Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY SUNDAY

World Leaders In Germany For G7 Summit; Manhunt For Two Killers After Prison Escape; American Pharoah Makes History. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 7, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We're following two big developing stories this morning, the battle against ISIS, and Russian aggression and trade. These are the issues that President Obama is tackling this morning at the G-7 Summit.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And developing this morning, an all-out manhunt for these two convicted murderers. Please look at your screen here. They are characterized as dangerous men escaping from a maximum security prison, the first escape in that facility, and this morning officials are scrambling to find them still.

Boy, wishing you a very good morning. So grateful to have your company as always, I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Always a pleasure to be with you on a Sunday morning. President Obama is in Germany at the G7 Summit where a lot is at stake. In about an hour, the president and several world leaders will begin tackling major global issues.

One of them the most important, stopping the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Now earlier this morning, the president met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta joins us now from Croon, Germany.

Jim, what does the president want world powers to do about Russia and the aggressions in Ukraine?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, as you can tell, the spectacular setting here does not disappoint, and it's going to be awfully distracting for these leaders here at the G-7 Summit in the Alps, but they have a lot of business to get to, so they will have to put those distractions aside.

You're right. From the crisis in Ukraine to the violence in the war against ISIS there is a lot to tackle for these leaders here at the G- 7 summit and the president some brief remarks before this summit got underway addressed all of that as these leaders were starting to arrive in Germany. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Over the next two days, we're going to discuss our shared future, a global economy that creates jobs and opportunity, maintaining a strong and prosperous European Union and forging new trade partnerships across the Atlantic and standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine, and combating threats from violent extremism to climate change, and on all these issues we are very grateful for partnership and leadership of your chancellor, Angela Merkel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: You heard the president there refer to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Clearly the crisis in Ukraine is at the top of this agenda for G-7 Summit and what senior administration officials have been saying over the last several days is that one of their goals here is to make sure that European leaders want to continue pressure, economic pressure on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

They don't want to see the Europeans relaxing the sanctions on Russia right now so they will be talking a lot about that, but before, you know, they really got down to business here, Victor, I should point out that President Obama and the host of this summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel went for a walk in a nearby village where they enjoyed beer and pretzels.

The president said it's a very fine beer that he already had here. It's only lunchtime here in the Alps, but he's already gotten off to that kind of start and even joked about some of the local attire that you'll see, you know, traditionally worn in this part of Germany and Austria.

The president said he did not bring any lederhosen with him on this trip and hopes to pick some up while over here -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: He will have several opportunities to do that, nothing wrong with starting early if you have a busy day ahead. Jim Acosta, thank you so much.

ACOSTA: That's right.

PAUL: Meanwhile, there are polarizing views of this summit and 17,000 police are on the ground to strengthen security for these world leaders. Take a look at the scene earlier today, protesters there, some of them having to be carried off after they were arrested.

Just yesterday police dispersed pepper spray to break up the crowds. Now CNN's Karl Penhaul is with us. He was there yesterday as well. So you showed us yesterday, Karl, the thousands of protesters. Do you see the same kind of thing happening this morning already?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what has happened this morning, Christi, is that demonstrators have changed tactics. They have split up into much smaller group and are launching smaller actions to distract police because there are 17,000 police that are trying to control the crowds here so the demonstrators at one point tried to blockade a major highway to stop supplies from going up to the G-7.

The police stopped that group, stopped them from getting in. As you already mentioned, a small group had a sit-in on a highway, and they were removed by police. This group, they have inflated these huge balloons. These big fat air balloons, they say, are those that represent, according to the protesters, the fat elite fat cat leaders of the group of seven.

[06:05:05] We have the German Chancellor Angela Merkel here. Just behind her we have President Obama. We have the fat face of the British Prime Minister David Cameron as well, and this really represents what the protesters say is wrong about the group of seven.

They accused the group of seven of trying to divide up the pie of world politics and world economics for themselves and not sharing it out in a more even fairer way for their own citizens and for wider global community.

Now, of course, these protesters did have a vow that today they would try to disrupt and even shut down the G7 meeting going on in a castle about 12 miles away from here. So far they have not been successful at doing that.

The police are getting pretty good at trying to close down these small pop-up demonstrations as they are happening because there is a massive police presence -- Christi.

PAUL: All right, Karl, thank you so much and for explaining those bubbleheads behind you. We all took a second look and thought what on earth is that. Karl Penhaul, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Annette Heuser is the executive director of the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-partisan think tank. He joins us now from Washington. Thank you for speaking with us this morning.

If you could detail for us what leverage the U.S. has at this summit to get the world powers to keep up the pressure on Russia and on President Putin.

ANNETTE HEUSER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BERTELSMANN FOUNDATION: Don't forget the American president is in Germany today at the G7 to achieve his major objective, which is European unity over the sanctions in -- towards Russia and we have four European leaders, the French, the British, the Germans and the Italians.

