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CNN NEWSROOM

Money Trail Exposed; Three Amtrak Accidents; GOP in Wisconsin; Boat Carrying Migrants Arrives in Turkey. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 4, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


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[09:31:02] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow, in today for Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Fierce denials and outrage pouring in over leaked document that claim some of the world's richest and most powerful people created shell companies and offshore accounts to hide behind billions and billions of dollars. CNN has not been able to independently verify multiple media reports about these alleged documents apparently leaked from a Panama law firm and referenced more than 100 current and former world leaders, politicians and public officials. We have reached out to many of those high profile individuals. We're waiting to hear back from most. Andrew Stevens is digging deeper into the allegations and the documents, what are being called, Andrew, the so-called "Panama Papers." What do we know at this hour?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Yes, that's right, the Panama Papers. Eleven million Panama Papers to be precise, Poppy, which were leaked about a year ago to a German newspaper which then shared them with the - the Commission for Investigative Journalism and some other media outlets as well. And there has been a year or so of deep, deep digging by many of these media outlets to try and put together what these offshore accounts mean, what these shell companies mean, to try and get a handle on who's involved and why they're involved.

Some pretty high profile names or at least associations to high profile names coming out of this, Poppy. The biggest one, Vladimir Putin. He is not named in the account specifically in these reports, but associates who are very, very close to him are. And the report says specifically that there was the existence of a - let me read this - "a clandestine network operated by Putin's associates that shuffled at least $2 billion through banks and offshore companies." There were deals involving a web of associates, including one where the rights to a $200 million loan, Poppy, were sold on for just one dollar.

Now, at this stage, as you said, there's been a lot of denial. There's been a lot of anger expressed at these reports, also coming from Russia as well. The Kremlin saying this basically is a pack of lies and it's expressed almost in the western media finding anything they can to hurl at Vladimir Putin. So there's that sort of denial coming out of Russia. It's not just Russia, though. The Argentinian prime minister - president has been linked to this. The Norwegian prime minister has been linked to this. Both of those over non-disclosure of accounts held by them or their families, these offshore accounts as well. So it goes on and on, Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely, the Panama Papers, again, just early reporting here, we'll bring you more when we have it. Andrew Stevens live for us in Hong Kong, thank you so much.

Also, federal investigators right now trying to determine why two Amtrak maintenance workers were killed after they were on an active track near Philadelphia when a passenger train struck them. Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes was a passenger in the last car on that train yesterday. He told CNN it was about 30 minutes before he learned what happened.

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STEVE FORBES, CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, FORBES MEDIA: When our car, the coffee was flying everywhere, you knew something had gone wrong and there was a smell of smoke. And so the first thought is, is there fire. That went away very quickly and we knew we were just going to have to sit and wait and get told what was happening. We didn't hear anything for about - at least a half hour. And so we were all speculating. The brakes go out. What happened? There are rumors starting to fly around. Finally a responders came on and asked if anyone was injured and, fortunately, in our car, no one was injured.

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HARLOW: The double fatality on that rail line yesterday, one of three separate incidents within just 12 hours yesterday involving Amtrak trains. A pedestrian was hit and seriously hurt in Bensalem. And in Illinois, a driver was killed when an Amtrak train struck his vehicle. Sara Ganim is near that crash site in Philadelphia with the latest.

And, Sara, I know the investigators held a press conference but have they gotten to the bottom of the - you know, the big accident that killed two people, as to why this backhoe was on the - on the tracks in the first place?

[09:35:06] SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.

You know, scheduling and human error are among the factors that investigators are looking at as they continue to investigate that crash that happened on these tracks behind me. But that lingering main question remains, how did an Amtrak train and Amtrak workers not know that they were on a path to collision?

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GANIM (voice-over): A frightening moment on board this Amtrak train just before 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning when it smashed into a piece of heavy equipment on the tracks causing the engine to derail. The train was en route from New York to Savannah, Georgia, hitting a backhoe and crashing just south of Philadelphia. Two Amtrak workers were killed and more than 30 people injured in the collision. Passengers describing the harrowing ordeal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I woke up to being thrown into the seat in front of me and the window got blown out right beside me. And, yes, it was a - there was a fire ball. Just kind of a frightening few seconds. We didn't know what to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got off track and then there was like a big explosion, then it was a fire. Then the windows bursted out. And like some people were cut up.

GANIM: The NTSB is now investigating, looking into whether a scheduling error was a factor.

RYAN FRIGO, NTSB INVESTIGATOR-IN-CHARGE: We will be looking at mechanical, operations, signal, track, human performance and survival factors.

