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NEW DAY

New York Prison Escapee Wounded and Captured by Police; Greece Possibly Facing Financial Default; U.S.-Iran Nuclear Negotiations Running Up against Deadline; Officials Hope Sweat Can Help in Prison Break Investigation; GOP 2016 Field Fractured Over Gay Marriage Ruling; Chris Christie Teases Campaign Launch in Video. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 29, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone has taken our flag and has abused of hate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is simply a symbol of bigotry, a symbol of racial hatred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The true spirit behind the flag will never die.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This ruling is a victory for America.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is wrong. It is not law. And it is not the constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the law of the land and we'll abide by it.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to you NEW DAY. It's Monday, June 29th, 8:00 in the east. Michaela is off today. And we have news about the manhunt for those two fugitives in upstate New York. It is over. A policeman shot and wounded David Sweat days after his fellow escapee Richard Matt was shot and killed.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Sweat was taken down just a couple of miles from the Canadian border. And now his mother is speaking out about his capture. CNN's team coverage begins with Sara Ganim. She is live in Albany where Sweat is in critical condition, being treated for his wounds. What is the latest, Sara?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. Good morning. Critical but stable condition, that's what we're hearing from the governor. You know, there were 1,300 law enforcement officials involved in this search for these two inmates over the last three weeks. But in the end, when it comes to David Sweat, it was one New York state police sergeant who not only was able to stop him but also to keep him alive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENNIS MCKENNA, ALBANY MEDICAL DIRECTOR: At this time his condition is listed as critical.

GANIM: This morning convicted killer David Sweat is in custody and fighting for his life, suffering from two gunshot wounds to his torso.

(CHEERS)

GANIM: Cheers from spectators as the escapee's ambulance arrives late Sunday at the hospital in Albany, New York.

ANDREW WYLIE, CLINTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: He will be in basically 24/7 lock down for the rest of his life.

GANIM: This exclusive photo obtained by CNN moments after his capture shows Sweat bloodied and in full camouflage garb. You can see in this photo a wound it his chest.

MICHAEL DOYLE, RESIDENT, CONSTABLE, NEW YORK: I heard shots and I ran out with my phone. All of a sudden the cops just swarmed like bees.

GANIM: Sweat was spotted Sunday afternoon by New York state police sergeant Jay Cook during a routine patrol less than two miles from the Canadian border.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK: He was alone when this happened. I said you go home tonight and tell your daughters that you're a hero.

GANIM: The fugitive was jogging along the road when Cook spotted him. That's when Sweat took off nearly making it back into the woods before Sergeant Cook opened fire.

JOSEPH A. D'AMICO, SUPERINTENDENT: The terrain is so dense you can't see 5 feet in front of you. If Sweat made the tree line he would have been gone.

GANIM: Investigators say Sweat and his now deceased partner in crime Richard Matt used pepper to try to throw off police tracking dogs.

D'AMICO: We did have difficulty tracking, so it was fairly effective in that respect.

GANIM: The dramatic capture coming 48 hours after Matt, armed with a shotgun, was killed in a shootout with police.

CUOMO: It was an extraordinary circumstance, and the first escape in over 100 years. But one escape is one escape too many.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: Now David Sweat was unarmed when he was captured. And just to give you some perspective, he was about 16 miles away from where his partner, Richard Matt was shot and killed on Friday afternoon. He was about two miles south of the Canadian border. He's now at this hospital right here behind me in Albany being treated by trauma doctors, vascular surgeons. He's being kept in a secure area. Of course, officials hoping that he survives the two gunshot wounds so they can talk to him. That's key here. They want to know how they were able to not only pull off the brazen escape but if anyone else assisted them in doing so. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Sara Ganim, thanks so much for that update.

