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White House Takes Iran Deal Pitch to Congress; Interview with Representative Jerrold Nadler; Stocks Turn Positive After Opening Slump; Closing Argument in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Trial; Major Failures Found in Discredited "Rolling Stone" Article. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:02] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Obama fights back. The president pushing his Iran nuke deal but can he sell it to members of his own party? We'll talk to one congressman who wasn't so sure.

Plus closing arguments in the Boston bombing trial. Can Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's attorney keep him from getting the death penalty?

Plus the cover story that wasn't. "Rolling Stone" retracting its big UVA rape expose. And now accusations the article actually damaged efforts to fight rape on campuses nationwide.

Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with a White House push to drum up support for a deal on Iran's nuclear program. President Obama sitting down with "The New York Times" explaining why he thinks the deal is sound and taking aim at those in Congress who want to block it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not interested in seeing folks who are hell bent on just defeating any deal aren't interested in listening to the nuclear scientists, aren't interested in listening to the experts, but are viewing this purely through the lens of partisanship. I'm not interested in endangering a very critical international agreement on that basis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Outside of Congress, another fierce opponent, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, telling CNN the debate is not about bickering in Washington but a much larger threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: This is not a partisan issue. This is not even solely an Israeli issue. This is a world issue. Because everyone is going to be threatened by the pre-eminent terrorist state of our time.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is at the White House with more on this, this morning.

Good morning.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Well, the prime minister really has launched a new holds barred counter campaign here, trying to drum up support against this deal on Capitol Hill. He's reached out to members of Congress directly revealing that he spoke into he believes about two-thirds of the members of Congress directly.

Now the White House anticipated this. They've launched their own aggressive campaign to try to sell this bill. This deal domestically and internationally. And we saw that argument in President Obama's interview with "New York Times," an extensive 45-minute defense of why he moved to make this an agreement and as they work towards a final deal, and he really said that it might not be optimal in a perfect world, especially when talking about Israel, but he offered these specific words to the Israeli people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I would consider it a failure on my part, a fundamental failure of my presidency, if on my watch or as a consequence of work that I have done, Israel was rendered more vulnerable. And --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It's not just a strategic failure.

OBAMA: And I think that's not just a strategic failure. I think that would be a moral failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And the president has a big task to sell this deal domestically. Many on Capitol Hill are very skeptical about the details of this deal. And they'll be back in one week returning to Washington from a two-week recess, and they have a series of bills just lined up and ready to go to question the White House on the contours of this arrangement.

Now the White House has indicated some openness to potentially having Congress take a nonbinding vote where members of Congress could essentially register their feelings one way or another about this deal but without it taking away President Obama's authority to execute the deal. But many on Capitol Hill, Carol, probably will not be happy about that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll ask one of them.

Sunlen Serfaty, thanks so much.

Joining me now, Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York.

Welcome, sir. Thanks for coming in.

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: A pleasure. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Has the president reached out to you?

NADLER: No, not personally, although I have been in a series of meetings with Ben Rhodes, the National Security adviser, over the last few months.

COSTELLO: What do you think of this deal?

NADLER: I think it's too early to know. There's some really serious questions about the deal especially in the areas of inspections, what are the consequences if the inspectors suspect something? Do we need a conference of the P5 Plus 1 to decide whether they're sending inspectors somewhere else? What happens then? And second of all, what happens in 10 or 15 years? Is an American president at that time precluded from taking further actions?

This deal is not complete. It's not going to be completed until June and I think it's frankly premature to make a judgment one way or the other until we see a lot of those details.

COSTELLO: So you're a liberal Democrat, is that fair? Right?

NADLER: Yes, very liberal.

COSTELLO: So if the president can't count on you, what does this -- what does this mean for the deal?

NADLER: Well, he may or may not count on me. I'm saying it's too early at this point to say because we don't know enough. But I also have said consistently that simply saying that this deal is not as good as it could be or that you would like it to be is the wrong analysis, is the wrong question.

[10:05:03] The right question is, of the three alternatives available to us to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, which gives us the best odds of doing that? You have a deal, and when we know more about the deal at the end of June, we'll have a better idea of what the odds that this would really prevent them from getting a nuclear bomb.

You have the possibility of sanctions. With sanctions, you're making a bet, you're making a bet that sanctions will bring about the economic collapse of the regime before they get a bomb. What are odds on that?

And the third alternative is war. And that our military tells us would hold it for a few years. So it's really until we see the details on this and analyze the other two alternatives it's too early to reach a definitive judgment.

COSTELLO: On the Senate side, Bob Corker is pushing a bill to get Congress a mandatory review of the Iran nuclear agreement. Is that necessary?

