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New Day

ISIS Kills America Hostage Peter Kassig; Obama Not Backing Down on Immigration Reform; Police Audio Released in Ferguson Shooting; "Dating Coach" Under Fire

Aired November 17, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNDIENTIFIED MALE: The fifth western hostage Peter Kassig appears to be decapitated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is video a tragic reminder of the savagery of ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president's been in office for six years saying he's going to do this.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is a very simple solution: pass a bill I can sign on this issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American people really do believe in the rule of law. They don't have problem with immigration; they have a problem with illegal immigration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a red Cardinals hate, white t-shirt, yellow socks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A timeline of events from Brown's fatal encounter with Wilson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get us several more units over here; there's going to be a problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, welcome back to NEW DAY. I'm Alisyn Camerota, alongside Chris Cuomo. A third American has been killed by ISIS. It's a sickening new video released by the terror group and it shows a masked man standing over the severed head of U.S. hostage Peter Kassig.

CUOMO: The president blasting the murder of the former U.S. soldier and humanitarian aid worker, calling it the work of pure evil. CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This morning, U.S. officials left reeling over the new chilling video released by ISIS.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: This video that we've seen here is a tragic reminder of the savagery of ISIS.

JOHNS: In the nearly 15-minute production, the fifth western hostage, a native of Indiana, Peter Kassig, appears to be decapitated, his head left at the feet of a man now known as Jihadi John.

Kassig, who changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig after converting to Islam in captivity, has been held since October 2013. The latest video also showing the beheadings of other men whom ISIS claims are Syrian government pilots.

The man in black speaking directly to President Obama, threatening the U.S., warning "We will slaughter your soldiers, and eventually, the Islamic state will begin to slaughter your people on your streets."

Hours after the gruesome video's release, President Obama said in a statement, "Abdul-Rahman was taken from us in an act of pure evil. Like Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff before him, his life and deeds stand in stark contrast to everything that ISIL represents."

Kassig, the former Army ranger turned humanitarian aid worker and medic, was in Syria, where he told CNN that he could make a difference.

ABDUL-RAHMAN KASSIG, HUMANITARIAN AID WORKER: There is this impression, this belief that there is no hope, you know. That's when it's more important than ever that we come in against all odds and try to do something.

JOHNS: Last month, the 26-year-old's parents released a video pleading for their son's life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let our son go.

JOHNS: In a statement, Kassig's family says they're heartbroken to learn that their son has lost his life as a result of his love for the Syrian people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are so very proud of you and the work you have done.

JOHNS: Another American murdered as two more terror attacks struck near Baghdad International Airport on Sunday. The attacks, ISIS says, designed to kill Americans at the exit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: As the war rages on, we should remember Peter Kassig lost his life trying to help people in Syria in need. That's the main message that should be taken from that videotape. So the question is, what happens now with this? Let's bring in Major

General James "Spider" Marks, CNN military analyst, retired from the Army.

General, always a pleasure. Thank you for being with us.

GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.

CUOMO: There's obvious concern in how do we find the guys who are doing these terrible acts? And that should be going on for the coalition.

And then there's the secondary debate about should we show videos like this? But that's really not for today.

I think the message that may be missing, what's your take on this? These videos are proof of one thing. ISIS is what it is. Whether the U.S. is involved in going after them or not, they're not going to change. Fair point?

MARKS: I think it's very fair, Chris. This is not unlike -- I hate to draw the comparison, but it maybe fits -- this is not unlike containment against the Soviet Union and communism, you know, 40 years ago, in that we had to box it in. And that within a certain defined box, their behavior was going to be what it was going to be. We just didn't want it to expand.

And what you have now in the Mideast with ISIS -- and ISIS will morph into something else. Let's bear that in mind, too. It's ISIS today. It's going to be something else down the road. Is that it needs to be contained, and that's the official step that we're a part of right now. We're keeping it where it is. We don't want it to spread. It's in this ungoverned space, this denied area where there's no governance, other than that which they've put in place.

