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Clinton to Back Iran Deal in Speech; EU Wants Refugees Distributed Across Europe; Baltimore Officials to Vote on Freddie Gray Settlement; Race for 2016: Clinton Announces Support for Iran Nuke Deal. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:01] MICHALEA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: All right. It's time for NEWSROOM and Carol Costello.

Good morning, darling.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks for that.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin today with Hillary Clinton speaking out on the Iran deal one day after finally apologizing for using a private server while she was secretary of state.

These are life pictures from Washington where campaign aides say Clinton will formally back President Obama's Iran deal but also urged lawmakers to, quote, "be clear-eyed about Iran's behavior going forward."

Clinton's focus on foreign policy comes as she tries to turn the page on the e-mail controversy that has over shadowed her campaign.

Our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins me now with more. Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. The Obama administration's Iran nuclear agreement, while certainly controversial even among Democrats, is a welcome change of subject for Hillary Clinton today.

Now, she of course helped open the door to these negotiations with Iran when she was secretary of state. But it's her decision to set up a private e-mail account to use at the State Department that is still causing her so much grief. She's gone from defiant, insisting there is nothing to apologize for, to now being contrite. This is what she said last night to ABC News' David Muir.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even know it was allowed, I should have used two accounts, one for personal, one for work-related e-mails. That was a mistake. I'm sorry about that. I take responsibility and I'm trying to be as transparent as I possibly can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And only a few hours later she amplified this in a message on her Facebook page and in a separate e-mail to supporters and contributors. She said this, "I know this is a complex story. I could have and should have done a better job answering questions earlier. I'm grateful for your support and I'm not taking anything for granted."

Now this is a dose of humility for the Clinton campaign as she tries to rebuild something she's lost over the summer. That's trust and credibility with some of those voters -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. And Hillary Clinton is supposed to speak actually in just about eight minutes on this Iran deal. And I know she's trying to change her image because she's trying to make her image softer, which is probably why she apologized. But with this particular appearance she wants to appear presidential.

ZELENY: No doubt about it. She does want to appear presidential and she wants to put forth some of these credentials that she's actually running on.

But, Carol, so interesting on this, I mean, she did start brokering this Iran deal when she was secretary of state, opening the door to some of these communications that paved the way for this. She's not had a chance to talk much about it. That's why this speech is so interesting today. And of course it's such a contrast to what's happening just across town here in Washington, on Capitol Hill, where Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin are going to be blasting the Iran arrangement. So this speech is a moment for her to put this controversy aside and talk about substance for once.

COSTELLO: All right. Jeff Zeleny reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

Today the embattled Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples is taking a day of rest to be with her family. That's according to Kim Davis's legal team who says she will return to work on Friday or Monday.

Davis was locked up after refusing to issue licenses because of her religious beliefs. On Tuesday crowds cheered her on at rally -- at this big rally moments after she was freed from jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM DAVIS, ROWAN COUNTY CLERK: You're a strong people. We serve a living God who knows exactly where each and every one of us is at. Just keep on pressing. Don't let down. Because he is here. I love you, guys. Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Republican hopeful Mike Huckabee taking center stage at that rally standing side by side with Davis. Earlier today he talked with CNN's Alisyn Camerota and said Davis will not violate her conscience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Supreme Court can't make law. They interpreted law. But the Supreme Court can't make it. Only Congress can make law. And another thing I think we sometimes miss is the Supreme Court can be wrong. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 said that black people weren't fully human. I don't think anybody would like to go back and say hey, that's the law of the land. It's never been repealed but it was soundly ignored.

Alisyn, there's a basic misunderstanding of what it means to follow the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: A judge has ordered Davis not to interfere with her deputies issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

[09:05:01] We turn now to the refugee crisis in Europe and new calls for leaders to step it up. The European Union now revealing a so- called quota plan, imploring leaders in 22 countries to provide shelter for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing in desperation. Pressure mounting on the United States as we continue to see stunning scenes like these. Growing outrage after a Hungarian camera woman is caught tripping a sprinting migrant. She then kicks another person.

She was employed by a nationalist anti-immigration news site. They've since fired her, calling her behavior completely unacceptable.

Our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is along the Serbia- Hungary border with more.

Hi, Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Carol, right here we have another scene that is a byproduct of these refugees and migrants once again pushing their way through police blockades. They did this again at the holding center, finally they were stopped here and promised that buses would then be arriving to take them not into the camps but instead to the Austrian border.

And on this bus is a family that we met a short while ago. If we go a bit closer we might be able to see them and say hi. They're from Kobani. This is Kobani in Syria. This is that town just across the border from Turkey where last year there was fierce intense fighting between ISIS and the Kurdish fighting force.

The family fled back then when ISIS was eventually pushed back. They returned to Kobani and then ISIS launched several smaller scale attacks, trying to retake Kobani and then that was when they finally decided to leave. But this family's story is incredible, Carol, because the mother, her

name is Shireen (ph). She was pregnant when she was aboard the dingy. In fact, she was almost due. And when the dingy finally arrived on Greece's shores she couldn't walk any longer. She began getting contractions. She gave birth in Greece. And then she walked the entire day with what is now an 11-day-old baby.

