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Obama Plans to Proceed With Executive Action on Immigration; Secret Service Failures Surrounding White House Fence Jumper in September; Ferguson Braces for Grand Jury Verdict

Aired November 14, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: President Obama throwing down the gauntlet and vowing to go it alone on immigration if he has to. The Republicans say they are ready for a fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And that's going to happen. That's going to happen before the end of the year.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: We're going to fight the president tooth and nail if he continues down this path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Rape allegations resurfacing about iconic comedian Bill Cosby. One of his accusers sat down with me to tell us her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I knew something was going on. I would start asking questions and he would say you know what? You don't trust me. You've got to trust me. And by the way, you were drunk."

BERMAN: And a stunning new report shows the string of security lapses that allowed a man to run all the way into the east room of the White House. Happy Friday, everyone, I'm John Berman.

PEREIRA: I'm Michaela Pereira. We'll have much more ahead @THIS HOUR.

BERMAN story that could change the lives of millions of people with the stroke of a pen. It could also set off a firestorm in Washington, all but paralyzing the relationship between the president and the new Republican Congress.

President Obama says he is on the verge of taking executive action, possibly as soon as next week to fix the nation's beleaguered immigration system. He says he has warned Republicans this moment was coming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And I indicated to Speaker Boehner several months ago that if, in fact, Congress failed to act I would use all the lawful authority that I possess to try to make the system work better.

And that's going to happen. That's going to happen before the end of the year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Action by the president could protect millions of people that are living illegally in the country from being deported.

Newly empowered Republicans are calling his threats, quote, "poison."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOEHNER: We're going to fight the president tooth and nail if he continues down this path. This is the wrong way to govern.

This is exactly what the American people said on election day they didn't want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Michelle Kosinski, our White House correspondent, joins us now. Good to have you @THIS HOUR, Michelle.

We know Republicans are slamming the president for threatening to act, but he has not used executive order power as much as some of his predecessors, just 193 so far. Look at the way it lines up on your screen.

So what's with all the tough talk?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But you have to look at the way executive actions and orders are issued and in what subjects. Most of them are things like honoring a special day or recognizing a certain group, things that nobody would fight over.

But Republicans charge that the president has actually overstepped his constitutional authority by going for action without Congress on really controversial areas, climate change, now immigration.

Remember, he acted in 2012 to defer deportation for certain groups of immigrants. Congress hated that he did then that then, and that was pretty limited in scope, but it was still a bold move by most standards, that he took that action on his own.

And, remember, Republicans then in the House threatened to sue the president over that. It never went that far, but now this is considered taking that a big step forward. I mean, it could affect some five million people, depending on what the parameters are.

So it's just adding to that fire, that anger that has been building among Republicans for a long time now.

BERMAN: Michelle, we don't know exactly what the president will do, however there have been a series of leaks knew are starting to put some meat on the bones.

What are the policies we're talking about?

KOSINSKI: Some of these things we've known have been looked at for a long time, and the White House isn't denying that some of these things that have been reported on are true but they're not confirming them, either.

So some of them are the parents of people who have been brought here as children, possibly granting those parents a legal status. Of course the people who were brought here as children, that they would have some status as well potentially, or at least deferring deportation for those.

They also take it a step further on the other side of things, possibly saying that, well, emphasizing at least that deportations would continue for people convicted of crimes, possibly boosting border security. So kind of some give and take there but, again we're all waiting to see how broad this order will be.

PEREIRA: All right, Michelle Kosinski at the White House, thanks so much.

It's chilly out there, you can already tell that cold snap is coming her way.

BERMAN: Joining us to talk about the politics of this -- and there are a lot of politics -- immigration analyst and attorney Raul Reyes, thanks for being with us.

Also Doug Heye, who served as deputy chief of staff to the former House majority leader Eric cantor.

PEREIRA: Michelle Kosinski talking about the policy changes, gentlemen. So, Raul, I want to get you to look at them. I'm sure you've done a deep dive on these in terms of what we're expecting, what's been leaked..

What are you making of the changes being talked about? Are they the right things and do you think the president should use executive order to do it?

