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NEW DAY

Answering MH370 Questions; CNN Heroes: Brining Help and Hope to a Struggling Reservation; Confederate Flags Laid at Historic Black Church. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 31, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:33:35] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get the latest now on the debris that could be part of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The Malaysian investigative team now confirms debris found on Reunion Island belongs to a Boeing 777. That's based on photo evidence.

Australian officials also say they are increasingly confident that the debris is, in fact, from Flight 370 and confirmation could be less than 24 hours away. That is because the plane part heading today to France for analysis. Teams from Malaysia will be on site there. Investigators are focusing on how it detached from the plane to try to get a sense of what caused the jet to go down.

The U.S. monitoring the investigation. Intelligence suggesting that actions in the cockpit deliberately took MH370 off its intended course. So the big question again this morning, if this wing is part of the missing jet, can it help the search at all? Can it help locate the fuselage?

This morning we're going to get answers to your questions about MH370. Let's bring in CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien. He's also a science correspondent for PBS "NewsHour."

Miles, great to see you this morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning, John.

BERMAN: Let's get right to the viewer questions here. Number one, does the debris indicate whether the plane broken up in flight or at impact? That's from @sacsmitty.

O'BRIEN: Well, we will leave it to the experts to give us the final answer. But there's a lot of discussion on the Internet. I've talked to some engineers and airplane mechanics, people who know about this stuff. And I don't know if you can put up a picture of the flaperon that was discovered on Reunion Island, but if you look at the front of it, what we call the leading edge, it's not damaged very much at all. The back, the trailing edge in aeronautical terms, it looks like it's been torn like a piece of paper.

[08:35:20] BERMAN: Huh.

O'BRIEN: What the experts tell me - there you go. What the experts tell me - that's the - the front there on the left. What the experts tell me is that would lead one to believe, that it was not attached to the aircraft when it struck the water because there would be damaged to the leading edge if it was still attached to the wing at that point. So is it possible this aircraft was in a steep, fast dive and that flaperon was flapping in the wind, as it were, causing it to fail that way. And that's a very interesting crew.

BERMAN: It will be interesting. They can get a better look at it when it gets to France in the next 24 hours.

Miles, second question here, and this is interesting, no wreckage has been found. This is the first piece of wreckage found. So no wreckage found in the huge search zone set up. So could the search areas be totally wrong if in fact this piece is from MH370?

O'BRIEN: Actually, everything about where this piece has washed up validates and gives us confidence in the underwater search zone off the coast of Australia. As a matter of fact, I remember talking about a year ago to an expert on this issue and he said, wait about a year and a half, maybe two years, and start looking in Madagascar and Africa, and I suspect you'll start seeing some wreckage. It's almost like clockwork. So I think this gives us a lot more confidence in the search.

BERMAN: Isn't it still odd, though, that they searched so hard from the air and from the sea and didn't find anything if this debris was, in fact, floating like we think it was?

O'BRIEN: Well, remember, John, the initial searches were pretty far from where they're looking right now.

BERMAN: Right.

O'BRIEN: So it's quite possible that when the - that, you know, that great air force was in the sky looking for debris, they are in completely the wrong place.

BERMAN: That's true, they were looking around Malaysia right there at the beginning, and that does appear to be the wrong place right now.

Miles, let's get to the next question, and this gets back to the beginning of this whole investigation. How have we not found this plane yet with today's technology? I think this gets to the mystery from 500 days ago. How could there not be some data, some satellite footage that told us where this is from the very beginning?

O'BRIEN: The problem is, we're not using today's technology, John. I mean we are - we're dragging devices across the ocean using sonar capability, trying to paint a picture of the sea many miles beneath. Today's technology, that aircraft would never have gone out of communication with the ground in some fashion. There would have been some sort of real-time streaming capability via satellites so if there had been a problem in that aircraft, it would have been known to the ground no matter where it was in the world.

BERMAN: You have to keep these planes hooked up, that seems to be the answer.

Last question, Miles, any possibility of using satellite data to backtrack the debris trail to Reunion Island over the last 16 months? Does this piece of debris provide any bread crumbs?

O'BRIEN: The longer the amount of time, the harder it is to do one of these reverse current searches. Certainly they'll give it a try, but it - it's going to be difficult to make the search any more specific and refined than it currently is.

