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Source: Joyce Mitchell Warned Husband of Danger; Trump Vows to Make America 'Great Again'. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: How much did he know about the prison break-in [SIC]? Is it true that his life was in danger?

[07:00:07] CNN's Alexandra Field live from Dannemora, New York with the latest. It's like covering a crime and like a movie at the same time, Alexandra. What's the latest twist?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of plot twists here, Chris. And the latest is this. Joyce Mitchell, who is being housed in the Clinton County Jail, has now been moved to a jail outside of the county. She was considered too much of a distraction in this area where so much of the search has focused over so many days now.

But she's not the only one moving. The search itself is also moving this morning. Search crews had been working on a 16-square-mile area. This morning, however, the roadblocks have been moved. Police will now have to pursue tips coming in from just about every direction. After more than 1,000 leads, authorities are expanding and shifting their search around upstate New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN CUTT, FORMER HEAD, NORTHEAST FUGITIVE INVESTIGATION DIVISION: These are criminals. They are going to rely on what they know best. So there's been no reports of any carjackings, any break-ins. That's not to say that they might not be holding someone at bay in a house somewhere.

FIELD: Former prison employee Joyce Mitchell, who investigators say gave the inmates, Richard Matt and David Sweat, tools to escape, is feeling the weight of her actions, according to her attorney.

JOHNSTON: She's distraught. She's very upset. She's very weepy.

FIELD: Mitchell's husband, Lyle, worked in the same tailoring block inside the prison as his wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mitchell.

FIELD: Tuesday he spent an hour visiting Mitchell in jail and had a private, unmonitored conversation. Officials say she appeared to be comforted by the visit, and he appeared supportive.

STEPHEN JOHNSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR JOYCE MITCHELL: All I know is that he says that he's standing by her. So that's what he told me when I spoke to him.

FIELD: But Lyle's lawyer says he has no plans to testify on her behalf.

While both worked at the tailor shop, Mitchell had a sexual relationship with 49-year-old Richard Matt, dating as far back as 2013. A source with direct knowledge of the investigation also tells CNN Joyce Mitchell was aware of a plot to kill her husband by the prisoners. And she warned him that his life could be in danger.

Leading up to the elaborate escape, investigators say Mitchell may have agreed to be the duo's getaway driver after Matt and/or Sweat then threatened both her and her husband.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Alexandra Field, thanks so much for that. We want to bring in now Sheriff David Favro of Clinton County, New York.

Sheriff, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY. We're hearing that the search is expanding. What can you tell us?

SHERIFF DAVID FAVRO, CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK: Well, the area that is have been searched for the last 11 days have been pretty much exhausted. They've covered all the square footage over 10,000 acres and covered it very well, so that we're confident that that area is cleared. And we're going to be moving on into a couple other areas that are fairly close to that search area, just in case they are still here on foot.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff, we had heard that there were 500 homes in that first seven-mile radius. Have you gone to every one of those homes and searched the basement and any sorts of wood sheds and cleared them?

FAVRO: To my knowledge, just about every home has been cleared. I, myself, along with my undersheriff, last Friday, went door-to-door just outside the perimeter and spoke with several of the residents. We got a couple good tips on some vacant homes that family members owned but haven't been in for over a year. Sent teams up to clear those houses and make sure there was no trace of those individuals there. So I think we're pretty confident that that particular area is clear.

CAMEROTA: Is the last -- are the last clues that you got that boot print that you believed to be one of the fugitives and the food wrappers.

FAVRO: I believe that's all that we have thus far in this particular area that would indicate that they were there, yes.

CAMEROTA: What does your gut tell you about where they are?

FAVRO: Everybody has an opinion, but we're kind of careful with opinions. We know how we feel about those. But I'm about 49/51. I'd like to think that they were here because of

the circumstances that led to it. However, with that elaborate of an escape and the detail that they put into getting out, I find it very hard to believe that they didn't think out well what they were going to do once they got to the air of freedom. So I would have to say that they had a very strong Plan "A" in place, and that's what they're following right now.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff, one of the criticisms of this search is that it has not been well-coordinated. Is the FBI -- are the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals and your department, and the local police working well together, or are you seeing some fraying?

