Transcripts For KGO Good Morning America 20170515 : vimarsan

And district of columbia. The immigrant scientist taking the coveted miss usa crown overnight. Being called one of the most intelligent contestants ever, inspiring girls around the world. But backlash growing this morning. Why her answers are sparking a social media firestorm. Good morning, america. Hope everybody had a wonderful mothers day weekend. A bit of a reaction overnight to the new miss usa born in italy, grew up in virginia. And this is the second year she represented d. C. And second year they won that title. She has a Community Outreach program called science exploration for kids and wants to inspire girls in careers, but it wouldnt be miss usa without some controversy, you guys. We have more on that coming up in the show. She is setting a good example as you said. Two big breaking stories. The latest on that massive cyberattack but first breaking new details about that north Korean Missile launch. New photos show kim jongun celebrating the test as north korea claims their rocket could carry a nuclear warhead. Our chief Global Affairs anchor Martha Raddatz starts us off. Good morning. Reporter good morning, george. U. S. Officials say they have no information right now to verify the claim the missile could carry a nuclear weapon, but make no mistake. This Missile Launch was significant and showed real progress. This is the First Successful test of this type of missile. Experts believe this was a mediumrange Ballistic Missile which means u. S. Bases in the pacific could potentially be targeted. The missile was launched from the western part of north korea and traveled more than 400 miles at an altitude of more than 1,200 Miles Landing in the sea of japan about 60 miles from russia. The launch has been widely criticized. The white house saying north korea has been a flagrant menace for far too long and calling on other nations to implement far stronger sanctions against north korea. There have been seven missiles tested since donald trump took office, and kim shows no sign of stopping. This is also the first test since south korea elected a president who favors dialogue with the north. George. Continuing to pressure. Martha raddatz, thanks very much. George, now to that massive global cyberattack and fears it could spread this morning as millions return to work. Now, heres what we know. More than 200,000 computers have been hit across 150 countries targeting hospitals, schools, offices and train stations. The largest u. S. Target was fedex. The attackers are demanding a ransom of 300 to 600. Our chief investigative correspondent brian ross is here with more details. Good morning, brian. Reporter good morning. The fbi and Law Enforcement around the world on high alert this morning concerned the attackers will launch a second wave and the computers already infected over the weekend will only be detected this morning when theyre turned on. Officials tracking the attack say it is the biggest of its kind in the history of the internet. The latest numbers are over 200,000 victims in 150 countries. Reporter with great concern the worst may be yet to come this morning. Is this just the beginning . Thats the concern that monday when everyone returns to the office, that this Ransomware Attack will be even larger. Reporter the attack spread at a speed never seen before across Six Continents with an ominous message suddenly showing up on the targeted computers. Oops, your files have been encrypted, and a demand of between 300 and 400 in ransom to free what are essentially the kidnapped locked up computers. Although Officials Say few have paid the ransom so far. Theres been a remarkably low level of ransoms that have been paid. I think 20,000, 30,000 worth of dollars only. Reporter it all could have been much worse but for the efforts of this Computer Security program in indiana. Darien huss discovered there might be a kill switch. Once the kill switch was activated the malware would simply do nothing. It would not carry out its infection. Reporter huss information was then used by a 22yearold programmer in Great Britain who talked by phone with abc news fearful to show his face. I was panicking looking through the code, and i realized that actually, no. We had stopped it. Reporter the biggest target in the u. S. Was fedex shipping service. Elsewhere around the world, factories, hospitals, Even Police Departments were all hit. And this morning, theyre trying to decide whether or not to pay up. Ironically, the hackers used the same tools originally developed by the u. S. Intelligence to hack into foreign adversaries that got leaked last month and now the crooks are using the tools against us. Best advise this morning is for anyone using microsoft to install all the upgrades the Company Offers which does provide a patch or a fix for this. George. Okay, brian, thanks. Trump Administration Security officials held emergency meetings all through the weekend in the white house situation room assessing the cybersecurity threat, and its led by white House Homeland Security adviser Thomas Bossert. Who joins us now. Thanks for joining us. What is the latest on the state of attack . How worried should everyone in washington be as they head to work. Good morning. I think people heading to work this morning should be thinking about this as an attack that for right now weve got under told. But as an attack that represents an extremely serious threat, not just criminal threat but as this criminal threat has turned into something that has affected hospitals in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Something that might morph into a more difficult and threatening manner so i think excuse me, spreading through asia overnight, you dont expect it to spread to the United States today . So as that malware attack manifested initially, it was an attack we had a patch for and kudos to microsoft for having released it in march of this year and for having worked with us since 2014 to develop that process, however, that patch is not installed in all places as weve seen, so to those who have not patched to those who have not updated software its imperative you do so to get through this and continue to get through it as the inevitable morphing and variance of this attack will change over the week. You mentioned microsoft. The president of microsoft brad smith is calling this a wakeup call and blaming a hacking tool stolen from the National Security agency. Is he right . He is absolutely right that this is an urgent call for collective action. We need people at every level to engage in Network Hygiene which is not necessarily the nicest thing to always talk about and we also need government action, collective action abroad and with the United States to address this type of attack. Hes also saying these National Security these tools that the governments create, these vulnerabilities they create are part of the problem. Yeah, well, i think regardless of the providence of the exploit here used in the vulnerability, whats culpable and who is culpable are the criminals that distributed it, and criminals that weaponized it, added Additional Details to it and turned this into something that is holding ransom data but putting at risk lives and hospitals. Youre saying criminals. What more do we know about what was behind this attack and have we ruled out this is a state action . Weve not ruled that out but attribution is always a little difficult here. One reason i suggest criminality were seeing an attempt to hold this for ransom. That suggests an intent to try to develop money. That could be something that we change in our philosophy over the weeks. What do you say to a hospital who gets a ransomware in a situation like this . Should they pay for it . The u. S. Government doesnt make a recommendation on paying ransom. I would provide a strong caution. Youre dealing with people who are not scrupulous so making a payment does not mean youll get your data back. Finally, whats the most important thing we can do to protect ourselves . Today you need to install your patches and enable automated patching on your systems and networks and you need to update your software and then, george, secondly, i would say were not yet out of the woods. We have an additional concern that copycats as weve seen in the past, will provide variance to this tool, and continue to come after us. Thomas, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you, george. Caution but encouraging news they think they have the initial attack under control. Dont know. Monday morning, a lot will be logging on for the first time. It will be a busy week for the trump administration. The court of appeals will take up the president s travel ban today, reviewing a judges decision to block it back in march. President trump is meeting with the crown prince of abu dhabi ahead of his first foreign trip as president. On friday, hell go to saudi arabia, sears israel and the vatican. Before his trip, the president is hoping to announce a permanent replacement for fired fbi director james comey. For more on that we go to our senior White House Correspondent cecilia vega who is there in washington. Good morning, cecilia. Reporter robin, good morning to you. A busy week here is right and this morning, there seems to be agreement on one thing from both sides of the aisle. Both republicans and democrats say that if the president secretly recorded his conversations with james comey, he needs to hand over those tapes. With controversy still swirling over President Trumps surprise firing of fbi director james comey, the president himself says he is shocked by the fallout. I thought that this would be a very popular thing that i did when i terminated comey because all of the democrats couldnt stand him. But because i terminated him they said, ah, we get some political points. Well go against trump. Reporter the reaction has not reporter the reaction has not let up. From the senates top democrat there is a need to get to the bottom of this. Theres a crisis of credibility with the president. Reporter to those in his own party. I would advise the president not to tweet or comment about the investigation as we go forward. The russians did interfere in our election. Reporter the president s tweet suggesting he may have taped conversations with comey also garnering reaction from both republicans and democrats. If, in fact, there are such recordings, i think those recordings will be subpoenaed and i think theyll probably have to turn them over. We have to make sure they if they exist, the tapes dont disappear. Reporter President Trump insists the investigation into russian interference in the election will continue. I want to get to the bottom if russia or anybody else is trying to tamper or play with our election. I dont want it ever to be even a question again. So if it takes longer, let it take longer. Reporter and snl not letting up either with Melissa Mccarthy back as spicy. Yeah, were you surprised that he fired comey before he fired you . Oh, god. Reporter snl is definitely not letting up. In that fox interview the president was asked directly about his suggestion that there could be secret recordings. He would not talk about it. There are also this morning growing calls from democrats for a special prosecutor, robin. The white house says thats not necessary. All right, cecilia, thank you. Lets go to our senior justice correspondent Pierre Thomas with a look at the short list of candidates who could replace comey. Good morning, pierre. What are you hearing . Reporter robin, good morning. On saturday, we saw a parade of candidates to potentially replace former director comey. It was a group that included two sitting judges, a u. S. Senator john cornyn of texas and former congressman mike rogers who happens to be a onetime fbi agent and who received the endorsement of the fbi association. They clearly want one of their own. The candidates also include two active fbi executives and two women who are former federal prosecutors, Fran Townsend was george w. Bushs Homeland Security adviser and alice fisher was an attorney in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Are these all the candidates . Are there more . Were expecting more to be interviewed. They include former Deputy Attorney general larry thompson, former new York City Police commissioner ray kelly and sitting South Carolina congressman trey gowdy. Pierre, thanks so much. Well talk about it more with dan abrams and jon karl and lets begin, dan, with this firing of james comey, the implicit threat from President Trump there saying he might have tapes on comey. Youve got top law professors like Laurence Tribe saying this is an impeachable offense. Possible objection of justice. First for obstruction of justice you have to demonstrate the person had the intent to obstruct justice and to determine that, you need an investigation, and ultimately, people willing to prosecute. People forget impeachment is a political act. Its not a legal act. You need the political will, to even investigate this, much less prosecute it and potentially convict. Were not there. The bottom line is people will say, but, wait a second, look at whats happened. Look at whats happened and the response has got to be you still need someone, even if you believe that its improper, even if someone believes its obstruction, you need to be able to prove it in some way, shape or form. You feed to be able to prove intent and i dont think were there. Piece of evidence could be these tapes if they exist. Well, thats right. But keep in mind. First of ail, its legal to tape in washington, d. C. One party concept. Florida, maralago might be a different story. But, you know, look, if these tapes exist, could that be possible evidence . Yeah, but i think were ahead of ourselves here. I think there are people out there who are hoping that these tapes may be able to show something that we dont know that exists on those tapes. And jon karl, top democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark warner says they want to see the tapes, Congress Wants to see the tapes again if they exist. Talking to white house officials, i talked to one who said i dont even want to know whether they exist or not. Reporter well, ill tell you. A number of people close to donald trump who speak with him frequently, believe that their conversations are being recorded. But nobody here that ive spoken to really knows, congress is going to want to get to the bottom of it. We do know donald trump in the past in his trump tower days did at least from time to time tape his conversations. The wall street journal talking to three of his former executives on that. Meanwhile on the search for a new fbi director, the president says he wants to try to get this done before he leaves on the big foreign trip on friday. We saw the people that have been interviewed with Pierre Thomas, but you said theres some speculation about names not on the list. Reporter its incredible. 11 people that Pierre Thomas went through theyre talking to. I believe its quite possible its somebody beyond the list. One intriguing possibility the former fbi director robert mueller. He spent 12 years as director and would be a pretty much a slam dunk for senate confirmation. Jon karl, thanks very much. Dan abrams, thank you. Now to amy. She has todays other top stories, starting with a protest in virginia . Thats right, george. The mayor of charlottesville, virginia, calling demonstrations protesting the removal of a confederate statue horrific. The protesters led by White Nationalist Richard Spencer held torches and shouted you will not replace us. A scene critics say was reminiscent of the kkk. Counterprotesters held a rally calling for equality and tolerance. Well, United Airlines is not commenting on how some closely guarded security information was inadvertently made public. The carriers cockpit door access codes were reportedly posted online by a flight attendant. The airline says other security measures were in place to protect the cockpit. One of hollywoods best known bad guys has died. Powers boothe played villains in several films, including tombstone, and the avengers, also on s. H. I. E. L. D. , and nashville. He died of Natural Causes and was just 68. Good news about the driver in this fiery crash over the weekend at nascar. Eric almirola has been released from the hospital. He suffered a fractured vertebrae and a broken brake rotor caused that crash. Finally what do you do when youre stuck on a broken down train and not going to make it home for dinner . You order pizza. Thats what one guy did who was delayed three hours on a train from new york to d. C. You can see the pizza deliveryman there traversing that embankment despite the fact he didnt have a street number or even a street. But he did the rail side delivery on time. Found the guy in his car. Did he give him a good tip . We dont know yet. We know he was hangry. Lets hope he became grateful. After he got his pizza, and that guy deserved a very big tip. Something else last night touching. Derek jeter, he took his place in history when his