Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama Takes Middle Class Pitch on the Road; Rising GOP Star, Combat Vet Rebuts Obama; Tel Aviv Stabbing Spree; Russia Denies Troops Entered Ukraine

Aired January 21, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM, does this sound like a lame-duck president to you?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no more campaigns to run. My only agenda -- I know because I won both of them.

COSTELLO: Talking tough on terror and talking up his track record here at home.

OBAMA: I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorize the use of force against ISIL. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis.

OBAMA: But think everyone's buying it?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: America needs many things, but what America desperately needs is new leadership.

REP. CURT CLAWSON (R), FLORIDA: Pretty much the same rhetoric we've heard for the past six years.

COSTELLO: A new chapter or the same old? Our experts weigh in.

Also, in Yemen, militants seize the presidential palace.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you believe the president is still in control of the country?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a coup.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: A national security crisis for the U.S. The immediate worry, the safety of several hundred American embassy workers. An embassy vehicle already shot at.

COSTELLO: The question now, what should the United States do next?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (on camea): And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We start this morning with major breaking news stories from around the globe. First to Tel Aviv where police in Israel are investigating a terror attack. Authorities say a Palestinian man went on a stabbing spree on a commuter bus.

We begin our coverage with CNN correspondent Elise Labott. She's in Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Police say this 23-year- old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Tulkarem arrived in Tel Aviv this morning, got on the bus at the central bus station. Two stations later he took out that knife and began stabbing people. Police forces, they searched the area. They haven't found any other suspects connected to the attack. Naturally, though, Tel Aviv on high alert as is Jerusalem.

Now there's no indication any terrorist group is involved. It does seem like we're talking about a so-called lone wolf attack.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: To Paris now where the prime minister just announced major steps to increase security in the wake of terror attacks at "Charlie Hebdo" and a kosher grocery store.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANUEL VALIS, FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (Through Translator): In total there are close to 3,000, I repeat, 3,000 people to monitor. This change in scale is a tall order for our country and for our partners, notably those who are European.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: France will invest nearly half a billion dollars and add thousands of new security jobs which the prime minister says will be indispensable to guarantee the protection of the French people.

To Ukraine now where the country's prime minister says Russians crossed the border to join the fight. Russia says it's not true. This, as there are new reports this morning that Ukraine plans to boost their army by almost 70,000 troops.

CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has again rejected those allegations coming from Ukraine in particular, but also NATO and the United Nations and others, that Russian troops have been crossing the border, Russian heavy weaponry has been crossing the border, saying that look, we've heard this in the past, this is what he said, but we haven't seen any evidence for it. Give us the satellite photos. Show us the evidence.

And that's been the Russian argument all along. And it's been at the root of these Russian denials.

COSTELLO: And finally to Yemen where rebels are standing guard outside the private residence of that country's president. Uncertainty is growing over who's actually in charge of the Middle Eastern nation. As you know, Yemen is a key U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda. One government's minister is calling it an all-out coup.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Yemen this morning.

Is it an all-out coup?

WALSH: It's certainly a change in the balance of power here. And it has a lot, as one diplomat says, if it walks like a coup, if it talks like a coup, then it is coup. There's a lot to suggest that something has happened here. But I have just been speaking to a Yemeni official who's pretty well briefed on these things. Actually he spoke just recently to the president who is still in his residence here in Sana'a. That is a place that is now surrounded by Houthi militia men.

The official explained that because part of his body guard left during the violence yesterday but a part remains. And they're now sharing the job of protecting him with the Houthi gunmen outside. That's his take on the situation. And as it currently stands the president considers himself to be president and thinks he can come and go as he pleases.

So a picture here certainly which has some accuracy. Going on to say that no one's called on the president to step down. No one has called for the government to be dissolved. That is clear.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi leader, last night in a lengthy speech, called the president. So it's very confusing at this to work out who's actually in control of this country. The Houthis are definitely making it clear, they are the dominant power here. They have some clear demands. They want changes to the new constitution. Certainly pick a leader, kind of their finger in every pie, so to speak.

But President Hadi doesn't really have much other than the trappings of power at this stage inside his residence. And it's going to be a confusing few hours or day ahead as people try to explain to Yemenis in the outside world exactly who still runs Yemen -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Yemen.

Joining me now is Bob Baer, a former operative and CNN's intelligence and security analyst.

Good morning, Bob.

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So it's a very confusing situation in Yemen. The Houthi rebels are not affiliated with al Qaeda, so if this really is a coup and the Houthi rebels take over, will there now be this big fight between the al Qaeda forces in Yemen and the Houthi rebels?