GANIM: The derailment was the first of three incidents for Amtrak on Sunday. At about 3:00 p.m. a train struck a vehicle in Somonauk, Illinois, killing the 28-year-old driver. And then around 7:30 p.m., another accident when a train struck and injured a pedestrian in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The incidents come nearly a year after the deadly derailment in Philadelphia when eight people were killed and 200 injured due to speed on a curved section of track.

As for yesterday's crash outside of Philly, the NTSB says it's still too early to know exactly what happened.

FRIGO: As of now, we have recovered the event data recorder, the forward facing video and the inward facing video from the locomotive to send to our laboratory in Washington, D.C.

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GANIM: Now, yesterday, Poppy, one of the passengers told CNN that he knew something was wrong even before the impact. The he could see outside of his window it appears they were in some sort of dust storm and it felt like they were riding on gravel. And then many passengers described coming to a stop that did not feel right. In fact, it wasn't. It was an impact. These are all things that investigators will be looking into.

In the meantime, to give you an update, we have seen trains running through on these tracks pretty regularly today. And that's great news because there are 750,000 people -

HARLOW: Yes.

GANIM: Who ride on the northeast corridor between Boston and Washington every day. That caused major delays on Sunday, but it does appear that trains are up and running today.

Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Sara Ganim live for us there in Trainer, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much.

Coming up next, we return to politics. Blue collar white men voting for Donald Trump in droves, right? So why is he trailing Ted Cruz by ten points in Wisconsin? Next.

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[09:42:25] HARLOW: The Wisconsin primary just one day away. It should be prime territory for someone like Donald Trump and his anti-free trade message you would think but just look at the numbers. The state has seen a lot of manufacturing jobs disappear over the last three decades. Just about 35,000 manufacturing jobs in the badger state have been cut over the last decade alone. But despite his anti-free trade push, this is what the poll shows, that Cruz is leading Trump by ten points. Also, a new TV spot by Cruz hitting the state's job losses.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Stand up for fair trade and bring our jobs back from China. We will see wages going up. We'll see opportunity again. We'll see a president who will stand with the people of Wisconsin and Americans everywhere.

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HARLOW: Mary Spicuzza is a reporter for "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" and she joins me now.

And what is it? I mean what do you make of the fact that you would think that Wisconsin was tailor made for Trump, especially northwestern Wisconsin, all of those manufacturing jobs. Trump has been hammering at those going to Mexico and elsewhere. Why is Cruz beating him in the polls?

MARY SPICUZZA, "MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL": You know, we've seen a very vocal never Trump movement here. Conservative talk radio, our governor, Scott Walker, endorsed Ted Cruz. There's been a real push to try to stop Trump here in Wisconsin. We've seen a negative advertising blitz targeting him. And they've really been kind of at war for - he's been criticizing the Republican establishment. He's had some pretty real criticisms for Governor Walker and his record here. So it's been - it's gotten pretty - pretty nasty here in Wisconsin.

HARLOW: When you look at issue number one for voters in Wisconsin, I'm interested in what it is for the Republicans and the Democrats because national polls show it's the economy for both. What do you get the sense that it is there?

SPICUZZA: I think it's the economy, although, you know, they've been fighting about each other's wives here. They've been - Trump made some comments about abortion that obviously got national attention (INAUDIBLE). So there have been some - quite a few distractions as they travel and crisscross the state. But I do think that people, you know, across the state are obviously very concerned about jobs and Wisconsin has been lagging nationally when it comes to employment and bouncing back from the recession.

HARLOW: Talk to me about the power of talk radio in your state because I understand that that has really been hurting Donald Trump. [09:44:54] SPICUZZA: It's a - there's a very, very powerful

conservative talk radio network here. Donald Trump called in last week to - he really did three of the major conservative talk show hosts early last week and did not get a warm reception from any of them. And he seemed a little caught off guard by it. I talked to him about it yesterday.

I had a chance to speak with (inaudible) diner here in Milwaukee which is a very common stop for a politician, and he called Charlie Sykes, who's a very, very prominent southeastern Wisconsin talk show host, a low life and said he's not a real believer and is with the establishment that's trying to defeat him.

HARLOW: All right, we'll see how it all plays out. Mary Spicuzza with the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel." Thank you. I know you have a busy day ahead, certainly covering it all tomorrow. Thank you so much.

SPICUZZA: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Greece putting hundreds of migrants on a boat, sending them back to Turkey. This is part of a new deal between the European Union and Turkey. Critics say it is not just inhumane, they say it's illegal. A live report straight ahead.

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[09:50:22] HARLOW: Welcome back. The first boat carrying migrants supported from Greece has arrived in Turkey.