And this just shows you the lengths to which some of these families will go in their attempt to secure a future for themselves. But for many more importantly secure a future for their children.

COSTELLO: Oh my goodness. That is one strong woman.

Arwa Damon reporting live for us this morning. Thank you so much.

As I mentioned, there is growing pressure on the United States to do more. Here's how the numbers break down. Of the some 4.4 million Syrian refugees, nearly half are now residing in Turkey. 1.1 million are in Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of others are in neighboring countries.

So what about North America? 10,000 Syrians have resettled in Canada. That number drops to 1500 here in the United States. The Obama administration says it's considering bringing in more, noting that the United States has provided over $4 billion in humanitarian aid since the crisis began.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton's Iran speech in minutes. Could this moment be a game-changer?

And Baltimore officials voting right now on the $6.4 million settlement with the Freddie Gray family. How would this affect the trials that are soon to be held?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:12:29] COSTELLO: All right. Very soon -- actually these are live pictures out of Washington at the Brookings Institution where Hillary Clinton is expected to deliver remarks on Iran. As soon as she takes the podium, of course we'll take you back to Washington live.

Now to Baltimore, though. Soon we'll hear from that city's mayor on a $6.4 million proposed settlement to the family of Freddie Gray. Back in April, Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Under these proposal the city accepts liability in Gray's arrest and his death but does not acknowledge any wrongdoing by police.

This comes one day before a change of venue hearing for the six officers charged in the case. And in a statement the police union, it ripped the timing of the settlement writing, quote, "To suggest that there is any reason to settle prior to the adjudication of the pending criminal cases is obscene and without regard to the fiduciary responsibility owed to the taxpaying citizens of the city. There has been no civil litigation filed nor has there been any guilt determined that would require such a ridiculous reaction on the part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and her administration." CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Baltimore City. He's outside of city hall.

So what might the mayor say today?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think she's going to tell us why she thinks it was prudent and smart to do it right now. But this will certainly divide an already or further divide an already divided city. It already is. Both sides of the spectrum saying that either it is too much money and it comes at the exact wrong time or they should have held out and gotten a lot more.

Lawyers for the Freddie Gray family likely would have filed suit in federal court seeking many more millions of dollars, the lawyers and the mayor will say. And so doing it now was heading off a long and tough and expensive legal battle for the state.

The problem is that there is a change of venue hearing for those six officers tomorrow and people believe that this will deeply affect the judge's decision about whether or not those individuals can get a fair trial here. At his hearing last week, the judge suggested that he could probably get -- or at least go through the process of trying to get a jury in Baltimore before deciding to move it elsewhere. But now that may change his opinion.

The Board of Estimates for the city of Baltimore that has to approve this thing was meant to start meeting about 15 minutes ago. They are delayed. That may mean something. They are expected to approve it. It's expected to be a very quick vote by them.

[09:15:00] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And then it will set off a chain reaction across the city. The mayor will speak. The attorney for the family of Freddie Gray will speak. Pastors will come out.

And there is lots of discussion and talk in the neighborhood about what this settlement means for the Gray family and for the city. An interesting time in a city that has been under fire for many months now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Is there any -- is there any indication at all right now, before this press conference by the mayor, why the city decided to settle so early? Why didn't it just wait?

MARQUEZ: I think the concern was if they waited, because there are caps on state settlements in the state of Maryland, if they waited and all of that stuff came out during trials and the defense lawyers and the lawyers for Freddie Gray's family had all that information years down the road, that it would have amounted to much more.

They would have filed in federal court where there's no caps. They would have sought much more money. It would have been $6 million or more just to fight it legally, just to pay the lawyers. And they wouldn't have ended up on the right side of this.

I think the mayor, the Gray family, they basically all wanted it done. The mayor approached the Gray family with this settlement and they took it and it's done as far as they're concerned -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Miguel Marquez, reporting live from Baltimore, we'll get back to you when the mayor starts speaking in front of her podium.

But, of course, we're watching a podium in Washington as well, because Hillary Clinton is expected to speak on Iran and that nuclear deal in moments. And when she takes the podium we'll go back to Washington.

But I've got to take a break. I'll be right back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. Back to Washington and Hillary Clinton's comments on the Iran nuclear agreement.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- including Strobe and Martin who I'll speak to in a minute. Also, Bob Einhorn and Tammy Wittes.

This institution has hosted many important conversations over the years, and I appreciate Strobe's reference to the event last night and the continuing dialogue about urgent issues facing our nation and world. That's what brings me here today -- back to Brookings -- to talk about a question we are all grappling with right now: how to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon -- and more broadly, how to protect ourselves and our allies from the full range of threats that Iran poses.

