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President Obama About to Unveil Overhaul on Immigration; More Snow for Upstate New York; Shooting in Florida State University Library; Requesting Full Recall for Faulty Airbags

Aired November 20, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in "THE NEWSROOM," Bill Cosby under fire and under pressure to answer questions about alleged sex assaults. A reporter asks him about it on camera. We'll show you.

Plus, immigration showdown. The president holds a primetime address as opponents nickname him Emperor Obama. Can Congress stop his executive order?

And airbag investigation. A Capitol Hill hearing grilling the maker of millions of airbags, probably ones in your own car. Was there a cover-up? Did they know about the problems and not say anything? Let's talk. Live in the CNN "NEWSROOM."

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. President Obama just hours from a primetime address, and that will be on television. But the teaser came online, on Facebook. The president will unveil a major overhaul of immigration laws.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long. And so what I'm going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mr. Obama will bypass Congress and use his executive power. It's a controversial move that could shield more than 3 million illegal immigrants from deportation. The "Wall Street Journal" NBC News poll shows, though, nearly half of Americans do not approve of the president using executive action, and that adds to the public outcry that President Obama is overstepping his powers. Top Republicans are denouncing the president's power play as the latest act of "Emperor Obama." Senator Mitch McConnell just spoke on the floor of the Senate. CNN's Athena Jones is on Capitol Hill to tell us what he said. Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. As you know, Republicans have been fuming about the president's plan to go around Congress, and they have been warning him against taking this unilateral action on immigration reform. Let's play for you what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor just a few minutes ago. He, of course, will be the new majority leader in the new Congress. Let's go ahead and play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, REPUBLICAN LEADER: If President Obama acts in defiance of the people and imposes his will on the country, Congress will act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now McConnell said that President Obama taking this action is unfair. He said it's an overreach. It's unfair to the legal immigrants who have been waiting in line. And he said that Congress - the Republicans in Congress are considering a range of options. Now, what exactly will they do? That's unclear, but we know that this is something that they've been talking about. They've been talking about possibly trying to sue the president. They've been talking about using the power of the purse to try to strip some of the funding from the agencies that would carry out this executive action. \

That gets very complicated because a lot of these agencies are fee- based. They run on fees. They've also talked about possibly blocking nominations. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas has said that Republicans in the Senate should block any nominations that the administration puts forward. That would include Loretta Lynch, for example, who has been nominated to be attorney general. So they're still discussing the steps that they might take, but this is certainly -- we can certainly expect to see more heated rhetoric coming out of this announcement tonight. Carol?

COSTELLO: I think that is safe to say. Athena Jones reporting live from Capitol Hill this morning. I want to dig a little deeper on this topic with Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar. Welcome.

REP. HENRY CUELLAR, (D) TEXAS: Thank you so much, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here, sir. Is President Obama acting like an emperor?

CUELLAR: No. Look, I'd rather have a bipartisan legislative solution to have comprehensive immigration reform. But look, since 1956, Dwight Eisenhower and other presidents, Democrats, Republicans have used executive order to provide reprieve from deportation. In fact, the last two out of the last three of Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and Bush 1, the father, they used almost the same thing that President Obama is going to be doing to provide some sort of reprieve from deportation. So it's been done before. And unless we have some precedents ...

COSTELLO: Yes, but when it's been done before, there has been legislation passed through the Congress and the president simply added on to it, not so this time.

CUELLAR: Well, the 1986 law, which we're still working under, the 1986 law pretty much then, you know, said that it was going to provide amnesty. That was amnesty. This is just a reprieve. But it didn't cover some of the family members. So, the president is again providing a reprieve. Not adding a classification, but a reprieve from deportation. Next president can change it through another executive order, if they want to, he or she. Or Congress can always come back with an immigration reform law, which I support and I ask Democrats and Republicans to do that.

COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing. According to this poll, this "Wall Street Journal" poll, only 38 percent of Americans actually like the idea of an executive order. They really want everybody on Capitol Hill to get together and come up with an idea, you know, like a compromise. So why should the majority of Americans be ignored by the president?

CUELLAR: Yes. And, you know, the majority of the Americans support immigration reform. On your poll, which you're right, I think people want us to work together and you're right. I mean they do want us to work together. And that's what I prefer. But the president is going to go ahead and take the action against that poll. But I agree with you, that's what the American public -- that's what I prefer. And if the president does that, let's see if we can come up with a bipartisan solution just like they did after Ronald Reagan issued his executive order in the 1980s.

COSTELLO: You heard what Senator McConnell said. He said if President Obama goes ahead with his executive action, then Congress has options and they will act on those option. What do you think Senator McConnell is talking about?