BAER: I think what we could do is liken it to the division in Syria where the country is split in half between Sunni and Shia. We're going to see the same thing in Yemen. We're going to see a state where there is no central government to speak of. We're going to -- it will be a lingering civil war. It's almost certain, which means that al Qaeda will have an even stronger base. U.S. intelligence will have no natural ally to go after al Qaeda. It will be a much safer, you know, platform for them to launch attacks on the West.

You know, most of the good drone strikes are with the help of the Yemeni government. Now that's going to be gone. So this is going to be a huge setback for the United States.

COSTELLO: So the Houthi rebels still call the president of Yemen the president. Why would they do that?

BAER: You know, they are -- they don't want to admit they're dividing the country. They are very worried about Saudi Arabia. They want to confine this conflict. They're afraid the Saudis are going to come in on the side of the president and the United States. They want to tampen down the conflict as much as they can.

I don't think they'll succeed because at the end of the day Saudi Arabia's a Sunni country and the Houthis are Zaydi Shia and they are effectively allied with Iran. So there's all sorts of levels this is being played out at. But anyhow it's a mess.

COSTELLO: It does sound like a mess. And in the middle of all of this is the U.S. embassy in Yemen. Our diplomats are still there. Should they be evacuated at this point?

BAER: I would get them out. We don't need any more dead American diplomats. They're there for symbolic reasons. American intelligence officers can't get out on the street. Our military cooperation has effectively come to an end so -- I mean, right now flying the flag in the middle of a civil war in Yemen, you know, obviously that's the call of the ambassador, but if I were in Washington I'd be getting very nervous at this point.

COSTELLO: All right, Bob Baer, thanks for your insight as usual. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the State of the Union and the morning after.

We're back in a minute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Nearly 6 in 10 Americans think the country's headed in the wrong direction. The president has a 50 percent approval rating but 60 percent of us think we're headed in the wrong direction which I guess means there's 10 percent out there who like that we're heading in the wrong direction?

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": The Obamas invited 20 guests to the speech including a former Cuban prisoner, an astronaut, and a doctor. Either that or he's setting up the weirdest bar joke of all time.

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN": President Obama just had Oprah over to the White House. Oprah went to the White House. Yes. I think Oprah gave him some advice because tonight during his State of the Union speech President Obama gave everyone in the audience a brand new Nissan Sentra.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right. We have new video coming in of a terror attack in Tel Aviv in Israel. It happened on a bus in the middle of the city. A Palestinian man, according to authorities, went on board that bus and began stabbing people. He then ran off the bus and stabbed some other people.

Let's head to Jerusalem now and check in with Elise Labott.

I just want to warn our viewers before we show them this video, it's disturbing.

LABOTT: Well, that's right, Carol. This 23-year-old Palestinian gentleman from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, a couple of stations from the main bus station in Tel Aviv, central Tel Aviv, Carol, during the start of rush hour, women, children, soldiers on this bus, basically stabbed about eight people. Then you can see in the video, the man gets off the bus, runs -- kind of running around, sees another person, stabs them, and then tries to make his getaway.

Now, Carol, at this point he was discovered by some people that worked for the Israeli Prison Authority. They saw the bus was stopped at a green light. People running off the bus. They went in pursuit of this Palestinian man. They shot him in the leg. They arrested him, interrogated him, and obviously searched the area to see if there were any more suspects. There are not.

Right now he's in custody and Tel Aviv on high alert as is Jerusalem -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Was this the, you know, what they call a lone wolf attack or is it something more?

LABOTT: It does seem as it's a lone wolf, attack. And this is really, Carol, what we've seen as the new tactic in Israel. You remember last year there were a lot of instances of Palestinians mowing down Israelis with their cars, particularly in Jerusalem. We had that horrible stabbing in a Jerusalem synagogue. These seem to be lone wolf attacks. Not necessarily connected with any terrorist group but certainly share their aspirations and today Hamas did praise that attack.

There's no indication that Hamas was involved in any way. And Hamas did praise the attack so saying that the Israelis deserved this for their treatment of Palestinians and for his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this is the kind of incitement against Israel, against Jews, anti-Semitism that we saw in Paris and elsewhere around the world that inspires people to take these attack -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. I would like us to stop showing that video because it is disturbing because you see a woman on the street being stabbed. So we're going to stop showing that now.

They're going to try to gather more information for us, Elise. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Let's talk about the State of the Union right now. President Obama sounding confident and defiant in last night's State of the Union. And as many observers probably noticed, it's not at all like a lame duck.