FAVRO: All the people on the ground are working great together, honestly. I mean, they're working hand-in-hand. They're sharing information at the ground level and doing what they can to support each other. When you pull 800 people from multiple jurisdictions together, it's an immeasurable effort.

[07:05:11] It's fairly easy for some people to sit back that are not involved and say I don't understand why they're not catching them faster. I don't understand why something may be happening. It's easy to diagnose those things when you're in the comfort of your recliner.

But when you're up here seeing the immeasurable amount of personnel and resources and technology that's being deployed, to try and keep it together is difficult. Richard from the New York state police is fairly new to this region. He's new to the region. I'm fortunate that he's here, because he has a lot of experience on multiple task forces throughout the state from larger regions in the state and has been involved in many activities like this. He's spearheading the efforts. And I'm confident that he's very confident to keep this going strong until we accomplish our mission.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff, all the experts that we have spoken to, including the prosecutors, says that they believe that these guys had more help than just Joyce Mitchell, their alleged accomplice; help inside the prison and outside the prison. So where are the other arrests?

FAVRO: I couldn't tell you that right now. I think you have to realize that there's just as much of a presence as you see out in the public, searching for these individuals, there's an equal amount of effort that's going on behind the scenes. There's multiple members, plainclothes people that are doing investigations, phone calls, computer work, calling up on other leads, the thousands of leads that have come in from multiple areas, even throughout the country. And I think we need to allow that part of the process to work, as well.

Common sense would say that when they first get out, you have to secure the immediate area, which I think is the effort that was done. And now, it's going to end up being a big part of the investigation that's going to lead us to where they're going to be.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff...

FAVRO: It will be the eyes and the ears of somebody. CAMEROTA: Well, yes. Often the public are the people who end up

getting the case. Are you still confident that you will get these guys?

FAVRO: I am. I really believe we will. We're putting heart and soul into this. All of my guys, every member that's up here from every department. Every member that's in investigations, everybody is working really hard at it. And there's some great people that are behind the scenes and that are down on the ground. And I'm confident that we're going to be able to get these two.

CAMEROTA: Sheriff David Favro, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to NEW DAY this morning.

FAVRO: Thank you. Have a nice day.

CUOMO: All right. Let's turn to politics now. And here comes the Trump train, full of barbs and bluster, announcing he is joining the GOP race for president. He's already making a splash, at least with the media. He's an odd combination of press popularity and record unpopularity ratings in the Republican Party.

We have CNN's Joe Johns here with the rollout plan. Joe, how is he going to do it?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, today, Donald Trump heads to the early voting state of New Hampshire. He'll be at Manchester Community College for an event around 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

Trump's campaign kick-off speech here in New York was over the top, about as raw and unfiltered as it gets in presidential politics. But he was just getting started.

Last night in Iowa, at his very first campaign stop, he kept up the drum beat, slamming President Obama for his healthcare plan and negotiating skills, talking tough about Republican contenders, too, including a comment about how he has better hair than Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

And there was more on foreign policy. Listen to what he said about ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, ISIS. ISIS has the oil. And ISIS is rich. And what we should do right now is go blast the hell out of that organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Trump's biggest problem in Iowa appears to be his approval ratings. A recent poll showed 58 percent of Republican respondents say they would vote for him.

CUOMO: That's good. That's a good number there. That's a good number. The question is how it will change over time. And now if he's in the race, Joe, he keeps talking about his money.

JOHNS: Right.

CUOMO: He may be right on one level. NBC has put a lot of money in his pocket, "Celebrity Apprentice" and other projects. What are they going to do if their man is running for president?

JOHNS: Well, they've got what we call in the business an equal time problem. So they can't have a guy who's running for president also hosting a TV show. The question is whether they're going to just put this thing on hold. And some of the people at the Trump campaign have suggested he might even put one of his kids in there to host. It's not clear how that would work out.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: The other option is you could have the other 11 candidates also have their own show.

