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Does Obama Want Blank Check For ISIS Fight?; Obama Lays Out ISIS Strategy Tonight; Mayweather: NFL Overreacted On Rice

Aired September 10, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. President Obama needs lots of taxpayer money to cover the fight against ISIS. This summer, the president pushed congressional leaders to approve a $5 billion counterterrorism fund including $500 million to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels.

The plan stalled in Congress. Some lawmakers said the president's request was vague without specifics as far as how that funding would be spent. Now, a source tells CNN, President Obama and Vice President Biden called congressional lawmakers today trying to convince them to include $500 million piece for Syrian rebels to the government funding bill.

Tonight, the president will likely make that request again. Speaks at 9:00 Eastern. Prime time address talking about this fight taking it to ISIS. Josh Rogin joining me now, senior national security correspondent for "The Daily Beast" and with us here also at CNN.

Sir, you write this piece about this the blank check. The blank check that the president is asking to fight ISIS from Congress. Do you know any more about the $5 billion and how that would be allocated?

JOSH ROGIN, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, the White House as recently as yesterday told me that they intentionally left it vague because they don't know the threats and costs and needs are going to be to fight terrorism around the world in the long-term.

There's an argument for that. But on the other hand, the threat of ISIS is facing the region and the country now and lawmakers want to know now how that money will be spent before they hand it over, at least some lawmakers do. We know that 500 million is destined to go to the Syrian rebels.

That's enough to train about 3,000 rebels over 2 years. When you think about ISIS, they have 20,000 fighters now. It's not really a solution to the ISIS problem. It's a whole lot of money and without any details whatsoever.

And when Congress leaves next week for another recess, they will be under a lot of pressure to hand over that money especially after President Obama calls for them to do so in his speech to the nation tonight. BALDWIN: You know, a word I kept seeing pop up in your piece is flexibility and to your point about, how you know, sort of two different camps up on the Hill. One like Karl Levins were saying flexibility could be a good thing. This fight against ISIS is evolving.

Then you have John McCain saying we need gold. We need a strategy before we begin to ask the American people for taxpayer money. How much people fall in either camp?

ROGIN: It's split down the middle actually with most Republicans saying they want more details and most Democrats saying they trust President Obama to spend the money after they give it to him.

The bottom line here is that before the ISIS threat became an imminent national security threat and before ISIS beheaded two American journalists, there was enough momentum in Congress to say we are not going to give you this money until we learn more.

Now the politics of change, a CNN polling shows that Americans want to do more against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. The president and his administration are signaling that they want to do more inside Syria. They'll need this money to do that.

So Republicans will be put in a very tough position of either granting Obama a blank check for money that they don't know where it's going to go or telling the president and the American people that they're not going to give them the money that the president says he needs to defend the nation.

So they are between a rock and a hard place. In the end, they'll give him most of the money. It's in the bills now. Afterwards everyone will start to have to figure out how that money is being spent around the strategy that we're about to hear for the first time.

BALDWIN: Afterwards you mean after the midterms?

ROGIN: After the election exactly. Most of these will happen in the lame duck session in December. Some of the money will have to be appropriated now.

BALDWIN: Josh Rogin, thank you so much. Again, the president speaking tonight at 9:00 Eastern. You can watch it here live on CNN.

We know the White House is considering airstrikes within Syria to try to fight ISIS. Will that be enough? What are some other specific steps the president should be taking to take out this terror group? A retired U.S. Marine commander takes a closer look at the challenges that the U.S. faces in the region. You'll hear specifics coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Tonight we will hear President Barack Obama telling the world precisely what his strategy is for beating ISIS. Yesterday, the president sat down with leaders of Congress unveiling some of the specifics of his plan to hunt down and kill the militants who are seizing pieces of both Iraq and Syria, large pieces.

I sat down and talked to Major General James Williams, a retired U.S. Marine commander about a lot of things including the possibility of part of the president's plan being training and arming not just Iraqi forces but moderate Sunni rebels. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: General, you were in Anbar during the Sunni awakening. You know these people. It's potentially part of the president's plan to arm and train this group of people. How confident are you in your trust level of this group?

MAJOR GEN. JAMES WILLIAMS, FORMER COMMANDER, 4TH MARINE DIVISION (RETIRED): Well, first of all, the Sunnis are very good set of people when this comes down to it. And if they're guided well and if they're given justification for the things they need to do, they will do the right thing.