So these military actions right now can keep it in this box. And they do, they will continue to do, irrespective of who -- of what we do. It's their hatred for the West, for the display of coalition power, they're going to continue to do what they do.

CUOMO: Sixty different jihadi groups, spreading all the way from Syria to Egypt, are now getting on board, saying they support ISIS. They want to join forces. What is the relevance?

MARKS: Well, the relevance is that there seems to be an appeal for this type of barbarity and depravity. That, again, shouldn't surprise us in the least.

The numbers that are joining ISIS, I think most of those numbers are already radicalized completely, either self-radicalized or a part of a group. And this is a place -- this is like a destination video. This is an opportunity. These incredibly well-put-together marketing collateral, if you will, that ISIS has put together simply draws those that have already been radicalized. This isn't going to turn anybody. This simply gives those that are in the game an opportunity to go someplace. CUOMO: I had an analyst say to me this weekend, I was like "Wow, 60

groups, that's something." Given the outside member, it's 200,000 people out of 1.4 billion.

MARKS: Right.

CUOMO: He's like these are bad guys who are already out there. They're always seeking some type of connection to others. And that's all that is.

All right. So then it gets to strategy. There are calls again for what the U.S. is doing in Syria. We remember now -- it sounds like a shock to people. President Obama wanted to bomb in Syria a little over a year ago. He was told no by Congress. Don't do it. Now it's "What do we do with Assad?"

Do you buy into the argument that, if you go after Assad, you hurt your efforts against ISIS, because you're going to upset the Sunnis there who you need very desperately in the fight against ISIS? Explain.

MARKS: Yes, well Chris, what you just described is this confluence of these different elements in these polls and really what I would describe in less precise terms as a complete mess.

If you were at this point, if the United States was to try to go after Assad simultaneously, as we try to continue and increase our pressure on ISIS, these efforts really get conflated. And I think the United States would have to take a step back and say, you know, "We are now biting off far too much."

In fact, here's the argument that I would use. If Assad was gone today, would that in any way modify or mitigate the behavior we see with ISIS? And I think the response to that is, no, not at all. They are -- as you described, they are what they are.

So I think we need to keep Assad off to the side. We've got to monitor that as best we can. We need to reinforce any effort that takes place, as we are, to try to collapse Assad. That's going to take quite some time. We need to maintain our focus on ISIS. This is first things first. That's got to be done.

CUOMO: And as members of the military always say, it's not about who's the bad guy? It's about which bad guy do you want to go after? Certainly, Assad does not stand alone as a guy we'd rather not see in power from the U.S. perspective.

Lastly, General, the president has been criticized roundly for saying what he will not do and that that's bad strategy. So now he comes out and says, "Well, I do foresee circumstances where the U.S. would have to put bother on the ground again." And he is getting criticized for saying he'll put boots on the ground. Is this a damned if you do, don't situation?

MARKS: No. No, no. I think from the outset, the president should never take options off the table. We've discussed that before. But the fact is, what he's saying now is that if ISIS were to achieve

a capability like the acquisition of a small nuclear capability or maybe enhanced delivery capabilities for weapons of mass destruction -- that's chemicals or biological agents -- we would have to strike, because if we don't, the conditions would be so egregious, post- strike, if ISIS were to use that, that it would very much limit our options to try to achieve a favorable outcome.

So if we had great intelligence -- and intelligence is not a precise science; it's a combination of science and art. But if we had good intelligence just like we thought we had in 2003 to justify the invasion of Iraq, we should act. It's the danger of underestimating that capability far exceeds the danger of acting in advance.

CUOMO: And even that would be a far less potent tool against the spread ISIS and its ideas than these actual sovereigns that are affected, whether it's Syria or Egypt or all in between, taking their own steps to deal with the root causes of extremism in the first place. We just keep jumping to U.S. military action as if it were a panacea. We now know that's not the case.

MARKS: It's not.

CUOMO: General Spider Marks, always a pleasure. Good luck to you there at the University of Phoenix. We know you're there, running things now. Thanks for being with us.

