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North Korea Threatens U.S. over U.N. Sanctions; Minnesota Governor: Mosque Bombing "Act of Terrorism"; CNN's "Hooked" Looking at U.S. Opioid Crisis. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 7, 2017 - 14:30   ET

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


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[14:34:17] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. military officials have called off a search-and-rescue operation for three Marines missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the coast of Australia. The Australian Navy has just found the aircraft underwater early this morning. 23 Marines were rescued after the plane crashed Saturday during a training exercise. The military says the search for the missing Marines is now a recovery mission.

And U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says a unanimous United Nations vote slapping North Korea with the strongest sanctions yet shows the world is, in fact, united against the reclusive regime's nuclear ambitions. North Korea vowing to retaliate with a thousand- fold revenge- - a quote from Pyongyang -- saying it's missiles and nuclear weapons are not on the negotiating table.

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[14:35:07] REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: So the next step is obviously to see that the Security Council resolution sanctions are enforced by everyone. And we hope, again, that this ultimately will result in North Korea coming to the conclusion to choose a different pathway. And when the conditions are right, we can sit and have a dialogue around the future of North Korea.

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BALDWIN: Let's go to the Pentagon where our reporter, Ryan Browne, is.

Ryan, you have the U.S. U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, saying this is a big win, a rarity to have China, Russia and the United States on the same page with these sanctions. But what do the sanctions mean?

RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON REPORTTER: Brooke, the sanctions are targeting to get after the hard currency that the North Korean regime gets in. That's money they use to invest in their nuclear and missile programs. And Ambassador Nikki Haley said this will target about one- third of North Korean exports, so about a billion dollars potentially, coal, iron ore, and even capping the number of laborers North Korea sends to other countries, like China and Russia, which is another source of capitol. So again, trying to get at that money, looking at banks that do business with North Korean companies, joint venture international companies. Really trying to curb that money. But as you said, the North Korean foreign minister very clear these sanctions were not going to have any effect on the nuclear and missile programs. They would continue to protest and pursue these things.

Again, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, a lot of this will be about enforcement with the countries that do a lot of business with North Korea, China amongst them. Whether or not they actually enforce these sanctions will be something to watch. But again, North Korean, Pyongyang remaining very defiant even in the face of this unanimous vote by the U.N. Security Council

BALDWIN: Ryan, thank you.

Let's continue the conversation. Aaron David Miller is with me now, CNN global affairs analyst and former State Department advisor.

So, Aaron, you have Nikki Haley calling these North Korea sanctions a gut punch. We know President Trump hopped on the phone with President Moon, so South Korea last night. And the president tweeted, "The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact."

Ryan made a great point about a country like China enforcing these sanctions. Do you -- what brought China on board? Do you think with all the president's threats against trade? Did that actually work?

DAVID AARON MILLER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think President Xi is playing a clever game. He wants to do just enough -- and it's no doubt this is clearly an improvement, a public denunciation of the regime by the Chinese foreign minister. Usually, they do these things in private. But I think President Xi wants to do just enough to prevent the president from interfering with his really agenda, which is to project Chinese power to the South China Sea. And the ASEAN conference clearly contained a pretty week code of conduct. And to pick off former American allies, the Philippines, and fill a vacuum left by the United States. And to avoid trade sanctions and a war. So, yes, I think President Xi is willing to do more. But these are necessary steps, these sanctions, but they're by no means sufficient. My grandmother used to say chicken soup, who knows if it helps, but it doesn't hurt. There's no question this doesn't hurt, but these sanctions are not going to get Kim Jong-Un to stand down. I suspect he's going to test again. And this time, it may be a sixth nuclear test. That'll be his response.

BALDWIN: So you even if it's amounting to a third of North Korea exports, a billion dollars, hitting them financially, that won't stop them from doing another ICBM?

MILLER: I don't think so. It's a resistant, survivalist economy. The North Korea people will suffer. But remember, the baseline for what North Koreans are capable of suffering and sacrificing has been in trade since the 1950s. The elites won't suffer. Kim Jong-Un and the regime and those necessary to support him in power aren't going to suffer. The North Korean economy grew by 8 percent or 9 percent last year. It depends on whether or not the Chinese are willing to do everything contained in that sanctions resolution. Frankly, I doubt whether they're prepared to do enough to really force that kind of pain and a possible collapse of the regime.

BALDWIN: How often, though, do you see the U.S. and China and Russia all on the same page?

[14:39:55] MILLER: Not very. The last time we saw it was in response to year-on sanctions and the JCPOA. And to a large degree, it worked. But we should not delude ourselves into believing that China and Russia, particularly China, are on the same page with respect to North Korea, and certainly not on the same page as Donald Trump.

BALDWIN: Still thinking about your grandmother's chicken soup analogy there.

Aaron David Miller, thank for you that. We shall see if there is number six coming our way.

Thank you.

