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Security Heightened Across U.S. in Anticipation of July Fourth Celebrations; New Details Emerge about New York Prison Break; Donald Trump Continues to Receive Criticism over Comments on Mexican Immigrants; GOP Worries About Broader Fallout Over Trump. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired July 3, 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] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We begin our coverage with CNN's Boris Sanchez live at New York's Penn Station where a few people are expected this weekend, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. Tens of millions of Americans are hitting the road this weekend. And we've seen an expanded law enforcement here at Penn Station in New York and other parts of the country. They're aiming to make sure everyone has a safe and secure Fourth of July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD, (R) HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: They're reaching out on social media telling people it's a holiday and we ought to kill people.

SANCHEZ: Police and FBI on heightened alert as nearly 42 million people will travel this holiday weekend, according to AAA, the most in eight years. This amid social media chatter by ISIS supporters and calls by the terror group to strike in the west.

REP. PETER KING, (R) NEW YORK: I don't think they are capable of a large scale attack, but certainly an attack which could kill, maim, or wound hundreds of people.

SANCHEZ: Reporter: Police departments in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, and Atlanta tightening up security measures.

WILLIAM BRATTON, NYPD COMMISSIONER: We're constantly seeking to be creative, to be proactive. The name of the game of is to be preventive.

SANCHEZ: At the Washington Mall they're preparing for all possibilities. New York City taking the greatest security measures in years, the city swept for explosives even out at sea where hundreds of boaters will be watching the fireworks. Snipers will be strategically placed. Spotters will be inside the crowds. And 100 mobile cameras will capture the activities on land and in the air.

JAMES WATERS, NYPD CHIEF OF COUNTERTERRORISM: There's no credible threat to this event or to New York City in particular. But our operating premise is that we are the target in New York City all the time.

SANCHEZ: On Thursday within minutes of the first report of shots fired inside Washington's naval yard, the threat a false alarm. But it reveals that law enforcement is at the ready this holiday weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring your family, have a great time. You're going to be at the most well secured event in the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Now, already this weekend in Fayetteville, North Carolina, officers arrest a man walking around a mall with an AR15 rifle, ammunition, and a Kevlar vest. Clearly officers are keeping a close eye on everyone this weekend. Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Boris, thanks so much for that background.

There was a big scare and a massive response at the Washington Navy Yard after what turned out to be an erroneous report of a shooting Thursday. It was a false alarm, but the response leaving no doubt that law enforcement is ready. CNN's national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is live in Washington. Tell us what happened there, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY: Alisyn, it was a huge and quick response, really showing how on edge authorities are going into this holiday weekend, treating each and every concern very seriously. This all started to unfold Thursday morning when a woman inside the Navy Yard, she thought she heard gunshots and called 911. Within minutes the building was on lock down, hundreds of police on the scene responding. And it also prompted a boost in security at the capitol as well as the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, part of the White House quickly closed. The White House tours also cancelled. Three hours went by as police went painstakingly floor by floor, room by room at the Navy yard searching the building.

It all of course ended up to be nothing, but the D.C. police chief here says this shows D.C. is ready going into this holiday weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CATHY LANIER, WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN POLICE: We're aware what the discussion and chatter is around the Fourth of July events and all those threats and we take this into account. We change our tactics up for different events, but we never lower our posture. We always maintain a very high posture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And this all comes at a time when there is a change in security at the White House not related to this terrorist threat but related to all those White House fence jumpers. This week the Secret Service installed very sharp spikes on the top of White House fence, John hoping to prevent any of those jumpers.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It looks like a deterrent to me. Thanks, Sunlen.

So could prison officials have missed a key sign about the escape plans of Richard Matt and David Sweat? "The Buffalo News" is reporting that Richard Matt sent a letter to his daughter just before the breakout suggesting that he wouldn't be in prison for long. CNN Jean Casarez is live outside the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, with more. Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It is an unnamed law enforcement official that is talking to the newspaper, saying that on June 9th the daughter of Richard Matt received a letter that had been sent before the breakout. We want to show everybody exactly some pertinent quotes from that letter. It says, quote, "I always promised you I would see you on the outside. I'm a man of my word."

His daughter, the newspaper says, immediately went to law enforcement. She had no knowledge of the breakout at all, but she received security during the time that he was on the loose.

