Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Congress to Grill Secret Service Chief; Israelis Head to the Polls. Iran Confronts U.S. Over Senators' Letter. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 17, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00] ANDY SCHOLES: Play along with us here at CNN. Those aren't due until Thursday morning. Have you figured out who you're picking to win yet?

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: No. Not yet. I still have to call you for help. Let's talk about it.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOLES: Still got to do that research.

KAYE: We'll have to talk about it for sure.

Thanks, Andy Scholes. Appreciate it.

SCHOLES: All right.

KAYE: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye sitting in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Happening now on Capitol Hill, Secret Service chief Joe Clancy just arriving at a House subcommittee hearing where he is expected to face fiery bipartisan questioning. It's over another security blunder. This latest incident involving agents who may have been drinking and possibly, possibly compromising a bomb investigation.

This is the first of two meetings this week. This one public. A second to be held behind closed doors.

Michelle Kosinski is live at the White House with more on this.

Good morning, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Randi. Yes, it's key that you say this latest incident because we know there it was the long string of embarrassments for the Secret Service over the last couple of years that made the agency the butt of jokes for a long time.

But now to have something else weird happen out here just about a week ago and only a couple of weeks after the new director took over who is supposed to clean up problems within the Secret Service, it's only increased that outrage factor. So he's going to face a lot of questions today.

Here's what we heard from one congressman this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BOB GOODLATTE (R), VIRGINIA: First question I'm going to ask him is, what disciplinary action has been taken with regard to these two agents and their supervisor because obviously this is a serious matter. If you don't send the right message that this is not going to be tolerated, you're going to continue to see more of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: But also I think, you know, what we want to hear is what exactly happened late that night just over a week ago outside the White House. I mean, it first leaked out several days after it happened in "The Washington Post" and there were allegations of drunkenness of these top two Secret Service agents. Allegations that they crashed into a barrier, that a supervisor let them go home instead of being tested for alcohol use.

But then we heard a lot of pushback from law enforcement sources saying, hold on a minute. This may not quite be all that it seems to be.

So, Clancy, the new director, may shed some light on that. But then again this is now under investigation with the Department of Homeland Security and their Inspector General's Office. So we'll wait and see if he's even going to go into detail about that.

Regardless though, he's going to get a long string of questions and he's going to have to give some kind of answers to them -- Randi.

KAYE: Yes. He certainly is in the hot seat this morning.

Michelle Kosinski, thank you very much.

And joining me now, Ronald Kessler, a journalist and author of "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect."

Ronald, nice to see you. You say the real problem lies with Secret Service culture, a culture that you characterize as one of cover-up and corner cutting. Explain what you mean there.

RONALD KESSLER, AUTHOR, "IN THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE": Well, as one example, when gun shots were fired at the White House in 2011, a uniformed officer reported that and her supervisor said no, it's just a construction site noise, and she said later she didn't press the point because she was afraid of being criticized. In other words, the person who is reporting threats and problems is -- fears that she can't say anything.

There is this culture that punishes agents for reporting problems or threats. The agents who just go lie and pretend everything is fine are the ones who are promoted into management. And the problem is not the agents themselves. Overall they're very brave and dedicated, they'll take a bullet for the president but rather the management and this culture.

And Clancy is just part of that. He is a career agent. When he testified recently he covered up problems. He was asked about the fact that the Secret Service said that intruder Gonzalez was stopped at the door and that he was unarmed. That was a total lie.

He was asked, is anybody going to be held accountable for that lie, and he said, well, that was just an error. And then he was asked, well, how do you know? And he said I don't know. I don't know how that statement was made. And there were other examples like that.

KAYE: Yes.

KESSLER: But you know, in the end, it's President Obama who is at fault here because these problems have been going on ever since Salahis went prancing into the White House, the party crashers five years ago and over and over again Obama says he has full confidence in the Secret Service.

KAYE: Right. So --

KESSLER: He keeps appointing insiders --

KAYE: So do you think -- do you think he shouldn't have full confidence? I mean, do you think it's time for a complete overhaul?

KESSLER: Yes. Absolutely. It's -- and you know, it's his own life that's at stake. You would think that he would recognize the danger. His own four-person panel recommended that he bring in an outside individual who would not be beholden to interests within the agency who is not part of this culture. He totally ignored that advice as well as what was in my latest book, "The First Family Detail,"

[10:05:00] And it's almost as if he doesn't recognize the danger because, you know, there's no political reason for him to stick with someone from the inside. He just happens to like Clancy. Clancy was in charge of his detail so he trusts him. I understand that.