And I think it's very important that these leaders have some private time, so to say, with the American president to discuss how to keep the sanctions regime in place and to extend it until the end of the year. And I think the American president is key for Angela Merkel to achieve this European unity.

BLACKWELL: So the sanctions have been in place for some time now. They have weakened the ruble and have caused some problems for

President Putin and the Russian people, but is there any indications that these sanctions have dissuaded Putin from continued aggressions or that greater sanctions will dissuade him from going even further in Ukraine?

HEUSER: I think it's fair to say that you can argue if the sanctions really had an effect on the behavior of the Russian president because we have seen over the last days that the fighting has continued in the Eastern Ukraine.

And we have seen in the second quarter of this year that the Russian economy is bouncing back despite of the sanctions so I think the leaders have to take to a certain extent an evaluation of these sanctions and have to make a decision how to move forward.

But at this point so to say no one has a real recipe how to engage with Russia and how to put real pressure on the Russian president and therefore the sanctions are the only tool in the toolbox for the western leaders right now to impose pressure on the Russian president.

So they will continue with the sanctions regime, but besides that I think there is some more creative thinking needed how to engage Russia in the future because completely isolating it hasn't worked so far.

BLACKWELL: Annette Heuser, thank you so much. We'll continue to watch the conversation that's happening in Croon, Germany as the G7 leaders continue to meet and at the top of the agenda, what to do about Russia. Thank you so much, Annette.

Coming up, thousands of migrants stranded in the Mediterranean, the life-saving efforts to get these people to safety.

PAUL: Also developing this morning, authorities searching for these two men dangerous, inmates escaped from a New York prison. How they did it. It's mind-boggling, and we have the latest on search for them. They have been gone for more than 24 hours now.

Also, a nearly four-decade long dry spell and we have a Triple Crown winner, people. But what's next for American Pharoah now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:12:42]

PAUL: Whatever you're doing right now, please do me a favor a take a look at your screen because we've got a couple of guys we need to show you as there is an all-out manhunt for these two convicted murderers. They escaped from a New York prison.

This prison was built in 1865. It is the first escape ever from this maximum security prison. Before they broke out though, apparently they left a note. There it is. Have a nice day. Look at that thing.

Clinton Correctional facility in upstate New York is about 20 miles from the border with Canada. The two convicted murderers were able to somehow get their hands on power tools, cut a hole in the back of their cells, who didn't hear that is what I want to know?

BLACKWELL: Right. PAUL: And then they followed a series of tunnels until they emerged from a manhole outside the prison. There are so many questions here. How did they know the skeleton of that prison? How did they get the power tools? How did they do it without anybody -- I mean, drilling a power tool is not quiet?

BLACKWELL: There are lots of questions here, and you wonder if this was an inside job or had some help from the outside. Let's get some answers here with CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes.

Tom, when I read this story, I thought "Shaw Shank." These guys working year after year after year with maybe a chisel or something, but they have power tools. Does this sound like an inside job to you?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Victor, I think you would say, yes, it sounds like an inside job to get the tools and to have a layout how to get out of that prison and to have somebody waiting for them to get them away.

It's a well thought out plan obviously. They have a minimum of eight hours from the time they were last seen and a stand-up check on Friday night until they were discovered missing and then of course, by time the authorities get their act together and start the search.

You know, they have a good, eight, ten, 12-hour head start from there. They could have already been in Canada by the time people even discovered they were missing. One these two prisoners had escaped from an earlier jail and been found in Mexico and brought back to the U.S.

So they are not -- they are not averse to leaving the U.S. and, you know, moving on. Again, with that much of a head start they could have flown away, driven away, any number of things.

This is not going to be like in the movies where they are outside the prison walls with bloodhounds in the local woods looking for these guys. This was well planned and they are probably long gone.

[06:15:10] BLACKWELL: So what's search look like if it's not the bloodhounds in the middle of the night? What does it look like now?

FUENTES: Fugitive search like this, already heard that they have asked for assistance from the U.S. Marshals and the FBI. Warrants are issued at the federal level to look for them interstate and internationally with the idea that the federal government doesn't take over the case.

They merely try to locate them and turn them back over to the New York State authorities, but the manhunt will look like going to every known address of every known family member starting with their immediate family and then moving on to other friends, people that have known them over the years because at some point, because, again, you don't know how well planned this is.

Usually fugitives on run need money. Can't go to an ATM or use credit cards or do anything that would leave an electronic trail and you look for everybody that's out there that they would reach out for to get assistance, but it looks like in this case they probably had a lot of assistance from long before the escape occurred.

BLACKWELL: The person you see here in the center of the screen is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was there at this location kind of trying to understand as we all are how these two men got up. They popped up through a manhole so this is a maximum security prison.

We understand theoretically that they have been planning this escape would have some access and start to understand the makeup of the facility, but they have got to have some outside knowledge of the manhole and the sewer system.