[08:05:00] And we have research, and I can tell you the New York Department of Corrections does not check outgoing mail of inmates unless by written authorization of the superintendent they believe that there is a security risk, that there's information in that mail that they need for the protection of the community. They did not have that. And the protocol is you don't check outgoing mail.

Now, we've also learned a little bit more about what happened one week ago today. We want to show you a trailer, an abandoned trailer off the side of the road, not far from the roadway. That is the trailer that Richard Matt was in last Friday afternoon when he fired shots at that camper that was driving down the street which really alerted authorities that he was in the vicinity. As you can see, it's dilapidated. There's cobwebs. It hasn't been lived in for many, many years. And that's when the U.S. customs and border patrol, their tactical unit, flew in the helicopter, did the ground search. He left that trailer, and that's when they found him in the woods.

We now are learning he pointed the gun at them, the custom and border patrol. That's when they shot him dead. Michaela?

PEREIRA: Excellent work on the part of that law enforcement official. Thanks so much for that, Jean, a great update for us.

The Miss USA pageant has a new home. The Reels Channel coming to the rescue of the pageant after NBC and Univision dropped the telecast following Donald Trump's comments about Mexican immigrants. But will the moving stop all the bleeding for Trump. CNN's Joe Johns is in Washington with the very latest on this Trump saga. Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. He's getting hammered by negative reporting, but Donald Trump is still polling strong in this race. Later in this month he has been able to get a new home for his program, the Reels Channel. On the other hand the pageant must scramble to replace hosts and performers. Former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith dropped out as a judge, Flo Rida dropped out as entertainment. The Trump organization says there will be a show. The question is

what kind of show. One thing is very clear, the Trump organization is not worried about losing money. The spokesman, Michael Cohen, told me, quote, "Donald Trump is an enormously wealthy person with a net worth in excess of $9 billion. His goal is to make America great again even if that means compromising several small ventures. He has shown he is prepared to do that."

Meanwhile, new problems for Trump. The actress and activist America Ferrera in an open letter thanking him for his comments about Latinos, quote, "Remarks like yours will serve brilliantly to energize Latino voters and increase turnout on election day against you and any candidate who runs on a platform of hateful rhetoric." No comment from the Trump Organization on that so far. Back to you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Joe, thanks so much for that.

Well, back to our top story now. Law enforcement on high alert for this holiday weekend with millions set to celebrate July 4th. So our the threats that they're hearing different today than what authorities usually hear? Let's bring in our guests. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a counterterrorism analyst and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Fran Townsend is a CNN national security analyst and a former Bush Homeland Security and counterterrorism advisor. Great to have both of you with us this morning. Fran, I want to start with you. There's always chatter around holiday weekends. Is what they're hearing this weekend different than usual?

FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It is qualitatively different. You often hear the words we don't have any specific and credible threat. They're continuing to say that. But what you're hearing from intelligence officials in particular is that it's not just chatter but it's clear that they have talk signals intelligence intercepts related to this holiday weekend which has caused them to expend the extraordinary resources we see in cities like here in New York.

CAMEROTA: Such as? Because, let me just tell you, we've had some of our counterterrorism experts even this morning on NEW DAY who say even that the officials are scaring people. So is it hype or is there something specific that's making them go to these extra lengths?

TOWNSEND: No, I think it's clearly not hype. And there is specific intelligence that their hearing that causes them to take these measures. Look, the measures that are being taken are incredibly expensive, the law enforcement measures, the overtime, all the extra screening you see. They don't take that unless they believe that there is a real reason for them to have to do that.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, let me bring you in, because there have been many officials who are saying that they are quite concerned about what's going to happen this weekend. Let me play for your Congressman Peter King of New York, how he's felt about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. PETER KING, (R) NEW YORK: There's great concern. Going back to the FBI and Homeland Security over the last two or three weeks, I would say this is the most intense level of concern I've seen maybe since 9/11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Daveed, since 9/11?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Yes. When we break down the concern I think that it's important to understand what the Islamic State has been doing that's different from what's been done in the past.

[08:10:00] When we used to talk about holiday weekends and preparing for a terrorist attack, we are usually thinking of a big terrorist attack, that is when you see something not necessarily the scale of 9/11, but, for example, the subway bombings that we saw in London.

