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Clinton's Email Troubles Weigh on Campaign; Foiled Attack Puts Rail Security in Spotlight; Dr. Dre Apologizes to the Women He's "Hurt". Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 24, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Ah, planted the seed.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN COMMENTATOR: OK, let's just say that the numbers - the -

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, Paul.

BEGALA: Hillary's favorable. Hillary's favorable is above 70 among Democrats. It's above 70. There's - this is not a rejection of Hillary. We love Joe Biden. All Democrats do. Nor is, by the way, the Bernie Sanders surge a rejection of Hillary. Her numbers are terrific actually. It's not a rejection of her. It's just, as John said earlier, people want a race. They want the contest. I think it's good.

By the way, Hillary ran against Joe Biden before in 2008 and Barack Obama. It did not destroy the Democratic Party. It let - helped us win the next two presidential elections. So this would not be the end of days to have even more candidates in the race. I, from the beginning, and Chris you know that, I've said, I want to have a tough contest that produces a tough nominee.

But I will say, Admiral Kirby did not dodge your question. He said Hillary did not violate policy at the State Department. He said that. and I know all the political (ph) connotation (ph) (INAUDIBLE) -

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I didn't - I didn't say he dodged it.

BEGALA: OK.

CUOMO: I wanted to get a little deeper into him about what those policies were and about the storage and all those things and he was reluctant to do that because of the ongoing investigation. Don't put words in my mouth, Begala.

BEGALA: Well, he cleared her. He cleared her.

CAMEROTA: All right.

CUOMO: That may be a little bit of a stretch.

CAMEROTA: John, Paul -

BEGALA: She didn't - well, she didn't violate any policies is what he said. That's really the (INAUDIBLE) policy (ph). CUOMO: He did. That's exactly what he said.

CAMEROTA: OK, good.

There we go. John, Paul, thank you.

CUOMO: Those Texas parents, you know, you've got to be very careful (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: Mark your calendar, everybody, please, because the next presidential debate is less than three weeks away, if you can believe it. CNN's Jake Tapper will moderate the second GOP debate. That's Wednesday, September 16th. It is live from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. We will be there! Mark it down.

Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. A gunman's plan to target a high-speed train in France foils. Questions now being raised, though, about what can be done to improve safety on the rails. We'll ask those questions to a counter terrorism expert to get his take, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:43] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPENCER STONE, THWARTED TERROR ATTACK ON TRAIN: We hit the ground. Alec (ph) came up and grabbed the gun out of his hand while I put him in a choke hold. It seemed like he just kept pulling more weapons left and right. He pulled out a handgun. Al took that. Took out a box cutter and started jabbing at me with that. We let go. All three of us started punching him while he's in the middle of us. And I was able to grab him again and choke him unconscious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Spencer Stone, despite having his thumb nearly severed by this man with a big gun, two guns and a box cutter, he still wound up with his two friends, these band of American brothers, to subdue this assailant on that train on its way to Paris. There were other people involved too. Another French-American teacher. Another, a Britain national who helped out.

But we can't count on that every time now, can we? And what does it mean about real safety? Phil Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official.

Your smile, I know, bespeaks a complete condemnation of the suggestion I'm about to make, but I'll make it anyway. 2004, Spain bombing, 191 killed. 2005, the London bombing, 56 killed. 2006, Mumbai bombing, 209 killed. All of them on trains. Here in the U.S., as we know, even after 9/11, all too easy to get on a train if you want to do bad things. You say doesn't mean we change policy because?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: No, that's too simple, Chris. I say nonsense. Look, you've got to look at the counterterrorism world not from our perspective but from the eyes of the adversary. They go after icon targets. Think things like the entertainment industry, things like nightclubs. We've seen them go after schools. Major threats or attacks against buildings in New York, Chicago, on the West Coast. We've seen transcription, things like subways, trains.

So step back and - and by the way, the past month or two, we've seen military recruiting stations. We've seen the Ottawa parliament. We've seen attacks against police. So step back. Do you want to secure every one of those by checking people who approached with a backpack. Remember the underwater bomber over Detroit in 2009. Do you want to check people and what they're wearing as they go into a theater? Do you want barriers so there can't be car bombs? Before we have a conversation about trains, you've got to look at the world through the eyes of the adversary and look at targets in the aggravate. And I'm going to say securing all those targets, it's just not possible.

CUOMO: But do trains get a little bit higher of a value than you're placing on them given those numbers I just read to you?

MUDD: Not really. If I'm looking at 15 years in the entirety, I look at attacks against things like nightclubs in Bali. Those are cultural symbols of the west cultural symbols of western culture. I look not only at trains, I look at subways. You're talking about the Long Island Railroad. You want to check that during rush hour morning and evening? I don't think so. You're looking at trains up-and-down Manhattan. You're looking at the BART in San Francisco. You're looking at the Metro in Washington.