KAYE: Yes.

KESSLER: But, you know, when you're talking about something as important as the president's life, you better take the right action to get this problem fixed.

KAYE: But let me ask you, Ronald, about this report in "The New York Times." Because the "Times" is reporting that Director Clancy is actually going to propose building an $8 million replica of the White House for training purposes. He says, I guess, it's a more realistic environment. But does this seem like the right strategy to you? I mean, because some of these incidents have had nothing to do with the White House. They've been abroad. They center around agents behaving badly. So is this the right call?

KESSLER: Yes. You know, $8 million when you're talking about something this important is nothing. And uniformed officers need to be able to train there just the way the FBI has so-called Hogan's Alley where they -- it's sort of a fake town and they train and make an arrest. But the Secret Service has had this attitude of we make do with less.

They are proud to say they don't spend money and that may be fine for, you know, most of the rest of the government but not something as important as the Secret Service. But you know --

KAYE: Yes, but I guess is training at the White House is the answer when you have -- when you have agents who are picking up prostitutes abroad and agents who are apparently or allegedly driving drunk home from a going away party for other agents. I mean, is that -- is training at the White House going to help incidents like that?

KESSLER: Well, no, it's not going to help that. But there are so many problems in the Secret Service everywhere you look. You know, one thing in my book, which hasn't come out yet, is that on a regular basis agents will let people into events without magnetometer screening or metal detector screening under pressure from White House staffs or campaign staffs. You know, the event is about to start. There's still a line outside.

The Secret Service hasn't put up enough money to provide enough magnetometers. So they just let them in. And again it's management that caves just the way you saw with the uniformed officers who let the Salahis in to the state dinner. I think they felt hey, if we turn them away, and it turns out they were supposed to be on the guest list, we could be in trouble with our management and our management will not back us.

So it's a very, very severe cultural problem that can only be solved by bringing an outsider such as a former FBI official, the FBI has done a magnificent job keeping us safe since 9/11 from a foreign terrorist attack. I know having done books on the FBI they would never put up with this kind of cover-up culture.

KAYE: Right. Right.

All right. Ronald Kessler, nice to see you. And our thanks to Michelle Kosinski again as well.

Millions of Israelis heading to the polls right now in what may be a battle for Benjamin Netanyahu's political life. The incumbent prime minister's Likud Party is facing off against Isaac Herzog and the Labor Party.

Israel has a parliamentary system which means that a citizen actually vote for a ruling party, not a particular candidate to lead the country. And in a last-minute bid for far right voters Netanyahu made a stunning about-face on a promise to the U.S. ruling out the existence of a Palestinian state.

CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott is live at the Likud Party headquarters for us. That's in Tel Aviv.

And this is really, Elise, an incredible reversal on this two-state solution.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Well, Randi, it's something the prime minister has been doing over the last week, making statements of this nature to really energize those right-wing voters. We know he's behind in the polls. And so he's really been trying to bend toward the right-wing voters who are very concerned about a Palestinian state, who are very concerned about the Palestinians.

And today he even doubled down. He put a video out. We've been talking on this show last week about how the Arab vote has been very important in this election. Arabs are poised to really have a huge balance of power in this election because those Arab parties unite.

This morning the prime minister issued a statement really warning his electorate, his base, that the right regime, quote, "is in danger of the Arab votes coming in ,in huge amounts to the polls. The leftists are bringing them in huge amounts to the polls using buses." And so what the prime minister is doing is really trying to put the fear of God in these right-wing voters. Come out. Vote for me. We need to hold onto the right.

It seems that it may be backfiring, Randi. (INAUDIBLE), one of the right-wing center right parties who the prime minister would be courting to form a government after the election, issued a statement to CNN saying, look, these comments are inappropriate and regrettable. Shows that the prime minister is under stress.

So while he may gain a couple votes with these statements, Randi, certainly the larger electorate is not buying it.

[10:10:00] KAYE: And what can we expect from voters today? I mean, how are they reacting to not only his two-state solution comments but also his Facebook comments?