What the Islamic State has been very effective at is mobilizing people. It's very good at social media, and social media, Twitter, Facebook, and the look. They're good at creating this feeling of intimacy among people who are half a world away.

So if you look at what we call lone wolf terrorist attack patterns, that is terrorist attacks carried out by single individuals, they're spiked within the past year in part because social media really serves the role that groups used to serve for terrorist attacks. It used to be that to get someone to carry out an attack would require a group that reinforces their extremism, spurs them onto action, and doesn't allow them to back out. And social media is now playing that role.

I suspect that what officials are so concerned about is not so much Al Qaeda or the Islamic State's external operations capability and ability to strike with a large group, but rather a lone wolf type of attack, a much smaller attack that's harder to prevent and the Islamic State is so good at mobilizing people to do.

CAMEROTA: And to Fran's obvious point, law enforcement officials have been busy. Let me put up on the screen where they have made terror related arrests in just the last couple of months. Look, at this. It stretches across the country. These are 18 different states. Now, does that mean somebody was about to act or they just have an inkling on social media and they can go and arrest somebody?

TOWNSEND: No, it means they were about to act. You can espouse all sorts of horrible ideas, and our First Amendment protects this. These are people prepared to act on that speech or those thoughts and had some connection that may have been revealed through social media.

To Daveed's point, what he was saying, look, the real concern here is you look at the attack on a Tunisian beach. One man with an automatic weapon mows down dozens of innocent people sitting in bathing suits. And so it's exactly the sort of thing, with all the large public gatherings, you understand that with access to a single weapons, one people can kill dozens of people. CAMEROTA: Daveed, it's all so troubling. Why should any of us leave

our houses this weekend?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Because the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of you not being struck by a terrorist attack. One thing that we know for a certainly is that on July 4th not just some but many people will be murdered across the country. But that doesn't cause us to stay in our houses.

I mean, I think one of the things of dealing with an age in which terrorism plays more of a role is understanding that terrorism is designed to scare us. And part of resilience in the face of such threats is not being scared, not letting us get off our game or off our patterns. July 4th is a wonderful holiday. This is a great nation, and I think people should go out and enjoy it. We're talking about potential for danger here and that potential exists. But also as Americans we're resilient. We dealt with terrorists before. We'll deal with it in the future. It shouldn't scare us. It shouldn't cause us to stay at home when the odds are overwhelming against terrorism in any way affecting us on this holiday weekend.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, thanks so much for that reminder. We should be alert but we should be strong. Fran, Daveed, have a great weekend. Thanks so much for being here. Let's get it over to John.

BERMAN: All right, thanks Alisyn.

The U.S. suffering its first measles death in 12 years. The Department of Health and Human Services says the victim is a woman from Washington state who was exposed to measles at a medical facility during an outbreak this spring. Her illness went undetected and was confirmed only through an autopsy a little bit later. She contracted pneumonia on a complication with measles.

PEREIRA: A potential speed bump in restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Republicans are unlikely to confirm an ambassador to Cuba. He says the country remains, quote, "a thuggish regime and a haven for criminal fleeing the U.S." President Obama announced plans this week to reopen embassies in Washington and Havana.

CAMEROTA: All right, Deadheads, listen up, a half century run coming to a close this weekend for the Grateful Dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Thousands of Deadheads trucking to Chicago to catch the band's final shows tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday. They will rock out at Soldier Field, the last place that legendary guitarist Jerry Garcia played with the band before he died in 1995. Tickets, John Berman, for the final show, are going for as much as $5,000. PEREIRA: There's a few injustices in the world, but I'm not going to

Vancouver for the big soccer game this weekend. And then John Berman arguably the biggest Deadhead at CNN, you walk by your office and it's all tie dye and lava lamps.

BERMAN: This is going to be a phenomenal show. There's great excitement, so many people around the country going. I saw the Dead when Jerry Garcia was still alive and I kind of want that to be the last time.

PEREIRA: Have you hung up your tie dye?

BERMAN: No. I'm wearing them right now. You just can't see them.

[08:15:03] PEREIRA: All right, Republican presidential candidates are now distancing themselves from Donald Trump. Are his comments about Mexican immigrants already hurting the party's chances of winning over Latino voters? We'll ask our competitors, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. So, among a wide open field of skilled political veterans, that is the man running near the top of all the key polls right now in the Republican field, Donald Trump. So, if you are one of the other 73 candidates running, what do you do about Donald Trump? What do you say about those comments?