CUOMO: Reality shows.

JOHNS: That's awesome.

CAMEROTA: Maybe this is a reality show, come to speak of it.

CUOMO: "GOP and Me."

JOHNS: Every four years.

CAMEROTA: Exactly.

JOHNS: They'll be on the shore.

PEREIRA: There's just so many options. Good to have you here, Joe.

PEREIRA: So we've been watching this Tropical Storm Bill. It has been downgraded now to a tropical depression. However, flood-weary Texas certainly not out of the woods, yet. That rain could still cause severe flooding in the coming days, not only in Texas, but in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

[07:10:13] CUOMO: The House Foreign Affairs Committee taking up chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Today's hearing is focusing on whether strikes by the Assad regime are ongoing, despite claims from the White House that the stockpile was destroyed.

Now John Kerry is clearly frustrated with this, saying his patience with Syrian President Assad is, quote, "wearing thin."

CAMEROTA: Watch this video. This was caught on surveillance tape. A Georgia father putting his life on the line to save his son. You can see Malcolm Milliones. He is holding on for dear life there on the side of his fiance's carjacked SUV, because his 8-year-old son is still inside.

Milliones says he was dragged about 500 feet. But he was able to distract the carjacker enough to give his son the chance to jump out. Milliones broke his arm in the process, but he is expected to recover. The carjacker and accomplice got away.

PEREIRA: How wonderful that his son was able to get out, and he wasn't hurt, too.

CUOMO: Smart kid, didn't get frozen. Daddy power.

CAMEROTA: Totally. Superman.

CUOMO: Right? In that moment, you do whatever you've got to do.

PEREIRA: Absolutely. Glad that turned out that way.

CUOMO: Good for him.

All right. So a big issue when we're talking about the election is money and politics. What about personal wealth? Donald Trump is saying it's a reason you should vote for him. He doesn't need anybody else's money. Are we better off electing someone who's super rich, because they won't have to beg for cash? We're going to ask another extremely wealthy Republican presidential hopeful, Carly Fiorina. She is here. What does she think?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00] CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Donald Trump is the newest edition to the presidential race, becoming the 12th Republican candidate. He says his business experience and great wealth makes him the best person for the Oval Office. But our next guest may have a thing or two to say about that.

Let's bring in Carly Fiorina, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, former chairman and CEO of HP. Great to have you here. Good luck in the election.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.

CUOMO: So let's use the Trump train as a jumping off. You can make a list of what he thought mattered. Let's play it, and then comment.

FIORINA: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.

I would repeal and replace the big lie, Obamacare.

Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump.

I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now, do you feel, in good conscience, that you can disagree with any of that?

FIORINA: Well, I think Donald Trump, who shouldn't be underestimated, by the way. But I think he's hitting on issues that Americans care about. Americans clearly believe the economy isn't growing enough. And not enough of them are employed in jobs they like.

They're worried and afraid of what's going on in the world, not just ISIS, but other issues, as well. They realize that China has turned into an adversary. They're concerned about border security. These are, I think, real issues.

I think on top of everything else, what I feel out there is something reflected in a recent poll. Eighty-two percent of Americans now believe we have a professional political class that's more focused on its own power, privilege and position than on doing the people's work. And so I think they are open to someone with experience such as myself, who actually knows what it takes to get a bureaucracy under control.

CUOMO: So let's discuss that. Because the main criticism of Trump will be that what he's doing is, yes, he's picking on what panics people. And he's then pandering and making big promises. But that's not the job of a leader, is it? Everybody knows what the problems are.

The job of a leader is to solve them in a way that's reasonable and doesn't set false expectations. Do you believe that you have solutions to these problems that are obvious to everybody?

FIORINA: I do. Let's just say, there are lots of politicians who make false promises on both sides of the aisle. But I do think that, in order to get the economy going, again...

CUOMO: What do we do?