BERMAN: But this does, in and of itself, really tell you that this plane did go down in the Indian Ocean. And that's a definitive answer that two days ago, Miles, we didn't have.

O'BRIEN: Two days ago, John, we didn't know there was a plane crash. So - for certain. So, yes, this is a huge thing.

BERMAN: All right, Miles O'Brien, always great to have you on with us. Thanks so much, Miles.

Michaela.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome, John.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John.

Surveillance video captures disturbing images. Two men leaving confederate flags at historic Atlanta sites where Martin Luther King Junior was laid to rest and at a prominent black church. We're going to speak with the head of that church in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:58] PEREIRA: All right, here's the five things for Friday.

At number one, the Malaysian team investigating MH370 now says debris found on Reunion Island does indeed belong to Boeing - a Boeing 777. The piece of the wing will head to France today for further analysis.

Newly released video shows gunman John Hauser (ph) buying a ticket and walked into that Louisiana movie theater last week moments before killing and wounding two people - wounding nine others before taking his own life.

Former University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing is out on jail - on bond. He pleaded not guilty to murder and voluntary manslaughter in the death of Samuel DuBose. Two other campus police officers are on paid leave as an internal investigation begins.

There is no sign of two Florida teenagers missing at sea. Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen went fishing last Friday and never returned. The Coast Guard search spanning 44,000 square miles from south - from Florida, rather, to South Carolina.

Former President George H.W. Bush showing everyone that he's doing just fine. Two thumbs up, in fact. The 91-year-old broke a bone in his neck when he fell in his home. He posted a picture and tweeted, who knew jumping out of planes was safer than getting out of bed. Thanks to all of your for your kind well wish - well messages.

For more on the five things to know, go to newdaycnn.com for the latest.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Michaela.

Soaring unemployment, high suicide rates and third world living conditions mark the lives of more than a million Native Americans living on reservations in the U.S. But on one struggling reservation in South Dakota, Rochelle Ripley is bringing help and hope. Meet this week's CNN hero and be sure to tell us about someone you think is deserving at cnnheros.com.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROCHELLE RIPLEY, CNN HERO: The Lakota reservations are very isolated. The spirit of the people, it's alive, but they struggle with the conditions tremendously. We have extremely high rates of suicide, addictions. Food often is in very short supply. Unemployment. Health issues are another huge challenge.

[08:45:03] My name is Rochelle Ripley. I formed a group to keep a promise to my Lakota grandmother to go home and help our people.

And we're almost to the front door. There you go, you're at the front door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All my electricity outlets and stuff were no good and it could have been a house fire.

RIPLEY: We're doing as much as we can to make her house safe for her.

They want to get the floor down tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's still feeling even more newer in here.

RIPLEY: We've been teaching how to eat healthy on a very limited budget.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to give you a couple of these.

RIPLEY: We have a medical team. We work collaboratively with the tribe everywhere we go.

So we're going to continue, obviously, to toys and to new clothing.

We get in everything from beds to food. We're all children of this earth and we need to work together so that everyone has a chance at having a decent life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: This morning authorities in Atlanta are trying to identify two white mean captured on surveillance video leaving Confederate flags on the grounds of Ebenezer Baptist Church and at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. It comes a month after that horrifying church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina that killed nine and prompted the removal of the Confederate flag from around the state capital in Charleston.

[08:50:08] Joining us now is Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Reverend Raphael Warnock. Pastor, really good to talk to you about this. I have to guess that your reaction yesterday -- I'm going to let you tell us about your reaction when you first were told or saw these flags around these significant sites.

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, SENIOR PASTOR, EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH: Good morning, Michaela. Good to be here with you. We discovered Confederate flags on our church campus yesterday morning. The staff had just arrived. And I was on my way to the office. And they called to tell me what had happened.

And as you're seeing on the video right now, those flags were strategically placed on the church campus. One was placed in front of our bell tower where there was a sign that says "black lives matter." And beneath the sign that says "black lives matter," you have a Confederate flag. So, clearly those who left it there intended to send a message and that message clearly is not about heritage. It is a message about hate.

PEREIRA: Well, and that's been such a discussion of late, hasn't it been? And it has been for many years about whether that flag represents heritage or hate. I know you gave a very impassioned press conference yesterday, in it you called this a terrorist act.

