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NEW DAY

Search Intensifies for Teens Lost at Sea; CNN/ORC Poll: Obama Job Approval at 49 Percent; Kerry Renews Push for Iran Nuclear Deal; Planned Parenthood Defends Sting Video Statements. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 28, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:45] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Family, friends and the coast guard are holding out hope the teenagers missing at sea since last Friday will be found alive. Coast Guard officials estimate Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos can survive four to even five days in the warm Florida waters. The two 14-year-olds disappeared Friday. Their capsized fishing boat was found with one life jacket on board. The search now focused some 60 miles off the coast of Jacksonville.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama's approval rating, holding in positive territory for the second month in a row. This is the latest CNN/ORC poll, hot off the presses. So, take a look at these numbers. Forty-nine percent say they approve of the job the president is doing, 47 percent disapprove.

But Americans are not optimistic about the economy, 59 percent of people describe it as poor. When it comes to the nuclear agreement with Iran, 52 percent believe Congress should reject that deal.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State John Kerry and other members of the Obama administration set to make another push for support for the Iran nuclear deal. They will testify this morning before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. A different House Committee will hold a separate closed hearing on Iran this morning.

PEREIRA: You know, I love a lip sync?

CAMEROTA: Oh, good.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Could we have a little something?

Let me show you your competition. Mission impossible star Tom Cruz and "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon pulling off an incredible duet of sorts, joining forces during an epic lip sync battle. Hilarious and beautiful version of the Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", singing to this, you know, this, I don't know, slightly chagrined audience member.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

PEREIRA: I think Jimmy Fallon found his sector.

CAMEROTA: He's so good.

PEREIRA: He's so good. Also, Tom Cruz sang in the movie, "Top Gun." he's getting rave reviews for Meat Loaf's classic "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", doing both the female and the male.

CAMEROTA: Oh, yes, I give you that. I could easily lip sync "Paradise by the Dashboard Light".

BERMAN: I think Tom Cruise and Jimmy Fallon should be like the volley thing from "Top Gun". As long as they're doing "Top Gun" thing, they you go all the way, right?

CAMEROTA: Sure.

[06:35:01] PEREIRA: I would not have known that you'd be a proponent of that.

BERMAN: I hear people talking about it.

PEREIRA: Word is on the street.

BERMAN: Word is on the street. I hear it's interesting.

CAMEROTA: We love lip syncing. Let us know what we should do.

PEREIRA: Oh no.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, premier federal programming helping severely disabled Americans get jobs is being investigated by the Department of Justice. Insiders exclusively telling CNN that billions of dollars designated for the disabled is being funneled elsewhere.

CNN's senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has all the disturbing details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANAGER: The majority of the individuals being hired were not severely disabled.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): This manager who wants to remain anonymous to protect current employment says instead of hiring disabled, the federal contractor making tens of millions of dollars would hire just about anyone who walked through the door and no one bothered to check.

(on camera): So, you could say 100 percent of my employees are severely disabled.

MANAGER: Correct.

GRIFFIN: And none of them are.

MANAGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: And you'd still have this contract?

MANAGER: Right, because there's nobody is checking.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Source America says they conduct onsite visits but according to their statement, Source America staff does not determine compliance. Only the U.S. Ability One Commission is authorized to do that.

How does it happen? Ability One Commission is made up of presidential appointees, but it outsources the management of the program to the nonprofit agency Source America. Source America recommends and according to our sources virtually decides who gets the contract worth $2.3 billion every year.

Former congressional investigator Rich Butel (ph) says it's a recipe for corruption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The contracts are funneled to a small group of ten large companies getting way more than their fair share.

GRIFFIN: No one from Source America would go on camera. But in a statement, the group flatly denies the allegations. "No one involved in making award recommendations," the statement reads, "is employed by an organization seeking those contracts."