CUELLAR: Well, you know, the Republicans are going to be looked and are going to be judged by how they react to this. And again, we do have some policy differences, I agree with that. But how we react is going to be important. Two things. One, I hope that a new strong anti-immigrant rhetoric. Number two, and number two - that's number one, but number two, I hope that they don't shut down the government like they did last time. They can take other vehicles, but let's not shut down the government and let's not get emotional and use anti- immigrant rhetoric.

COSTELLO: And then a final question. If President Obama goes through with this, and you know how angry Republicans are. Republicans are going to control both houses of Congress in January. Won't this make it more difficult for Democrats to work with Republicans, especially in the Senate, and in the House?

CUELLAR: Well, you know, unfortunately even if there's a majority of small, Congress can't get along. We can't do this - we can't work together. It doesn't matter what numbers there are. I just hope that, you know, we put aside our differences. I want to be bipartisan. I want to see the Congress be bipartisan. That is what the American people want us to do. They want us to stop playing games and get to work and I agree with that.

COSTELLO: But you're supportive of the president's executive action, right? CUELLAR: My preference is a legislative solution. That is my

preference. If the president does it, I support immigration reform. We can always come back and make any changes. Like for example, there's some things that the president is going to do, like to secure community. I don't agree with them on that. I think we need to have maybe an amendment to the secure community, but that's something - that's dealing with deportation of criminals. I don't want to see criminals in the U.S. So we have differences. And I don't agree with him 100 percent. But on the concept of immigration reform, I agree with the president.

COSTELLO: All right, Congressman Cuellar, thank you so much for being with me this morning, I appreciate it.

CUELLAR: Thank you. Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Make sure to - You're welcome. Make sure you watch CNN tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern for live coverage of the president's primetime address.

Let's head to Florida State now, where classes have been cancelled and exams put on hold this morning as gunfire erupts in the school library. It happened around midnight. The library was crowded with students studying when they heard this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been a shooting in the library. Stay where you are. We'll be coming to give you more clearing and take care of anybody. If anybody has a victim, if anybody has been shot, call 911 on your cell phones. If you have not been shot, or you do not know if somebody was armed, do not call 911. If you know somebody has a gun, or you know somebody who was shot, call 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: When it was over, three students were shot. Right now, one of those students remains in critical condition. Those inside the library used books and tables to barricade themselves from the shooter. The gunman, according to police, acted alone and he was eventually killed by police. Nick Valencia is on the Florida campus in Tallahassee with more. Do we know who the shooter is?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the principal question that remains unanswered at this hour. Who was this gunman, Carol, and why did he carry out this shooting? You mentioned last night, a lot of students were inside Strozier Library, an estimated 300 students inside. Some of them had some exams tomorrow. Many of them took to social media as the shooting was happening to describe what they were seeing in real time. Some of them posting to social media as a way for their loved ones to note that they were all right. Sara Evans was one of those students here at the library. She spoke to us earlier and told us what she saw happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SARA EVANS: I will never forget the look on his face. It was actually he yelled, you know, in the video, "I've been shot, there's a gun, and that's when everybody in the library freaked out. And I didn't believe it. I think I was laughing in the video because I was, like, what? You know. You're just not really prepared for something like that. So he just looked so shocked and I just didn't know what to do. I just was like oh, my gosh, are you OK? And, you know, we just wanted to get him help. But yeah, he was wounded laying on the ground. So that's when we really freaked out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Sara Evans mentioning the anxiety that she was going through. Many students that we've seen come back here today to try to retrieve some of their belongings that they left here last night. One student ditched her car because she was afraid that she was going to get wrapped up in the gunfire. We saw students still today, this morning, visibly crying, shaking. Just sort of trying to make sense of what happened. And I want to share with you another post, we are talking about social media, Carol. A very chilling post by a father of someone who is a student here.

David Cilic posted on his Twitter timeline a little while ago, saying rattled tonight by a text and call from daughter at FSU. While in library during shooting, praying for all involved. And he got his text message from his daughter that said there's a man with the gun in the library, I love you. And he didn't hear from his daughter after that. She is OK. We should mention that to our viewers. But certainly people here on this campus still visibly shaken after a gunman shot and injured three people last night. He is dead now at this hour, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nick Valencia reporting live from Tallahassee this morning. Also happening right now, officials from airbag maker Takata as well as Honda and Chrysler are preparing to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on airbag failures that have led to the deaths of at least four U.S. drivers. They'll be joined by one woman who survived an airbag defection. The hearing comes just days after federal regulators requested a nationwide expansion of the recall of those Takata airbags.

