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Two Americans Freed From North Korea; Airstrikes Target ISIS Leaders; Obama to Send 1,500 More U.S. Troops to Fight ISIS; Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill Says He Killed Osama Bin Laden; North Korea Releases 2 American Captives; Midterm Elections Bad for Obama; Did Voters Repudiate Obama's Agenda in Election?; Interviews With Rep. Adam Schiff of California

Aired November 08, 2014 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome, everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Poppy Harlow joining you live from New York. We begin with breaking news, two American citizens both sentenced to years of hard labor in North Korea are now free and they are on their way home. Matthew Todd Miller seven months detained, Kenneth Bae two years detained. They were released today and are right now flying back to the United States and now that these two men are out that leaves no more Americans detained in North Korea.

Our Elise Labott is following this very closely from Washington, she has the details about the diplomacy and a very important thing that James Clapper brought along with him, right, Elise?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. Well, the U.S. and North Korea have been talking for several months about the release of American detainees, as you know, a couple of weeks ago they released Jeffrey Fowle, a U.S. military plane was summoned to North Korea to bring him home and now the North Koreans asked for a cabinet-level official to come bring Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller home.

And so, the president chose the director of National Intelligence James Clapper and senior administration officials tell me that Mr. Clapper did bring a letter from President Obama to North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un indicating that Mr. Clapper was his personal envoy, to bring back this two Americans, I'm told it was very short letter, short into the point a couple of sentences but certainly a message from President Obama to the North Korean leader -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Wow. And when you talk about this in a historical context, Elise, have we seen this before? Have we seen other presidents sending letters to the North Korean regime?

LABOTT: Well, you know, this is not the first time that the U.S. and North Korea have done business together. You remember that President Clinton sent his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to North Korea. So, certainly there have been communications from the presidents to North Korea. I think a letter of this nature, I mean, I wouldn't make that much out of it because it's not a letter calling for better relations certainly. Calling for an opening. But certainly it's something that the North Korean leader clearly wanted something from President Obama saying -- making some kind of gesture. Although, you know, Poppy, I think we have to be careful not to overestimate what's going to happen now between the U.S. and North Korea. Officials are telling me very happy that these Americans are home but there's a lot of concern about North Korea's nuclear program, about their human rights record and these are the things North Korea needs to resolve before they can really have a better relationship with the U.S. -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. Absolutely. A lot of outstanding issues but the really good headlines today that these two men have been freed and they're on their way home. Thank you, Elise, I appreciate it.

I want to go live now to Tokyo to our Will Ripley. Well, you have an experience with these men that almost no one has had, you interviewed them just two months ago in Pyongyang. And I can't imagine what you must be feeling now that they have been released. Tell me a little bit about what they told you and also about why you think North Korea has all of a sudden released the remaining two.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this whole experience from start to finish has been really surreal, Poppy, as you and I were e- mailing back and forth earlier, because we went to North Korea. We asked to speak with these Americans. We were told that that would be impossible and then on our last day of filming with almost no notice we were put into a room with each of these men separately in a part of Pyongyang that we'd never seen before, that foreigners weren't allowed in. We had strict conditions, but as I listened to each of these men talk, they had very similar talking points, that they were being treated humanely, that they were desperate to see their families and most importantly that they wanted the help of the United States government. We were being watched as we were doing the interviews. North Korea was recording us. They were watching us. They coached us ahead of time. We don't know if they coached these men ahead of time and told them to say these things to us but that's certainly something that I would be interested in finding out, because they each said very, very similar things in the limited amount of time that we had.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH BAE, HELD FOR TWO YEARS IN NORTH KOREA: I'm serving 15-year sentence right now and I've been -- I've been going back and forth from hospital to the labor camp the last year and a half. I'm working eight hours a day, six days weeks. And working agricultural work to other hard labor that I am required to do every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: And, Poppy, that was Kenneth Bae obviously describing the conditions. He went on to talk also about his health problems. His health was deteriorating. He had lost a lot of weight. His hair was falling out, he was having trouble sleeping and a whole list of other issues. If his health was continuing to deteriorate he could have been become more of a liability for North Korea, had he fallen more seriously ill, Poppy, so certainly in addition to being reunited with his family he needs to get checked out by doctors and hopefully they can get him better.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely. No question about it. We are awaiting the plane bringing those two Americans back home. Is in the air, is expected to land some point tonight. Thank you very much. Will, we appreciate it.