MILLER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, a mosque bombed early Saturday morning in suburban Minneapolis. Minnesota's governor calling it an act of terrorism. Why my next guest says the attack is not getting the attention it deserves.

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[14:45:08] BALDWIN: The governor of Minnesota declaring that homemade bomb tossed through the window of mosque in Bloomington over the weekend was, indeed, an act of terrorism. That's how Governor Dayton sees it.

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MARK DAYTON, (D), GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA: What a terrible, dastardly, cowardly, terrible act this was that was committed yesterday. It's a crime. If somebody said in a meeting, if the roles were reversed, it would be called a terrorism act. And that's what it is, it's an act of terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: As for the FBI, they have stopped short of calling this terrorism, though they are working to determine who set off the explosive and get motivation into the question why. Fortunately, no one was injured. But this is the latest in a string of incidence targeting Islamic institutions across the country.

Joining me is CNN contributor and "Daily Beast" contributor, Dean Obeidallah.

Dean, you would agree with the governor?

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: You say, if this was happening to Christian churches, everyone would be saying terrorism.

OBEIDALLAH: They would be saying terrorism. It would be getting a great deal of media coverage, and it would deserve that. And it should get that coverage. What I'm saying, for the Muslim-American community -- and I'm Muslim -- we'd like to see this get the coverage. This was not an isolated incident Saturday. A week before, a cemetery in that area, a Muslim cemetery was defaced with swastikas and profanity. This mosque, in the past, has gotten death threats and angry phone calls and e-mails. And again, it's not isolated.

BALDWIN: And it's not a red-state or blue-state issue?

OBEIDALLAH: Not at all. The ACLU has a great 50-state interactive map. 46 states, according to their map, have had incidents at mosques in the last year, year and a half. A lot of it spiked during the campaign of Donald Trump, to be blunt. You know, sometimes, if you're in a community, you can look to your president to help you. In this case, the Muslim community feels alone. We have a president who demonized us trying to get to the White House with Islam hates us and thousands of Muslims cheered on 9/11. Even Rudy Giuliani said not true. Called for a total ban on Muslims. So we feel more than alone. We feel that our president doesn't like us. He's demonized us. And we look to the media as our last hope, frankly.

BALDWIN: We are having this segment, we're having this conversation, which is important. And thank for you calling this to our attention and having the conversation and writing the column.

Why do you think, though -- I mean, at least you have the governor calling it how he sees it. Why do you think people aren't having the conversations that you think they should be?

OBEIDALLAH: I think often the media doesn't cover these stories, or maybe you don't see the pattern we do in the community. My Facebook feed is filled with young Muslims across the country posting about this incident of harass or this hate crime. The Council on American Islamic Relations has documented a spike, alarming, 90 percent increase from January to June this was year of hate incidents. There're not all are attacks, but some are discrimination to attacks on mosques. We've had five mosques burned to the ground. And the police have called it arson, not just us, since January. This is stunning what is going on. So the goal is to try to bring these patterns to the attention of the media. Again, thank you for covering this. Because we're hoping the media can make people aware. Maybe people can -- there is a silver lining. There's such interfaith --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's what struck me with your piece, not that there's a silver lining in any kind of incident like this, but the fact you see men and women from mosques and synagogues and churches coming together with a common message.

OBEIDALLAH: Absolutely. In Minnesota, yesterday, there was an interfaith conference, Jews, Muslim, Christian leaders, standing shoulder to shoulder, saying an attack on one of us is an attack on all, we stand with you. And that's so important.

There's been, as I note in my article, an alarming spike in anti- Semitic acts during this campaign from January, on. I'm not saying these are all Donald Trump supporters doing it. I'm just saying we live a climate now where some of those extreme voices feel more comfortable, they feel more emboldened because of Donald Trump as president. For right or for wrong, that's what we're seeing. It would be great if the president, President Trump could come out passionately, denounce this kind of hate, the same way he denounces people like Senator Blumenthal, today, or Elizabeth Warren or Hillary Clinton, calling these people fraud and racists. Use that passion to denounce hateful bigots for Americans attacking other Americans. That would go a long way.

BALDWIN: Keep raising your voice, and we would follow the investigation.

Dean Obeidallah, thank you very much.

OBEIDALLAH: Thank you.

[14:49:23] BALDWIN: Coming up, it's a crisis grabbing headlines, tearing families apart, and forcing hospital wards to find extra room. The message from those hit hard by the nation's opioid crisis. Poppy Harlow joins me on her special report, coming up.

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BALDWIN: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaking out on the opioid crisis CNN's "State of the Union." One of the main recommendations of the panel he's heading, declare opioid addiction and overdoses a national emergency.

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CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: We have a 9/11-scale loss of life every three weeks. If that's not a national health emergency, I don't know what is. This is a problem that's not just starting on the street corners. Where it's really starting is in our doctors' offices and hospitals. We urge the president to take these steps.