NADLER: Well, it would be -- it would be nice whether -- and by the way, why the Senate and not the House also? As a House member I have to stick up for the House. But it's not generally the practice in the United States for Congress to vote on every executive agreement. There may be features of this that I see the latest version of Senator Corker's bill apparently is to lay the taking off of sanctions for 60 days to give Congress a chance to weigh that. That sounds reasonable.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Benjamin Netanyahu because he's actively campaigning against this. And he also said on those Sunday morning talk shows that he's not trying to play partisan politics. But others think he pretty much is. You know. John Boehner was in Israel not so long ago. He held a news conference with him. I didn't see any Democratic lawmakers there.

NADLER: Well, he went by himself. I don't know he took a lot of other members. I don't know that he's trying to play partisan politics. That's not the question. The question is, the prime minister is right in saying it would be intolerable for Iran to have a nuclear bomb. Is he right in saying that this deal would allow them to have a nuclear bomb or more to the point, is he -- is it true or not true that this is the best of the three alternatives available to us that gives us the best odds of keeping Iran from getting a nuclear bond. To me that's the question.

COSTELLO: So there is that some Democratic lawmakers feel sort of sidelined by Netanyahu's embrace of Republican lawmakers. Do you feel sidelined?

NADLER: I don't want to get into that. Frankly, the prime minister's political dealings have been interesting.

COSTELLO: What do you mean by interesting?

NADLER: Well, they have -- he's trying to defend what he sees as Israel's national interest and for that he ought to be supported. Some people have criticized him for taking on the president in front of Congress. If he thinks that's necessary, then you can't -- then he has to think so, but there are consequences to that. People react politically.

I'm trying to say that we shouldn't be looking at this politically. The question is, what is the best way of the ways available to us that gives us the best odds of keeping Iran from a nuclear bomb because that would be intolerable?

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

NADLER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Checking other top stories this morning at eight minutes past the hour. Escalating violence in Yemen claims the life of an American gas station owner. Friends and family say Jamal al-Labani was planning to bring his pregnant wife and young daughter back to the United States when he was killed by a mortar strike.

This as the death toll rises as Saudi-led airstrikes pound continue to pound rebel strongholds. Hundreds have been killed in the past two weeks and millions are now living without power.

Right now a massive manhunt underway to find the mastermind of that vicious terror attack in Kenya leaving more than 140 people dead. Kenyan officials now offering up a $215,000 reward for this man, Mohamed Mohamud. The senior al-Shabaab leader is believed to have an extensive terror network.

To Wall Street now, a lot of investors on edge after futures tanked today. But guess what, the Dow is actually up. And I just want to say to (INAUDIBLE) I predicted that.

Alison Kosik is on the floor of the New York --

(LAUGHTER)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Sure you did, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you very much. Because you can't predict anything when it comes to Wall Street.

KOSIK: You've got the crystal ball.

(CROSSTALK)

KOSIK: I was going to say, you've got the crystal ball. You know, and just to use another analogy, it's like being on a roller coaster when you're here on Wall Street. So we saw the Dow plunge a hundred points and now it's back in positive territory up 22 points. In fact we're seeing green arrows across the board.

So what gives here? What gives is all about the Federal Reserve. Why is that? Well, it was just last month that the Fed indicated if the economy shows enough strength it will go ahead and raise interest rates. Well, guess what? After Friday's disappointing jobs report, many investors are thinking the Fed may rethink that actually and not just because that jobs report disappointed with only 126,000 jobs being added in March.

[10:10:11] You look at other economic reports like GDP slowing down, showing weakness in the last three months of last year. You look at business spending. Durable goods orders down three of the last four reports. Even lower gas prices are losing their cachet with consumers simply because they are spending less. The last three retail sales reports have been weak as well.

So there is this weird thinking here on Wall Street, Carol, that bad news is good news where the Federal Reserve is concerned, and that's what you're seeing play out on the big board today -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: All right. Alison Kosik reporting live for us this morning.

Let's head back out to the south lawn of the White House because the Easter egg roll is about to begin. 10:30 Eastern Time the president and the first lady will toss out with the first daughters and make a comment along with the Easter Bunny beside them. Right now I guess some kids are already rolling their eggs and that includes the children of Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa and the reason that they are at the Easter egg roll is because First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on their program.

They're doing it themselves. Did I mention how much I love the Easter egg roll? It's fun every single year. That is so awesome.