We want to show you a look at Kenneth Bae's time in North Korea in custody. Forty four years old. He was arrested on November of 2012. In April of the next year, 2013, North Korea's Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for what Pyongyang called hostile acts against the country. In January of this year, he released a statement admitting to, quote, "a serious crime against North Korea." But keep this in mind, in the context that North Korea has a long history of forcing false confessions. Also, Bae has struggled with health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure during his time in custody as Will just explained. And after the years of worry, fear, doubt, not knowing what is going to happen Kenneth Bae's family is finally getting ready for a very joyful reunion.

They sent a lengthy statement and I want to read it to you in full, it says, "It is finally happening, Kenneth Bae is home. The day we've been praying for has finally arrived. Early this morning family heard news from the U.S. State Department that my brother was on a plane from the DPRK, North Korea, with fellow detainee Matthew Todd Miller. They had left North Korean airspace bound for America. Words cannot adequately express our relief and gratitude that Kenneth is finally coming home. We've been waiting for and praying for this day for two years.

This ordeal has been excruciating for the family but we are filled with joy right now. I am thrilled to imagine hugging my brother soon. He will not have to spend another day at the labor camp. He can now recover from this imprisonment and look forward to his wife, kids and the rest of our life. Our thanksgiving celebration this year will be one that we will never forget. We sincerely thank the United States government for all the hard work and dedication to securing my brother's release as well as the release of Matthew Todd Miller. We are also grateful to the DPRK government for allowing them to come home. We must also thank the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang for their tireless effort to advocate for Kenneth during his prolonged imprisonment. We are grateful to everyone who has supported by brother's cause including reporters and editors who cared enough to see this through. We are thankful for people in Seattle and across the world who have continued to advocate and pray for Kenneth. We believe that God is with people who endure hardship and that he never leaves them. It is with great joy and with thankfulness to God to see Kenneth released. Our family could not have been sustained without the knowledge that Kenneth was in God's care when it seemed we were helpless to do anything. On behalf of the family we ask for some space from reporters and the public as he tries to adjust to his life back home."

That is the full statement that we have received from the Bae family. They are overjoyed that Kenneth Bae is returning home. As for Matthew Todd Miller, here's what we know about his time in North Korea. Twenty-four-years-old. He traveled to North Korea as a tourist with a U.S.-based travel company. He was arrested on April 10th of this year. North Korea state-run media claimed that he ripped up his tourist visa and shouted his desire to seek asylum there. On September 14th, Miller was sentenced to six years of hard labor for acts hostile to North Korea. We have not yet heard from his family.

Bae and Miller were not the only ones being held hostage overseas, at least 12 U.S. citizens are either being held captive by extremist groups or sitting in jails in countries that are hostile to American. Among them Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who appeared in Iran several seven years ago, his captors sent pictures to his family. Also 72-year-old Warren Weinstein, he was working as a government contractor in Pakistan during the summer of 2011 when he was grabbed from his home. He's been held hostage by al Qaeda ever since. Also Allen Gross, a U.S. government contractor in jail in Cuba. Several U.S. officials including former President Jimmy Carter have personally pleaded for his release, so far, though, no success.

I want to bring in Congressman Adam Schiff, he is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: You bet.

HARLOW: I want to get straight to the great news for these families, for these two men coming home. Can you tell us if you have been briefed at all by the administration, the State Department, any details that you're getting other than what we have at this point?