More than 1,300 law enforcement officers searched around the clock for the two convicted killers. And new details emerging this morning about how police were finally able to track down the pair. CNN's Polo Sandoval has that story. He is live in Constable, New York. What have you learned, Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. And 1,300 law enforcement officers saturating this area in upstate New York for nearly three weeks, but it all boiled down to one single confrontation on this roadside not far from Constable, New York. This is where David Sweat went face to face with the New York state police sergeant. In fact if you follow the tire tracks, they'll lead you to the tree line that the officer feared would really help conceal Sweat. So as a result he fired those shots, ending three weeks of uncertainty for the people here.

So now it's time to answer some of these key questions. The main one, how was David Sweat able to make his way from the Clinton Correctional Facility about 42, 45 miles away from where we are here to this small farming community. A look back reveals that on June 6th, that's actually when that initial jailbreak went down at Clinton correctional, June 22nd, that was when the first key piece of evidence surfaced.

[08:05:03] Investigators were able to find DNA that linked the two fugitives, both Richard Matt and David Sweat to the area. June 26th, that was just this past Friday, that's when Richard Matt went face to face with federal agents and eventually led to his death. And then, of course, yesterday, that key moment when Sergeant Jay Cook and David Sweat went face to face, eventually leading to his arrest, ending so much uncertainty. There were so many concerns for the people in the small communities. So many people here had even packed up, locked up, and moved away. They had no intention of returning back to their homes until they were given the all clear by investigators.

CAMEROTA: I'll take it Polo. They are exhaling this morning. That's for sure. Thanks so much.

And in a case strikingly similar to a New York prison break, a North Carolina inmate is behind bars today after escaping with the help of a prison worker. And 29-year-old Kristopher Antonio McNeil, he's a convicted killer, he broke out Saturday morning and was recaptured Sunday night. Kendra Lynette Miller, a kitchen worker, is charged with aiding and abetting the fugitive, harboring a fugitive, and having sex with an inmate.

CUOMO: Less than 48 hours to reach a deal with Iran on nukes, and the U.S. officials say negotiators will not get it done. Tehran and the six world powers known as the P5 plus 1 are vowing to stay in Vienna past the Tuesday deadline just like they did when they were trying to reach that framework agreement in the spring. So let's check in with CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen. He's in Tehran with the latest. Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. Yes, it certainly is crunch time in the nuclear talks. And that's something we can also feel it here in Iran's capital, Tehran. Most Iranians want a nuclear deal. They want sanctions relief, but the country's leadership still has major reservations. And in fact the talks are so sensitive that Iran's chief negotiator, the foreign minister Javad Zarif, has returned here to Tehran for direct consultations with the country's supreme leader. However, before leaving Vienna, he did have a bilateral meeting Secretary of State Kerry, and both of them acknowledged that the going is going to be tough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Everybody would like to see an agreement, but we have to work through some difficult issues.

MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We're determined to do everything we can in order to be able to make this important milestone, but that depends on a lot things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: Of course, Iran's supreme leader has laid out red lines for the Iranian side. He says that inspectors will not be allowed to go into Iran's military facilities, and, also, that he wants full sanctions relief the moment an agreement is signed. That, of course, is something that will be very difficult to swallow for the other parties involved in these negotiations, especially the U.S. But again, many Iranians here are watching this very, very closely, hoping that a deal will come through. Guys?

CAMEROTA: OK, Frederik, thank you so much for that.

Well, turning to the worsening financial crisis gripping Greece. The cash-strapped country racing toward a default as soon as tomorrow. Officials now taking drastic action to prevent the economy there from collapsing, and global markets already feeling the ripple effect. CNN business correspondent Richard Quest is live in Athens with the very latest for us. Richard?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. It's $67 a day, or in local currency 60 euros, that's the amount of money that Greek citizens can take out of the banks since the capital controls were introduced overnight. The banking system is closed, as is the stock market for a week, and now everybody is waiting to see how the Greek people feel about this referendum.

(YELLING)

QUEST: There we are.

CUOMO: Obviously you're getting a taste of people's opposition to what is going on there.

QUEST: This is the sort of thing --

(YELLING)

CUOMO: Watch yourself, Richard. All right, Richard, go handle that situation. We'll check in with you later.

