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Tennessee Shootings Probed for Terror Link; Movie Theater Gunman Found Guilty of Murder; Miracle Plane Crash Survivor Speaks Out; One-on-One with Chris Christie. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 17, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:19] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI now looking for links to terror in Thursday's deadly attack on two military facilities in Tennessee. Four U.S. marines are dead. Three other people hurt. Security now ramped up at a number of federal facilities. The gunman was taken out by Chattanooga police after a long gunfight.

Now under the microscope, two blog posts that he may have written in the days leading up to the attack.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Guilty on all 165 counts. It took a Colorado jury 12 hours to return the verdict in the trial of the movie theater gunman. The jurors did not buy James Holmes' insanity defense. Twelve people were killed and 70 wounded in that 2012 theater shooting. The same jury will now decide, beginning next week, if Holmes should be sentenced to life without parole or death.

CUOMO: Escaped drug kingpin El Chapo had an 18-minute head start before anyone knew he was gone. That according to two Mexican lawmakers who also confirmed no prison employee was assigned to watch the inmate while he was still in his cell. Chapo vanished into a mile long tunnel under the cell last weekend. Over 10,000 police and soldiers now searching for him.

CAMEROTA: The sole survivor of a deadly plane crash is speaking out now.

Teenager Autumn Veatch was playing in a small aircraft last week when it slammed into a Washington mountain and erupted into flames. Both of Autumn's step-grandparents were killed.

And the 16-year-old is now opening up to CNN's Sara Sidner about her horrifying ordeal and her two-day journey out of the wilderness.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixteen- year-old Autumn Veatch was excited when her grandparents offered her to be flown home in a private plane, instead of driven home. But that excitement turned into sheer terror when the plane began to have problems.

AUTUMN VEATCH, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: We almost crashed the first time we went through some clouds. But he took a sharp turn and was like, whew, that was a close one.

SIDNER: It happened again. This time, the plane crashed in the remote wilderness.

VEATCH: I'm still panicking, freaking out. And they both started freaking out, kind of yelling like turn the GPS back on, then, I can't see anything that's going on. So, started to go up and then it was white and then all trees and then it was all fire.

SIDNER: She got out and tried to save her step grandparents.

VEATCH: They were both screaming. There was no way I could get to grandma because she was on the far side. If I got grandpa out first, then maybe she would come out. But I was trying to pull him out and I just couldn't do it, like there was a lot of fire.

SIDNER: Sobbing, she eventually realized she would die, too, if she stayed put.

(on camera): You must have been so stressed out, scared, sad.

VEATCH: Scared, alone in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what city it was or anything.

SIDNER (voice-over): She began walking, hand, face and hair burned, her body bruised.

(on camera): Did you think I'm not going to make it? I'm going to die?

VEATCH: I was freezing. It just didn't seem like I would make it. I don't know anything about outdoor survival.

SIDNER (voice-over): But she did make it after two nights and three days in the wilderness. She credits a tip from the survival shows her dad watches: follow the water and live.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Bellingham, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, it's a miracle.

CUOMO: You know, it is, of course, that she was able to walk away from what we watched there. The difficulty, she's young. This is fresh for her.

So often, as I'm sure you have seen with these stories, there's survivors guilt.

[06:35:00] And the idea of why I couldn't have done more. Hopefully those who love her and surround her in friendship will help her know there's nothing she could have done.

CAMEROTA: There's often survivors guilt when everyone else is killed. Hearing that her grandparents were still alive and --

CUOMO: But you have to know there are certain thing that are possible and certain things that are impossible. And she now has that mystery in front of her, why was I spared. What does that mean for life and she's young to confront that kind of question.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Meanwhile, we have other stories to tell you about, including politics. Chris Christie is adamant that bridgegate is behind him and it's not getting in the way of his presidential bid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you haven't found the evidence after the first 15 months, you're not finding it, because you know what? There isn't any.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What else does he say about his chances and his lackluster poll numbers? Find out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is two weeks into his 2016 presidential bid. It's been a bit of a slow start. At the moment, he's behind the pack in a couple key polls.

[06:40:01] Well, Christie sat down with us to talk about his poll numbers, along with immigration, Iran and the impact of that infamous bridgegate scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: What do you think of the Iran deal?

CHRISTIE: Well, it's an awful deal. It could lead to the destruction of Israel, because we've now given the capacity for a nuclear weapon to a nation that's still said that they want to wipe Israel off the map, while they're, of course, chanting death to America as well.