SCHIFF: I imagine we're going to be briefed later this week. In fact, I think the Congressional leadership itself wasn't notified until Director Clapper was on his way to the region. That's not surprising. These deals often come together very last minute and I'm not even sure deal is the right word. But plainly North Korea wanted a high-level emissary from the United States and they usually do. Although if someone mystifying what that really means to North Korea, it obviously isn't going to mean much to the rest of the world that we have to send someone and I'm not sure what domestic political impact it has or whether Kim Jong-un really cares. But nonetheless, it is great news that these two Americans are coming home.

I wouldn't read all that much into it, Poppy, because the key word with Kim Jong-un is erratic. At times we see very recently a high- level North Korean delegation go to South Korea and we think, OK, they're opening up the way for a dialogue. And then shortly thereafter we see new hostilities along the demilitarized zone. Similarly, we have the release of these now three Americans in addition to that release earlier but I wouldn't be surprised to see rocket tests coming up or for further work on miniaturizing nuclear weapons to sit on long-term rockets. So, it's a very opaque leadership and hard to read too much into it at the moment.

HARLOW: Right. But what do you make of the timing of this? The fact that it comes just, you know, a few weeks after Jeffrey Fowle was let go? The fact that we now know the President, President Obama, sent a handwritten letter with James Clapper to give to, you know, Pyongyang's leader. What do you make of those developments that we're learning and the timing? Should we read anything into the timing?

SCHIFF: Well, the only thing I would probably read into the timing is I think that the North Korea really is reacting to this United Nations report, potential referral of Kim Jong-un to the international criminal court. I think that really rocked them. They've reacted to that development in other ways and I wouldn't be surprised if they are trying to what they would consider make this diplomatic offensive to head off a referral to the criminal court. It also may be a prelude to their wanting to have discussions with the United States. Well, we should know in the relatively near future whether that's the case. The final thing I would mention is, I think they've had an increasingly strained relationship with their benefactor and that is China, so this may be as much a message to China as it is to the United States that they want to emerge somewhat from the incredible isolation they're in.

HARLOW: Yes. That's a very important point to make. I appreciate you coming on, Congressman and what a good day this is for those families and for the defense.

SCHIFF: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Thank you very much for sharing some time with us this Saturday.

Coming up next in the Newsroom, Young Lee is an American journalist who was held captive in North Korea. Hear her thoughts on the release of Bae and Miller. She really knows what it's like to go through this. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, Americans can celebrate the release today of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller it is worth remembering that North Korea has had a long and troubling history of taking foreigners prisoner. One of them, journalist Euna Lee, she and fellow journalist Laura Ling were taken captive by North Korean soldiers in 2009. They were held for 140 days before President Bill Clinton got them freed. She chronicled her ordeal in her book "The World is bigger now." Euna Lee joins us by phone. Thank you very much for being here, Euna. And I am wondering if you can just tell me what your thoughts were this morning when you woke up to this news.

EUNA LEE, JOURNALIST: Oh, I just couldn't believe it. I got this news from Kenneth Bae's sister and my reaction was, what? I couldn't believe it. I was just -- I can't just express how happy I am for Matthew Miller, Kenneth Bae and their families.

HARLOW: You say you got the news from Kenneth Bae's sister Terry who has been fighting nonstop for his release. What else did she say to you about how he's doing? I know that his health was deteriorating.

LEE: No, I just know as much as you know from -- but Kenneth Bae's family and I were in contact while he was gone for two years. I think the family wanted to just share their joy with me before they released a statement. But in some way I just couldn't be freed from my time in North Korea while he was gone and now I feel like I can finally feel that joy with them.

HARLOW: Wow.

LEE: And be free from the time.

HARLOW: Wow! Yes. Absolutely. I know Jeffrey Fowle was saying, you know, he had a very hard time leaving a few weeks ago feeling like his fellow detainees were still there. You experienced this. You went through the, quote-unquote, justice system in North Korea through their Supreme Court. I wonder if you can tell us what that situation was like so we can get an eye in to what it was like for Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller?