We'll take you back live to the White House 10:30 Eastern. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:19] COSTELLO: Closing arguments are set to wrap up phase one of the Boston bombing trial today. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30 criminal counts, 17 carry the death penalty. From the beginning, the defense admitted Tsarnaev's guilt but the jury will decide whether he deserves death in phase two.

Sunny Hostin is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. She joins us now to talk about this.

Good morning.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So there's no doubt that the jury is going to find a guilty verdict in phase one of the trial.

HOSTIN: I mean, I think that's a fair assumption. The bottom line is even in openings, you know, the defense team said he did it. He did this. And so the question I think on everyone's minds is not whether or not he will be found guilty in -- during the guilt phase of this because that's sort of a foregone conclusion, given the avalanche of evidence that the prosecution presented. I think the real question is whether or not he will live or die.

COSTELLO: Some people say the length of time it takes the jury to arrive at this guilty verdict will give us a sign of how they might decide in phase two, the death penalty phase of the trial.

HOSTIN: I've heard that. I don't agree with it. I mean, you know, generally people do say for every day of testimony it's generally an hour of deliberations and a quick verdict is generally a guilty verdict. So a long -- you know, long deliberation is generally not guilty verdict.

I think with the death penalty, Carol, I think it's just a different animal. You have a death qualified jury so certainly there are jurors that have said, all of them have said, I can come to that conclusion. I can impose that sentence. But when it really comes down to it, we've seen in several legal cases that there are jurors that just can't do it. There are jurors that think they can't and then they can't impose that verdict. So I think it's going to really depend on the dynamics of this jury

and let's remember, he has Judy Clarke defending him. She is a death penalty expert. If you are facing the death penalty, this is the attorney that you want. She knows how to do this. I think what will be very interesting is whether or not he will testify because this jury has -- I know the juries look at defendants. I know that they want to see some sort of remorse.

They want to get a read on this defendant. You and I were just talking, what is it -- why would he do something like this? Was it really that his brother had this Svengali hold over him or is he totally radicalized? And so we want -- I think the jury will want to hear from him. I think that decision is probably being made right now. And that's what's going to be fascinating about this.

COSTELLO: Well, I was talking to Alexandra Field about his demeanor in the courtroom. Right? And every time he comes into the courtroom, his attorney, what's her name, Judy Clarke.

HOSTIN: Judy Clarke.

COSTELLO: Yes.

HOSTIN: She adjusts his clothes and kind of treats him almost like a son. Like a young person.

HOSTIN: We expect to see that from Judy. She -- you know, some people -- the legal geeks like myself, you know, she's sort of this true believer. She's a true believer in the sense that she is just against the death penalty. She believes it is just wrong. She's really dedicated her career to defending people in death penalty cases. And she does have a really wonderful way of humanizing these kinds of defendants.

You do see sort of that motherly role. And that is a play to the jury quite frankly. You want the jury to think, you know, this is someone's son. This is someone's brother. This is a young man. Remember that "Rolling Stone" cover. And if you only -- you only need one juror to not impose the death penalty because in the federal death penalty case, you need an unanimous verdict and so I think Judy is doing that certainly intentionally.

But I think what is also interesting is that I don't -- from what I've seen, he hasn't shown much, if anything, in that courtroom. I mean, we haven't seen a reaction. And remember, you've got victims' families testifying. You've got the father of an 8-year-old who was murdered by his actions and we saw nothing. I can't imagine that that's going to be easy.

COSTELLO: Well, the most alert he became was when his friend took the stand and started talking about, you know, text messages between the two and the like.

HOSTIN: Exactly. That's the most animated we've seen him. So I am curious as to whether or not Judy Clarke will put him on the witness stand because that will be very telling. If he gets on that witness stand, Carol, and is just this radicalized, angry young man, there is no way I think that this jury will come back with a not guilty verdict on the death penalty phase.

If we see some sort of remorse on the witness stand, if we get some sort of inclination as to why he would perpetrate this terrible, terrible heinous crime, then perhaps he has a chance of spending the rest of his life in prison. And so I think that's the big question. Will we see him testify?

[10:20:09] COSTELLO: Sunny Hostin, thanks as always.

HOSTIN: Yes.

COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

HOSTIN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Today the defense is expected to make its case in the trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his friend, Odin Lloyd. Among the witnesses scheduled to take the stand, an expert who will challenge the DNA evidence collected at the crime scene. The jury is expected to begin deliberating by the middle of this week.

All right. Let's talk about something good and happy and positive now. Let's head back to the South Lawn of the White House.