MARKS: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Another top story. President Obama refusing to back down on the possibility of using executive authority on immigration reform, even after some Republicans have threatened a government shutdown to try to stop him.

Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash is following the latest for us, live from Washington. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Last year when the government shut down, you kind of heard the same thing from Republicans, saying that they have no intention of stepping on the government. They just want to repeal Obamacare. But of course, one did lead to the other.

The question is whether or not the same is going to happen now. Republicans across the board saying that they don't want to shut the government down. But they also want to fight back against the president and this executive action that they expect -- everybody expects him to do by the end of the year.

I think that the difference the year, Alisyn, this year is that Republicans kind of across the board understand that that's not going to get them anywhere with their core goal, which is to really genuinely stop the president on immigration.

And so that's why they're talking about a number of issues on Capitol Hill. Not just using the power of the purse, which is what could lead to a shutdown, but also some legal remedies and also, God forbid, legislating. Doing what the president wants them to do and to craft legislation so this executive order would not be necessary.

He's doing it, he says, to go it alone, because Congress simply hasn't acted in six years. But the bottom line is that Republicans are united in opposing what the president wants to do but very much not done. And they don't have a decision yet on how to fight back on what the president is going to do in executive order.

CAMEROTA: Legislating, perish the thought, Dana.

All right. Thanks so much.

BASH: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's get over to Michaela for some other news.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, lots of headlines to give you this morning. Here's an update on Ebola. A surgeon diagnosed with Ebola in Sierra Leone, he is in extremely critical condition, is being -- is being described as perhaps the sickest person yet to be treated in the United States. He's Dr. Marin Salia. He's in an isolation unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Meanwhile, the CDC just announced airport screening will begin for travelers flying to the U.S. from Mali, which is now reporting at least three Ebola cases.

American negotiators are heading back to Vienna to try to hammer out a treaty limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions. They have a week before the current deal with Tehran expires. According to "The New York Times," the president's top national security advisers are putting the chance of reaching an agreement this month at just 40 to 50 percent.

The U.S. Senate is bracing for a big debate over the Keystone XL oil pipelines. Senate leaders will vote on the pipeline tomorrow. Keystone is a major issue in Louisiana's Senate run-off, set for next month. Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu wants a chance to vote for the pipeline to show her clout in the Senate.

More than 100,000 people have submitted applications for health insurance under Obamacare during the program's second enrollment period. The numbers and limited glitches with site marked an astounding turnaround for Healthcare.gov. You might respect the program's first enrollment period was a bit of a technological disaster. We'll be watching those numbers.

CAMEROTA: Hmm. I do vaguely remember that.

PEREIRA: Vaguely? Remember that?

CAMEROTA: There was a problem. There were some glitches. PEREIRA: There was a few things there.

CAMEROTA: That rings a bell.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right. Thanks, Michaela.

So for the first time, we are now hearing the audio from the Ferguson police dispatcher during the fatal encounter between Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson. The attorney for Brown's family will join us momentarily to discuss the latest developments.

CUOMO: Plus, "TIME" magazine asks if the man coming up on your screen is the most hated man in the world. Not Jihadi John. This guy. He calls himself a dating guru, but that's just a nice way of saying he teaches men to become predators. Now countries don't even want him crossing the borders. What is going on here? Julien Blanc is his name, and he's going to be put to the test on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We have some new audio to play for you this morning. It's from the Ferguson police dispatcher during the deadly encounter between Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson. It turns out the entire ordeal lasted less than 90 seconds. Let's listen to some of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, we've taken a stealing in progress from 9101 West Florissant, 9-1-0-1 West Florissant. The subject may be leaving the business at this time. Stand by for further.

OFFICER DARREN WILSON, SHOT MICHAEL BROWN: Twenty-one. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me other car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frank 25.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get us several more units over here. There's going to be a problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there any available Ferguson units who can respond to Canfield and Copper Creek, advise?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: That was audio from before and after the shooting. Now, "The St. Louis Dispatch," "Post-Dispatch," I should say, the newspaper that released that audio, also released this surveillance video showing Officer Wilson entering and leaving the Ferguson Police Department just hours after the shooting of Michael Brown.