LEE: There were basically two stages during my detention. Before the trier and after the trier. So, the first stage was a long interrogation hours were held for a month. And the trier. And then after the trier it was another long, waiting time. Of course, you know, we are dealing with countries so different than U.S. So there are things that -- basically we couldn't adjust to it. I had agree with what they were saying. Yes.

HARLOW: What do you think the hardest part is about coming home?

LEE: The hardest part of coming home? Just, you know, it's funny. You know, soon after I came home I really tried to get back to our normal life, but it actually took longer than two -- the recovery time took longer than the time that I was in. So I'm very concerned that Kenneth Bae need to take a lot of time to just focus on himself to recover from the detention and isolation.

HARLOW: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Your perspective is very much appreciated and we are so glad that these men on their way home. That you guys were freed and that there is now as we know it, no American detained in North Korea. Euna Lee, thank you.

LEE: Thank you very much.

HARLOW: Well, President Obama had one main message to Americans as this country continues its fight against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground I think would be a profound mistake.

These American forces will not have a combat mission. We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.

The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission.

I won't commit our troops to fighting another ground war in Iraq or in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: Well, now the number of U.S. military advisers in Iraq is doubling. Does that amount to boots on the ground? Is it all just semantics? Let's discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: We're tracking a story this hour involving coalition air strikes that targeted a suspected group of ISIS leaders in Iraq. The leader of ISIS a man named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A spokesman for U.S. Central Command that said while the air strikes destroyed a convoy believed to be carrying some ISIS leaders, Centcom cannot confirm if al Baghdadi was present even in that convoy at that time.

Let's bring back in California democratic Congressman Adam Schiff. He is the senior member of the House Intelligence Committee. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.

SCHIFF: You bet.

HARLOW: Let's talk about this. We just got this statement within the last few hours from Centcom saying, we were targeting these ISIS leaders. We cannot say if al Baghdadi was among them. Do you know anything outside of that at this point in time? Because that would be huge.

SCHIFF: At this point I don't. But I do think that the strike that we saw in Syria that went after this French bomb maker, the strike after this convoy does indicate that our intelligence is getting better in terms of where the leadership may be. In Iraq it may be a different story because you had a large convoy of vehicles and we are very much on the lookout for large military formations that we can go at where there isn't going to be a lot of collateral damage or any collateral damage, so it could have been just a strike of opportunity against this massing of forces or it may be that our intelligence has improved to the degree where we knew some of the leadership may be in that convoy.

HARLOW: Right. So the air strikes, I mean, a lot of analysts have said to me this week is the fact that we got this course on bombmaker shows us the intelligence is getting better and the air strikes are working more. But clearly, it's not enough because this week the Obama administration announced 1,500 additional U.S. troops going to Iraq to advise the Iraqi military there. Do you agree with that move?

SCHIFF: I do agree with the move. I think that we can use that level of troops to better train and equip the Iraqi forces. We can scale them up more quickly this way. We can make more progress on the battlefield more quickly. In terms of whether it's enough, you know, a lot of what we're talking about is how long is this going to take.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCHIFF: Certainly the air campaign by itself is not going to be enough and certainly it's going to take quite some time to get the Iraqi forces to be able to retake places like Mosul. And I think this will help accelerate that timetable but we still have a very long, hard road ahead of us.

HARLOW: One questions that I thought was interesting brought up by a journalist at the Pentagon briefing yesterday where Rear Admiral John Kirby addressed this is, how do we know it's going to be different this time when we spent so much time, so many resources, so much money, so many lives training the Iraqi army to see many of them, you know, really drop their arms and run away in the face of ISIS, how is it going to be different this time? And the Pentagon saying, it will be different, you know, Iraq is ready for this we've seen the signs that this is the right thing to do. At what point does this amount to actually having boots on the ground? The President makes a difference between these aren't combat troops, but at what point is there really a difference?

SCHIFF: Well, I mean, these are two really good questions. The first is whether this will make a difference or not, whether this will be different than the last time will depend if whether Iraq makes the political changes that it needs to that will help bring the Sunnis on to the side of a national government that will help reinforce those Iraqi troops with professional leadership, not just people that are loyal to the regime, not just Shia leadership, so that will determine whether this can be sustained.

