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New York Exit Polls; Presidential Race; Obama Visits Saudi King; Suing Foreign Countries; Flint Criminal Charges. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 20, 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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[09:30:05] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

After decisive victories in New York, Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Hillary Clinton have the same message for their respective parties, they are ready for November. Christine Romans has been examining the exit polls. She has some interesting numbers to tell us.

Hi, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Very interesting. Hi, Carol.

The frontrunners, they've built on their core strengths here in New York, but they also made some important new in roads. I want to start with the Democrats, Carol. New York presented a more diverse demographic than we've seen in some other states, 59 percent white for the Dems, 22 percent black, 14 percent Latino, 2 percent Asian. Valuable for Clinton heading into states ahead with diverse populations. Clinton dominated with black voters, 75 percent, choosing their former senator. Her support from black and Latino voters is not news. What is, a 50/50 split among white voters. This was Bernie territory. Clinton, though, in New York, gaining new ground with white voters.

For Republicans, vastly different demographics. Ninety-one percent of the New York GOP electorate is white. Trump won big with this group. He dominated across the board here. Trump's success carrying through all income levels, 52 percent of those making less than $50,000 picked Trump, 63 percent of those making more than $50,000 picked Trump. Those voters account for three quarters of the Republican electorate, by the way, in New York. Trump typically polls well with working class voters, those without a college degree. Here, he won the college graduates too. Fifty-four percent of voters with a degree picked Donald Trump in New York. Trump also won with voters who consider themselves moderate. The margin was closer here, Carol, 46 percent for Trump, 42 percent for John Kasich, Carol.

COSTELLO: Fascinating. Christine Romans, thanks so much.

So both the frontrunners, they want to pivot to a general election strategy, and for good reason. If it is Clinton versus Trump, it will be nasty, despite Mr. Trump's more presidential tone of late. I'm joined by CNN political commentator and political anchor for New York 1 News, Errol Louis.

Good morning.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So you saw the numbers. Donald Trump does amazingly well among white voters. Hillary Clinton does very well with minority voters. Can Trump win by attracting only a huge amount of white voters?

LOUIS: Well, this is a question that's been haunting this campaign from the very beginning. The question of whether or not, by a heavy dependence on white male voters in particular, the Republicans can squeeze out one more victory. And the reality is, the numbers, we know, are changing, the demographics of the country overall.

I mean when you have a Mitt Romney, who had about the same percentage of the white vote as Ronald Reagan but still lost where Reagan had a landslide, it's telling you that the country is changing. You look at all of the swing states that we keep talking about, Virginia, even Georgia to a certain extent, Florida for sure, Nevada, New Mexico, these are places that have been changing for decades. It's really starting to sort of show up when you look at the generations, when you look at who's making voting age, when you look at what the outcome is in the election.

So what people have feared all along, the Republican strategists, is that we cannot try this one more time. They've been warning about it since last time, that we've got to make inroads, we've got to moderate the message, we've got to make more outreach to some of these emerging communities. Donald Trump is saying, to heck with all of that, I'm going try and squeeze it out one more time. That's been the strategy so far in the -- in the primary. Can he pivot for the general election? A major question going into November.

COSTELLO: Well, most voters also said the economy was most important to them and Donald Trump fared well in that area. A lot of people said he is the best candidate to handle the economy. Can that trump -- I keep using the word -- can that trump, you know, his lack of support from minority voters?

LOUIS: We'll see. I mean it's not -- you know, some -- some of the talk about immigration actually is an economics question. So it's not like you can just pull them apart when he talks about building a wall and having Mexico pay for it, it starts to stray into this area where once sort of the harsh tone has been struck, the people won't listen to anything else you have to say. So that even if your trade policy discussion is sort of intelligence and not particularly bigoted, if you turn people off, you're never going to get them back. And that's what, again, people have been warning Donald Trump about from the very beginning. He has decided to go a different way.

COSTELLO: OK, so Hillary Clinton, I would assume, is strong on foreign policy, right, but a lot of, well, a lot of national -- international figures kind ever fear Donald Trump's foreign policy. In fact, there was an interesting hearing going on, on Capitol Hill. It was a nomination hearing. And the subject of the Korean peninsula came up. And you know that Donald Trump said that -- you know, we have troops there, right? And he said, you know, why isn't South Korea paying for that? Well, they kind of are, and that subject came up in this hearing. So let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Or isn't it a fact that it costs us less to have troops stationed in Korea than in the United States?

GEN. VINCENT BROOKS, U.S. ARMY: I would give two examples of that. The first is that they pay about 50 percent of our personnel costs of being there. The second example would be, the largest DOD construction project we have anywhere in the world, about a $10.8 billion project, that is really being used to relocate U.S. forces further to the south.

[09:35:05] MCCAIN: So it would cost more to keep those troops stationed in the United States than it would be in Korea, is that correct?

BROOKS: Absolutely, senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so Hillary Clinton could bring that up during a debate, right? But Trump supporters, I don't know if they'll -- they'll care.