You know, the challenge in Iraq is essentially you created three countries within the country. You have Kurdistan and you have Sunnis on western area and then you have the Shia running the government and pretty much in the eastern area.

And you have these divergent philosophies and they all have economic impacts and political impacts and military impacts so we can train them. I mean, that's what our military has done and it's not difficult for the military to train them, but it's a matter of consistency and a matter of having that adult guidance, if you will, over those forces to make sure you do the right thing.

BALDWIN: Administration hoping in this next government in Iraq and also United States has as you well know, years of being on the ground, intelligence. That's Iraq. Syria is a totally different story. What is challenge number one militarily in Syria in fighting ISIS?

WILLIAMS: The question is how much commitment does the United States want to make to trying to stabilize Syria? We have sent mixed messages. We drew the red line. We did nothing to help them and of course many of our congressional members have been asking for the president to commit some weapon systems.

We don't want to give them the best weapons systems, but something that will help them fight for their particular cause. You have to go in at some point and try to mediate. I understand the president doesn't want to put boots on the ground, but at some point you can't just do air campaigns.

You can certainly use all of our national intelligence systems to help. At some point a young man or woman will need to be on the ground to help mediate this whether it's Special Forces or more capable infantry forces.

BALDWIN: Thank you, sir, so much for your expertise. General James Williams from Dallas. Appreciate it very much.

WILLIAMS: You bet. Thank you, Brooke.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: By the way, I'll sit down with some other veterans too. So important to hear their perspective. We'll have that for you tomorrow.

The Ray Rice case has highlighted domestic abuse in this country. He's not the only athlete who has faced that charge. In fact, one of them is the most popular athlete in the world. This guy here. Floyd Mayweather will box this weekend. Rake in tens of millions of dollars and he's spent time in jail for domestic abuse. Where is the outrage there? We get to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A lot of pro athletes weighing in on the video of Ray Rice knocking out his then fiance, now wife, in that elevator of that casino. But there is one athlete some feel has no place at all to comment on domestic abuse and punishment. Talking undefeated pro-box Floyd "Money" Mayweather, the world's highest paid athlete.

He's expected to take in more than $30 million for his rematch Saturday against Marcos Maidana. And during a press conference for that fight, Mayweather said the NFL should have stuck with that original two-game suspension according to the "Associated Press."

He went onto say that worse things go on in other people's household. If you are familiar with Mayweather's career, both in and out of the boxing ring then you know he has served time for domestic abuse.

Police say he punched the mother of his children in front of them at home so how he responds to that conviction now is much like what he told me last year when I interviewed him. I asked him what he learned from that. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You did a couple months' time for domestic battery charge. What have you learned from that?

FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR., PROFESSIONAL BOXER: It's the system. I feel that if I beat and kicked a woman with me being who I am, you would have seen pictures. There was no pictures. Only hearsay. Only hearsay. So it's more like this.

I took a plea bargain because I didn't want to put my children on the stand and make them look bad or bring them into my home. I was a real man. I stood up. Done my 70 days in the hole, which is max security and I'm out now. I'm still positive. And once again, tough times don't last. Tough people do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was back in June of last year. Here she is, Jemele Hill, co-host of ESPN's "Numbers Never Lie." Jemele, welcome. Great to have you on.

JEMELE HILL, CO-HOST, ESPN'S "NUMBERS NEVER LIE": Thank you. Appreciate being here.

BALDWIN: So I know you saw the headline about Mayweather and what he said about the two-game suspension should have stuck. We looked at your Twitter page. You said I'm logging off. Tell me why.

HILL: Well, I mean, if this is a case why don't we this is the case why don't we just go and ask Paula Deen if it was fair that Donald Sterling lost his team? That's as much credibility as I give these statements. It would be one thing if Floyd Mayweather had only been accused of domestic violence say one time.

He's been accused multiple times and he served time in jail for this. For him to kind of reduce his role in this and say that it was the system and it was a plea bargain. I think we pretty much can all conclude given this Ray Rice situation that the system doesn't always and in many cases doesn't always work for battered women.

And it's personally why I haven't ever purchased a Floyd Mayweather fight and some if the early stages in his career because it was too expensive for me, but I have not purchased a Floyd Mayweather fight certainly in light of these charges that have been levied against him concerning domestic violence for years now.