HARLOW: Right.

SCHIFF: And whether we can recapture this ground. And I think at this point it's too early to tell. Al-Baghdadi is saying the right things. He is doing some of the right things but whether the Shia leadership will go far enough to get the Sunnis back as a part of the organic whole of Iraq is still very much an open question. That getting to your second point about boots on the ground, I mean, these are quite literally obviously boots on the ground but the question is, will they be engaged in a combat mission? Are they going to be directly confronting in combat ISIS as part of their mission not just if they're attacked and need to defend themselves. And the President is quite adamant that this is not why they are being sent. They are be sent to train, they're being sent to advice, and yes, they will be at risk. You can't be in the theater of war without being at risk. But he's not sending them to take the place the Iraqi soldiers and I think it's very smart of the President to limit their role in that way.

HARLOW: Adam Schiff, I appreciate you joining us, Congressman. Thank you very much.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: As we just mentioned, more troops headed to Iraq, and you're going to hear from a marine who's been there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: It was arguably the fiercest battle of the Iraq war and one of the deadliest since Vietnam. But on this 10-year anniversary of the second battle of Fallujah, the city is under a black insurgent flag and U.S.-led air strikes have yet to have a major impact. This was the scene in November of 2004 as coalition forces worked their way through the dangerous streets. But a decade later, ISIS militants now control the city along with a large swath of northern Iraq and Syria. More air strikes this week hit ISIS targets near Fallujah and Ramadi, key cities to the west of Baghdad.

I want to bring in someone with a very unique perspective on this. Adam Banotai is a former U.S. Marine agent who fought in the battle in 2004.

Thank you for being here.

SGT. ADAM BANOTAI, FORMER U.S. MARINE: Absolutely. Thank you for having me

HARLOW: Thank you for your service. All of you and your fellow servicemen and women.

BANOTAI: Thank you.

HARLOW: The president said 1,500 advisers and logistics coordinators, not technical boots on the ground. Is it the right move?

BANOTAI: I disagree that it is the right move. I absolutely think it is not. Part of my problem has to do with the congressman from California said they are boots on the ground, but where do we differentiate their mission there? Advisers, when does it become boots on the ground as far as --

HARLOW: Mission creep.

BANOTAI: -- mission creep? When does it occur? The first time they are ambushed. The first time an American was killed? We already had one Marine killed since this new mission took.

HARLOW: Are you saying don't send them over or just call it --

BANOTAI: Call it what it is. I think we're dealing with semantics here. We're just trying to play a funny game with words. I think either send them and send them in full force. What can 1,500 more going to do that the first 1,400 didn't do?

HARLOW: What would you like to see? Would you like to see 10,000 combat troops sent or do you not want to --

BANOTAI: I would like to see 50,000 combat troops or none.

HARLOW: What do you what? What do you think?

BANOTAI: I'm not privy to the intelligence they have.

HARLOW: That's fair.

BANOTAI: I don't know the exact answer. I think we're playing the middle ground. We're nickel and diming. We should either buy in completely or just sell the farm and stay out of it. HARLOW: I would assume you lost friends and colleagues fighting. Do you worry that it is risking lives not to -- to go in as you say sort of halfway?

BANOTAI: I think it does. I think that's part of the problem. During the entire Iraq war, we slowly crept up the number of troops we had until we had a surge. And I think if we would have went in with the full might of the U.S. military, we would have an overwhelming victory. We would have a Marine, soldier, sailor and airman on every corner of Iraq, an insurgency wouldn't have gained a foothold in the first place.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: So the question of when do you leave, right? 2011, some argue, we should never have left like we did. Some say we should have. How long are you going to stay? That becomes the question. For how long?

BANOTAI: And it's an important question and a tricky question. However, my response to that is the reason for the president's leaving. He campaigned on a promise to end the war in Iraq. He didn't campaign on a promise to gain military victory, to accomplish the mission. He said we will leave regardless. And I would have liked to have seen a concrete goal. That goal accomplished. And then we leave with a better plan intact.