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HARLOW (voice-over): These deportations are part of a very controversial new deal that was just struck between the European Union and Turkey to try to ease mass migration. But Amnesty International condemns it, calls it a violation of international law. That's something that Turkey vehemently denies. And this all comes amid the largest migration crisis since World War II with more than a million migrants arriving in Europe last year alone, many of them desperate after being displaced by the Syrian civil war.

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HARLOW: Our Phil Black is live for us this morning in Turkey. Phil, what are you seeing?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, what we've watched today are three vessels arrive in this port. And from them, they have disembarked around 202 migrants that are being sent back from Greece here to Turkey. Mostly people from Pakistan, some Afghans as well, but also we're told two Syrians who at this early stage of this program volunteered to make the journey back.

These are people who have left behind back in Greece the dream of a peaceful, prosperous future in Europe. That's what drove them to cross the sea in the first place. That's not going to happen. This is now necessary, the European Union says, because as individual European countries bordering Greece shut their borders to the migrants, it created a backlog in Greece. There are 50,000 migrants there in camps and increasingly desperate, terrible conditions, and there are still more making that journey.

The idea of this agreement is to reduce those numbers, ease the burden for Greece, but also send a clear message that it's not worth the effort, the journey, it is not worth risking your life for, to deter more people from trying to get to Europe in this way.

Now, it isn't popular, it is controversial with some people because they say it is Europe abdicating its moral responsibility to these incredibly vulnerable people. They also, critics that is, have concerns about Turkey as the country that these migrants are being sent back to. They say that Turkey is not in a position to give them the care and the protection they need.

Turkey refutes this, but much of the international community, human rights activists and so forth will be watching Turkey's actions in the coming weeks and months to see just how these refugees, these migrants are treated, Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Phil Black live for us in Diliki (ph),Turkey. Thank you so much, Phil. Keep us posted.

All right, checking top stories for you.

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HARLOW (voice-over): Thousands have lost power in the Midwest and Northeast as several states are hit with wind gusts as high as 60 miles per hour. In Massachusetts, that tree falling on a car killed two people. Trees also came down in Ohio and in New York. People all over the state said they woke up to the same sound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I woke up to a big crash, and my house shook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard a big, loud crash and then my mom went downstairs and looked out the window and says, like, oh, my god, the neighbor's house fell down on us.

HARLOW: At least 370,000 people lost power from Wisconsin to Maine. The worst outages were in Pennsylvania with over 80,000 homes hit.

Two state governors will sign bills today gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. California passed the first bill, New York followed. California's bill will apply statewide. It calls for the $15 mark to be reached after several years. In New York the bill will raise minimum wage to $15 an hour first in New York City followed by the neighboring areas after that. Then up state the wages will be raised to $12.50 an hour.

And for the 18th time, Atlanta has the busiest passenger airport in the world. More than 100 million passengers came through Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport last year. Dubai's airport, though, has the most international passengers. Hong Kong leads the world in cargo traffic.

Still to come here in the NEWSROOM, it has all come down to this. Wildcats versus Tar Heels. Andy Scholes having the time of his life.

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HARLOW (on camera): Andy, who is your pick tonight?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, I didn't have North Carolina or Villanova in this game in my bracket, so my opinion doesn't really matter.

[09:54:40] But we're hoping for a good one and we're going to hear what both coaches are going to tell their team before the game when NEWSROOM continues.

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HARLOW: The big game is finally here after all those bracket busting upsets. Villanova tonight versus North Carolina. Andy Scholes joining us from Houston. We hope it's a close game. Who's your money on?

SCHOLES: We sure do, Poppy. You know, we had those two blowouts Saturday night, so chances are we're going to get a good game tonight here between one seed North Carolina and two seed Villanova.

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SCHOLES (voice-over): Now, for the Tar Heels, they're trying to win their first national championship since 2009. Their head coach, Roy Williams, legendary head coach, trying to win his third national title. Now for the Wildcats, they're looking to win their first title since 1985. It doesn't get any bigger than this game tonight. And I sat down with both coaches, Roy Williams and Jay Wright, yesterday and asked them what are they going to tell their team tonight before they hit the floor for the biggest game of their lives.

JAY WRIGHT, MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH, VILLANOVA: I'm going to tell them this is just like every other game for us. Like, you know, we're not playing for the national championship. We're playing a basketball game to beat Carolina. That's what we're doing, and we love that.

ROY WILLIAMS, MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH, NORTH CAROLINA: I let the moment and the -- hopefully the experience of being there for would help me try to make the -- say the right thing. And you never know, at the end of the game, if we won, I'll say I said the right thing and if we didn't I'll say I screwed it up.