LOUIS: Well, no, that's right. I mean it's interesting. I mean, look, when foreign aid comes up, or what we're doing overseas and how much it quote/unquote costs us, the polls show people always dramatically over estimate the amount that we're giving in aid, they completely mistake, as you just second through that clip, the amount it costs for us to station troops overseas. It's a fact free discussion in a lot of ways. And really that's where Trump has taken the conversation where it's just an emotional sort of a thing saying, look, they should pay for it. It's costing us a lot of money.

Well, what's a lot? What are we getting in return for it? That's a whole other kind of conversation. Should we nuclearize it? All of these kind of things that have come up in this very slip shot kind of a way. When it gets to the general election and people are focused, yes, it will be a very different discussion. And you can expect Hillary Clinton to weigh in on that with a certain amount of expertise and experience.

COSTELLO: All right, Errol Louis, thanks for stopping by. You're like superman. You're everywhere. Do you ever sleep? I don't think so.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, President Obama on a personal mission to try to repair relations with a key Arab ally. That would be Saudi Arabia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:40:35] COSTELLO: We're following breaking news out of Europe this morning. As many as 500 migrants may be dead after a boat they were sailing in sank in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere between Libya and Italy. According to survivors interviewed by the United Nations, the boat sank when passengers from a smaller boat were trying to transfer to a larger boat already carrying hundreds of people. This might be the deadliest migrant tragedy in the last year, as tens of thousands of people try to flee violence in Iraq and Syria.

President Obama and the Saudi king meet today amid rising tensions. Obama arriving this morning in Riyadh to try personal diplomacy with America's biggest Arab partner. On the surface, the U.S. wants the Saudis to step up its efforts to defeat ISIS. But behind the scenes, a Saudis have a laundry list of complaints against the United States. Chief among them is a proposed bill in Congress that would give U.S. victims of 9/11 the ability to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged ties to the hijackers. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in Riyadh this morning with more.

Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, hi there, Carol.

I guess the sort of biggest indication of just where those tensions lie came when President Obama arrived at the international airport here in Riyadh. There was no very senior high level delegation to meet him. The most senior official, the governor of Riyadh, an important person, but not somebody of the central government, not the foreign minister, not the king, not the interior minister, not the defense minister, all these people very senior royals here in Saudi Arabia. None of those at the airport. That, I think, is really an early indication, perhaps setting the tone for President Obama, for his meetings here.

He's met with the king. Obviously, President Obama keen to get support from the king, from his gulf cooperation council allies to target ISIS. How can they be better effective at doing that? What can they do, how can they be involved? Can they help in Iraq? All these sorts of issues are on the table.

For their part, King Salman, the Saudis, they want a ballistic missile defense shield against what they fear is the potential for an escalation of Iranian violence in the region. And this, of course, a big point of tension because the Saudis feel that the United States, President Obama, supports Iran now more than them. So the 9/11 Commission, the 28 pages that go before Congress, really that is just fuel in the fire of the tensions that already exist, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nic Roberts reporting live from Saudi Arabia this morning. Thank you.

Suing a foreign country is extremely difficult, but it's certainly not impossible. The family of American student Alisa Flatow successfully sued the government of Iran for nearly $250 million. Alisa was killed in a terror attack 20 years ago while she was studying in Israel. Her father, Stephen Flatow, is the attorney who led that legal battle. He joins me this morning.

Hi, Stephen.

STEPHEN FLATOW, SUED IRAN OVER DAUGHTER ALISA'S MURDER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Did Iran ever pay that judgment?

FLATOW: No. The American taxpayers did.

COSTELLO: How did -- how did that happen?

FLATOW: There was a compromise settlement with the Clinton administration back in 2001 that paid us approximately 10 percent of our judgment. I wasn't the only family that benefited. Others did as well. And that money was supposed to come from Iranian assets that were blocked in the United States, but it never happened.

COSTELLO: And why didn't it happen?

FLATOW: The big word is politics. The same thing that's rearing its head now with the new terrorism bill.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So is it an impossible task for these 9/11 families to bring a lawsuit, even if they were able to?

FLATOW: Well, the task of bringing a lawsuit is rather easy. It's collecting on your judgment that poses a problem. Of course, in our case, the State Department had a heart attack when we started pursuing Iranian assets. If this new legislation goes through, and victims start pursuing Saudi Arabian assets, the State Department's going to have an outright stroke and collapse.

This is something that is ground breaking. It is involving an ostensible ally of the United States. Whereas Iran was on the anti- terrorism target list. They were a state sponsor of terrorism. So this is going to be an interesting fight between the victims and the American government, their own government.

[09:45:00] COSTELLO: Well, something else that may doom, you know, these -- this 9/11 families' efforts, the Saudis have also threatened to dump $750 billion worth of U.S. assets. I mean, for the families, they're saying, well, too bad. But for the government of the United States, it's another story, isn't it?