LABOTT: Well, we really don't know. We do know that voter turnout is about 20 percent higher than it was in the last election in 2013. I mean, Israelis are coming out to the polls. Now, in recent polls we've heard that 72 percent of Israelis want some kind of change. We've seen that Prime Minister Netanyahu is behind in the polls and that -- you would think that would tell us that -- you know, the left would be going out and voting.

But like I said, the prime minister has really in the last week or so really kind of energized his campaign. He's been a little slow to get on the campaign trail. But now he's really going out. He has his supporters going out. Some of these other right-wing parties trying to get out the vote to the right so this increase could be a result of this as well.

We won't know until the results come out tonight how the parties do about 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. But even then we won't know who the winner is. Who's going to be the next prime minister. Because as you know, it's not really about who has many seats, it's how much support from these other parties.

KAYE: Right. LABOTT: Either Isaac Herzog will get from the left or Netanyahu will

get on the right, and they -- the one that has the most support will be the one to form a coalition -- Randi.

KAYE: Good to have you watching it for us.

Elise Labott, thank you.

And still to come, President Obama blasts Republican senators for writing a letter to Iran. This as world powers struggle to strike a nuclear agreement before the clock runs out. Why major hurdles could still be ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:25] KAYE: Time is running out. With just two weeks left to go, Secretary of State John Kerry remains at the negotiation table to try and strike a nuclear deal with Iran. The talks are described as being in a very crucial phase. Earlier today in Switzerland, Kerry met with Iran's Foreign minister for two hours.

As for the controversial Republican letter warning Iran that a deal won't last, President Obama tells Vice News that he's, quote, "embarrassed" for the 47 senators who signed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm embarrassed for them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

OBAMA: Because it's not how America does business. For them to address a letter to the Ayatollah, the supreme leader of Iran, who they claim is our mortal enemy and their basic argument to them is don't deal with our president because you can't trust him to follow through on an agreement. That's close to unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The American public appears to be on the president's side on this one. According to a new CNN/ORC poll, almost half say lawmakers went too far. Only 39 percent say it was appropriate.

That letter, of course, sparking tension as world powers try to reach a deal. Iran confronted the U.S. about the GOP letter during negotiations in fact.

Let's bring in CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson to talk more about this.

So Nic, set the scene for us if you will. I mean, do we know exactly what Iran said to the U.S. about this letter from Republicans?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know precisely what they said. But we do know, it's been a persistent issue. It was raised on Sunday. This was before Secretary Kerry met with the Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. A lower level meeting. But it was raised by the Iranian delegation there and then Zarif raised with Kerry on Monday during their five-hour session.

You know, spokespeople at the State Department are not going to characterize how it was addressed in that meeting. They told us that very clearly they're not going to get into it. But it's certainly been something that the Iranians haven't wanted to drop. You know, and these are critical phase of the -- of the negotiations we're told where the Iranians need to make key political decisions.

But more than that, there's a lot on the table. The gaps are big. And the time frame to figure it all out is really short. Kerry is in with a second round of meetings today with the Iranians, with the Foreign minister again this afternoon. They made a tiny bit of progress this morning but that's really on identifying areas where the gaps need to be closed rather than closing the gaps, Randi.

KAYE: Yes. So now you have this letter overshadowing the negotiations and as you said, time is short. I mean, is the State Department confident? How confident is the State Department really that the world powers are going to be able to strike a deal by this March 31st deadline?

ROBERTSON: You know, it's really hard to gauge that accurately. I mean, this is the art of negotiation, isn't it? You certainly don't put all your cards on the table and certainly, you know, Secretary Kerry is not about to do that and he's going to drive -- and he said he's going to drive a hard bargain where the Iranians can't build any weapons and it will be a verifiable one as well. That's what he's trying to achieve there.

What the State Department is saying is, you know, they have to get this framework deadline by the 31st of March. The full details don't have to be worked out until the end of June. But what they're saying at the moment is they don't even know, the State Department officials don't even know if they can make that March 31st deadline. So, you know, two weeks to go and it's not clear that it can be done.

They say that the Iranians sort of take -- you know, you think you've got something nailed down and they put it back on the table, and then something else changes again. So it's all still in play at the moment -- Randi.

KAYE: Yes. It certainly sounds so.

Nic Robertson, nice to see you. Thank you very much.

Still to come, heart-stopping testimony from the police who came face to face with the Tsarnaev brothers. That's coming your way next.

[10:19:17]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We want to take you back to Capitol Hill right now where Secret Service chief Joe Clancy is testifying before a House Subcommittee just days after another scandal erupted at the agency.

