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Congress Pushes for Sanctions against Iran; Palestinian Went on Stabbing Spree in Jerusalem; State Coup in Yemen; Former USS Cole Commander on Development of Situation in Yemen; Analysis of Presidential Speech

Aired January 21, 2015 - 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: All right, good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. New this morning, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to address a joint session of Congress. He'll focus on Iran and his appearance just three weeks from now is pointed to say the least. It comes as Congress prepares to fight the White House and President Obama's vow last night to veto any new sanctions on Iran. That's not the least of it. Joining me now CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash. She broke this news last hour. Tell us more, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, now at the press conference where we expect this House speaker and the rest of the Republican leaders to come momentarily to speak about this. They were as I said earlier in the hour they were talking to Republican rank and file members explaining what they're doing and explaining that they have invited Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress on February 11th. Earlier I reported that according to prepared remarks that we got that the house speaker was going to say to his rank and file hell, no. We're not going to do such a thing when talking about the president's request to hold off on further Iran sanctions. He told he didn't actually deliver those words, hell no, but he - the sentiment was clear in this meeting that is just wrapping up behind closed doors. So this is a critical move for several reasons. One, just the politics and the diplomacy or lack thereof of it, Carol. I mean this is something that normally is done with consultation between the White House and Congress when you talk about inviting a foreign leader, especially a key - key ally like the Israeli prime minister, but the House Speaker did this without consulting the White House, without the State Department, did it on their own and I should say that we are told that Benjamin Netanyahu has actually accepted this offer. Now, why did they do it on their own? Because it is all about Iran. They want to make clear in the Republican caucus in the House and the Senate, and frankly, some Democrats too that they think it's a terrible idea to wait. That they think it's critical to pass more sanctions against Iran because they think that this diplomatic effort that the secretary of state has been engaged in for months and months and months with coalition partners, that it's a fool's errand. And Benjamin Netanyahu is more or less an ally in that sentiment. So, that's the reason why they brought him here and it is a poke in the eye to say the least to the president on a very, very sensitive foreign policy issue, Carol.

COSTELLO: So is this what we can expect Congress will act on its own and the president will act on his own and that's just how it's going to be in 2015?

BASH: In some things, yes. You know, when the Republicans took full control of Congress, one of the obvious questions was how is this going to be different? From the get-go, Republicans said to me you're going to see a much more robust Congress when it comes to countries like Iran because Republicans tend to be much more hawkish when it comes to Iran. And that's what we're seeing here. We're seeing Republicans saying, you know, we don't want to wait. We want to go forward. We think it's the right thing to do. We don't trust this diplomatic effort that it's actually going to end with the result that the U.S. wants, which ultimately is a nuclear free Iran. They just don't buy it. So, they believe the best way to approach this is with more teeth, those teeth would come with the sanctions and you heard the president last night and also say to members of Congress many times privately, he thinks that that would be a disaster and that would really shake these diplomatic efforts.

COSTELLO: OK, so Dana, standby. I know that John Boehner is going to speak at any moment and when he does, of course, we'll come right back to you. Dana Bash, thanks so much. We have to talk about this breaking news out of Israel this morning, too.

Right now officials are investigating a terror attack that left at least nine people wounded after a Palestinian man went on a stabbing spree on a commuter bus. It happened earlier today in Tel Aviv. This morning, we have video of this attack. And I want to warn you before we put it up there, it's disturbing because you can see a woman in this video being stabbed. So, what basically happened is this man was on the bus. He stabbed about nine people. Then he ran off the bus. Passengers chased him. And along the way you can see him stabbing a woman on the street. This is right in the middle of the city at a bus stop. So, let's talk more about this and get the latest from global affairs correspondent Elise Labott. She's live this morning in Jerusalem. Tell us more, Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we're talking about a 23-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Tulkram. As you said, he - this is two stops from the Central Bus station in downtown Tel Aviv. It was at the beginning of the rush hour here in Israel. And he just took out a knife and started stabbing people. Then he got off the bus. As he was making his escape, he looked for another victim and you can see in this video that he stabbed another woman and then tried to make his getaway when two people from the Israeli prison authority saw what was happening, saw the bus stop and the bus stopped. They ran after this man. They shot him in the leg. Arrested him. Interrogated him and now he's in the hospital in custody, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, was this a lone wolf attack? Is it part of a larger plot? What is it?