FIORINA: First, we have to lift the weight of government off it. So for example, we know that Obamacare is a failure. We have emergency room visits up. We have health insurance premiums up. We have health insurance companies consolidating. We know that the overreach of the EPA is pressing a lot of jobs. We know that we're destroying more businesses than we're creating for the first time in U.S. history.

We know that we're tangling people's lives up in webs of dependence. Webs of dependence that encourage them not to move forward in their lives but to lay back and discourage them from really using their God- given gifts. We know, for example, that our Arab allies have asked us for all kinds of very specific support to help them fight ISIS. We haven't provided any of that support.

We know that Russia is an adversary and that if we rebuild the fleet or we rebuild the missile defense program, that would help.

We know, as well, that our government has become, over both Republican and democratic administrations, by the way, over 40 years, our government has become increasingly inept. Not just costly. Not just complicated. But inept. Look at this data breach at the office of personnel management. That's ineptitude.

CUOMO: Well, everybody gets hit by data breaches. Right? Target. I mean, I know you'd like to point to government, but the private sector has been just as vulnerable.

FIORINA: Yes, but they know how many people have been hit. And they know when they're being hit.

CUOMO: You know what? How many people did you hit me on?

FIORINA: We still don't know. The Office of Personnel Management still doesn't know how many records are affected. They didn't take an inspector general's report to shut down vulnerable systems. They were told years ago that this could happen.

CUOMO: The problem is clear. The solution is not as clear. And not to cherry pick each one of these, but obviously, you can't say that the U.S. hasn't given whatever partners want. Nobody's put more money in it. Nobody's put more money in it. Nobody's getting more supplies.

FIORINA: Actually, I can say.

CUOMO: It's not accurate.

FIORINA: It is accurate.

CUOMO: Who has given more time and assets.

FIORINA: I'm making a different point. The Jordanians have asked us to provide them with bombs and materiel to fight ISIS. We have not. The Kurds have asked us to arm them for three years. We have not. The Egyptians have asked us to share intelligence. We are not.

There are a whole series of Arab allies: the Saudis, the Qataris, the Emiratis, the Jordanians, the Kurds who have asked us for very specific support in this fight against ISIS. We have not provided it. I would hold a Camp David summit and ask every single one of those allies what can we do to support you?

They know this is their right.

CUOMO: You don't think that the U.S. has been asking Arab allies what they want and providing things?

FIORINA: I do not. I think that's factually not accurate. There are a whole set of things that Arab allies have asked us for.

CUOMO: There may be things that they still want, but the idea that the U.S. haven't given anything, I think, is a little bit of a distraction.

FIORINA: Of course the U.S. has given money but not enough to help to help our Arab allies.

CUOMO: As to the idea of what would fix government, Trump's idea is, "Hey, I'm better, because I know business, and I'm worth a ton of money."

So let's take his metric as something that's valuable. And you look at how much money and how much wealth he's created for himself. I think his number is greatly overblown. And that's OK. They have a number out there about you, as well? How much do you think you're worth?

FIORINA: Well, I actually put everything out there. It's not a question of an estimate. I put out two years' worth of tax returns. I valued everything we own.

CUOMO: What are you worth? What's the arena?

FIORINA: I think it's about $59 million, based on the tax returns that I put out there.

CUOMO: Now, that will be looked at one of two ways. One, the way Trump looks at it: that's amazing. You've been incredibly successful. You did good things at HP. You had differences of opinions about how to run the company. You wound up leaving. But you made a lot of money.

But to about 98 percent of the country, you represent this class that you point to yourself as a potential distraction to success in America. Where overwhelming wealth dominates the economic landscape for everybody else. How are you the solution and not the problem?

FIORINA: You know, I started out as a secretary. My husband started out as a tow-truck driver. And we have been very fortunate. We've been fortunate to get a good education. We've been fortunate to have people take a chance on us. We've been fortunate to have opportunities. We cannot become a country that represents success. We've lived the American dream, my husband and I.

The truth is, the more powerful government gets, the more true it becomes. That only the wealthy, the powerful, the well-connected and the big can handle it.

CUOMO: How do you fix that?

FIORINA: Crony capitalism exists.