WARNOCK: Yeah, it is a terroristic [SIC] threat. Let me be clear. I'm a child of the South, I was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, serve at a church here in Atlanta and I know that, for many, this flag represents heritage. And not everyone who loves the Confederate flag hates black people. But the problem is this flag has been claimed by far too many hate groups. They now own the flag and I think we ought to let them have it. Since we are one people, we ought to live under one flag: the American flag.

PEREIRA: Pastor, so what now? It's meant -- this kind of act is meant to intimidate. Many will wonder if it's meant to strike fear, given what happened in Charleston recently. I imagine you're getting calls to your office from the people in your church. And I know you're going to preach on Sunday. What will be your message to your church come Sunday?

WARNOCK: Well, our message will be the same as it's been at Ebenezer Church since 1886. We're America's freedom church. We're committed to what Dr. King called "the beloved community." So I will say to my congregation and I say to others that we will not give into fear, we will not give into hate. Fear paralyzes you. Hate consumes you and prevents you from being able to see the humanity of others. And so this kind of crisis ought to cause all of us to rise up and not simply stand against the flag - after all, it is a symbol - but to resist the substance, that which the flag represents. We're in a fight right now on voting rights and we ought to be focused on that issue and so many other issues.

PEREIRA: Absolutely. It's distracting from those key issues that are affecting the lives of thousands. So let me be a member of your flock for a second. And I come to you and I say, Pastor, how am I supposed to see the humanity in someone who is trying to strike fear in my heart, who is trying to intimidate me? How do I see their humanity? what would you say?

WARNOCK: Well, that's the message of the gospel. And Michaela, I believe in that message. I see the humanity in all of God's people. Listen, these are tough times. I don't know what was in the mind of the persons who left those flags. But a lot of people are struggling, trying to make a way and many are frustrated. Sometimes that frustration is misguided. And I'd like to get a chance to talk to these individual.

But meanwhile, we have to focus on building the beloved community on fighting for a country that works for everybody.

PEREIRA: Right.

WARNOCK: And so we'll move from this crisis. We'll stay focused on the work that we do week after week. And we'll transform our pain into power and all of us will be better because of it.

PEREIRA: I appreciate you saying that. As my mother always said, sometimes the ones that need the love the most are the ones that are hardest to love. I appreciate that.

I understand the timing of this is somewhat ironic. You have a leadership conference going on right now at your church?

WARNOCK: That's right. We were gathering yesterday morning, a group of clergy all across the country. We convened them at Ebenezer, the house of Martin Luther King, Jr., to talk about mass incarceration. The president and others have been talking about this.

America is 5 percent of the world's population. We warehouse 25 percent of the world's prisoners. We've got to make sure that our young people are not caught up in this pipeline that leads from the cradle to the prison system. The outcomes are terrible. And the good thing is that there is agreement on both sides of the aisle. Republicans and Democrats agree that this is unsustainable and so we have to fix it.

[08:55:08] PEREIRA: Well, it's good to know that we have some consensus right there, finally, from them on both sides of the aisle. Pastor, thanks so much. We wish you well. Thank you for joining us today on NEW DAY.

WARNOCK: Thank you so much. PEREIRA: We've got "The Good Stuff" coming your way. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: It is time now for "The Good Stuff." So how do you feel about junk mail? You probably throw it away, right? Well, one man's trash is one young man's treasure.

12-year-old Matthew Flores can't afford books. Can you believe that? He can't afford a bus pass to the library. He's so desperate to read that he asked the local mailman for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON LYNCH, MAILMAN: A young man was standing here reading junk mail. Asked me if I had any extra. At 12 years old, he didn't want electronics. He didn't want to sit in front of the TV playing games all day. This kid just wanted to read.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Junk mail. So mail carrier Ron Lynch put Matthew's story up on Facebook asking friends to donate, but before you knew it...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNCH: I've heard from the U.K., from Australia, from India.

MATTHEW FLORES, BOY WHO ASKED FOR JUNK MAIL TO READ: Like 350 or more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The books just keep pouring in every day. Matthew's going to read every one of them and share them with other kids who need them.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh.

PEREIRA: Kids should have books.

CAMEROTA: That's beautiful. He's awfully cute, too.

PEREIRA: Love it.

CAMEROTA: That's a great story. Thanks, John.