Still to come in the "NEWSROOM", say it ain't so. Buffalo gets socked by snow again! CNN's Brian Todd is just east of the snow-clogged city. Hi, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Look at this neighborhood behind me. Snow almost up to the roof. This is Cheektowaga, New York. Several people had to be evacuated from here and more snow is on the way. We'll show you what these people are up against just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It always sounds so strange to me. That's thunder snow. Well, big storm is not over yet, sadly, for western New York and other parts of the northeast. Take a look at this. Buffalo is bracing for up to three more feet of snow today. Six feet already on the ground. Check out this drone video, because I guess everyone has a drone that can fly over snow-covered streets. If an expected warm-up comes this weekend, as it should, all of this snow could melt. And, of course, that could create other problems like dangerous flooding. CNN's Brian Todd joins us now. He's live east of Buffalo. Good morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are in Cheektowaga, New York. This is a senior citizens neighborhood that's had a lot of problems. About 20 people have had to be evacuated from this neighborhood overnight and this morning. Because of all these problems. Check it out. You've got snow up to -- almost up to the roofs. There's a lady trying to dig herself out over here, here's a snow drift over here that kind of gives you an idea what people are up against as they try to dig out. I saw a gentleman trying to dig himself out over here a little while ago and he kind of gave up on it.

Now, look at - this is a big problem. The snow on the roof -- check out this light blue house over here. That is a scene repeated throughout the Buffalo area. Snow on the roofs so heavy that a lot of roofs are collapsing. A lot of roofs here have -- and they're in danger of collapsing. That's why they evacuated people. And again, this is a senior citizen complex here, and we've been told that the power is out in some of the houses here, so that is what people are up against. And if you can see the dark sky over here, the snow is about to start again. I heard you talking about thunder snow. They're about to get more of it, Carol. Eight deaths have been attributed to the storm so far and they're bracing for round two, which is going to come today, maybe two to three more feet before Friday, Carol.

COSTELLO: Just unbelievable. Brian Todd reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the "NEWSROOM," a push to get defective airbags off U.S. roadways after the deaths of four drivers are blamed on those faulty devices. CNN's Christine Romans has more for you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, and Capitol Hill trying to get to the bottom of a very big mess for consumers. When you spend tens of thousands of dollars for a car, you don't expect something that's supposed to protect you could kill you. I've got that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: More than 8 million U.S. cars have been recalled in connection with airbags made by Takata. And if federal regulators get their way, that number will increase. The Center for Auto Safety says four U.S. drivers were killed after their airbags exploded and shrapnel entered the car. Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants five automakers, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, BMW and Mazda to expand their recall from regional to nationwide.

Right now as we speak on Capitol Hill, officials from two of those automakers plus an executive from Takata are testifying to the Senate about this controversy. Their appearance comes as two senators claim a fifth U.S. death could be tied to the airbags. Those senators join the sister of that victim who gave an emotional speech before the hearing began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM KOPF, CLAIMS SISTER WAS KILLED BY TAKATA AIRBAG: Whenever anyone has asked either my mother or myself how she died, our response has never wavered, has never changed. It has always been, that we say it was from the airbag. The airbag is what killed my sister.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: For its part, Takata says it is unaware of this latest incident and is looking into it. CNN's Christine Romans joins us now. And as you said in the break, this is a mess.

ROMANS: This is really a mess, because you have one airbag maker that is supplying all these different cars, makes, and models. Millions of cars out there on the road around the world, but in the U.S. as well. And a recall that's only regional. They've issued a recall for these airbags just in the southeast where there's high humidity. Raises an awful lot of questions, Carol. What if you own a car in Iowa, and you drive down to Florida, that car hasn't been recalled, but is it still unsafe? So, there's a lot of real issues here. The government would like all of these cars to be recalled with these airbags. What's the problem with the airbags? They explode when there's an accident, they explode sending pieces of shrapnel into the person in the car.

COSTELLO: So they explode more forcefully than they should and it destroys the steel thing that's in the steering wheel.

ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: And that turns into shrapnel and it hits people in the car.

ROMANS: And so law enforcement have said that in the accidents they've investigated in these cars, it looks as though people have been shot and stabbed. It isn't something that is protecting them, it's something that is making it worse. Now, some of the automakers have been responding differently than others. Toyota, for example, is going to replace all of these things, but when it runs out of replacement, it's going to maybe start disabling some of the airbags. And there's safety experts to say, well, maybe we don't want to be disabling airbags. And Takata says it's making about 300,000 replacement airbags inflators every month, but that's not enough for millions and millions of recalls. So that means there will be cars on the road without enough replacements to fix them, even if your car is recalled. It's a very tricky situation. We have -- we're going to hear from the Takata executive, something we haven't really heard. They've mostly been writing and corresponding with the media and the American public in press releases, in its written statements. We will be able to hear - they will say they are sorry and they'll talk about what they're going to do to try to speed up this process (INAUDIBLE) in these cars.