RAUL REYES, IMMIGRATION ANALYST: Oh, absolutely he should. I think from what we've heard on these leaks so far, his proposed executive action is actually on the modest side. It's certainly not as far as many of the immigration reform advocates were pushing for.

What they were seeking was that he would offer relief from deportation to at least as many people as would have benefited under the gang of eight immigration bill from last year. So this is a much smaller class.

And in terms of whether or not he has the power to do so, presidents have been taking executive action on immigration at least as far back as Eisenhower. Republicans have done it, Democratic presidents have done it. In terms of the numbers, for example, in the '60s, different American presidents allowed something like 600,000 Cubans into this country on executive action on immigration. In the '70s, it was 300,000 southeast Asians. President George W. Bush deferred deportations for 200,000 Nicaraguans. So it's not even a question of the numbers.

But when you think about the legality, the important thing to remember is, just as the president had the legal authority to create the Dhaka program, which is up and running -- it's considered successful -- he also has the authority to expand it. And that would be the main part of his program going forward.

BERMAN: Now, Doug, the position among many Republicans, most Republicans on Capitol Hill, is that the president shouldn't do this. He shouldn't do it politically. It's not right for the a president to do at all, many say.

The question to you, Doug, is what are Republicans now going to do to stop him? Because there is a debate. Should the government shut down government? Refuse funding for certain departments? Or just sort of let it happen but make it difficult?

DOUG HEYE, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF TO ERIC CANTOR: You know, John, I can tell you, I've been in more immigration meetings with members of Congress over the past two and a half years than I would ever want to count. It's been exhausting. The number of times that we've talked about every specific possibility that could happen.

Also, obviously, a lawsuit is one of the tools Republicans are looking at. We have new majorities, a larger Republican House majority. A new majority the United States Senate that want to stop these programs and there's a reason for that.

One, we want to find areas of compromise, areas where we can work together. Speaker Boehner's been passionate about this for two years talking about --

BERMAN: Well, not passionate enough, Doug, to get it done. Not passionate enough to get it done.

The president -- the fact of the matter is, the president didn't do anything for a year because Speaker Boehner asked for space and the president did give him space.

HEYE: John, I'd argue the president hasn't done anything on this issue for six years.

Let's keep in mind, there was a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House. It passed a not insignificant health care reform bill yet the president and Congress didn't do anything on immigration.

So if this is so urgent now, why don't we take a step back, figure out the best ways we can move forward, what do we agree on, try and address those areas instead of a wholesale ram-through going around Congress. That's not what the voters endorsed two weeks ago.

PEREIRA: I feel like you want to react to that.

REYES: Well, when the gentleman talks about trying to find common ground, it is true that Republicans here and there have had meetings on immigration and discussed possible strategies, typically focusing mostly on border security.

When they talk about immigration, the Republicans have yet to come up with any plan for what to do with the 11 million people who are already here. They're a threat to our national security, a diverse of our scarce law enforcement resources and that's the area the Republicans have avoided.

So I'm not denying that they've talked about it, but a key component of the problem, they don't want to touch that. At the same time, look at the record. Republicans killed immigration reform in 2006, 2007, and again this year.

And now to me what it seems like they're doing is a lot of positioning to say that they have an interest in immigration reform so that once President Obama takes this executive action that they can say, oh, that poisoned the well, now we can't do it. It's the latest excuse for inaction.

BERMAN: They did just win, though, on election day. They picked up the Senate. They won more seats in the House. They picked up governors' mansions.

Isn't that the American public saying that we are more in favor right flow of the Republican positions?

REYES: Well, they certainly can't deny they won those elections. President Obama won twice on a promise to do comprehensive immigration reform, and polls consistently show that Americans support immigration reform with the path to citizenship, including Republicans.

This is not just a liberal versus Democratic issue. This is really an issue for Republican leadership.

PEREIRA: So, Doug, when I sit back and listen to all of this, it just vaguely sounds familiar to me, and I'm sure it will to folks at home.

And I think the fear is from people that we could be headed towards another government shutdown if we find ourselves debating and arguing anything that the president wants to do I feel like things are going to come to a screeching halt again.