LABOTT: Well, there is no indication that it was part of any larger plot. Police did comb the area to make sure that there was nothing else going on. No indication of any of that. This is really the new tactic here in Israel, Carol. These lone wolf attacks. You remember last summer a lot of Israelis were mowed down by Palestinians in cars and then you had that horrible stabbing at a synagogue in Jerusalem in November. And these are the kind of attacks. They're not attached to any terrorist group. But these are people that are inspired by terrorists and, in fact, Hamas did come out while no indication they're involved praised the attack today, Carol. Prime Minister Netanyahu saying this is a kind of incitement that leads these Palestinians to launch these type of attacks.

COSTELLO: All right, Elise Labott, thanks so much.

Right now in Yemen, the president of Yemen says he's still in charge despite Houthi rebels standing guard outside of private residence. The president's own security had left. And uncertainty grows about the government's future in the Middle Eastern nation. Yemen, as you know, is a key U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda, but terrorists who trained in Yemen have reached the United States and Yemen is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The terror group linked to the Paris attacks. Just yesterday those Shia Houthi rebels backed by Iran overtook a different presidential palace. One government minister tells CNN's Nick Paton Walsh it's an all-out coup against the Sunni led government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you believe the president is still in control of the country and is his life safe?

NADIA SAKKAF, YEMEN INFORMATION MINISTER: I don't think the president is in control of anything.

PATON WALSH: Do you think he should step down and flee the country in a symbol of how the Houthies are trying to run his government?

SAKKAF: I'm not sure about fleeing the country. The fact is shame in naming what it is. This is it.

PATON WALSH: What is it?

SAKKAF: It's a coup.

PATON WALSH: A coup by the Houthies.

SAKKAF: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, why does Yemen matter? Besides being a key U.S. ally, U.S. has interest there. Remember 14 years ago, the attack on the "USS Cole," 17 U.S. sailors die, 39 more were hurt when a suicide bomber attacked the ship while it was refueling in the port of Aden. The attack was blamed on al Qaeda and it was a precursor to the September 11th attacks. The commanding officer of the "USS Cole" on that day was Kirk Lippold. He joins me now. Good morning, sir.

KIRK LIPPOLD, FORMER USS COLE COMMANDER: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Commander, what do you make of what's going on in Yemen right now?

LIPPOLD: I think what you're seeing is really a regional play. Where you have the Sunni majority in Yemen that is being attacked by the Shia minority clearly backed by Iran. I mean every intelligence source is indicating that. So, you're seeing somewhat this war within Islam being played out within Yemen itself. To that degree though, the Houthi rebels that are now in the capital of Sana'a that are threatening to topple the government, they are really getting into a position where they are demanding a greater voice in how the country is run and better representation throughout the government. So, while I'm not convinced it's quite a coup yet, they are certainly on the verge of being able to claim that.

COSTELLO: Is there a danger, an imminent danger, that Yemen could become just like Syria and become this breeding ground for terrible terrorists?

LIPPOLD: Well, right now, Carol, it actually is a breeding ground. Clearly, you can see from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, there are numerous areas within the country where they have safe sanctuary where they are able to train and plan attacks against the United States, clearly against Paris when they conducted the attacks up in Europe. So, they are a breeding ground already. It's just a matter of now that the United States and other countries have a government that they can work with and coordinate some of their efforts.

While in my opinion, Yemen has never been really a trustworthy nor reliable partner in the war on terror. We at least had some input through which we could coordinate our counterterrorism efforts to be able to find out how these groups were training, equipping, financing and conducting operations because we wanted to try and thwart them at the source, which is al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula right now.

COSTELLO: I understand. Of course, as you know, there's a U.S. Embassy in Yemen, diplomats are still inside that embassy. It's heavily guarded by U.S. Marines. There are ships offshore waiting for them to evacuate at any moment. Should that embassy be evacuated now, do you think?

LIPPOLD: I think right now we should take a serious look at it. I think if you have the presidential palace having fallen, you've got the rebels that have surrounded the president himself, get the ships in there. Put them in position. Have the Marines go up and conduct what they call a neo operation, or a noncombatant evacuation operation where they can go in there where the situation is not totally dissolved into chaos, where we can evacuate our embassy personnel out safely or we can destroy any classified equipment and messages that are held in the embassy and get those folks out of there while there's still opportunity. If it devolves into a complete civil war, that's going to be a much more unstable situation for us to go in there, either under benign or combat conditions. So, the sooner we do it, I think the better off we would be. We have got two ships the USS Iwo Jima and the USS McHenry offshore with Marines prepared to conduct these type of operations. I think we should do it now and be done.

??: Commander, I want to ask you, too, about Gitmo. Because the president mentioned it in his State of the Union because it's his intention to close it down. You have very strong opinions about that. Could you share?