In spite of a midterm route that many said was a referendum on his policies, the president delivered a speech that touted his successes and at times taunted his critics.

Here now are some of the moments that got us talking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: America, for all that we have endured, all the grit, hard work required to come back, for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this, the shadow of crisis has passed and the State of the Union is strong.

Since I've been president, we've worked responsibly to cut the population of Gitmo in half. Now it is time to finish the job, and I will not relent in my determination to shut it down. It is not who we are.

That's why we defend free speech and advocate for political prisoners and condemn the persecution of women or religious minorities or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only be because they are the right thing to do but ultimately they will make us safer.

In two months to prepare us for those missions, Scott Kelly will begin a year long stay in space.

So, good luck, Captain. Make sure to Instagram it.

We stand united with people around the world who have been targeted by terrorists, from a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris. We will continue to hunt down terrorists and dismantle the networks, and we reserve the right to act unilaterally as we have done relentlessly since I took office, to take out terrorists who pose a direct threat to us and our allies.

I have no more campaigns to run. My only agenda -- I know because I won both of them.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So there we have the flavor of the night, and with the State of the Union behind him, President Obama will again return to the road to push middle class economics.

A new CNN/ORC Poll of Americans who watched the president's speech showing that his ideas are actually gaining traction. Before the speech, just 57 percent of the president's policies would take the country in the right direction.

After the president's State of the Union, that number surged nearly 20 points to 72 percent.

Hilary Rosen is a CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist. Ana Navarro is a CNN political commentator and a Republican strategist.

Welcome to you both.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

I think what we can all agree on is like there won't be a shining bipartisan spirit in 2015 so let's talk about where we go from here. The biggest positive is that both sides agree that middle class wages have stagnated. I know everybody makes fun of Mitt Romney's pledge to raise people out of poverty, but I actually think that it's great that he's talking about that. It's better than poverty shaming, right?

By the way, I wrote an op-ed on this thing, CNN.com/opinion, in case you want to check it out.

So, with that in mind, Hilary, first question to you. Republicans are talking about lifting people out of poverty, and that's a good thing. So, the question is, why didn't the president talk about more bipartisan ideas so that we could solve the problem?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I agree with you. It is a good thing Republicans are talking about poverty, and, you know, the president really thinks that many of his ideas that he raised last night are applicable for Republicans and things Republicans have talked about for a long time.

You know, access to higher education is really important. There's probably nothing that this country could do to make a bigger difference for the future than get more people into college. We are lagging behind the rest of the world.

Secondly, he talked about focusing on middle class tax cuts, something that Republicans should like. The fact that he wants to pay for those tax cuts by increasing taxes on the top 1 percent of the country as --

COSTELLO: Something Republicans --

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: Very, very popular, and Republicans can -- but he's also offering to lower corporate taxes which Republicans have wanted. So, there are a lot of things Republicans could embrace here to say, all right, let's work together. The choice is really going to be up to them.

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you this, Ana. We shared that poll, 72 percent do like the idea of child care tax credits, right? Free community college.

But in the Republican responses we didn't hear anything about those issues. Why not?

NAVARRO: Well, remember, though, Carol, that a Republican response, anybody's response, to a State of the Union, you know, we shouldn't even call it a response because it's not a response. Nobody that -- the person doing the rebuttal has not heard the actual speech when they are doing the response. So, I think --

COSTELLO: They let a lot of information out early this time around, Ana.

NAVARRO: Yes, let me tell you, it's really going out on a limb to respond to information that's out in the press before you actually hear the president say it. So, you know, these speeches, these rebuttals is one of the hardest gigs in politics.

You know, following a State of the Union, the pomp and circumstance, the people, the big room, the applause, the ovations, and you are in one little enclosed room talking to a camera responding to a speech you hadn't heard before.

So, I think that what the Republicans did, what Senator Joni Ernst did was focus on some of the positive things that could be done. I did hear a tone of bipartisanship from Joni Ernst and from the Republican response.

I also heard some bipartisanship from President Obama. Not all of it. There were some glimmers of bipartisanship. We will focus on that, frankly.

COSTELLO: So, you think there's hope that both sides will find solutions both can live with?

NAVARRO: Well, I don't think they're going to find solutions for everything, but I think there are issues like trade. I think there are issues like the war on terror, like supporting the war on ISIL that, yes, he will find support from both sides on. And I think that's what should be focused on first.