HEYE: I'll tell you, I don't think that's going to happen. I certainly hope that doesn't happen. The last shutdown did not benefit anyone. I think we could all agree on.

Republicans are looking for what steps they have, what tools they have to prevent any type of wholesale unilateral action by the president and, again, the president had a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate and didn't move.

So now Republicans are trying to figure out what can we do? A shutdown? That is not only the last option on the table. I'd say it's not on the table right now.

PEREIRA: All right, Doug Heye and Raul, thanks so much for being here. Raul Reyes, really a pleasure to have you debate this robust conversation, gentlemen.

BERMAN: Yeah, the voters do seem to be sending conflicting messages on this, because as we discussed, the American public did put in a Republican Senate, put in more Republican representatives.

But in the exit polling when we asked them what they thought about illegal immigrants in the United States, 57 percent said they should be offered legal status. Thirty-nine percent said they should be deported.

Republicans feel like they have a mandate, Democrats feel like they have a mandate which is why there is an argument.

PEREIRA: And here we are and here we are. We'll be discussing a lot more of this, clearly.

BERMAN: Ahead for us @THIS HOUR --

PEREIRA: Almost beat you to it.

BERMAN: Sorry.

Shocking security lapses at the White House. A man jumps the fence and runs inside as a security officer makes a personal cell call.

A scathing new report details the series of blunders that let a man get all the try the East Room.

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BERMAN: New this morning, a report that seems to detail shocking incompetence among those charged with protecting the president of the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security has published an in-depth review of security failures allowed Omar Gonzalez to burst into the White House in September, running all the way into the East Room before finally being tackled.

Some of the details in the report --

PEREIRA: Alright, follow me along, here. He jumped a fence. Then a canine officer didn't release the dog in time, because he was on his personal cell phone -- the officer, not the dog. He didn't have his radio ear piece in place. Another officer couldn't see past the bushes, yet another, stationed inside, was apparently not backward when Gonzalez burst in as she was trying to lock the doors. That officer grabbed her flashlight instead of her baton. So many things to talk to. Author Ronald Kessler.

Good to see you, sir. Kessler, of course, wrote "The First Family Detail" and in the president's Secret Service. And you've joined us before to talk about the concerns you had about The Secret Service and some of the problems within that agency. None of this comes as a surprise. Were you maybe surprised by the specifics in this reveal? This review, rather?

RONALD KESSLER, AUTHOR, "THE FIRST FAMILY DETAIL": Well, you know, I've said in my book that agents say that it's a miracle that there has not already been an assassination given this really corrupt management culture, which leads to all these problems. There's an arrogance, there's a cover-up mentality. One example in the book I describe how when Bradley Cooper went to the White House correspondent's dinner where Obama spoke, a high-ranking management official in New York in the Secret Service told agents at the Washington Hilton to let Bradley Cooper and his SUV into the secure area in front of the hotel where only Secret Service vehicles were allowed, and even they had to be screened by dogs for explosives because someone could attach an explosive to the underside of a car. And the order was let him in, don't screen him, just as a favor to his security people.

So what kind of message does that send to agents? It says, you know, we really don't care about security, we don't care if there's an assassination, we'll just do whatever we want, as outrageous as it may seem. And that is the culture that has produced all of these screw ups and a lack of updated equipment, a lack of training, the Secret Service doesn't even have annual updates on training, which is something that the FBI does, any local police department does and, you know, I think that the solution is to bring in an outside director who's not beholden to the interest within the agency, who's not part of this culture, and as one example, a former FBI official, I think would totally shake up this agency, make it perform honestly, stop retaliation against agents who point out problems, which is something that is an everyday occurrence, and, you know, the government has a tendency to want to reinvent the wheel. It's really very simple.

There are a few blocks separating the FBI and the Secret Service, bring the FBI in to run the Secret Service and you would have a very good organization. As we see, with the FBI protecting us since 9/11, we have not had a successful foreign terrorist attack, and I can tell you having done books on the FBI and the Secret Service and the CIA, the caliber of official at the CIA and the FBI is so much higher than the Secret Service. The Secret Service culture is to promote agents who go along, who don't question and that's been the problem.

BERMAN: All right, Ronald Kessler, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate your time. Again, when you hear that a Secret Service officer doesn't have his ear piece in or he's on a personal cellphone, you get the sense it's not the first time that someone there did not have their ear piece in or was talking on their personal cellphone.

PEREIRA: Makes you wonder about training, procedures, protocol, lots of questions.

BERMAN: Clearly a culture there that needs to be radically, radically changed. Ahead for us @THISHOUR, authorities in Ferguson, Missouri now telling residents to get ready to hunker down. What police now say could happen when a grand jury makes its decision in the shooting of Michael Brown.

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BERMAN: A new warning for residents of Ferguson, Missouri. Law enforcement telling people to get ready for trouble when a grand jury decides whether to indict a police officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown .

PEREIRA: One of Missouri's top law enforcement officials, the same man who was tasked with calming tensions in the days after Michael Brown was killed, is now advising residents there in Ferguson to stock up on supplies in case unrest builds into their neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN RON JOHNSON, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL: When the grand jury decision comes out, if there's crowds that are in your neighborhood then, yes, make sure you have those needs -- you need water and breakfast food and dinner food in your home so you don't have to run out to the grocery stores so, yes, I would recommend that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Captain Ron Johnson's comments to our affiliate KSDK came just hours after lawyers for Michael Brown's family implored law enforcement to use reasonable restraints in dealing with protesters. Our Sara Sidner joins us now live from Ferguson. Good afternoon, Sara. Good morning, I should say.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You know, I think we should talk about this on a broad scale when you talk about the folks here, because it's not just the folks in Ferguson, there are people in St. Louis, people in Clayton worried about what's going to happen. What are they doing? Some residents are doing what police are recommending.

They're going out and getting three day's worth of water and food to make sure they have it, as if there's a big snowstorm coming, for example. Some folks are saying, we always have that stuff in the house and there are others that are literally rolling their eyes saying, we don't know that it's going to be that bad. Everyone, though, is talking about it, especially here in Ferguson and a lot of businesses are quite worried because of what happened for a couple of days of the many days the protesters have been out here when there was rioting and looting. But the protesters point out -- and I've been here for now two months straight -- they point out, look, we've been peaceful for most of the time.

They've been protesting now for more than 90 days every single day and when you look at what's happened since then, it really hasn't looked anything like it did back in those first few days in August here in Ferguson. But I can tell you, along West Florissant, most of the businesses there, with the exception of literally one or two businesses, have boarded up in anticipation of what may come when that grand jury decision comes down. John and Michaela?

PEREIRA: And that's the big question is how soon could we be expecting this grand jury decision to come to be released?

SIDNER: You know, it's so hard to say. I can tell you, Michaela, that the rumors are rampant. I am literally getting calls every other day from people who are saying, we hear today's the day, and here's why and we have to constantly kind of go back and tell them, hold on a second, now here's what the prosecuting attorney's office is saying. And what they have been saying is it could happen any time from mid- to late November, so that is what they keep saying.

We are now coming into that. This weekend is mid-November and obviously through Thanksgiving that's the time frame that we've been given and certainly people are on pins and needles, and to speak to that, there has been statements put out by superintendents here of schools who are saying -- asking the prosecuting attorney's office to announce this when school is not in session. They have asked the prosecuting attorney to try to make that announcement, for example, on a Sunday so that it does not disrupt the school buses and the parents trying to get their children. That just gives you some idea of the preparation that is going on here, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Sara Sidner, it's really startling to hear that those kind of efforts are being made to try and skirt any kind of repetition of what we saw last time. Sara Sidner, great reporting. Thanks so much for us.

BERMAN: And obviously we'd love to see some peaceful demonstrations on those streets. Ahead for us @THISHOUR, a new recording surfaces raising new security concerns. A man claims to be the head of ISIS. If it is him, it could mean he survived U.S. airstrikes and is now calling for new attacks against American targets.

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