HARLOW: It was asked by a journalist at the Pentagon yesterday, what's different this time? We spent all of this money, resources, lives, training Iraqis forces, and we many of them fled when faced with ISIS. What is different this time? We haven't seen a new real difference yet from the new government in Iraq that they'll be inclusive of Sunnis, and they say they will, but do you believe enough is different this time?

BANOTAI: I don't. No evidence showing us that it will be. I will say this. I saw a great number of absolutely outstanding Iraqi forces that I worked side by side with that spilled their blood and died for their country, the same way soldiers, sailors and Marines did for theirs. However, there was a large number that did flee, that threw down their arms that said we quit, that didn't want to fight. And there's nothing to prove to the contrary that anything different is going to happen. So, I don't know. I don't have confidence in them to do it on their own right now.

HARLOW: Since we have you here, I do want to ask you if you feel comfortable talking about it, SEAL, Robert O'Neill, saying to "The Washington Post," I am the one who shot and killed Osama bin Laden. There's been a lot of debate over whether or not he broke the code of silence, whether he should have done this. The journalist who did the report said, look, he was trying to take control of the narrative because it was leaking out online. What is your reaction to that?

BANOTAI: Not being a SEAL, the ones I did work with and have experience with, their ethos is that of a silent mission accomplishment without seeking personal recognition. Some would say that he broke that code. Some would say that he was trying to take charge of the narrative, as you suggested. My biggest concern is now we all know who he is here in America but also abroad. So, his friends and his enemies now know who he is and he's painted a target on his back.

HARLOW: Adam, we have to go, but just thank you very much for your service. And you know, we're all looking at these veterans coming home and saying what can we all do to help them because they've all helped us.

So thank you.

BANOTAI: Thank you very much for having me.

HARLOW: Good to be with you. Thank you

Two Americans, one detained -- and once detained in North Korea, they are both free. They are heading home. Their release seemed to catch everyone off-guard. The question is, why did it happen today? We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Today's release by North Korea of its last two American captives was just the latest in a series of very surprising movements by Pyongyang. For example, there have been unexpected reunions with families in South Korea. And leader Kim Jong-Un's disappeared for about a month with really no explanation, only to turn up using a cane. All of which raises the question what's going on there.

Gordon Chang is a long-time observer of that part of the world and the author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World." He joins us now from Toronto.

Thank you very much for being here.

GORDON CHANG, COLUMNIST, FORBES.COM & AUTHOR: Well, thank you so much, Poppy.

HARLOW: I love your perspective on this all. There has been chatter that this is possibly a reaction to North Korea having souring relations with China. Do you believe that was a driver in this?

CHANG: I think that's a long-term driver. You know, for about a year, there's been a rupture in relations between Beijing and Pyongyang, and so the North Koreans have now had to go out to the rest of the world to find a new sponsor. So they reached out to Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, and now us. And I think that's an important sort of driver of what they've been doing over the last year. And there are a couple of other things that may have influenced the decision but, generally speaking, this is a charm offensive.

HARLOW: How should we look at this in terms of the big picture, U.S./North Korea relations? Is this the beginning of the right road, or should we not read that much into it? CHANG: Well, you know, we would all love to read a significant

breakthrough in American/North Korea relations. And, you know, at some point, there will be that breakthrough. You know, I don't know if this is or not. Of course, we should test it out, because it just very well may be that you do have a consensus in Pyongyang to try to change relationships. Now, that's unlikely, but nonetheless, whenever you do see a real significant change in regime behavior, you have to ask yourself, what is changing. So we should try to test it out.

HARLOW: What can you tell us about Kim Jong-Un that is different than his father?

