he is bothered by the polls that say that his wife is not the trustworthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, STATE OF THE UNION: There are polls that show that fewer and fewer Americans think that your wife is honest and trustworthy. This has happened at the same time of these questions about the foundation, questions about her email. And that must really bother you.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, but I mean, we're used to it. And the only thing I would say about this is, number one, I'm glad it's happening now because I trust the American people and I trust her with my life, and have on more than one occasion. I think that anybody -- the more people find out about her, anybody who's still really close to their best friend in grade school is by definition trustworthy unless they were robbing stores together at six or seven. Anybody who's got the friends of their lifetime is trustworthy. The people who know, know that.

And there have been a lot of discussion in this period about disclosure. You know, everybody wants disclosure. But I think what's good for the goose is good for the gander here. I think, for example, I remember when Hillary was completely exonerated when I was in the White House, and all that whitewater business. When an official federal inquiry said that her billing records, they wished for her sake had been found earlier because they completely corroborated everything she'd said. And the next day there was nothing in the media about it. There was stunning nondisclosure.

So now we've got social media and we can have disclosure and we can all live under the same rules and it's going to be fun. I literally -- a, I know her, b, I know the truth and, c, I trust the American people. And it's not happening 15 hours before the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And you can watch "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper every Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and noon eastern right here on CNN.

Also, still ahead, we'll take you overseas where people are being told to stay indoors after a flood releases wild and dangerous animals like these from a zoo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:25] WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories. A mechanical problem on a united airlines flight from Chicago to London forced the pilots to divert to Goose Bay, Canada, for an emergency landing. Well, passengers complained that they were taken to an old unheated barracks where they spent 20 hours without enough blankets. United said hotel space was not available, but later put them on another flight and then refunded their money.

In central Louisiana, more than 100 people have been rescued from floodwaters. The sheriff's office in Colfax said a levee breached around 2:00 this morning. It was described as a personal levee that was built just two weeks ago.

And wild animals, including this hippo, were roaming the streets in Georgia, the former soviet republic today, after raging floodwaters damaged the city's zoo and set many animals free. Eight people have been killed by flooding there. Wolves, bears, lions and tigers are also wandering the streets.

Ron McGill is the communications director and curator at the Miami Metro zoo. He is joining us via Skype.

Good to see you, Ron. All right, so Miami has had its own experience with escaped zoo animals after hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. (INAUDIBLE), this disaster area right now, what do they do to try to round up what I understand to be hippos, rhinos and other animals?

RON MCGILL, CURATOR, MIAMI METRO ZOO: Well, you know, the first thing I understand is that these animals are frightened so that makes them even more dangerous. This is a different situation in what we experienced at the zoo in Miami here in 1992 in the sense that we didn't have any real dangerous animals get out. You got predators, carnivorous, hippos, I mean, I hippos are responsible for more deaths and injuries in Africa than any other animal on the continent.

So this is potentially very dangerous situation. I saw the images of the one hippo. They were the people around it and I was going, oh, my God, and the people around it. The best thing to do is stay indoors like they're saying. Wait until they round these animals up. Most of these animals are not going to be going after people. They're going to try to get away from people. They are going to try to find a place so they could be excluded and unwind, you know, just to try to calm down a little bit. But any other - the other animals, the carnivorous, tigers, I know this is kind of like a weird piece of advice. But the worst thing you can do if you see something like a lion or a tiger or any predator like that is turn and run. That is only going to ignite the instinct. It is going to have to come after you. The best thing to do is back away slowly. Try to make yourself look as big as possible. More often than not, animals in the situation are going to try to find a way to avoid, they are trying to find a place where they can find some safety.

[15:50:53] WHITFIELD: And while you mention while instinctively hippos and rhinos do charge and maybe they wouldn't in this case because they are very frightened and they are probably hungry, how concerned are you about whether this kind of information, you know, is getting to the experts there because we heard from one of our international reporters who is here, Linda, earlier who said that many of the zoo workers -- eight zoo workers have actually been killed in the flooding. So do you worry about the level of expertise, people who know how to handle these wild animals that have been domesticated or that have been in zoos?

MCGILL: Yes, absolutely, it's a big concern. You know, on the positive side, people tend to overreact at by something like this and be so frightened that they probably not going to go outdoors if they see something like this. This is one of those rare situations where kind of being overly frightened is probably working better for you because this is going not have people do, you know, jump things to curiosity factor, like you see some of these folks in Africa, you are in Safari and somebody gets out of their tent because there is a hippo outside of their tent and want to get a good picture of it and they do something stupid and they get themselves hurt that way. Hopefully, the situation right now is such a dire situation with the flooding and the people that have been killed just by the natural disaster that hopefully that inspires people to stay inside because these animals can be very, very dangerous.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, Ron McGill, thanks so for your time. Appreciate it from Miami.

MCGILL: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, tensions grow as Russia and U.S. jets nearly collide over Eastern Europe. Now, the U.S. is making a movie it hasn't taken since the cold war with the former Soviet Union.

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[15:56:34] WHITFIELD: All right. New report today, the U.S. is poised to put heavy weapons in Eastern European countries that used to be part of the old Soviet Union. The "New York Times" also says the move is aimed at deterring further Russian aggression in the region after its takeover of Crimea.

CNN's pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports on the growing tension and some recent close encounters.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming starboard side. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the very

day this Russian jet flew close by a U.S. Navy warship in the black sea, a dangerous encounter in the skies just miles away. May 30th, 300 miles north of Turkey, an armed Russian c-coy 27 (ph) confront an air force RC135 surveillance plane in international air space. The Russian fighter came up underneath the American plane and then flew alongside just 10 feet away making sure the Americans saw its missiles under the wings. A Pentagon official not allowed to speak publicly says Russian pilots are acting like cowboys and show offs. Diplomats were more diplomatic.

JEFF RATHKE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: When there are unsafe incidents, we certainly address them.

STARR: It's not the only recent close call. In the Baltics Sea to the north on April 7th off the coast of Lithuania, again, an international air space, an armed Russian fighter flew within feet of another RC135.

Most U.S. military encounters with the Russians are routine. They all occur in international waters and air space. U.S. military aircraft have been flying more often probing for Russian intelligence. Right now, 17 NATO and allied nations are conducting a massive military exercise. Nearly 50 ships and more than 60 aircraft are operating. Its long-scheduled maneuvers, but still, a statement of military might in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Coming as Ukraine officials visit Washington continuing to plead for U.S. arms.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK, UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER: They are considering and contemplating this option. The reason is quite simple. They believe this could escalate the situation in Ukraine, but it's already escalated. Russian supplied hundreds of tanks, hundreds of holsters, modern artillery.

STARR: The Obama administration continues to be unwilling to send arms to Ukraine saying it might escalate the situation.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

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WHITFIELD: And the next hour of NEWSROOM begins right now.

Hi, hello again. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

New developments in the expanding search for those two escaped murders. It has been nine days since Richard Matt and David Swat broke out of a maximum security prison in upstate New York. The District attorney tells CNN, prison employee Joyce Mitchell charge with helping them breakout, has told investigators about the plan.

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WYLIE: The information that we have looking at - is that they were going to meet down by the powerplant, drive like I say to the sunset because it was, then after midnight and it was dark out, but they were going to drive away from the area potentially to an area that was about seven hours away.

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