All right, that's what's going on in Greece right now. You got a first look at it for yourself with Richard Quest.

Back here, much better situation. Celebrations across the country this weekend following Friday's historic Supreme Court ruling, finding the right for same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states. Now, despite the excitement by some, the opposition is not relegated to the past. The Texas attorney general is telling clerks they can refuse to issue marriage licenses in defiance of the Supreme Court, they're saying because of religious reasons.

CNN senior White House Jim Acosta has more. Not the most solid of legal bases for that advice from the attorney general, but of course politics in play as well.

JIM ACOSTA: Absolutely, Chris. Republicans are far from united in their response to the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage.

[08:10:03] While some GOP presidential candidates say it's time to respect the ruling, others say it is time to start throwing up some roadblocks, something a few states are beginning to do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Days after the Supreme Court's landmark decision protecting same-sex marriage, many Republican presidential candidates are nowhere near the path to acceptance.

CRUZ: It is fundamentally illegitimate. It is wrong. It is not law. It is not the constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

ACOSTA: Some of states opposed to the ruling are beginning to fight back. In Texas, the attorney general has said county clerks can reject same-sex marriage license requests, citing religious objections. While in Mississippi and Louisiana, officials are dragging their feet, saying they will wait a separate appeals court ruling on the issue.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, (R) 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it is wrong for the federal government to force Christian individuals, businesses, pastors, churches to participate in wedding ceremonies that violate our sincerely held religious believes. ACOSTA: Conservative culture warriors in the GOP are framing the

issue as a fight against the White House and it's rainbow colored tribute to the Supreme Court's decision.

GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If I become president, I just want to remind people that please don't complain if I were to put a nativity scene out during Christmas and say if it's my house, I get to do with it what I wish.

ACOSTA: As more moderate voices in the party want to take a deep breath.

GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R) 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe in traditional marriage, but the Supreme Court has ruled. And it's the law of the land and we'll abide by it.

ACOSTA: GOP strategists fear a backlash against the high court will only help Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm asking them, please, don't make the rights, the hopes of any American into a political football for this 2016 campaign.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now all of this will put the White House and potentially the Justice Department in the position of playing referee in the dispute to determine exactly what will happen to states that don't comply with the Supreme Court's ruling. And that could potentially be the biggest question the president faces all week long.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. That is the big question this morning. Jim, thanks so much for that.

The Supreme Court's session is winding down after some historic decisions, as you heard, but there are other cases worth watching on the court's agenda. CNN's Pamela Brown is at the Supreme Court with the latest. What are you keeping an eye on, Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're keeping an eye on a few big cases. We do expect it to be the last day of the term, and one of the biggest opinions we're expecting today has to do with lethal injection. At issue is one drug, Midazolam, that was used in the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma a little bit over a year ago.

So the opponents of this drug say that it violates the constitution's eighth amendment of cruel and unusual punishment. During the contentious oral arguments, the liberal justices said that there hasn't been enough research about this drug. They talked about how it is the equivalent of burning from the inside. But the conservative justices said that death penalty opponents are making it increasingly difficult to obtain the drugs for lethal injections. So this is something that we'll be keeping an eye on today. Also, there's a big restricting case out of Arizona. The high court

will decide whether citizens can play a bigger role in the process of the restricting. There's a commission in Arizona that plays a role in this, and they say they reduce partisan gerrymandering. So this is also a case that will have big political implications.

And then there's an EPA case that the Obama administration is going to be watching because it could be a big loss for them if they lose this case. This has to do whether the EPA violated the clean air act by regulating emissions and not takes costs into account.

So still some big opinions today despite the fact -- we've already had some big opinions with of course same-sex marriage and the Affordable Care Act. Chris?

CUOMO: Those are the big headlines, but you're right to point out these other cases, Pamela, especially that redistricting one. A lot of people believe that's the key to elections there and beyond, so we'll check them out.