Butel and numerous other sources are telling CNN the staffers who are essentially handing out federal contracts at Source America are heavily influenced by top officials at the very same agency. And those officials are often connected to the businesses that get the contracts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have actual advisers and board members in these private organizations who are, themselves, business owners. And so, they can award themselves, potentially, contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A perfect set up for waste and abuse.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: That was Drew Griffin reporting.

Coming up for us, can't they all just get along? Full contact campaigning. Guys like Donald Trump, are they doing well in the polls despite their rhetoric or because of it? We'll talk about some of the harsh tone. That's next.

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[06:41:52] SEAN SPICER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, RNC: I think our candidates have a right to contrast the policies and their experience, but the name calling from all sides really needs to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Republican National Committee communication director, Sean Spicer, asking candidates to tone down the rhetoric. His request follows several controversial remarks by Donald Trump and now Mike Huckabee's insistence that the Iran deal means President Obama would march the Israelis, quote, "to the door of the oven."

Let's talk about this with Ron Brownstein. He's CNN senior political analyst and editorial director at the "National Journal". And Bill Carter, a CNN contributor and former television reporter at "The New York Times."

Gentlemen, so great to have you here.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Ron, don't we say this every single election cycle? This is the ugliest. This is the worst we have ever heard. Is this year?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, those of us that have been doing this for awhile, have to see the past with rose colored glasses. You don't have to go further than the musical "Hamilton" on Broadway, to know politics has always been tough. But having said, yes, this really is worse.

I have been covering presidential campaigns since 1984. And the general trend line in American politics is toward more extreme rhetoric. It's not confined, Alisyn, to the presidential race. Look at what happened ton the Senate floor with Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.

There's a tendency to get notice with the most extreme rhetoric. There's a portion of the electorate in each party, particularly now in the Republican Party that responds to that. There is that magnetic pull on candidates.

The problem is, is even though this animates a slice of the party, it also I think alienates a broader range of the party to put a limit on your support to get a sugar rush of intensity at the outset.

CAMEROTA: Bill, do you agree this is the worst we have ever seen?

BILL CARTER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it sounds like it is. But it's different circumstances this year. This is an incredibly crowded field here for the Republicans. That makes more demands stand out. They are forcing the issue like this.

CAMEROTA: So, in other words, Bill, what you are saying, is it the Donald Trump factor that he keeps ratcheting up the rhetoric, his own rhetoric, and they try to outdo him?

CARTER: I think he's obviously the instigator. He's shown it works. It's been working for him. Everybody else is in the crowded field. How we do stand out?

I mean, Huckabee is not making much noise. Now he's made a lot. People are talking about him.

He might -- people might think that's not great. He thinks it's great. He forced that, he said look at me, I've said, I'm not apologizing. He's underscoring it.

CAMEROTA: In terms of it working, here is the latest evidence that it is working for Donald Trump. This is a Monmouth University poll. It was just released moments ago. I don't know if we have it but I can read it to you.

This is in New Hampshire, of all the GOP nominees, Trump is getting 24 percent. His closest rival is Jeb Bush at 12 percent.

In other words, he is getting twice what his closest rival is and everybody else is in the single digits. So, Ron, how can you argue, I know you are not arguing, that it doesn't work? In other words, he's going to do more of the same. It's working.

BROWNSTEIN: I can actually argue that it doesn't work and I will.

[06:45:00] I mean, I think the question is, there's no doubt that Donald Trump touched a nerve. If you look inside the poll, similar to the NBC poll, almost the exact result, very strong with Tea Party voters, very strong with very conservative voters.

The challenge for Donald Trump is, the question really for Donald Trump, is whether this kind of presentation and rhetoric also puts a ceiling on your support even as it builds a floor. As the field narrows, can you expand? His unfavorable ratings among Republicans are much higher than other candidates. And the risk for Donald Trump is all the things you are doing is excite this very alienated portion of the party makes you more unacceptable to the broader range of mainstream Republicans.

You can both deepen and narrow your support with this kind of approach. We don't tend to elect talk radio host as the presidents of United States. In the end and as the field narrows, I think this kind of presentation ultimately narrows your support as well.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. It works in the early stage, not the later game.