Here to weigh in this morning, "Daily Beast" columnist, Ruben Navarrette, and CNN political commentator and Jeb Bush supporter, Ana Navarro.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Now, Ruben, I know that you want to hear more from the Republican candidates. You want to them come out and take a stand. But let me play you some sound of what they are saying already. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think Donald Trump's remarks reflect the Republican Party.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The comments were inappropriate. They have no place in the race.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDNETIAL CANDIDATE: I don't agree with him.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you label a group of people as rapists and drug dealers, it's more about you than it is him.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

[08:20:00] BERMAN: And just to be clear -- Jeb Bush actually said more on that. He said, "I do not agree with his remarks. They do not represent the values of the Republican Party and they do not represent my values." He said, "The man is wrong"

So, Ruben, that seems pretty crystal clear. What more do you want to hear from these candidates?

RUBEN NAVARRETTE, DAILY BEAST COLUMNIST: Well, John, first of all, let's go to the Jeb Bush comments. The thing that's interesting about Bush is he's bilingual. He speaks English and Spanish.

He was asked this question first in Spanish. The Spanish answer he gave, which is not for general consumption, but for Spanish language audience, was exactly as you said, very strong, doesn't reflect any values. When he was asked the question in English, it was much tamer. It was simply, "I don't agree," it's that simple. It was very clear.

And so, he was much more aggressive in Spanish. I think Jeb is very smart. They're all very smart. And they realize there's a segment of America that agrees with Donald Trump and they're afraid of saying that openly in English, criticizing him too harshly, unless they alienate those folks.

I would simply like, John, for them to be as straightforward as Macy's was. Macy's this week said this does not reflect Macy's values. I'm looking for a Republican to come up and say this does not reflect Republican values.

CAMEROTA: Well, Ana, why haven't they given a stronger response? Why do they seem to be pulling their punches?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They have. You just played the clips. They have said -- part of the problem is that frankly, you know, unlike Macy's, unlike NBC, unlike Univision, a lot of these people running for candidate for the Republican Party don't own Donald Trump, don't have a relationship -- an existing business relationship or an existing political relationship with Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: Right. I mean, they can't -- I hear you. They can't -- there are no consequences -- but isn't this a softball? I mean, why not a full-throated repudiation?

NAVARRO: Because you don't want to dignify his comments. You do not want to his own his comments.

I've been out of the country for a week. I can't believe I come back and this toothache still hasn't gone away. You don't want to give more ink to his comments.

And, listen, you know, what Berman said is true. There's 100 people running for the Republican nomination. At any given point, one of them is going to say something that the other 99 may disagree with or think is stupid.

These guys have to go out and sell their agenda. They have to sell vision for America. And, frankly, really, are we going to get into a fight with the crazy uncle who says something stupid and crazy during Thanksgiving? You only see him once a year.

BERMAN: You know what --

NAVARRO: I think we're all just hoping and waiting that Donald Trump gets tired of his new toy and moves on to something else.

BERMAN: The problem, Ana, though, is your crazy uncle isn't sitting at number two in the national polls right now. Donald Trump is.

NAVARRETTE: Exactly.

BERMAN: So, Ruben, these candidates, do they just make it worse when they talk about him? Or should they just ignore him completely?

NAVARRETTE: They can't ignore him. Ana is a good friend and a good Republican. But I tell you this, they can't simply ignore him. He isn't riding high in the polls for a reason. Not because everybody agrees with him, and not because there are a bunch of Republicans agree with him. But I think they're circling the wagons around Trump because they feel he's been treated unfairly.

There are some Americans out there who simply think that he's talking about illegal immigration, that's an important issue. He's just trying to address it. And certainly, I don't hear it that way. There are 54 million Latinos in this country who don't hear it that way and there are plenty of others who hear these words as being very inaccurate, imprecise and insulting.

And so, I think the Republican Party needs to stand up very clearly. If not, maybe we should elect Macy's. You know, Macy's has more guts than the Republican brand these days. I'm struck by the fact he still wants to us to elect him president. How are they going to stand up to ISIS in Iran and Putin if they can't stand up to Donald Trump?