FLATOW: I'm not an economist, and I'm not a -- I'm not (INAUDIBLE) at the Treasury Department, but I imagine that that's more bluster than reality because the Saudis are going to be affected with any -- any pressure on the American currency, they're going to be affected as well. So, to me, as a lay person, it sounds like a lot of talk, but you never know.

COSTELLO: Another key argument against the 9/11 bill is it could open up the U.S. government to be sued by victims of drone strikes for instance. So the United States could also have to pay, if a lawsuit is filed against Saudi Arabia, and that lawsuit is successful. Is that a valid argument? FLATOW: If there is a -- if there's legislation in a foreign country

that is similar to the legislation that we're passing here, then I suppose anything could be considered, you know, legal in that country's particular laws. So whether it's a drone strike that's deemed terrorism, when in effect it's protecting that host country, is up to a jury to decide.

Now, the question is, what kind of legal system do you have in the gulf region for instance? Nothing finer than the American judicial system. I put faith in our system of courts and laws here. I wouldn't put any much faith in what happens in the -- in the gulf regions, to be honest with you. So at any point in time, you have to reflect back.

And, remember, how this whole impasse with Iran, for instance, began. It began with an illegal seizure of American assets in Iran. And to bring it into the court system in let's say Saudi Arabia, there's going to have to be Saudi legislation. But we know what kind of system they have in Saudi Arabia. It's a monarchy. And whatever the government want to do there, they're going to do. So that shouldn't stop America from moving forward. But then again we're going to have a State Department that's going to be, let's say, upset, to use a mild word.

COSTELLO: Yes, I would -- that would --

FLATOW: Without (ph) legislation (ph).

COSTELLO: So my final question to you is, what advice would you give to these 9/11 families?

FLATOW: Well, be prepared for the long hall. Be prepared for the fight of your life. I know it took us a number of years of almost daily involvement with the federal government and with the Iranian asset location and discovery. This is going to be a different situation because terror legislation has really moved forward. And it looks as though the smoking gun in all of this is going to be released by the national security here in the United States that will either point the finger at top officials at the Saudi government, or will double-talk. If it's double-talk, then they're going to have their hands full. But at least Saudi Arabia's dirty laundry will be out in the air for everybody to see if they did have involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

COSTELLO: Stephen Flatow, thank you so much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, for 18 months people in Flint, Michigan, unknowingly drank tainted water. A significant announcement expected at any time. Criminal charges could be filed.

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[09:52:50] COSTELLO: The first criminal charges are expected to be announced in Flint, Michigan, after tainted water poisoned thousands of people. Local, state and federal officials have been pointing fingers at one another since the discovery of dangerous levels of lead. Now a source telling CNN, charges could be filed in the coming hours. Jean Casarez knows all.

Tell us more.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

You know, the attorney general is saying this is a significant development and we're talking prison time if we're talking about criminal charges and potential convictions here.

COSTELLO: Wow.

CASAREZ: You know, the attorney general of Michigan declared several months ago that he was appointing an investigative independent team, a former prosecutor and the former head of the FBI of Detroit, to look at everyone, to see what laws had been broken, if anything had been broken. And it looks like today, mid-day, we're going to find out the results of that investigation, which CNN has confirmed will be criminal charges.

Now, this all started when, in Flint, because of the financial crisis in 2014, they actually went to the Flint water system instead of the Detroit water system, which had been really healthy for them for so many, many years and the visuals were there, the brown water, people were getting sick. Also, according to the civil complaints that we have, they allege that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was really the heart and souls of this. They made decisions. They knew what was going on they allege in that civil complaint. And there were studies done of the water so they knew the levels. And the reality is -- and this is a fact, they did not have that corrosive agent in there so the lead couldn't seep into the pipes.

COSTELLO: Wow. Oh. So these criminal charges could be filed against the governor, public officials, the EPA, anyone?

CASAREZ: Anyone that had the knowledge. And when you're talking criminal charges, it's intent, intent to do an act, intent that you have the knowledge or gross negligence, that you knew or should have known that something like this could happen.

COSTELLO: All right, Jean Casarez, you keep us posted. Thank you so much.

Checking some of the top stories for you at 54 minutes past.

Another earthquake strikes Ecuador. The magnitude 6.1 quake hitting off the coast just hours ago as rescue efforts in the already devastated country intensify. The death toll from Saturday's quake rising just a few minutes ago to 525. More than 100 others still missing. The powerful quake with a magnitude of 7.8 has also left thousands homeless.

[09:55:11] Evacuations underway as deadly flooding continues to sweep through Houston. And it's not over yet. More rain is moving in. In the last 48 hours, there have been 1,200 water rescues, eight people have died. Damage estimates now in the multiple billions of dollars. And in just minutes, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to begin

handing out opinions. Some of the more notable outstanding cases include affirmative action, racial discrimination and jury selection, victims and Iran terrorism, and any 4-4 deadlocks recently argued. We will monitor the U.S. Supreme Court and bring you the very latest.

Live pictures out of Hershey, Pennsylvania, now, where Senator Ted Cruz will hold a campaign rally in just a few minutes. We'll bring it to you live in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

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[10:00:13] COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM,