TSA Fails 95 Percent of Undercover Security Tests; Republicans Slam Rand Paul Over NSA Debate
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next. Bombs and guns making their way to TSA checkpoints. We have the details of a new investigation that will shock you. And according to my guests, the problem is much worse than what we're even being told. Plus, a pastor shot to death by police. The dash cam video breaking tonight OUTFRONT was the use of force justified? And goodbye Bruce Jenner. Call her Caitlin. The former Olympic star athlete new look on the cover of "Vanity Fair," a new details tonight on her transition from man to woman, let's go OUTFRONT. Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. And OUTFRONT tonight, bombs on planes. A massive failure. We are learning new details tonight about just how often TSA screeners allowed guns and explosives through security checkpoints, the last line of defense before those weapons could be on a plane. CNN has learned the Department of Homeland Security undercover investigators posed as passengers. In 67 of 70 tries, 67 of 70 tries, yes, you can do the math. That's nearly 100 percent of the time. TSA screeners didn't detect the fake weapons. And maybe the most incredible part of the report is this. In one test, an undercover investigator reportedly was stopped after setting off an alarm. You would think good news, right? Well, okay, then they gave this person a pat-down. And they failed to detect a fake bomb that was taped to the investigator's back. You can't make this up. But in a statement, the Department of Homeland Security is defending the TSA tonight. Saying, quote, "the number on these reports never look good out of context, but they're a critical element in the continual evolution of our aviation security." This is unclear how numbers like this would look good in context. But the bottom-line is this. After years of getting liquids confiscated, taking off your shoes, pulling out your laptop, bombs still got through security no problem. Raising fears of terror attacks in the sky. Rene Marsh is OUTFRONT.</s>RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): TSA officers failed 95 percent of the time during undercover operations designed to test their ability to detect explosives and weapons at airport security checkpoints.</s>CHAD WOLF, FORMER TSA OFFICIAL: These are anomalies that TSA screeners and/or their equipment should locate and at least flag for an additional screening.</s>MARSH: Teams with the Department of Homeland Security inspector general's office posed as passengers and attempted to pass through airport checkpoints with mock explosives and weapons. A government official with knowledge of the results say TSA failed 67 out of 70 tests.</s>WOLF: To miss 67 out of 70 different instances is extremely alarming. And I would say even dangerous.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I am putting a detonator into the plastic explosive.</s>MARSH: CNN was there in 2008 for a similar covert operation. That time it was TSA testing its own officers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Okay, check.</s>MARSH: at the checkpoint, the tester is wanted and patted down where the fake explosive device was concealed. But the screener missed it. It's not until the tester lifts his shirt up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, I see it now.</s>MARSH: The Department of Homeland Security says it, quote, immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place.</s>WOLF: Is it the technology that's failing or is it the screeners themselves not following proper protocol? If TSA's screening equipment is failing in not doing the job, that's a larger systemic issue that TSA needs to address.</s>MARSH: Well, Erin tonight DHS will not say what actions were taken, only saying that several actions were implement, and many of them are now in place. They also point out that what happens at the security checkpoint is just one part of their layered approach to security. Also, you know, many of these tests are intentionally made difficult so that they can find the vulnerabilities. However, one former TSA official says that a 95 percent failure rate is just way too high. As you know, TSA has received millions and millions of dollars from Congress. And today just a short time ago, Representative Jason Chaffetz, he sent me this statement. He said that he's alarmed after spending, quote, $540 million on baggage screening equipment and millions more on training, the failure rate today is higher than it was in 2007 -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: That's pretty atrocious no matter how you look at it. Rene, thank you. OUTFRONT tonight, republican Congressman John Mica. He sits on both the oversight and transportation committees. And he co-authored the 2001 legislation that created the TSA. And Congressman, I really appreciate your time. When you hear that number, bombs and weapons getting through security, 95 percent of the time during this test at American airports, airports in the United States, what concerns you the most?</s>REP. JOHN MICA (R), TRANSPORTATION AND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Well, that does concern me. But that's the DHS and TSA testing themselves. Unfortunately, the results when I have independent testing by others who are not part of that, the results are even worse.</s>BURNETT: You co-authored the bill that created the TSA back in 2001. You also taught to be fair raised concerns early on. So before the program was even fully implemented the next year, you said, I'll quote you, "the TSA has become a monster" that was 13 years ago.</s>MICA: Well, it has. It has. It started out with 16,500 screeners. We're now at over 60, 000 employees. We have 15,000 administrators. Just here in Washington we have 4,000 administrative personnel. This has grown completely out of control. It isn't doing the job we need to. What we need to do is be able to connect the dots, get intelligence information, go after people who pose a risk. And they can't do it with the current system. And they're failing to detect even these test incursions that are within their own realm.