CARTER: Yes, that's been the tradition. I don't know that we can automatically assume that is going to be the case.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Sure.

CARTER: There's a lot of conventional thinking here. Trump is saying, I'm against convention. He's throwing that out. It's working for him.

We don't know whether that will continue or not. I think it's a very interesting question. You can see the other Republicans looking at it saying, it seems to be working. We have to get in on this.

I think it sets Jeb Bush apart. He's the one saying, oh, tamp it down. Tamp it down. He looks like the daddy in an unruly family.

CAMEROTA: And that's good. That's good for him.

CARTER: It's good to stand out in that way in the sense that he can survive. He may lose early primaries based on that.

CAMEROTA: Yes. It's never a dull moment basically.

Bill, Ron, thanks for helping us understand the context of all of this.

Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn.

You've probably been seeing this. Planned Parenthood under fire. Critics are claiming that the organization is profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. We are going to get Planned Parenthood's take when the executive vice president joins us live, next.

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[06:51:02] DR. MARY GATTER, PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL DIRECTORS' COUNCIL: We don't want to be in a position of being accused of selling tissue or stuff like that. On the other hand, there are costs associated with --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. Yes.

GATTER: So, what were you thinking about?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. So, way higher than that?

GATTER: Mm-hmm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I would like to start at around $100.

GATTER: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's an excerpt from the sting videos claiming Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit. Now, the Senate is considering a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.

Joining us is Dawn Laguens. She's the executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Dawn, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

DAWN LAGUENS, EXECUTIVE V.P., PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: So, these videos that have been released, I know you dispute the premise obviously that Planned Parenthood is selling for a profit, fetal tissue. But it sounds like they are negotiating. Why are the representatives from Planned Parenthood negotiating?

LAGUENS: Alisyn, I think context setting is important to start here at 7:00 a.m. Planned Parenthood, for 99 years has been the nation's leading reproductive health care organization. We provide care, birth control, STD testing, cancer screenings, abortion to 2.5 million men and women a year in this country. A million young people get sex education from us. People know us well and know that, in fact --

CAMEROTA: Sure, it's not those services. It's just this service where there is an exchange of fetal tissue, which, by the way, obviously does a lot of good. There's a lot of research, cures for diseases that come from it. But it does sound as though there's a price negotiation happening. What's the explanation for that?

LAGUENS: Here's what's happening -- an anti-abortion extremist group has, for three years, misrepresented who they are and stalked our doctors and clinics. And they are meeting there. And if you really listen to the longer tape, not the very short, edited shock value they have historically put out and have put out in this case, what they do is they haggle. This is a doctor who, one, doesn't do this work at a place in our organization that doesn't have this program and they are saying to her, no, that's not enough. Let us pay you more.

And she's clearly saying, I'm not sure where the reimbursement costs would be for doing this fetal tissue donation. They are trying to encourage her to start a program. So, the idea that she's haggling is completely off base.

CAMEROTA: Why not set a set price? Wouldn't that solve a problem? In this video, they say it's between $30 to $100 depending upon storage and depending upon handling. So, it makes it seem as though there's room for haggling or negotiation. Why not say it's $100 across the board and there's no ifs, ands or buts?

LAGUENS: Just reminding you, this program takes place in three states in the country. And, of course, depending on who the research partner is, there are shipping costs, handling costs, we can be talking different kinds of research. So, the costs can, in fact, vary. And that wouldn't be something that a doctor would be the person to decide, that would be somebody in accounting or someone who is in management.

So, these were not the people who would even know these things.

CAMEROTA: You say, unequivocally, planned parenthood does not make a profit on fetal tissue?

LAGUENS: I say that unequivocally. Planned Parenthood does not make a profit on fetal tissue.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that, because some in Congress are trying to defund Planned Parenthood. What they say, yes, you provide all the other services you outlined, but the money goes into one pot. And they don't believe there's a bright line between funding for abortion, and funding mammograms and birth control.