Let's get back to our top story, though, the capture of David Sweat, the second escapee. The first one, of course, killed a couple of days earlier.

Let's bring in Major Charles Guess. He's a troop commander for the New York state police. Major, thank you very much for joining us, and congratulations on getting your man. We know now it is easy to celebrate, but this was a dicey proposition all along. What did it take to catch him?

MAJOR CHARLES GUESS, TROOP COMMANDER, NEW YORK STATE POLICE: Well, good morning, Chris. And it is a good morning in the northern Adirondacks today. What it took is nothing short of a full court press, a national and international coalescence, if you well, of our law enforcement and public safety partners. A lot of dogged determination. As you know, we have over 2,400 leads, and the high water mark of over 1,500 law enforcement officers on the ground here. So it was nothing short of miraculous cooperation between these agencies, the best I've seen in 25 years in my career as a state trooper.

[08:15:00] CUOMO: All right. Just a quick question here, I know that the law in New York State and many allows a peace officer to shoot at a fleeing felon. And that was certainly the case here with this prison escapee.

Do you know if the sergeant involved was trying to just stop him, to preserve him for investigative purposes, or was he just trying to shoot him any way he could?

MAJOR CHARLES GUESS, TROOP COMMANDER, NEW YORK STATE POLICE: I spoke with Sergeant Jay Cook yesterday. He's a local troop B member. We're very proud of him. He took the appropriate action necessary, which in this case does involve the use of deadly physical force, if necessary. But he didn't just leap right to that step protocol. First, he immediately commanded him to stop. He made positive identification that it was, in fact, inmate Sweat. He engaged in a lengthy foot pursuit, all the while commanding Sweat to stop. And at the final analysis before Sweat could enter a wood line nearly a mile and a half before the Canadian border, and we were concerned about the safety of the residents beyond that point, Sergeant Cook took the necessary action.

CUOMO: Dangerous, it's clear. I mean, it's interesting how much restrain was involved when he had to know it was Sweat for him to take the time to show due discretion. I think many would agree with that.

Do you think there's a chance at this point, what would you put the probability at, that you're going to get an ability to question Sweat?

GUESS: We're very hopeful. I'm told he's talking a bit. Obviously, he's in the care of medical professionals and their priority is to save his life. We hope that he continues to talk. Our investigators are very keenly interested in what he might have to say, not only as it pertains to his escape. And the Department of Corrections, of course, would follow up on that. But for my perspective, how he managed to elude capture for the last 23 days. And, of course, we'll study this. This is an after action review and try to learn and apply every lesson learned from the last month.

CUOMO: All right, major. Thank you so much. It's good to have this conversation this morning. Know that the people living in that area and beyond are no longer at risk.

Congratulations, sir. Thank you for joining us on the show.

GUESS: Thank you, sir.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris. Another big story, responses to the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. Well, they range from thrilled to deeply disappointed. The 2016 Republican hopefuls were in that latter category. So we will examine how the would-be presidents took the news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:21:10] GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know if my mom were still alive, she would say to me, 'I taught you that in a trusting relationship, you don't hold anything back. And if you're going to run for president of the United States and you're going to ask these people for their vote, that is the single most trusting thing they can do as a citizen, is to give you their support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. That was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He's gearing up for his White House run with a video that he released last night. So we'll get to Chris Christie in one moment. But we do want to start with the landmark same-sex marriage ruling and the range of responses from all of the presidential candidate.

CUOMO: Let's do that with the best of the best, CNN political commentators. We have Republican consultant Margaret Hoover, also a SiriusXM host and CNN political analyst and editor-in-chief at "The Daily Beast," Mr. John Avlon.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning!

CUOMO: You would think that given that it is the supreme law of the land, that's it. But, of course, it rarely works that way. And Alisyn used the right word, range of responses.

Margaret, we know where you are on this, but talk about your party's range.

HOOVER: Well, first, against the backdrop, I wanted to say that 53 percent of primary Republicans polled in early four states said that regardless of how they feel about marriage, they are ready to move on from this after the Supreme Court rules.