CHANG: Well, Kim Jong-Un, he was certainly only 28, 29 when he became North Korea's supreme leader. He only had about a couple of years of on-the-job training, and this is a very difficult regime to run because it's held -- it basically constituent parts. You have the security services, the Korean Workers Party, and the army, and the Kim family circle, and all those groups have to be balanced. It's a very difficult task to run this government. And Kim Jong-Il, the father, had more than two decades of on-the-training. Kim Jong-Un had just two years. And that's made it very difficult for him to navigate in a very difficult circumstance. It's, like, a snake pit. And Kim Jong- Un has essentially been the hamster for the last couple of years.

HARLOW: Wow. Director of national intelligence, James Clapper, who traveled there, secured this amazing release, brought a handwritten letter from President Obama for Kim Jong-Un. What significance do you think it would have to him?

CHANG: I think that he'd want to see the U.S. as a supplicate and so it was important that there would be some overture on our part to try to free the two. We also did that, I think, in connection with Jeffrey Fowle where we actually did talk to them beforehand in a series of negotiations, conducted behind the scenes. But at the end of the day, we've got some very fundamental differences with North Korea, which aren't going to be resolved by the release of two individuals. I think something very significant has gone on in Pyongyang. You have new regime elements in control. I think and so we should test it out and President Obama's letter was the way to do that.

HARLOW: Thank you very much, sir, for joining us this evening with your expertise. Appreciate it.

We'll be right back after the break.

CHANG: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Midterm elections are historically bad for sitting presidents, but President Obama has racked up a dubious record in the two midterms since taking office. A couple of maps tell the story pretty well. Here's what the House looked like when the president took office in 2008. Here's what it will look like in January. The red Republican districts, seats picked up by Republicans, have increased nearly 70 percent. In fact, President Obama has seen his party lose more House seats in midterm elections than any president since Harry Truman.

Here's a look how the Republicans' big night unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We have a major projection to announce right now. The first Republican pick-up of the night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: West Virginia is one of the first tonight. And West Virginia has done it right.

BLITZER: The Republican leader in the United States Senate will be re-elected.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: I've heard your concerns. You will be heard in Washington.

BLITZER: Tom Cotton will be the United States Senator from the state of Arkansas.

TOM COTTON, (R), SENATOR-ELECT, ARKANSAS: How about that win?

BLITZER: Mike Rounds, the Republican, will be the next United States Senator from South Dakota. Cory Gardner will be the next United States Senator from the state of Colorado.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight, we shook up the Senate.

BLITZER: David Perdue, the Republican, will be elected to the United States Senate from the state of Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, I have chill bumps.

BLITZER: Pat Roberts from the state of Kansas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We weren't dragged across the finish line. We took the Hill.

(CHEERING)

BLITZER: North Carolina will go to the Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Senator Reid's going to have a different office assignment come January.

(CHEERING)

BLITZER: Joni Ernst, the Republican, will be the next United States Senator from the state of Iowa.

JONI ERNST, (R), SENATOR-ELECT, IOWA: We are going to make a squeal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Republican wave. There is no other way to look at it. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: That is how it all happened on Tuesday night. The president says he got the message from American voters on Tuesday. What they really want, he says, is for Washington to get things done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: As I said the other night, obviously, Republicans had a good night. And I've congratulated both Mitch McConnell as well as Speaker Boehner for running very strong campaigns. As I also said the day after the election, what we have seen now for a number of cycles is that the American people just want to see work done here in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So is it all about working together, or did voters set out to repudiate the president's political agenda?

Let's bring back in Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff.

Thanks for joining us again. Appreciate it.

Let me get to this. There was an interesting strategy. A lot of people running didn't have the president come stump on their behalf. Know, we saw Kay Hagan last hour, the radio ad from President Obama, but didn't see a lot of him involved in the midterms. Looking back, was that a mistake?

SCHIFF: It may have been a mistake in some of the states where the president's presence could have helped turn out certain Democratic voters in part of the Democratic base. But it's hard to say. This was clearly a wave election, and those kind of strategic decisions to deploy the president or not to deploy the president, I'm not sure they would have affected the outcome all that much. This -- I think the president was just succumbing to that six-year malaise that the county has about the party in power. And we were going to take a drubbing and we did. I have to say that election night montage that you just showed was very painful for me to watch.