What's the answer to that?

[06:55:01] LAGUENS: Well, the answer that there are very strict rule that governs abortion providers, including the very unfair Hyde Amendment that absolutely prohibits federal funding for going to abortions. So --

CAMEROTA: Why is that unfair?

LAGUENS: Because poor women are denied abortion care in this country as a result of the Hyde Amendment. But that is the law of the land and we follow the law of the land at Planned Parenthood in every way.

So, this is absolutely -- when they talk about defunding, Americans need to know what we are talking about is cutting women off of cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control, all STD testing and treatment. Abortion doesn't come into play at all with federal funding.

CAMEROTA: How do you make sure no federal funds ever go towards abortion? What's the process?

LAGUENS: There are strict accounting rules in the process as all health care providers would follow that rule, not just Planned Parenthood.

CAMEROTA: One of the thing that is has come out, the critics of Planned Parenthood, during all of this, they say despite, put aside the video. It's time to take a second look at Planned Parenthood and reconsider it.

They believe Planned Parenthood doesn't actually offer woman who go in and say they have an unwanted pregnancy options, they sort of push women towards abortion and they don't present literature or answers on adoption. Is it time to provide more adoption options?

LAGUENS: What I would say is the people who are making those charges have never been to Planned Parenthood, because Planned Parenthood providers and their guidelines to absolutely offer each and every woman who comes to Planned Parenthood the full range of options.

We are pro-choice. We are for women deciding what's best for them. We trust women.

And unlike the people who stand outside of our clinics and shame and harass doctors and women and unlike the people who spend three years stalking doctors, trying to create problems where there aren't any, we are proud of what we do. We are on the side of women. If you ever come to a Planned Parenthood, which I invite you to do, we would show you how that happens.

CAMEROTA: Are you comfortable steering more women towards adoption?

LAGUENS: We don't steer women that's the key thing. We trust women to make decisions. We want them to have all the information. I personally know women who have gone to Planned Parenthood. After talking to a counselor or a doctor or a staff member, actually made a different decision or have even stepped away and said I need more time to think about this.

That's what Planned Parenthood is. That's why people trust us. We are going to release a poll later this morning at 11:30, where it's going to show the American people trust Planned Parenthood 2-1 over these video fraudsters who have been attacking our services and safe, legal, abortion in this country, which is their goal.

CAMEROTA: Dawn Laguens, thanks so much for coming on NEW DAY and explaining all of that.

LAGUENS: Absolutely. Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.

NEW DAY has invited David Daleiden, he is the person who shot those controversial sting videos to join us several times, but he had not responded to our requests.

What's your take on this story? We would like to read your tweets. Please tweet using #NewDayCNN or, post your comment to Facebook.com/NewDay. I will read all of your feedback.

We are following a lot of news this morning, let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: The search continues for two Florida teenagers lost at sea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to know exactly what happened to them. This is a challenging and very dangerous situation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is such strong belief they will be rescued and found.

PEREIRA: President Obama's approval ratings holding in positive territory.

BERMAN: But it is not all good news for the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The economy is not as good as people want it to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tragedy has once again struck the family of the late songstress Whitney Houston.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is so eerily like the way her mother passed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This family has been clear from the beginning that they suspected foul play.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Expect for there to be a lot of movement on the Nick Gordon front.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is to blame? I think all eyes are on Nick Gordon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

PEREIRA: Good morning to you. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. As you can tell, Chris is on assignment. He's not here today. But John Berman joins us.

The desperate ocean search for two missing teenagers expanding now and intensifying off the Florida coast. Fourteen-year-olds Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos went missing on Friday after they set out on a fishing trip alone.

CAMEROTA: Now, their 19-foot fishing boat was found capsized and adrift in a strong current over the weekend. The Coast Guard now expanding their search to an area the size of Indiana.

CNN's Alina Machado is live in Jupiter, Florida, with all the latest developments.

What's happening this morning, Alina?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, the families are living nightmare. They remain hopeful, though, that these missing teens will be found.