And so, it's a bad deal. And I can't -- I cannot account the president saying there was no alternative to this. I mean --

CAMEROTA: What do you think the alternative was?

CHRISTIE: Well, the alternative was to walk away from the table, to ratchet up the sanctions, and they've come back to the table.

CAMEROTA: What we've heard from the administration is that sanctions in terms of the allies were going to go away, that China was no longer interested. Russia was no longer interested. The British felt that they had gone as far as they could go, so that if only the U.S. maintains sanctions, it wasn't going to be effective.

CHRISTIE: There's absolutely evidence of that. This is what the president is saying to justify a bad deal. And, by the way, that's part of your job as president, is to convince the allies in this that not allowing further nuclear proliferation to the greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the world is appropriate.

And one last thing: the president is lying to us. The president stood up and said inspections anytime, anywhere, 24/7 access.

What did we find when we read the document? The document says we could wait 24 days to get access.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about your presidential run. In the most recent polls, which are the Suffolk University and the Monmouth University polls, you are far down in the pack. You are ninth in both of those polls with just 3 percent and 2 percent respectively.

What's that about?

CHRISTIE: Well, you didn't mention the "Reuters" poll which came out over the weekend which showed me in third place at 9.5 percent. And so, what that will tell you is, that you have three poll that is have me anywhere from 2 percent to 9 percent.

And you know what that means? The polls don't mean a whole heck of a lot right now. That's why campaigns matter. And so, we're going to go out and we're going to campaign.

We're going to campaign hard and talk about issues like this in great detail, like entitlement reform, like tax and regular reform, like America's role in the world, education reform, all things which I have laid out more specific speeches than anybody else in this race has laid out.

CAMEROTA: So, you're not concerned that you haven't gotten more traction at this point?

CHRISTIE: No, I just declared for president. So, I'm not quite worried, yet.

CAMEROTA: Who do you consider your biggest rival?

CHRISTIE: I don't think there is one. I mean, you look at -- you look at those polls that you talked about, if you want to use those polls. There's nobody who is higher than 15 percent.

So, I don't know, who would be the biggest rival? It's a large field. It's a good field. We are going to see who breaks out, who captures the imagination of the Republican primary voter and who they will ultimately support.

We'll find out in February, in March and April. And as much as everybody wants to go to the end of the book now, we're not allowed.

CAMEROTA: You know, pundits think one of the thing that is hurt you, at this point, is that sort of infamous handshake or hug that you shared with President Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Would you do that the same way today if you had to do it over again?

CHRISTIE: I absolutely would, because it's my job. It's my job to protect and serve the people of the state of New Jersey who just suffered the most devastating natural disaster in the state's history, and the second most devastating natural disaster in the country's history.

So, of course, I would treat the president of the United States with respect when he came to visit, which is what I did.

CAMEROTA: Your approval rating at that time was 77 percent.

CHRISTIE: Yes.

CAMEROTA: The state felt your embrace. But, nationally, do you think that moment, however you define it with President Obama, do you think that has come to haunt your campaign?

CHRISTIE: Listen, I shook his hand. I welcomed and I thanked him for his help. I thought that's what civilized human beings do with each other, whether you're in the same party or in different parties. And if that's what our politics has gotten to, then no one should wonder, no one should wonder in this country why we're in the condition we are in, if we can't be civilized to each other anymore.

That's not the kind of politics I'll bring to Washington, D.C. I'll bring tough politics, but civilized politics to Washington. Most importantly, what I will bring is my heart and my mind to do my job that the people elect me to do.

CAMEROTA: How much do you think the Bridgegate scandal, as it's called, has hurt you?

CHRISTIE: You know, it's hard to tell. I could tell you that outside of kind of the New York, New Jersey area, not many people, if any, say anything to me about it.

I think what hurt more than anything else was the unrelenting coverage of it, but here is the story. You know, all these months later, three independent investigations, all which came to the same conclusion -- I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

CAMEROTA: The U.S. attorney says he is open to new information if it comes out in some sort of witness testimony. So, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a done deal.

CHRISTIE: He had -- he did a 15-month investigation. I used to do this for a living. If you didn't find the evidence after the first 15 months, you're not finding it, because you know? There isn't any. I had nothing to do with it.

So, you know, in the end, I don't think the American people are going to make their decision based upon a traffic jam.

[06:45:01] CAMEROTA: Fairleigh Dickinson has your latest approval here in New Jersey at just 30 percent. So, what's happened from 77 percent to 30 percent?