CUOMO: Crony capitalism is a great phrase. How do you change, and should you change, by the way, is the better question, the CEO making, you know, exponentially times what the regular worker makes. Is that something that should that be addressed?

FIORINA: I think CEO pay, and mine certainly was, CEO pay ought to be voted on by shareholders. That's the way to fix that, because they are invested in the company.

But I also think that when you create these big, complicated pieces of legislation and regulation, what happens is the small get crushed. Let's just talk for a moment about our tax code. It's 70,000 pages. So guess who that advantages? The wealthy, the well-connected. All those tax credits and deductions, I can take them. But the

secretary that I used to be working in a nine-person real-estate firm, those deductions don't help her, and they don't help that nine-person real-estate firm.

So I actually think that, as someone who started in a nine-person real estate firm and ultimately became the chief executive of the largest technology company in the world, $90 billion, I understand precisely why big government advantages the powerful, the wealthy, the big and the well-connected.

And the only way to level that playing field is to challenge the status quo of Washington that has existed for 50 years and begin to simplify and reduce the power of this complexity.

CUOMO: The trick will be how to do it. This is a good start to the conversation. We have a long time in this election. We look forward to you coming back so we can kind of hash these things out step by step so that people get the best look they can.

FIORINA: Thank you so much for having me.

CUOMO: Thank you. Good luck going forward.

FIORINA: Thank you.

CUOMO: Mick.

PEREIRA: Long time indeed. Over 509 days, I think, the calendar says.

All right. We'll stick with 2016 politics and the pope. John King is going to take a look at Jeb Bush's controversial comments about the Catholic leader and climate change. That's ahead, "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:27:56] CAMEROTA: The manhunt for two killers in upstate New York expanding this morning. The search for Richard Matt and David Sweat bringing in 1,000 leads. Alleged accomplice Joyce Mitchell getting a jailhouse visit from her husband yesterday. A source says she warned him before the escape that the killers had a plan to kill him. Authorities also looking into whether other prison employees or prisoners were in on this escape.

PEREIRA: A New York City college student arrested after planning a suspected terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS. The FBI says that Munther Omar Saleh searched online for materials required to build a pressure cooker bomb and that he also looked up images of city landmarks. Court documents show the 20-year-old backed jihad beliefs and openly supported ISIS on Twitter.

CUOMO: This morning a white tiger that escaped from the zoo in the Georgia capital of Tbilisi killed a man and injured another. The animal was just one among hundreds that escaped during severe floods this weekend. A government official says police tracked the tiger down and had to kill it.

CAMEROTA: All right. Remember this video we showed you of escaped piglets on the highway last week? Look how cute they are. Well, someone left three houses on the side of the road for them. Yes, you guessed it, Michaela. One is made of brick, one of straw and one of bricks.

And one has a satellite dish, people. You see that?

The houses did not last long, I'm sorry to report, not because of a big, bad wolf, but rather because transportation officials removed them Tuesday because they distracted drivers.

PEREIRA: You mean the transportation ministry (ph) huffed and puffed and blew their house down?

CAMEROTA: Yes, I do mean that.

CUOMO: How did the first one get taken down, because that one you can't take down.

PEREIRA: Somebody built the three little piggies' houses.

CAMEROTA: Somebody has a lot of time on their hands, and we appreciate that.

PEREIRA: I love it. We salute you. We really do.

CUOMO: Time to get to "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with John King. Hello, Johnny.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Let's move from that absurdity to welcome to politics, everybody. Good to see you this morning, Mr. Cuomo. A lot to talk about this morning. But let's go "Inside Politics." With me to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's M.J. Lee; Olivier Sachs of Yahoo! Excuse me. I almost forgot your name there, old friend.

Big signs of Clinton weaknesses this morning. I say big signs. I want to make clear where we are in the calendar. It is still summer of 2015. Quinnipiac did some polls in battleground states matching Secretary Clinton up against some of the Republicans. You know Ohio, the governor, John Kasich, who's about to announce he's running for president. Hasn't done it quite yet.