CUOMO: Then why you have so many in the field hoping to fight.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: So what you got was a range of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good was Jeb Bush. The good was Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and frankly, Chris Christie.

CAMEROTA: What do they do right?

HOOVER: And what they did right, even though, nobody is for marriage equality. What they said is, you know what, there's -- well, personally, I don't agree, I'm happy for people who get to have these relationships now and they balance, really, a respect for LGBT people with a respect for religious freedom.

Then you would have people who just vitriolically went after the court who said that this is going to be a fight.

CAMEROTA: Such as?

HOOVER: Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and I think even Rick Santorum. I would call them bad, not. Ugly was Ted Cruz. Ugly was Scott walker. Ugly was Mike Huckabee.

And what you saw disappointingly, most disappointingly, was Scott Walker who when marriage came to his state, when he was governor of Wisconsin said, this is done in Wisconsin. It's the law of the land. And my job as the executive is to enforce the law. Now he's for something completely unreasonable, a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision.

By the way, social conservatives have seen this movie before. Roe v. Wade split the social conservative movement for 40 years trying to pursue a useless constitutional amendment.

CAMEROTA: Let me --

HOOVER: This is not how you win the presidency. This is how you win Iowa. And he's lucky to even to that.

CAMEROTA: I'll read to you what Scott Walker said exactly to your point, because he said, "I believe the Supreme Court decision is a grave mistake. As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. constitution to reaffirm the ability of states to continue to define marriage."

So how is it that's not a winning strategy, John?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not. It's an attempt to demagogue what is essentially now a matter of settled law. But it's very attractive for people who are trying to play to the base and as Margaret said trying to win Iowa.

The problem is that you're doing that at the expense of not only a possible general extra strategy, but getting millennial generation of Americans on your side. That is a very high cost pander at the end of the day to go for the constitutional amendment route, especially among executives or former lawyers who ought to know better.

And so this attempt to either put that forward by Scott Walker or Ted Cruz, who guys argued in front of the Supreme Court, former AG of Texas, saying that, all of a sudden, there should be recall elections for Supreme Court justices. You know, that's just a whole different ball game here.

CUOMO: And they're also getting sloppy in the interest of political pandering with the law. You got to remember, the law is supposed to be different with this. And the Supreme Court certainly, you know, the supreme law of the land.

Bobby Jindal saying, "Hey, you know, it's not for the federal government to make law. He means federal government. He means Supreme Court. It's exactly what it does is to make law.

And for Ted Cruz to say this isn't law. No, that's exactly what it is.

AVLON: That's right.

[08:25:00] CUOMO: It's law. So in that being misleading, it may work, politically, but it's dangerous because it creates a fear of the institution.

AVLON: It's dangerously dumb, let's be honest.

CUOMO: But neither of these men are dumb.

AVLON: And that's exactly what is so upsetting about it, because you have smart people acting stupid in an attempt to win votes for their base. And that's a bad sign for the country and the party.

CAMEROTA: But even if it is the law of the land, there are things that can still be done.

AVLON: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: In fact, Governor Mike Huckabee, he's suggesting -- Governor Huckabee is suggesting conscientious objectors.

AVLON: That's it.

CAMEROTA: So county clerks are saying that they're not going to go along with it.

HOOVER: Well, that is disrespecting the law. There are going to be legal consequences for them.

Look, as a Republican, and this is what I tell Republican candidates, there is a space for us to carve out a balance, a really fair balance between people who respect religious freedom and are worried about it being threatened and protections, protections for LGBT people.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: What does it look like?

HOOVER: Here's exactly what it looks like, Alisyn. Go to Utah where The Church of Latter-day Saints supported fully comprehensive, non- discrimination for LGBT people from employment.

The Church of Latter-day Saints protects transgender and gay and lesbians from being fired from their employment, but also has protections about religious freedom and they've managed to use that as a model. This is what we can actually do in Indiana, to Georgia.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It is the religious freedom, because I get that that's the balance. But is it a red herring? The idea of we also have to protect religious freedom? What is more protected more in this country than religious freedom? And what is the reasonable concern about what this will mean to religious people.

AVLON: Well, obviously, there's more from the Bible than Leviticus, right. And what's the larger issue is the impulse to play the victim on the part of a particularly social conservatives who feel under assault not only by main stream culture, but now what was supposed to be a conservative leaning Supreme Court.

Here's the problem with a lot of the metaphors they reach for, though. When Mike Huckabee compares through actions of social conservative say we need to take a lesson from Martin Luther King, a letter from the Birmingham jail. That is not a metaphor that actually works, folks, if you dig down on more than one end. CAMEROTA: What about this metaphor, John, that he says, OK, you're comfortable with lightening up the White House with a rainbow. I hope you're comfortable with a nativity scene when I'm president.

AVLON: You know, I actually think that there is a credible slippery slope argument. Well, I thought that was a beautiful image. There's a credible slippery slop argument about projecting politics on to the White House. And people need to understand that, you know, if the other parties in place and tries that, you know, similar move you might not like it at the end of the day.

But that's really an optic discussion, it's what is actually. Instead of being happened as a political discussion, they played to the base discussion and something that's reaching for historical metaphors by trying to say the resistance to civil rights puts you in line with the civil rights here. From, you know, Martin Luther King and the African-American community, that ain't going to fly. That's ultimately insulting.

HOOVER: To your point now, Chris, about religious freedoms and how much these are actually threatened versus actually already protected in our laws. It's enshrined in the First Amendment.

On top of that, some 19 plus states have passed their own religious freedom restoration acts. The reason there is the state of new religious freedom restoration act is because there are people who feel threatened by these new laws and freedoms that are being given to LGBT people.

And that's where it's really important to make sure we get the balance right and push back against the really aggressive laws like Arizona and Indiana and Georgia and all like that.

CUOMO: So that's a TBD. We're going to see what happens on what they recommend and how it gets dealt with legally and otherwise.

So the other headline is, of course, Chris Christie.

AVLON: Yes. Big deal.

CUOMO: We start with him, let's end with him.

Why does he feel that he's got a shot?

AVLON: Well, first of all, I got to say that's a powerful introductory video. It's very personal. It addresses some of his perceived negatives, that bluntness.

CAMEROTA: He talks about his mom.

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: He talks about his mom, but he also addresses the fact that he's perceived as being blunt. I got to say Donald Trump's entry in the race kind of triangulates him on that scale. Or he may look a little bit good by comparison. For, but you know, for all the damage that Bridgegate did, because he was considered a frontrunner some time ago, you have an executive, which is traditionally the best place to run for president. You have someone who offers strong conservative believes but can clearly win in the northeast; someone who is unabashed, who will probably outperform in the debates. I think it's a mistake to write him off solely because of those scandals.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: Also, great at retail politics, won the majority of Hispanics, dug into the African-American vote, won a huge African- American vote in his re-election. A blue state governor, but a Republican, majority is women in the state, too. These are all demographics and coalitions Republicans need to win if they're going to win back the White House and Chris Christie has done it.

CAMEROTA: John, Margaret, he gets in officially tomorrow. Let's look at how many days we have to --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: He's got in just under the wire. When is the election? Next Tuesday?

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: 497 days, just under the wire, 16 hours --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: Where is our 500 party?

CAMEROTA: 30 minutes and 27 seconds.

CUOMO: We should do a Chris' hairline measurement as we get closer to the election.

CAMEROTA: One advancing, one retreating.

All right.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: This is what happens when you talk to the governor. When you talk to Andrew, this is what happens. He gets like a little -- he gets sprayed with nasty sods.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: It's true

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: All right. Richard Matt is dead, as we know. David Sweat was captured. The three week manhunt is over. But there are big questions remaining. David Sweat has answers they want.