BALDWIN: But isn't part of the story, the video aspect of it, right? I mean, we saw it was initially the two-game suspension. Poof, this video comes thanks to TMZ and he's yanked off the Ravens and they brought up Donald Sterling and there was the audio, right? The audio and the video, they don't lie, but that seemed to have changed the narrative for stories like these. Do you agree?

HILL: It definitely has for a lot of people. It's given them a different kind of sensitivity and awareness and for me, I didn't need the additional video for me to have come to the conclusion before that Roger Goodell made a mistake in only handing out initially a two-game suspension to Ray Rice.

Because I don't know what people thought might have happened in the elevator considering that she was dragged out of it and was unconscious, but this is the day and age that we live in. I think we're so used to and accustomed to catching everything on video and catching everybody in the act.

That we've come to expect that this is how things are done and my question to the NFL and for that matter the public is how will you respond when there's not a video? Will you be just as outraged? Will you be just as sickened and will you just be as horrified because Ray Rice is not the only player to be caught in an active domestic violence.

BALDWIN: Greg Hardy.

HILL: You have a player on the 49ers right now Ray McDonald who is under investigation for domestic violence. I saw a stat today that under Roger Goodell's leadership there have been 56 players that have been accused of domestic violence, but of the 56 players they've only missed 13 games because of domestic violence. That in itself says something right there.

BALDWIN: Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots has commended Roger Goodell's response to all of this. His response has been excellent, setting a clear policy of conduct in the NFL. Your response?

HILL: Well, I would say before this video emerged I would have given Roger Goodell a lot of credit because as badly as he messed up with the two-game suspension of Ray Rice, he did correct that with this policy and if you look across major pro sports, you don't see domestic violence policies that are nearly quite as strong.

However, now that we've seen this video and now that we know that the NFL did not do his due diligence in my opinion in discovering this additional evidence nor that the Baltimore Ravens, I think, that policy rings a little bit hollow now and the NFL and the Ravens and they look extremely foolish at this point.

BALDWIN: Jemele Hill, ESPN, thank you so much. Great to hear your voice. Back after this.

HILL: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You love to watch the runway, the catwalks at New York fashion week, but you hate the wait to buy your runway designs. Well, the wait is over thanks to social media. CNN business correspondent, Alison Kosik, takes us backstage at the BCBG Show to try out this new retail technology. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So you say you want it, that you've got to have it. Well, if you like it, you'll know where to buy it.

BLAIRE EADIE, FASHION BLOGGER, ATLANTIC PACIFICBLOGSPOT.COM: If the user would like to know it, if they like my photo and receive an email with a link to that specific product to pre-buy it and they get priority access to anybody else.

KOSIK: Fashion blogger, Blaire Eadie sits front and center at BCBG Max Azria's fashion show in New York armed with her mobile phone, she posts some of the look from the runaway on Instagram and through shopping service like "To Know It," helps her followers exactly where to shop for these fashions.

LUBOV AZRIA, CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, BCBGMAXAZRIA: Why not be accessible and we have such little time and if we like something and we should be able to get it.

KOSIK: Here's how you can get it. Sign up for like "To Know It." Follow someone who uses the service. For example, fashion blogger, Blaire Eadie or celebrity blogger, Shay Mitchell, and if you click like on one of their fashion posts, you will automatically get an e- mail of where to purchase the clothing and accessories.

AMBER VENZ BOX, FOUNDER, LIKETOKNOWIT: Those authentic endorsements are so much more valuable than a display out on the side of your site because there is a human element to it.

KOSIK: And that's the element businesses are trying to capture. How to turn those social media eyeballs into profits. But don't ask founder and CEO Max Azria to sign up, he prefers to focus on creating the clothing.

(on camera): Are you on social media? Are you on Facebook and are you on Twitter?

MAX AZRIA, FOUNDER AND CEO, BCBGMAXAZRIA: No, because I'm scared. I try one times, and it was thousands and thousands of messages and very funny message, so I stop it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: Some proof that the Instagram economy is working? "Like To Know It" clicks BCBG backs Azria's web sites jumped by 575 percent in just nine days and others are seizing the moment, too. They're also helping shoppers find their favorite brands. Alison Kosik, CNN, New York.

BALDWIN: Alison, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me today. We'll see you back same time tomorrow. To Washington we go. Jake Tapper, "THE LEAD" starts right now.