Do they have internet access? How would they have been able to know how to get into the sewer system and then out to a manhole?

FUENTES: Well, they might not have known and they might have taken several trial runs where they, you know, ran around like mice underground following the tunnels to see where they would lead to, seeing where a logical escape place might be without actually doing it until they were pretty sure that they knew the way out.

Especially if they were doing it in the dark through dark, damp, rat- infested tunnels so probably this was rehearsed on their part for a while, tested the system and got a lay of the land and a lay of the underground land so they knew where to go once they had the opportunity.

BLACKWELL: There are so many facets of this story we want to discuss. Tom Fuentes, thanks for talking with us this morning and we'll come back throughout the morning and talk more about these convicts, their backgrounds and how possibly they pulled off this escape. Thanks, Tom.

PAUL: Yes, I'm fascinated, fascinated by this.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: All right, the death toll, I'm sorry, to tell you is rising in that cruise ship disaster in China. We'll let you know what we've learned this morning.

Also American Pharoah, watched him made history when he took the coveted Triple Crown this weekend. Here's what a lot of people have been asking. Can this win save a sport that's in decline?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The 16th pole and here it is, the 37-year wait is over. American Pharoah is finally the one. American Pharoah has won the Triple Crown! (END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That is a victory of all victories. You know, part of I think what is so great, not just about seeing him cross the finish line is the reaction of people.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: I would have loved to have seen people in cameras and living rooms and at parties who were watching and a nearly four-decade long dry spell and American Pharoah claimed it, the Triple Crown, this weekend at the Belmont Stakes, of course.

Millions of people watched this on NBC, some 90,000 fans going berserk watching this 3-year-old colt and his jockey claim the sports most coveted price.

Our Andy Scholes, my goodness, Andy, did you just have the ticket of a lifetime? You saw the whole thing.

I hear that this horse now is worth $100 million. Is it safe to say that there are a lot of people out there that will be paying for some American Pharoah babies?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Little Pharoahs.

PAUL: Is that what's next?

SCHOLES: Absolutely. After the Preakness, they sold the breeding rights to American Pharoah after the Preakness and there's, of course, a caveat if he won the Triple Crown that price would go up. His owner Ahmed Zayat sold him to an Irish stable.

So that's all said and done. That negotiations and everything is over. Now American Pharoah, that's what's up next for him. He's leaving here, Belmont Park, leaving here at 7:30 a.m. and going back to Louisville, Kentucky and Churchill Downs.

And I'm sure what's up next for him is a lot of relaxation, champion of horse racing, first one we've seen in 37 years and Bob Baffert said he'll be eating lots of carrots.

PAUL: Just roaming around in the fields of Kentucky. Sounds like a nice little life, doesn't it? Let's talk about Victor Espinoza, what about him? Was he the oldest jockey to win, do I understand?

SCHOLES: Yes, that's right. He was the oldest jockey ever to win the Triple Crown. You know, this was his third shot. He had failed two times before, once with Bob Baffert, Bob Baffert the legendary trainer of American Pharoah, so they had been in this situation before.

Victor Espinoza got the monkey off his back and winning it was the fourth time a charm for Bob Baffert. You know, he missed a Triple Crown years ago just by a nose, and he really wanted this and gave all the credit to the horse after the race saying the American Pharoah the best and he ever had been dealt. Let's hear from Bob Baffert after winning the first Triple Crown in 37 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB BAFFERT, TRAINER, AMERICAN PHAROAH: Thirty seven years, we're part of it. But you know what, that little horse, he deserved it. He's a great horse and the way he's been all winter and this spring is just like, you know, that's why everybody was just hoping, what a feeling. Still, it's probably going to take a few days to -- to sink in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:25:08] SCHOLES: You know what, guys? I've been to Super Bowls and to game seven of the World Series. The moment when American Pharoah crossed that finish line yesterday was probably the top sports moment I've ever been a part of.

People were going nuts, jumping up and down. There are people crying, hugging people they didn't even know. Of course, everyone is holding up their cell phone trying to capture this historic moment, just incredible and who knows when we'll see this again.

Of course, we waited 37 years for this one and we really don't know how historic this is going to be because it's so hard to win a Triple Crown the way these races are set up these days.

PAUL: Yes, but you see these pictures of people and we heard rumors that horse racing, the fans were kind of wavering, losing popularity. I have to think this will reinvigorate the whole thing. Andy Scholes, glad for you that you got to experience it the way you did. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

SCHOLES: All right, guys.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Andy.

Let's talk about this manhunt happening this weekend in New York. It's all out. You've got local police, state officials, U.S. marshals, because two inmates have pulled off an elaborate and historic escape.

Let's not stand in awe of the escape because these are dangerous prisoners. We'll find out who they are. We got more on them next.

Plus a Georgia man dies in police custody. His death is ruled a homicide. You'll hear why his family claims police are not telling the whole story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Mortgage rates edged up this week. Here's your look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)