HARLOW: Yeah. Well, I wonder, how -- what did you think when you saw this happen? Did it make you think, wow, America is speaking? Because interestingly, we heard the president, when he made his remarks after Tuesday night, mentioned specifically the two-thirds of Americans who didn't vote.

SCHIFF: Well, what it said to me was the Americans are really tired of the disfunction. They do really want to get something done. And they blame the party in power. And that's traditionally what happens. If the American people aren't happy with the direction of the country or they're unhappy with what's going on or not going on in Congress, they tend to blame the party in power in the White House. So I think we should, on both sides of the aisle, take that message to heart. Republicans, I think, will make a mistake if they think this was an endorsement of their policy positions, which Americans, by and large, don't really believe in. But it's reaction to the dysfunction and paralysis. Americans said they want something different and I think the difference they want is the parties working together. And I would love to see the history of these next two years written that it was the most productive years of the Obama administration. And there are good reasons for both parties to try to make that happen.

HARLOW: Let me ask you this. The Republican Party chairman says the president will be, quote, "throwing a barrel of kerosene" on to already inflamed relations with Republicans if we see him go it alone on immigration." We even saw David Axelrod, the former advisor, tweet out this week that the president should try to let it go through Congress, see if it can be brought up in the House. Do you think the president should go it alone on immigration?

SCHIFF: Well, I think, ideally, the Congress would act and should act. The question is, is the House and the Senate really prepared to do that when --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: But should the president go it alone. Do you think it's a bad idea?

SCHIFF: I think the president should go it alone if the Congress won't go there with him. And the speaker was asked very directly this week, will you bring an immigration bill to the floor, and he give equivocated and hesitated, and wouldn't commit to doing so. So unless he can get that commitment, I think the president has to act on his own.

Also, I would say that the Republicans, for their part, are planning to throw a lot of kerosene on the fire, too, in the sense they're going to be sending the president bills to repeal Obamacare, to repeal Dodd/Frank, and do a lot of things they know are DOA as well. So it would be worthwhile I think for both sides to sit down and say, what can we do cooperatively, rather than taking a course of confrontation again.

HARLOW: Yeah. All right. We'll be watching for all of the American people. I think I speak for all of us, saying we hope all of you guys in Washington can work together and get these things done. That is what everyone is counting on.

Congressman, thanks for joining us this evening.

SCHIFF: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Two Americans headed home, one of them Kenneth Bae, free from detention in North Korea. A family friend will join us, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Each week, we're shining a light on the top-10 "CNN Heroes" of 2014 as you vote for the one that inspires you the most. But tonight, we want you to meet Arthur Bloom. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

ARTHUR BLOOM, CNN HERO: Music is my earliest memory. I never decided to be a professional musician. It's just what I've always done.

(MUSIC)

BLOOM: It feels great to play music. But it's also a mechanism for healing.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED VETERAN: We were on this normal morning patrol, walking down the road. I had never been hit by an IED before. It felt like I had been hit by a wrecking ball. I sat up. My legs were completely gone. What happens if you don't quite get killed and you don't quite survive? You're somewhere in the middle. I was a shell of a man. Who I was, was gone.

BLOOM: Let's take it right before the melody comes in.

(MUSIC)

BLOOM: Our organization helps wounded warriors play music and recover their lives.

(MUSIC)

BLOOM: We match the injured troops with professional musicians who come visit at Walter Reed Medical Center, and work with them on music projects, learning music, writing, and performing.

(SINGING)

(LAUGHTER)

BLOOM: We're going to try to incorporate a little more metal.

I'm not a music therapist. I'm a musician. But by injecting music into the space, you can inject life.

UNIDENTIFIED VETERAN: Something to survive that horrible injury in Afghanistan. And that was my ability, to play the guitar.

Arthur and his program changed my outlook on what is possible.

(SINGING)

BLOOM: Music has no stigma.