</s>BURNETT: And I know that you've been privatizing a lot of the TSA functions. Obviously, that's been an option. A couple dozen airports out of 450 in the country have actually done that. You know, I'm just wondering why you see that as such a solution. The former president of the union -- well, though let me just finish the question quickly. He says look, if you're going to allow private contractors to bid, you're going to go to the lowest bidder. That's one concern. The other of course is, as we have all learned in this country, someone like Edward Snowden, right, worked for a private contractor contracted by the NSA. Private contractors are not a panacea.</s>MICA: Well, the private contractors are used for actually the screening. And screening is not a law enforcement function. What is a government function is setting the standards but a government function is connecting the dots, finding out who poses a risk, making certain they don't get through the airport security. Almost every program they had, we could take you behavior detection -- I'm sorry, 3,000 employees and we spent a third of a billion dollars a year on that. And they let what is it, 25 terrorists -- 17 terrorists through airport 17 times. That means some terrorists have gone through multiple times. Government's responsibility is the security, the intelligence and not the mundane chore of screening passengers.</s>BURNETT: All right. Well, Congressman, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much, sir.</s>MICA: Thank you.</s>BURNETT: And with the shocking TSA failure, tonight's battle in Congress on the NSA's authority to investigate terrorism is center stage. It's a debate that matters for all Americans and has major implications for the 2016 race for the White House. Dana Bash is live in South Carolina tonight. And Dana, that debate really heating up today between some of the major presidential candidates.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And right here in South Carolina, you saw Lindsey Graham announcing that he is running for president, primarily because he wants to push back on the kind of foreign policy, kind of National Security that Rand Paul has been talking about.</s>BASH (voice-over): Lindsey Graham is quite specific about why he wants to be commander-in-chief.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be president to defeat the enemies that are trying to kill us. Not just penalize them or criticize them or contain them, but defeat then.</s>BASH: Barely scratching one percent in most polls, Graham knows he has a steep hill to climb. CNN is told he is running primarily to force a debate within the GOP on foreign policy.</s>GRAHAM: Those who believe we can disengage from the world at large and be safe by leading from behind, vote for someone else.</s>BASH: There a not so subtle dig at Rand Paul, a noninterventionist and Graham's chief foil, particularly on national security. For months, the two have exchanged long distanced barbs, and Graham was even caught rolling his eyes last month as Paul talked.</s>SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Tonight begins the process of ending bulk collection.</s>BASH: Paul's headline making filibuster temporarily stopped the NSA's data dragnet program which Graham calls essential. And it was a welcome contrast on his announcement day.</s>PAUL: So little by little, we have allowed our freedom to slip away. We allowed the Fourth Amendment to be diminished.</s>BASH: Graham is hardly the only republican candidate who disagrees with Paul. Most do and are eager to say so.</s>JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: The first duty of our national government is to protect the homeland. And this has been an effective tool, along with many others. The Patriot Act ought to be reauthorized as is.</s>GEORGE PATAKI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's very dangerous. This is probably the most dangerous time for Americans here since September 11th.</s>GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I don't think there is anything, anything that we should be doing to lessen our ability to protect the homeland.</s>BASH: Yet Paul is pursuing a very different kind of GOP primary voter, libertarians. His stand with Rand social media hash tag is generating buzz online and dollars for his presidential campaign.</s>PAUL: When fear and complacency allow power to accumulate --</s>BASH: He even used some of his epic Senate floor speech in this campaign video, which violated Senate rules prohibiting video of Senate proceedings for political purposes. His rhetoric is generating some unwanted headlines like making this accusation against opponents.</s>PAUL: Some of them I think secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me.</s>BASH: This morning, he walked that back.</s>PAUL: I think sometimes going after people's motives and impugning people's motives is a mistake. And in the heat of battle, I think sometimes hyperbole can get the better of all of us.</s>BASH: Now Paul is wearing it as a badge of honor that he stands virtually alone in the republican primary field when it comes to this issue. He claims that the others just don't get it. That in places like Iowa and New Hampshire, there are very specific voters who like the idea of the government staying out. And that being more important than national security, especially in a place like New Hampshire, live free or die, Erin. And in fact, Lindsey Graham is going to go there for his very first official campaign stop tomorrow. So, he'll test whether or not Paul and his advisers are right about that.</s>BURNETT: Hmm, and as the country waits to see what happens to this Patriot Act. All right, Dana Bash, thank you so much. And OUTFRONT next, crime surging in major cities across America. Are police backing down out of fear of arrests and being called racists? Plus, Caitlyn Jenner once known as Bruce making a very public debut today revealing her new body and even more, stunning details about her transition from man to woman. And a pastor caught in floodwaters. One minute police are trying to rescue him. The next they shoot and kill him. What went wrong? We just got the video tonight.