CHRISTIE: Seventy-seven percent is pretty high in a Democratic state for a Republican governor. And my -- if you look at my approval ratings from the day I came into office until now, they have gone up and down. The reason for that, Alisyn, is because when I get political capital, I spend it. I take on teacher tenure reform. I take on pension reform and health benefit reform. We take on all the big issues that are going on in the state.

And when you do that, you are going to anger some people and when you do, you're going to lose their support. But when those programs work, you gain your support back.

I'm willing to bet you -- by this time next year, those numbers will be back up because people will see that things are working.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Reaction?

CAMEROTA: Tell me yours.

CUOMO: Good interview.

CAMEROTA: Thanks.

CUOMO: I think strong point about that when he uses, when he has political capital, he uses it.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that is a good explanation for why his poll numbers dipped.

CUOMO: Strong point.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Not a strong point that the Bridgegate situation isn't hurting him, because otherwise, it's hard to explain even with the built-in that conservatives won't like him, and another strong point, that civility hurts you in politics right now, that is sad. But something is affecting him in a very negative way because he's very differently seen than he was.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, he says people don't care about Bridgegate, but you know, perhaps it is covering the poll numbers.

CUOMO: Did he seem as confident as he sounds?

CAMEROTA: Yes, yes. In person, he is charismatic. He's engaging. He looks at you right in the eye. He uses your first name.

CUOMO: Does he think he has a shot?

CAMEROTA: He thinks he has a shot. Absolutely. He's doing it for real.

So, we'll be analyzing all of this coming up with our political panel.

CUOMO: All right. Now, look, we may never know the exact motive for the deadly shooting rampage in Chattanooga, but authorities are treating as the obviously, terrorism. And we have the latest on the investigation and what we're learning about who may have influenced, what may have influenced this terrible decision, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:00] CAMEROTA: And welcome back to NEW DAY. You just watched part one of my interview with presidential hopeful, Chris Christie. We touched on everything from the New Jersey governor's poll numbers, to the Bridgegate controversy.

So, let's talk about that and so much more with our political panel. And they also are going to break down yesterday's campaign events for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and more.

Here is CNN senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, and CNN political reporter, Sara Murray.

Brianna was at Clinton's first town hall in Granite State. Sara attended Donald Trump's rally. You guys have a lot to talk about with us this morning.

So, Brianna, let me start with you. I don't know if you just saw the Chris Christie interview that I did.

What do you think of his contention the bad poll numbers really have nothing to do with Bridgegate because that is not something that resonates nationally?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that is something that does resonate nationally. I think that we're seeing this with a number of the candidates as well as with Hillary Clinton when you talk about sort of this issue of trust and propriety. That this is affecting the poll numbers as we get into this political season.

The other thing that I would say, though, is we're very far out. You know other presidential cycles where we looked at candidates who are really not doing well at this point, and you never want to cast a verdict because we are far from the election. But at the same time, you can see Chris Christie and he certainly has some challenges with this Republican primary electorate.

CUOMO: And let's put numbers to the challenges, Brianna, Sara as well. This new FOX News poll, can we put it up? We've got new numbers for you, OK?

The margin of error is probably the most relevant part of this poll because it's plus/minus 4.5 percent, which puts the entire third tier under the margin of error, which happens to include our friend, Governor Christie.

Sara, what do you make of these numbers?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, like you said, it's very early. There's a lot of margin for error here. But, look, it's interesting to see that there's Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush at the top of the pack. It's pretty clear that Scott Walker is getting a bump from his announcement. We've seen him do really well in Iowa, but this is a little bit broader. So, that's good for him.

And, look, for these guys who are near the bottom, they have a lot of work to do if they want to be able to have a national moment. We are looking at these debates. They are set up to bring in the top ten people in the poll. And I think if you are one of the people, like you said, these margin of error candidates at the bottom, you want to have a big national moment where you were seen sort of punching up to the top tier, and that's very to do when you can't make it on the debate stage.

CAMEROTA: OK. Brianna, you were at Hillary Clinton's campaign stop in I guess Dover, New Hampshire, yesterday. So, tell us what you thought the headlines were.

KEILAR: The headline was -- well, one, I will say this: this was a town hall meeting, her first official town hall meeting. She had sort of a small version of this last week in Iowa. This is her best forum, I would say, for how she performed. She's comfortable. She's more engaged.

But what the headline was from yesterday was this moment when we saw protesters interrupt her town hall meeting by one young --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Hold on one second. Let's play that, then you can tell me how she reacted. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm sorry if the answer, the specific answer -- wait, just a minute, wait. Wait, wait, wait --

(CHANTING)

CLINTON: That's OK. That's OK. That's OK. I am all in favor of acting on climate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So, that was interesting, Brianna. It started with one heckler, then became it sort of tidal wave.