LIPPOLD: Absolutely, Carol. I have believed since the very beginning when I was on the joint staff in the office I was in creating Guantanamo Bay is it should be an intelligence resource for the United States to use so that we can target our enemies for defeat. If we are pulling out of all these different countries and coming back to the United States disengaging and we capture terrorists, where can we put them? Where do we have a place where they can humanely be interviewed and interrogated so that we can find out how they can do it? Guantanamo was envisioned to be an intelligence resource for our nation, not a long-term detention facility that it morphed into. And while the president has some grand ideas, sending $2.5 billion ship, USS New York to go operate off Libya, to catch al-Libi, is not a use of resources that we have with the smaller Navy. They should be doing bigger and better things. So, Guantanamo Bay should remain open, and we should make sure that the world understands why it's open and that it benefits their intelligence apparatus and their safety as well.

COSTELLO: But if it's morphed into something that it was never meant to be as you just said, why should it remain open? How could we ever convince - you know, the powers that be per se that Gitmo serves another purpose other than what it's serving right now?

LIPPOLD: Well, you have a president that claims that one thing with the ability of a pen and some executive orders. He could literally order the military to change the fundamental scope and direction of that facility overnight. He could put the resources back down there. He could man up the $300 million intelligence facility that we built that goes unused today and start using it for the purpose that was envisioned. So, it can be done. But it takes an exercise of determination and leadership, the intelligence community. When I still talk to people who would like to see it done and while I know there have been recent op-eds by people that say we should close it down, I think it's only a stain because we allow it to be. It's defining it for the American people and the world as to what that facility could contribute to our national security that is important for us as Americans to know.

COSTELLO: I think what bothers some Americans is the fact that these people are being held forever and forever without a trial and that's certainly not the American way.

LIPPOLD: Well, Carol, that's a fundamental difference that I think a lot of Americans misunderstand. Let me try and go back a little bit. When a nation is under attack, when they are involved in armed conflict, like the United States was with al Qaeda, we have a right under international law to detain combatants for the duration of the conflict. We don't have to try them as if it was a court. We merely need to demonstrate under international law that they were combatants that they were brought onto the battlefield, that they still represent a threat, which the ones in Guantanamo Bay still do and that we just have a right at that point to detain them. There doesn't have to be a trial. And while many lawyers (ph) would argue, well, that runs counter to U.S. law, you have to look at what we're engaged in. We're not engaged in a large criminal enterprise that was initiated by al Qaeda that's backed with military force. We're at war with radical Islam, and a brand of terrorism completely different than anything U.S. law had dealt with previously and we're still engaged with it today.

So while we would like to have some type of trial, by the same token, the president is starting to release detainees that still represent a danger to the United States because if they didn't, why doesn't he tell the American people what are the conditions they were released under? Why are we spending millions of dollars of our taxpayer money to resettle them? Why are we having other nations keep - have their intelligence services keep an eye on these people? If they no longer represent a threat, that information should be public and the American people should know about it.

COSTELLO: All right. Commander Lippold, thank you so much for your insight. I appreciate you being with me today.

LIPPOLD: Thank you, Carol. It's great to be on your show.

COSTELLO: Thanks, commander. Still to come on "THE NEWSROOM," the shadow of crisis has passed and the State of the Union is strong. Those were the main takeaways last night as President Obama addressed Congress and the American people. Up next, we'll discuss whether President Obama's plans are realistic as he heads into the final stages of his presidency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the "NEWSROOM," President Obama is about to hit the road to sell his State of the Union message of the growing crisis in the middle class. He'll leave the White House in just a few hours. His first stop will be Boise State University in Idaho. This comes as the president is riding a fresh wave of support after last night's address. Before his speech, just 57 percent thought the president's policies would take the country in the right direction. After the speech, that number surges nearly 20 points to 72 percent. But don't expect the same reaction from Republicans. We're expecting the House leadership including the House Speaker John Boehner, to respond any minute now in their weekly press conference. In the run- up to his road trip, President Obama took a message of economic populism to Congress declaring that "The shadow of crisis has passed." The president turned his attention to boosting the middle class, but not before giving this reminder to his critics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have no more campaigns to run. My only agenda ...