Let's listen in for a moment.

REP. JOHN CARTER (R), CHAIRMAN, APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE: And for more enemies. So talk to me about what happened and then let's talk a little bit about protocols.

JOE CLANCY, SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: Yes, Mr. Chairman. On March 4th, 2015, our understanding is that two senior level special agents came to the White House. The initial reports -- I did not hear of this incident until Monday. So this was on Wednesday night. I found out Monday.

Once I found out on Monday, and what I heard initially, the initial reports from an unanimous report, was that as you stated two senior special agents had crashed into the White House and they were inebriated. I had heard about that. I asked my staff if they had heard about it. They had not heard about it. I'd asked them to get as much information as they could on the events. And then there wasn't a lot of information available.

But we decided -- I decided to immediately send it over to the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General. I thought it was very important that we have an independent investigation. That there'd no perception at all that we were involved, that we would not even start doing any interviews. We would give that case, that investigation, to the OIG.

I will also say that I brought my staff in on Monday. And we discussed why I didn't know prior to Monday of this event. And we had a good stern talk about that. And then instructed the staff to go out to their management to ensure that these events, any event of misconduct or operational errors have to be relayed up the chain. I'll say that it's going to take time to change maybe some of this culture.

[10:25:06] There's no excuse for this information not to come up the chain. That's going to take time because I'm going to have to build trust with our workforce. And the best way for me to work -- earn that trust with our workforce is by my actions. Now I know there's -- I'm very eager to hear the results of this investigation. I don't know how long it will take. But I am committed to due process. What I have done is removed those two senior level agents to nonsupervisory positions.

Outside they are not working at the White House. They are outside of their offices. And we will await the findings of the OIG.

CARTER: On the issue of drinking, are their protocols set up to discuss the fact that, you know, every one of your people are carrying a weapon and this -- you know, this is purely hearsay, someone told me that a person they knew in the FBI said the protocol for the FBI is, if you know you're going to a place where alcohol is going to be consumed and it's a retirement party where more than one drink might be consumed, that they expect their agents to report that to the superior, to leave their weapon at home, and to tell their superior that they would no longer be available for call because they would not -- might not be in a condition to be available for call.

Do you have that type of -- I don't know if that's true or not. That's something that was told of me. But this was a retirement party, a member of your group, and it was a party, and people were expecting there would be drinking at the party.

Now do you have any protocols like that in the Secret Service?

CLANCY: We do have a 10-hour rule, Mr. Chairman, where you are not permitted to consume alcohol 10 hours prior to your duty assignment. Off-hours we don't have protocols for off-hour -- going to a reception or party or what have you.

There are protocols for driving in government vehicle. I will say that. You cannot obviously be under the influence, not by a legal limit, but you just cannot be exhibiting any indication that your under the influence of alcohol driving a government vehicle. And that will all be looked into with the office of the inspector general.

I will say that I did see a very short clip, a very short video footage of the incident that evening. And I did see the vehicle that the two agents traveled in where they drove at a very low rate of speed onto the White House complex. So that's something that the OIG will have and I'm sure we'll investigate that.

CARTER: Going forward, are you going to look into protocols that would affect a situation like this?

CLANCY: Yes, Mr. Chairman. Any time we have an incident of this level, we certainly have to look at our protocols, look at our policies, are they sufficient, and to be candid, I have been away for several years and was not as familiar with these policies as I should have been. They have to be re-addressed. Even the indication that you may be able to get into a vehicle after having one beer, one glass of wine. That's something we're going to have to address.

CARTER: Well, certainly the DWI laws are pretty rough.

CLANCY: Yes, sir.

CARTER: Pretty rough. Well, you and I have talked about this. You know, it breaks my heart to think that once again one of the -- one of the agencies that has been a legend among the American people in the last six years has just gone downhill substantially. Absolutely substantially. And it's a crime. Our people need heroes.

You are an agency that were considered heroes that protected every president no matter what party they were in, and did it in a very effective and efficient job. And this is really heartbreaking to have this continued conduct.

I know you're new on the job. But I told you when we visited, you got a -- you got a big job. And you're going to have to make heads roll. If there's a -- if there's a place to send people in your agency that is the Mojave Desert of the Secret Service, maybe some people need to be sent to the Mojave Desert so that they know their behavior is unacceptable. So you think about all that.

[10:30:12]