Isn't this adorable? It's the Easter egg roll today. Kids from all over the country, all 50 states gather on the White House lawn to roll these Easter eggs. The president and the first lady will come out. The first daughters will be there. And if they follow tradition, and we expect they will, the president and the first lady will walk into the crowd of these children and their parents and greet them and talk only about happy things. Thirty-five thousand expected on the South Lawn today.

I'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Can "Rolling Stone" restore its credibility after making what some have called one of the worst journalistic sins in recent history?

[10:25:06] A scathing new report by the Columbia Journalism School details glaring editorial breakdown in the magazine's reporting of an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia. Three of the biggest failures that were found, "Rolling Stone" fell short in its efforts to get the fraternity's side of the story. It didn't contact the alleged assailants and it failed to corroborate the alleged account with the accuser's friends.

"Rolling Stone" has apologized and then finally retracted its controversial article but guess what? No one at the magazine is going to be fired for this. Of course there are real-life ramifications to what "Rolling Stone"

did. The reporter in question acknowledged that when she said in a statement, quote, "I hope that my mistakes do not silence the voices of victims."

I fear that it will, though.

With me now to talk about this from Philadelphia, Alison Kiss, the executive director of the Clary Center for Security on Campus.

Welcome, Alison.

ALISON KISS, THE CLARY CENTER FOR SECURITY ON CAMPUS: Hi. Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. How could the -- how could "Rolling Stone's" mistake not make women think twice?

KISS: You know, I think there are multiple layers of errors here throughout this story and what we saw a constant threat is that they were blaming these errors on caring too much about victims when in reality I think they were irresponsible. They quite frankly shirked their responsibility to all Jackie and all other victims of sexual violence, and I do believe unfortunately that it will have a real impact on the field to end sexual violence.

COSTELLO: The president of UVA echoed those fears. Are you seeing more reticence from victims?

KISS: I think, you know, we're talking about one of the most underreported crimes across the board on college campuses and throughout. So I think whenever you have something that kind of builds into that perception of false reporting, it's not good. I think a lot of people, there were over two million people who read this story, who paid attention to this story and the atrocities that were covered in the story.

So with this retraction coming out, it's going to highlight that perception that some people don't tell the truth. And we know that's not true but we also know that this is underreported so the more that other victims see this happening, the more reluctant they may be to come forward.

COSTELLO: I think the saddest part of this is Virginia authorities say something happened to Jackie, the subject of that article. So help us understand why Jackie might have embellished her story. I know that sexual assault experts say victims sometimes embellish to make their stories more empathetic in a culture that's largely doesn't believe victims.

KISS: I think that point made by the Charlottesville police chief that something definitely probably happened to Jackie. It's very real. And that when someone is affected by trauma they may not get the details right. And that's really where the folks, the team at "Rolling Stone" had the obligation to be transparent with Jackie about what they needed to do to protect her and make sure that they did get her story right.

And that may involve talking to other folks. And that may involve that if they didn't get an answer that they wanted from Jackie in terms of -- if Jackie said they didn't want them to move forward, then maybe it was time to close the story and not move forward with it. But it was very clear that they had a story they wanted to tell. And at one point, from what it seemed they were going to move ahead without Jackie or not, and that's really disappointing.

COSTELLO: It seemed like there was some sort of bias, too, against fraternities. At least that is what it seemed -- like otherwise, why wouldn't you go to the fraternity and ask what happened in that house?

KISS: I think that one of the things we're seeing from the higher ed community is a focus on balance through the process when it comes to reporting sexual assaults and investigating sexual assaults. So that balance also has to happen in the media. So you're exactly right. They needed to make sure that anyone implicated throughout the story, friends, members of the fraternity, had the opportunity to comment on the story and to discuss the story.

COSTELLO: Alison Kiss, thank you for your insight. I appreciate it.

KISS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Let's head back out to the White House now because what a beautiful sight. This is the National Easter egg roll. It is now underway. This year's theme is #givemefive which celebrates the first lady's Let's Move Campaign and challenges Americans to lead a healthier lifestyle. This year's event will include fitness zones, live music, cooking demonstrations, and of course lots and lots of kids rolling those Easter eggs across the South Lawn of the White House.

Let's get right to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, she drew the lucky straw. She's at the White House for all the action.

Tell us more.

SERFATY: Well, Carol, in just a few minutes we'll hear from President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. They'll speak on the Truman balcony. Unfortunately this year for a lot of kids that came out, they won't be seeing Malia or Sasha. Michelle Obama saying in an interview this morning that they are at school today. So they won't be taking part in this year's Easter egg roll but this is clearly a tradition that President Obama enjoys.

[10:30:01] We've seen him in years past come out and read stories to kids, really get in there and roll eggs with the kids on the South Lawn of the White House.