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: I know because I won both of them.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The president also displayed his willingness to fight back against those who want to challenge him on Obamacare and other issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We can't put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street or re-fighting past battles on immigration when we have got to fix a broken system. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, I will veto it.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: It will have earned my veto.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And as his time in the White House winds down, President Obama made this appeal to those on the other side of the aisle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If you share the broad vision I outlined tonight, I ask you to join me in the work at hand. If you disagree with parts of it, I hope you'll at least work with me where you do agree. I commit to every Republican here tonight that I will not only seek out your ideas, I will seek to work with you to make this country stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, let's talk more about the president's speech with CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. We are also joined by Stephen Collinson and he's a senior reporter for cnnpolitics.com. Welcome.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, SENIOR REPORTER, CNNPOLITICS.COM: Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Both of you. So, Doug, I want to start with you. Because even though the president said he wanted to work with Republicans in Congress, this wasn't exactly a please work with me speech, was it?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: No, it was not. It was a charismatic speech by the president, I think it's his finest State of the Union Address. It was very well written. And he was just in the zone. He was very relaxed. And he's going to go up - and he's going up in the polls right now. But when you get away from the giddiness of all of that, there seems to be no real bridge between Congress and the president really working on too much substantive issues right now on big things the president used the word veto. He will on things like Keystone. He talked about Guantanamo being closed. He talked about vetoing continuing sanctions on Iran. These were fighting words. This is a Barack Obama yesterday who showed his real colors that he is a center left progressive fighter. Somebody in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. A defender of the underdog and the middle class.

COSTELLO: All right. So, Stephen, I want to read something you wrote for cnn.com. You said "The loose and combative Obama who Americans saw on Tuesday night was not the graying, crisis-stifled president who last year seemed weary of his job and failed to mount an effective defense of Democrats as the party lost the Senate in November. And while Democrats are cheering his combative style last night, the consequences of that are already being felt because Republicans in Congress just went out without the president's blessing and invited Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress. Those tits for tats.

COLLINSON: Right, and I'm sure that particular move by the speaker brought on a very angry reaction this morning in the White House. But I think very few people in the White House think that there's a really good chance that the president is going to get something done with Republicans. So part of this last night was about theater. But if you sort of conclude that there's very little that the president, the White House, and Republicans get done, perhaps there's room for maneuver on taxes, for example. But apart from that, there's not much. You sort of have to ask what the president was actually doing last night. And I think to some extent this was the first time when the president could get in front of the American people after six years in office and finally say that he conquered the economic crisis. It was like, you know, his morning in America, I remember that famous campaign ad from 1984 that Ronald Reagan sort of ran on for re- election.

So, the economy - the recovery has been so uneven and so many sort of people in the middle class have left behind that it's been very difficult for the president to sort of claim full throated credit for the measures he put in place when he came into office.

So, with unemployment now is down to 5.6 percent. Polls show that Americans are beginning to believe that, you know, the economy is getting better. This was perhaps the last moment when the president could actually come out and say this because by the time the State of the Union comes around next year, we'll be right in the middle of the primary season for the election to find his successor.

COSTELLO: Right.

COLLINSON: And he really will be a lame duck by that point.

COSTELLO: Right. Right. But there's still a wage gap in this country and there is still many people out of work. Let's be honest about that. Actually, Douglas, I wanted to ask you this. At any other time in our history, has there been this tit for tat, you know, on the part of Congress and the president?

BRINKLEY: Well, of course. I mean the point of history is to remind us that our own times are not uniquely oppressive. I mean just go back to the Civil War and you have 600,000 dead and you have senators caning each other and beating each other on just trying to make a point. So, it's not all that bad out there. What the president accomplished last night, besides going up in the polls, is he reclaimed American optimism. He's been lacking in doing that sometimes. There's always been a little bit of a woe is me attitude from President Obama. Now as he heads to Boise state, he's - that optimism, the perception means a lot. I mean people are feeling maybe America is better again. In order for him to really be effective with this vetoes and his executive orders, he's going to have to stay up in the polls. Doing executive orders when you are at 38 percent is nowhere near as potent as doing executive orders when you're at 55 percent. So, I think the president -- definitely we have got to erase the word lame duck. And he's a player in 2015. And he's got steam behind him as he heads out west.

COSTELLO: So, so Stephen let's talk about that for just a bit because I did hear optimism last night from the president. I did not hear optimism from most of the Republicans commenting on his speech. In fact, I think Rand Paul said America is adrift. We have big problems. We have to overcome them. But it's not quite that simple, is it?

COLLINSON: No. And the Republicans would argue that it's the very policies that the president put in place, Obamacare, Wall Street regulations that are actually to blame for the fact that the recovery has been so slow. And the president also made a case last night that it was time to turn the page on 15 years, in which American ground troops have been involved in wars in the Middle East. He gave this sort of impression that the war on terror is actually going very well that America by working with partners in splintering countries in the Middle East is able to sort of contain terrorism and radical Islam and jihadism.

But as we've seen over the last few weeks in Paris on the streets of Ottawa and even as we are seeing today in Yemen, the picture is a little bit more complicated. So, I think there's much more political risk for the president to kind of argue that we're turning a page in international relations and on national security than when he does it on the economy.

COSTELLO: Stephen Collinson and Douglas Brinkley, thanks for being with me. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)