The stakes are high, and there are no simple or perfectly satisfying solutions. So these questions -- and in particular, the merits of the nuclear deal recently reached with Iran -- have divided people of good will and raised hard issues on both sides.

Here's how I see it: Either we move forward on the path of diplomacy and seize this chance to block Iran's path to a nuclear weapon -- or, we turn down a more dangerous path leading to a far less certain and riskier future.

That's why I support this deal. I support it as part of a larger strategy toward Iran.

By now, the outcome in Congress is no longer in much doubt. So we've got to start looking ahead to what comes next: enforcing the deal, deterring Iran and its proxies, and strengthening our allies.

These will be my goals as President. And today, I want to talk about how I would achieve them.

Let me start by saying I understand the skepticism so many feel about Iran. I too am deeply concerned about Iranian aggression and the need to confront it. It's a ruthless, brutal regime that has the blood of Americans, many others, including its own people, on its hands. Its political rallies resound with cries of "Death to America." Its leaders talk about wiping Israel off the face of the map, most recently just yesterday, and foment terror against it. There is absolutely no reason to trust Iran.

Now, Vice President Cheney may hope that the American people will simply forget, but the truth is, by the time President Obama took office and I became secretary of state, Iran was racing toward a nuclear capability. They had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle -- meaning that they had the material, scientists, and technical know-how to create material for nuclear weapons. They had produced and installed thousands of centrifuges, expanded their secret facilities, established a robust uranium enrichment program, and defied their international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And they hadn't suffered many consequences. I voted for sanctions again and again as a Senator from New York, but they weren't having much effect. Most of the world still did business with Iran. We needed to step up our game.

So President Obama and I pursued a two-pronged strategy: pressure and engagement. We made it clear that the door to diplomacy was open -- if Iran answered the concerns of the international community in a serious and credible way.

We simultaneously launched a comprehensive campaign to significantly raise the cost of Iranian defiance.

We systematically increased our military capabilities in the region, deepening our cooperation with partners and sending more firepower -- an additional aircraft carrier, battleship, strike aircraft, and the most advanced radar and missile defense systems available.

[09:25:15] Meanwhile, I traveled the world -- capital by capital, leader by leader -- twisting arms to help build the global coalition that produced some of the most effective sanctions in history.

With President Obama's leadership, we worked with Congress and the European Union to cut Iran off from the world's economic and financial system. And one by one, we persuaded energy-hungry consumers of Iranian oil like India and South Korea to cut back. Soon, Iran's tankers sat rusting in port. Its economy was collapsing.

These new measures were effective because we made them global. American sanctions provided the foundation, but Iran didn't really feel the heat until we turned this into an international campaign, so biting that Iran had no choice but to negotiate. They could no longer play off one country against another. They had no place to hide.

So, they started looking for a way out. I first visited Oman to speak with the sultan of Oman in January of 2011, went back later that year. The Sultan helped set up a secret backchannel. I sent one of my closest aides as part of a small team to begin talks with the Iranians in secret.

Negotiations began in earnest after the Iranian election in 2013. First, the bilateral talks led by Deputy Secretary Bill Burns and Jake Sullivan that led to the interim agreement; then the multilateral talks led by Secretary John Kerry, Secretary Ernie Moniz, and Under Secretary Wendy Sherman.

Now there's a comprehensive agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Is it perfect? Well, of course not. No agreement like this ever is. But is it a strong agreement? Yes, it is. And we absolutely should not turn it down.

The merits of the deal have been well argued, so I won't go through them in great detail here. The bottom line is that it accomplishes the major goals we set out to achieve. It blocks every pathway for Iran to get a bomb. And it gives us better tools for verification and inspection, and to compel rigorous compliance.

Without a deal, Iran's breakout time -- how long they need to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon -- would shrink to a couple of months. With a deal, that breakout time stretches to a year, which means that if Iran cheats, we'll know it and we'll have time to respond decisively.

Without a deal, we would have no credible inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities. With a deal, we'll have unprecedented access. We'll be able to monitor every aspect of their nuclear program.

Now, some have expressed concern that certain nuclear restrictions expire after 15 years, and we need to be vigilant about that, which I'll talk more about in a moment. But other parts are permanent, including Iran's obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and their commitment to enhanced inspections under the Additional Protocol.

Others have expressed concern that it could take up to 24 days to gain access to some of Iran's facilities when we suspect cheating. I'd be the first to say that this part of the deal is not perfect -- although the deal does allow for daily access to enrichment facilities and monitoring of the entire nuclear fuel cycle. It's important to focus on that because being able to monitor the supply chain is critical to what we will find out and how we will be able to respond.

But our experts tell us that that even with delayed access to some places, this deal does the job. Microscopic nuclear particles remain for years and years. They are impossible to hide. That's why Secretary Moniz, a nuclear physicist, has confidence in this plan.

And some have suggested that we just go back to the negotiating table and get a better, unspecified deal. I can certainly understand why that may sound appealing. But as someone who started these talks in the first place and built our global coalition piece by piece, I can assure you, it is not realistic.