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BALDWIN: A CNN special report "Hooked: America's Addicts" is looking at the opioid crisis and how often people you would never expect become addicted.

Poppy Harlow tells the story from Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's ravaging every single segment of our society. This is a chemical almost warfare on us that people don't know how to control.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The high school cheerleader addicted at 15. The 20-year-old baseball player, dead. These fathers now inmates because of their addictions. Even the sheriff's former wife, addicted. This is the real picture of America's opioid crisis, where drugs don't discrimination. It's infesting neighborhoods across the heartland and from coast to coast.

(on camera): How does a 15-year-old cheerleader from Ohio start doing heroin.

[14:55:18] RACHEL CHAFFIN, ADDICT TO HEROINE AT AGE 15: It started my freshman year. I was cheerleading. I ended up not going to school as much. And I ended up getting kicked off the team.

ANTHONY CAPIZZI, JUDGE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, OHIO, JUVENILE COURT: I tell my kids, you have three options in my court, you graduate, you're going to prison, or you're going to be dead.

HARLOW: Death, jail or recovery, the only options for the millions of Americans now addicted to opioids, from prescription pain pills like oxycodone to street drugs like heroin and Fentanyl.

DR. KENT HARSHBARGER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY CORONER: Since the end of December 2016, we've have seen an amazing, alarming increase in the number of opioid overdose deaths.

HARLOW (on camera): I do think there is a feeling across the country thinking that it's so tragic, that that can't happen to me. That's not in my neighborhood, and that's not in my house, and that's not in my family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're naive if you think that, because it's everywhere.

HARLOW: These are the families living heroin hell, and watching their dream and their children's dreams slip away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Poppy, how has this gotten so, so bad?

HARLOW: It's such a good question, right? It's all over the newspapers. We're covering it all the time. What's happening is that it's not just heroin anymore. People get hooked off the drugs they're prescribed. Then it turns into heroin. Now what we learned, being on the ground, Brooke, in Ohio, it's synthetic heroin. It's things called Fentanyl and Carfentanil. I had no idea what they even were before I started reporting this.

BALDWIN: What is it?

HARLOW: They're 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin. They street drugs that are meant to be literally elephant tranquilizers. That's what Carfentanil is. It is so strong, so potent, kids are taking this stuff and they're dying instantly. Babies are exposed to this in their parents' home, if they're parents are addicted. If their it touches their skin, the babies die instantly.

BALDWIN: You see this young woman, the cheerleader you feature in the piece. You know, how do you go from taking some sort of -- I don't know what she started with -- to heroin? It's hard to wrap your head around.

HARLOW: Right. And she said no matter what neighborhood my family lived in, you know, it was so easy to get. She had a dealer on the street -- hers started with heroin -- not with --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No kidding.

HARLOW: And he just said, hey, do you want a tester, do you want a tester? And she was having a rough time, as a lot of teenager do, and she tried it, and she was instantly hooked. I think there's been this perception across America -- frankly, Brooke, because I had it -- this can't happen to me. It's tragic, but it's not happening in my family. I have a 13-year-old nephew. These are things that his parents need to talk to him about and are talking to him about. I think it's hard for America to grasp, this is in your backyard, and you have to deal with it, because this is going to be in front of your kids, and you need to talk to them about it early.

BALDWIN: What's being done about it, and also what more are you doing tomorrow?

HARLOW: What we found, it was so sad and tragic being there, but we found some hope. And tomorrow's piece on our show in the morning, and I think on your show, too, is really hope after heroin. A father who has been addicted to heroin for more than a decade -- lost all of his children to foster care because he couldn't be with them, obviously. He's now clean after a lot of treatment, a lot of help. And we were there, our cameras were there, as the father was reunited with his 12- year-old son, Caleb, for the first time in a decade. And he's going to sort of begin to rebuild that life. Unfortunately, that's not the story for a lot of these kids who are invisible victims in this. But there are stories of hope. There are stories of treatment. There are stories of incredibly people helping and making a change. And we wanted to bring that to light as well.

BALDWIN: Here's a clip.

No clip?

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: You'll have to watch the show tomorrow.

BALDWIN: We'll watch the show. We'll watch you, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the morning.

HARLOW: Yes.

BALDWIN: Poppy Harlow, thank you so much. HARLOW: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Again, go to CNN.com/hooked for more information.

Thank you. Thank you.

HARLOW: You've got it.

BALDWIN: We continue on. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me.

President Donald Trump may be taking a break from the White house but not from Twitter. Here we are on his 200th day in the office. He is slamming fake news, while hailing his base as, quote, "stronger than ever." Here are a couple of the tweets that he sent out this morning as he vacations at a New Jersey golf club. Reading this for you, form the president: "The Trump base is far bigger and stronger than ever before despite some phone fake news polling. Look at rallies in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio and West Virginia." He goes on: "The fact is the fake news Russian collusion story, record stock market, border security, military strength, jobs, Supreme Court pick --