CAMEROTA: Ana, what's the answer to that?

NAVARRO: Ruben, I love you, but can I just tell you, that metaphor is ridiculous. I mean, let's not compare Macy's balloon in the Thanksgiving parade to ISIS. I don't like ISIS comparisons and metaphors in any context.

And let's put things in context. We say that Donald Trump is number two in the polls and he is. And I agree with you that because that makes him somewhat legitimate, even though a lot of us cringe at the idea of even saying that. But let's put it in context, guys.

There's 14 declared candidates right now. Being number two in the polls means having 10 percent, 12 percent. It's not like he's at 45 percent.

CAMEROTA: But, Ana, I'm just curious, how do you explain how he's leap-frogged the over people?

NAVARRO: He's entertaining. He is a spectacle. He is a reality show. He is a celebrity. He's got high name ID.

Let's remember what the Republican primary was like in 2012, you know? There was a time when Herman Cain was at number one. There was a time when Rick Santorum was. We do this. We, you know -- we like to be entertained.

And, yes, to me, he is like watching a horror show, the kind of thing I want to watch through fingers in front of my face.

I've been fighting with Donald Trump, Ruben, since long before it was popular to do it. Go back to his Twitter page. He's been insulting me since 2013 and 2012.

So, I've got nothing to prove and I think we have -- I think the Republicans have been very clear about it.

But, guys, there's an agenda if you want to be elected president and it's a national agenda.

[08:25:02] Let's talk about national security. Let's talk about Hillary's e-mails. And for the love of God, let's stop talking about Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Go ahead, Ruben.

NAVARRETTE: Well, we should talk about all those things as well. We can do all of that. If you want to go back to 2012, that's fine.

But every single time somebody rose to the polls, and you're right, every week, there's a new front runner, the idea was whoever has the football gets tackled by the others. So, all of a sudden, we were playing the rules differently in 2016.

Let's do exactly as you say, Ana. This time trump has the football. Let's play over 2012, and this time, Trump has the football.

So, my question is, why are they not tackling him just like they did in the last go-round, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, whoever is at number one? The reason they're not tackling him is two -- one, they're afraid of him coming back at them with a very sharp tongue and he's proven he's capable of doing, and secondly, there is a group of Republicans out there, people in your party who like what he's saying. They may not agree word for word, but they like what he's saying and that's dangerous.

BERMAN: Ana, I want to know what happens at the debates. What would you advise your friend Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio to do in August or in September at the CNN debate, when they will be standing beside Donald Trump and Donald Trump may very well say these things? Would you say, they should turn to him and say, you know, Donald Trump, what are you saying? You have no shame. Do you need that kind of statement?

NAVARRO: Guys, you know, initially, I would have advised them to laugh him off and treat him as the clown he is. He's not a real candidate. And so, therein lies the problem, that it's hard for some people to view him as a real candidate.

Now, the polls make it sound different. So, it's a difficult situation. But I think a lot of people don't want to treat him as a legitimate candidate. Don't acknowledge him as such. I put myself in that category.

So, initially, I would have said to them, laugh the guy off. Don't take his bait. You don't engage in Twitter trolls, OK? You don't engage in fights with Twitter trolls. You ignore them.

But, you know, if he continues to be number two in the polls, if this issue continues to be an issue into August, certainly I think they have to make their own statements as to what their beliefs are.

And I'm not sure that, you know, they have to set their hair on fire because I think there is a bigger national agenda that people are more legitimately interested in. I'm not sure Jeb Bush has to go out there and say whatever Ruben wants him to say. I mean, this is a guy who's been married to a Mexican woman for 41 years, who he met while he was working at a charitable project building a school in Guanajuato, Mexico, who has been standing up for the integrity of guacamole before that was a thing.

BERMAN: He took a stand on guacamole.

NAVARRO: I mean, come on, guys.

BERMAN: Let's leave at guacamole right there. I think leaving at guacamole is a great place when talking about Donald Trump.

Ana Navarro, Ruben Navarrette, thanks so much for being with us.

Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right. You probably will recall this memorable TV moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HLN: Your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Are you --

CHARLES BOUTHUELL IV, FATHER OF MISSING BOY FOUND ALIVE IN BASEMENT: What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Well, that father is now speaking out about the ordeal and he's addressing charges of child abuse. He will join us live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)