Here to discuss all these new details is the attorney for Michael Brown's family, Ben Crump. He joins us live from Tallahassee, Florida. Good morning, Mr. Crump.

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's start with that audio tape. What did you learn from listening to this new release from the dispatcher?

CRUMP: Well, clearly it's demonstrated from the audio that the initial encounter between the police officer and Michael Brown Jr. had nothing to do with the incident that happened at the convenience store. And when you listen to the remainder of it, you -- there is nothing to establish that any interaction he had between Michael Brown Jr. related back to the incident at the convenience store.

CAMEROTA: And let me just clarify that for our viewers, because what happened is first he just encounters Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson in the middle of the street, and he tells them to move over to the side of the street. He has that initial encounter.

Then he hears, or he realizes that they match the description of that robbery from the convenience store. And he then calls in for backup.

CRUMP: But that -- well, that's not what's demonstrated on the audio. Because he would have sent certain signals on the police dispatch that he didn't say him. So when you listen to this audio, we are asking, where is he relating it back to the incident at the convenience store? He doesn't do that.

Now, they claim there's some missing audio that wasn't recorded that he did. But you know, with all of this mistrust, how can this family, how can this community take their word for anything at this point?

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk about the surveillance video that you see of Officer Wilson coming in and out of the Ferguson Police Department. So you can see here he enters; he goes into a back room. It's black and white. It's a little grainy. It's sort of hard to see. But what do you see when you look at this surveillance video?

CRUMP: Well, clearly, it doesn't match what was leaked by the authorities at the beginning, that he had an orbital blowout fracture to his eye socket. And, you know, they've tried to say this, somewhat to suggest that what he did in killing the unarmed teenager in broad daylight was justified, Alisyn.

But when we see this video with our own eyes, which was taken hours after the tragedy, he's not holding his eye. He's not in pain. He hasn't went to the hospital. And everybody says if he would have had an orbital blowout fracture...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CRUMP: ... you would have been on that scene holding your eye, going immediately to the hospital. So why did they exaggerate this?

CAMEROTA: Well, Mr. Crump that -- that report of the orbital eye fracture was always discredited. We had discredited it here at CNN since August. That was always a suspicious source.

But what -- what had been said was that he had facial swelling and had to go to the hospital. And it's frankly hard to tell when you look at this video from this distance whether or not he has some abrasions or swelling.

CRUMP: Well, Alisyn, I think the Ferguson Police Department was doing what police departments all across America do when there's an accusation of excessive force and a police shooting. They try to exaggerate the injuries, victimize the victim -- I'm sorry, demonize the victim, and then try to put on the pedestal the police officer.

And what the community wants is you to be square with them. They have mistrust already. They want to believe that, when the police have an interaction with somebody in their community, that they're going to be honest and fair and that we as a community can try to get through this together. Because this community needs healing. We want peace. And the only way to get that is to get justice and try to be honest with the citizens.

CAMEROTA: Have Michael Brown's parents heard this new audio or seen this new video?

CRUMP: Yes, ma'am, they have, and they're very troubled by it.

CAMEROTA: What troubles them the most?

CRUMP: The fact that they heard how injured this police officer was. Everybody in the community sais, "Oh, he was so injured," as to try to justify what he did to their child.

And now they're looking at this video. And there was also surveillance video, Alisyn, at the scene, where he's walking around. He doesn't seem to be in pain, doesn't seem to be injured at all. But, you know, the subsequent police reports will say, "Oh, he was horrifically injured."

And that's not what we do when we're trying to build trust within a community. We try to be square; we try to tell the truth. Because we have to be honest with the community if they're going to have trust in our law enforcement officers. And that's more than anything in Ferguson what's going on. There's great mistrust, and so that's why so much emotion is going on in light of the grand jury coming back.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Crump, is it still your understanding that the grand jury will come back with its findings this week?