KEILAR: So, this was actually a coordinated effort by a group called 350. And what happened was before this young woman asked a question, another young person asked a question and said to Hillary Clinton, "Will you ban fossil fuel extraction on public lands?"

[06:55:01] And she said something similar, I know you are not going to like the answer, but, no, I wouldn't do that unless there are alternatives. She said it will hurt the economy. I'm for solar power, renewables, but I'm not going to take away this option because we'll see economic ramifications.

So, a couple more questions go by, and then that young woman that you saw there asked this question, and across the room, there were other protesters. So, I think this was something that was going to happen. These were protesters who came with a purpose to send her a message that they want climate change to be a real issue.

I thought it was interesting and sort of pragmatic she said, no, I'm not going to do that and here is why, because we've seen her tact left, right, on so many issues -- immigration reform, same-sex marriage and even on trade. And yet on this, we saw her say, I'm not going to go there.

CUOMO: She has to tow the line a bit. Who heckles you in a town hall like that is not necessarily representative of the voter base that you're going for.

Let's play another piece of sound that was indicative of the state of play, Sara. Here's Trump on money in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The hundred million dollars that he raised, if you think those people are giving without favors -- now, Hillary raised $46 million. It's a lot of money. The good news is, I've got -- the good news, how much do I have? Ten billion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. Ten billion, that's what he says. He is talking about Jeb Bush in the beginning.

Help me with the analysis of this. Donald Trump has said he was one of those people who gave money to politicians in order to give favors and deference. How does this play with the audience? Is he the problem or is he the solution?

MURRAY: You know, it's pretty incredible, is they think he's the solution. You saw them yell his $10 billion net worth number at him. They like he is a rich, successful businessman. They think it means he won't have to take donations from lobbyists, from special interests and he won't be beholden to them. And they think that's the reason he can talk so freely and so candidly about the number of these issues. So, that was really telling to me.

I think the other thing that was so interesting is that the only thing that Donald Trump voters like more than him attacking President Obama and Hillary Clinton is him attacking members of his own party. They love when Donald Trump takes on the so-called Washington establishment. And I think that's part of the reason we're seeing this big sort of Trump bump at the moment.

CUOMO: Trump bump.

CAMEROTA: Trump bump.

CUOMO: Well done.

CAMEROTA: We just coined that.

Sara and Brianna, thanks so much.

CUOMO: All right. The election is always important, but we have so much new information about what happened in Tennessee. So, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody brutally and brazenly attacked members of our armed services.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was unloading one after another.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't be surprised in one bit if we do find out that he had some kind of liking of ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We find the jury find the defendant, James Egan Holmes, guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as you heard the first guilty, we knew the dominos were all, you know, going to fall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel closure and a weight lifted that I didn't know was there.

CUOMO: What do you think is the biggest problem with our justice system?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States accounts for 5 percent of the world's population. We account for 25 percent of the world's inmates. These are young people who made mistake that aren't that different than the mistakes I made.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Michaela is off today.

Security ramping up following Thursday's deadly assault on two military facilities in Tennessee. The attack killing four U.S. marines. The FBI now launching a terrorism investigation.

CUOMO: The feds now squarely focused on finding motive. Could this be a lead in the blog? These two entries that possibly were offered by the gunman? So, did he act alone? Was he inspired? If so, by what? These are the questions.

We have the story covered only the way CNN can.

Let's begin with Boris Sanchez. He's down there in Chattanooga -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Perhaps the most unsettling part of the case, this shooter, not on any terror watch list or data base. Someone his friends describe him as an all American guy. He was MMA fighter. He was an engineering student. Not someone with a clear motive to do something so extreme.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL KILLIAN, U.S. ATTORNEY: As far as we know, at this juncture, there are no safety concerns for the general public.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): In a press conference overnight, the Department of Justice and FBI reassuring the public. They believe the 24-year-old Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez acted alone in his shooting rampage Thursday morning. Abdulazeez carrying out the deadly attack on the final day of Ramadan, though, officials are still investigating his possible motive.

ED REINHOLD, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: At this point, we don't have anything that ties him to an international terrorist organization.

SANCHEZ: Targeting U.S. military personnel, Abdulazeez first headed toward Chattanooga, Tennessee's military recruitment center, driving by and shooting out the window.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was one shot and then it was just endless shots, one after another, just unloading.