I agree, there are some sort of themes to what terrorists look at, but if you look at the volume that we're talking about in terms of not just spot checking backpacks but securing every single train, securing those locations. If you look at London years ago or during the height of the IRA bombings, you've got to remove trash cans because terrorists will start to place bombs in trash cans and they explode five minutes later. I don't think we're thinking about this 48 or 72 hours after the French attacks with enough perspective.

CUOMO: OK. Understood. Thank you for that perspective on that.

MUDD: Sure.

CUOMO: Let me ask you about something else that has been kind of inching at you a little bit, which is that you believe that there's talk in the Hillary e-mail scandal about classified information as being misunderstood. What is your take?

MUDD: I think the public conversation is oversimplifying this. Not because it's misguided, not because this isn't important, but because the people looking at this don't have an understanding of classification. Look, we're not talking about Hillary Clinton, I assume, taking an intercepted communication from North Korean and putting it on a private server. And I'm not political. I'm not here to say she's right or wrong.

What I'm saying, as a security professional, an intelligence professional, reviewing those e-mails is going to have a struggle determining what's classified and what's not. What if she says to a friend, wow, these Iran negotiations, they're really tough. I can't go on vacation right now because it's pretty important that I say here. Is that classified? Is that revealing something sensitive about the nature of the negotiations? I guarantee my friends and at intelligence agencies across Washington who are reviewing this don't have an easy time to tell the Congress and everybody else on - in the campaign process who's interested in this what's classified and what's not. They're going to disagree about that.

[08:40:32] CUOMO: So what does that mean in terms of what they'll be able to yield, in terms of an investigation?

MUDD: I'm going to offer you a suggestion, Chris. When the reports come out from Washington about the review of those e-mails from the intelligence community, here is your first question. Was there unanimity across the community, a., on what was classified and what wasn't and, b, on the number of e-mails that merited consideration for review by the intelligence community. People are going to take the initial review, I bet, and run with it and suggest whatever it says that the intelligence community came out with a hard and fast judgment about whether there is classified information on that server. I would bet you there's people in those rooms in Washington who would not share that view. They're fighting today saying not because they're political just because it's vague about whether what she said in those is classified or not. It's not going to be simple.

CUOMO: They've been forced into a political position then and that's going to comprise -

MUDD: Yes, that's right.

CUOMO: It's going to compromise the understanding.

MUDD: That's right. This is not a security question.

CUOMO: I gotcha.

MUDD: That's right, this is a political question. This is not security.

CUOMO: Philip Mudd, appreciate it, as always. Thank you, sir.

MUDD: Thank you.

CUOMO: Mic.

MUDD: Take care.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris.

Rap mogul Dr. Dre saying he's sorry to the women that he's hurt. Where is this apology coming from? Is it sincere? Is there a motive behind it? We're going to take a look at it all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:45:46] PEREIRA: Here we go with the five things for your NEW DAY.

At No. 1, French President Hollande presenting Knights of the Legion medals for bravery to three American heroes for subduing a gunman on a high speed train.

Bad day for stocks. U.S. stock futures falling sharply this morning more than 700 points after Asian markets suffered huge losses overnight. Fears over China's economy rattling investors worldwide.

South Korea standing strong amid intense negotiations with the North. That country's president saying cross border propaganda broadcasts will continue until Pyongyang apologizes for a landmine blast.

Vice President Joe Biden meeting over the weekend with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. A source says they mostly talked about economic policy, but it does come as Biden gets closer to a decision about a White House run.

Cute twin cubs. The newest edition to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. One of the zoo's doctors tells us the babies are being monitored closely since they're so tiny and fragile.

For more on the five things to know, be sure to visit newdayCNN.com for the latest.

Chris?

CUOMO: Dr. Dre apologizing to, quote, "the women he's hurt." Is this a Bill Cosby moment or just a marketing ploy from Apple? Something sincere? We look deeper ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:23] (CLIP FROM "STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON")

PEREIRA: That's a scene from the summer hit "Straight Outta Compton." That films chronicles the rise of rap group N.W.A., but controversy now has emerged around the film amid suggestions that the film glossed over allegations of physical abuse against women by former group member Dr. Dre. He in turn issued a public apology over the weekend.

Here to discuss it all is cultural critic and writer, Michaela Angela Davis. I think we have to read the statement from Dre right off the bat. If you'll indulge me.

"25 years ago I was a young man drinking too much and in over my head with no real structure in my life. However, none of this is an excuse for what I did. I've been married 19 years and every day I'm working to be a better man for my family. I apologize to the women I've hurt. I deeply regret what I did and know that it forever impacted all of our lives."