CRUMP: You know, they're going to give the family notice, and when we get that notice, we can confirm. Until that time, we can't.

CAMEROTA: And Mr. Crump, are you calling for the community to the remain calm regardless of the outcome?

CRUMP: Alisyn, we have from the beginning done that. And we have to find some positive out of this negative. We have to come together and say we have to make sure we change the system so we don't have to keep this being repeated over and over again in so many American cities. We've got to figure out as Americans how to break this vicious cycle of us losing our children and it being swept under the world.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Crump, we always appreciate you making time for NEW DAY.We will check back in with you this week.

CRUMP: Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So Alisyn, this morning, the government of Britain is worried about ISIS, home-grown terror attacks and this man, a self- styled dating coach named Julien Blanc. Britain finds his techniques for schmoozing women to be so bad the country is considering banning him. Thousands have signed a petition to stop him. Tweet me your questions and watch the responses. They'll be coming up from the man, himself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good day, back with us here on NEW DAY. Here's a look at your headlines.

ISIS has beheaded former U.S. soldier and humanitarian aid worker Peter Kassig. He is the fifth western hostage now killed by the terrorists. A (UNINTELLIGIBLE) militant stands over the 26-year-old's severed head, vowing to kill more Americans. The president has condemned the beheading, calling it, quote, "an act of pure evil."

Dramatic video now coming to light that purports to show the final moments right after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed. In this amateur video, you can see shocked villagers in Ukraine trying to make sense of what happened, some of them running towards the scene with buckets of water. Now, after a four-month delay, truckloads of debris are finally being removed from that crash site.

Bill Cosby's attorney speaking out against rape allegations against the comedian, saying Cosby will not respond to the decade-old discredited claims, as he says. This weekend, Cosby was interviewed on NPR about his African-American art collection. He was given a chance to respond to the alleged incident but close to remain silent.

A French tourist is facing charges this morning after a risky stunt atop -- where else -- the Brooklyn Bridge. Police say 23-year-old Jonathan Souid climbed over a fence on the pedestrian walkway of the bridge, walked up a beam above traffic just to snap photos. This is the third security breach this year alone at the iconic bridge. You'll recall in July some German artists scaled both towers and swapped the American flags for white flags.

All right, those are your headlines. Let's go over to Chris. An interesting about to be had here.

CUOMO: All right, Mick. It's definitely a story that many of you out there weighing in on already in large numbers. The so-called dating coach who's now being called the most hated man in the world. That's the question that "TIME" magazine asks. And it largely comes from a video from one of his seminars that emerged online. In it there are techniques that are considered so bad that they allege on sexual assault.

Now several countries are trying to keep him out, including Australia, the U.K. and Brazil. We have the man at the center of this controversy, Julien Blanc, with us here on NEW DAY.

You seem noticeably nervous, Julien. Why is that?

JULIEN BLANC, SELF-PROCLAIMED DATING COACH: Well, I'm sure you read the headlines. But first, before getting into that, I just want to apologize, you know, to anybody I've offended in any way. This was never my intention, and I just wanted to add that I'm extremely sorry for -- for everything that happened.

CUOMO: The key to an apology is honesty, right? How can you say that you didn't intend any of this, when we just looked at the picture that was behind us? Not the beautiful cityscape here. But of your face holding a really ugly saying about women. You intended every part of this, true?

BLANC: My intentions were never bad. I agree it was a horrible attempt at humor. And unfortunately, a lot of it just got put out of context.

CUOMO: These aren't memes. You have a course that you do here?

BLANC: Yes.

CUOMO: And again the honesty of it is, this is a program you put in place that you think can help guys meet women and "meet" is in quotes. Not an accident. Not a meme, not a one-time thing. This is a pattern of behavior. I don't hear you owning it.

BLANC: Basically I teach guys how to gain confidence. Most of them socially awkward. Teach guys how to gain confidence in order to socialize with women and perhaps get into a relationship with a woman.