ROSEN: You know, we saw several things for the middle class and for the workers that the president talked about last night that are very popular in Republican states. You know, the raise in minimum wage won at the ballot box in Alaska, Nebraska, places like that. There are things that if Republicans want to work together on, that they can do that really will help working people.

COSTELLO: Well, let's hope you're both right because this has been a more positive conversation than I expected, and I like that. Thanks to you both.

NAVARRO: It's 9:00 in the morning, Carol. We have plenty of time during the day to go negative.

ROSEN: We're the optimists at CNN.

NAVARRO: We're feeling optimistic this morning.

ROSEN: Ana and I are the optimists at CNN.

COSTELLO: Awesome. Hilary Rosen, Ana Navarro, thanks so much. If you like to read more of my op-ed titled, talking about the poor, it's so hip now, visit CNN.com/opinion.

A new face delivering the Republican response and possibly a new image for the GOP, Joni Ernst, the newly elected senator from Iowa. You might remember her campaign about castrating hogs and vowing to make them squeal in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JONI ERNST (R), IOWA: I'm Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. So, when I get to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: More importantly, Ernst is a combat veteran, and in a minute we'll show you the silent salute she gave to the military. But first, let's listen to her story of a hard scrabble upbringing on an Iowa farm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERNST: As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm. I worked construction with my dad. To save for college, I worked the morning biscuit line at Hardy's.

We were raised to live simply, not to waste. It was a lesson my mother taught me every rainy morning. You see, growing up, I had only one good pair of shoes so on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them to keep them dry.

But I was never embarrassed because the school bus would be filled with rows and rows of young Iowans with bread bags slipped over their feet.

Our parents may not have had much, but they worked hard for what they did have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Joining me now to talk about this, CNN chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

A very populist message.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very populist message. Look, they knew what they were getting when they chose Joni Ernst. By they, I mean Republican leaders. Republican leaders were very much -- and their teams were very much intimately involved in writing this speech.

And the whole point that she was making at the beginning was that she didn't want to respond. As Ana was saying, she couldn't respond because they don't see the speech ahead of time, in order to do so. She wanted to put forward what Republicans are going to propose now that they have full governing power here in the United States Congress.

But just sort of thematically, symbolically, to have a woman, an Iraq combat vet, and to have someone talking about being impoverished, about those kinds of values, that is absolutely key for what Republicans are trying to put across when you have Democrats saying that Republicans are, you know, just out for the wealthiest Americans, and that that's where they want to help Americans with the tax code and so on and so forth.

One other interesting point that I want to give you is that while she was giving this response, obviously in English, Republicans chose to do a Spanish language response as well. And the Congressman Carlos Curbelo from Florida gave his own personal story.

But the two speeches differed in a very interesting way, Carol. He talked about immigration reform again to his Spanish-speaking audience, she did not. So it kind of gives you a very good sense of where the Republican Party is and the conflict that it has. They know that they have to reach out to Hispanics, but at the same time, if they do that to their core base, they risk angering them.

COSTELLO: Understand.

OK. So I'm going to be a little shallow right now. Actually, the camouflaged shoes is not shallow. That was pretty cool. I want to talk to you about Michelle Obama's suit. Let's first talk about the camouflage shoes, Dana.

BASH: Look, you know, it is definitely -- they're a statement shoe. I have statement shoes. You have statement shoes. This is a very different kind of statement shoe.

She knows how to get attention. She knows how to make a splash. She showed that, the ad that made her famous politically, the castrating hogs ad. This is another way. This is her calling card. Everybody knows her for the hog ad, but she

clearly wants people to know her because she is also lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard and she wears that very proudly from head to toe.

COSTELLO: OK. So while I have you around I do want to talk about Michelle Obama's suit because it was funny that somebody noticed this. So apparently Michelle Obama wore this Michael Kors suit and it was exactly the same suit that the main character in "The Good Wife" wore.

I have to say it's a great suit.

BASH: It's a beautiful suit. You know, "The Good Wife" -- this is probably giving you more information, it's scary that I know this, they have a designer of their clothes who is putting it on the market now but doesn't -- probably isn't Michael Kors level when it comes to expense and obviously that's a different kind of suit, but isn't it gorgeous? It really is.

COSTELLO: It is.

BASH: We talk about a lot of substance. We can talk about style, too.

COSTELLO: I'm glad. We do it off air so we might as well on air.

Some more specifics about the suit. The jacket costs $797. As you said, Michael Kors. It's an origami color tweed jacket. Michael Kors actually tweeted about it and his tweet read, "The state of style -- pretty powerful."

Thanks for playing, Dana. I appreciate it.

BASH: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)