Resonate with you enough?

MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURAL CRITIC AND WRITER: Not impressed. PEREIRA: You're not? Why?

DAVIS: I think it's a missed opportunity.

PEREIRA: Explain.

DAVIS: Say their names. Right?

PEREIRA: Do we have any indication that he apologized directly to them?

DAVIS: That statement doesn't suggest that - right? So that's first. Be clear. Say their names. Say what you did. Say what happened. And why "The New York Times?"

PEREIRA: Oh, you're saying he could have picked a different publication that would have reached his people.

DAVIS: He could have picked AllHipHop, he could have picked World Star, you know, where his audience is where he could have made an impact. So I felt that he was very removed from that. He was very removed from the people that he could have impacted. So --

PEREIRA: Meaning he could have made an impact on the community and sort of - this could have been an instructive moment for young black men.

DAVIS: Completely. It was a gift, right? If you really were going to make amends, say their names, go where the people are that you can really impact this. Between he and Apple, billions of dollars. If you really want to be hard, if you really want to be gangster, why not hip-hop against violence against women? Do something substantive to create a legacy instead of this one off brush off.

After Dee already - you know, she already put out a statement days before. I thought this was reactionary. So it was reactionary. It was limited. It had no - It wasn't solution-based. And, you know, no one - Look, people have been talking about -- from Miles Davis to Chris Brown -- people have been talking about brilliant artists who beat women and women have been writing about it from (INAUDIBLE) to Joan Morgan.

PEREIRA: Well -- and you talked about Dee Barnes, who is a journalist who was in involved -- who is one of the women who alleged that she had been beaten by him. We'll talk about that in a second. But you know what's very interesting is that we're hearing is that some people -- and I'm not sure I feel it -- they're drawing comparisons to Bill Cosby, and do you see any parallels at all? I mean, you could say --

DAVIS: Famous and rich and black man.

PEREIRA: OK. That's it.

DAVIS: Pretty much.

PEREIRA: Very different scenarios. But the fact is he did come out and has addressed this where Cosby, for the most part, through his lawyers, hasn't really addressed this.

DAVIS: Someone made a statement with his name, right? So I do feel like he didn't say that it didn't happen. He -- even, you know, in "The Rolling Stone" he said that it happened years ago.

PEREIRA: He's been vocal about it through the years. Dre has addressed it. Taking a different tone. Take us back a little bit. Because you were there back in the day. You were at one of the parties that involved when Dee Barnes was allegedly hit and the whole situation that happened with her. What was the vibe?

DAVIS: It was a major - "Vibe" -- I was the fashion director at "Vibe" magazine at the time. So we were "The Rolling Stone" of hip-hop. We were the cultural magazine of note. This act was so significant. It really was that moment when men and women split. Men and women colleagues, journalists, the women were speaking out about it. Again, Joan Morgan, Dream Hampton, Lisa Jones, me, and no other men were really talking about it. And I believe this was that moment when even the term hip-hop feminism that Joan Morgan has coined began. Because we were like -- Hip-hop has always been a dangerous environment for women. But this was real.

PEREIRA: In a word, do you think this is done?

DAVIS: No.

PEREIRA: You think we're going to hear more about it?

DAVIS: Yeah and I think Apple and Dre should do something substantive.

PEREIRA: Maybe they'll hear that call.

DAVIS: Make this right.

PEREIRA: Maybe they'll hear that call.

DAVIS: Yeah.

PEREIRA: Angela -- Michaela Angela Davis. Almost forgot the most important part. OK, darling.

[08:55:00] Thanks so much.

Chris, over to you.

CUOMO: All right. It's Monday. Let's get the week started right. How about a little "Good Stuff?" We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Time for "The Good Stuff." All right?

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: It may make you cry. We'll see. All right, so there is a little boy, he's battling a big disease. He should be thinking about himself, right? He's only 5 years old. But this kid is doing exactly the opposite. His name is Dawson Babiak and he's fighting leukemia. What gets him through is the love of drawing. That's what helps him deal with the treatment and the pain. It got him thinking -- five years old -- maybe it would help other kids in the hospital, too. So he started a drive for crayons. He thought maybe get a few boxes. But guess what?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON BABIAK, FATHER: It wasn't just your simple, here's your eight pack of crayons - it was copy paper boxes full of Crayolas. And it filled up the back of a minivan and it was just -- it was amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: And you know what? It matters.

PEREIRA: That's a great picture.

CUOMO: Thousands of crayons and markers. Now Dawson's going even farther. He's challenging Crayola to match the donations and we'll see what they say.

PEREIRA: Step it up! Step it up! What a great little man.

CUOMO: Right?

PEREIRA: We wish you well, honey. Thanks for sharing your love with others.

All right, it's time for "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow.