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Turkish President Refuses to Apologize to Russia; Suspicious Powder at Mosque Turns Out to be Flour; Putin and Hollande to Meet in Russia; Britain's David Cameron Wants Airstrikes on ISIS in Syria; Second Night of Protests Over Teen's Death; Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 26, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:01] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And Doctor, it's not like you can repair a brain when it's injured like that, right?

FLANAGAN: Well, right. So, you know, we have to be careful to prevent the injuries but once an injury does occur like that, you need to take them out to prevent a second one from occurring. The standard protocol for recovery after concussion is physical and cognitive rest. So putting somebody back into play like that just makes them more susceptible to sustain another injury and makes their symptoms last much longer so you have to be careful and make sure you just get them out.

COSTELLO: All right. Coy Wire, Dr. Steven Flanagan, thanks for being with me on this Thanksgiving Day.

WIRE: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Just a short time ago Turkey's president ratcheted up the tension over his country's shootdown of a Russian warplane. He sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN and said Turkey will not apologize for shooting that Russian warplane out of the sky. This as the U.S. and its allies urge both countries to calm the rhetoric.

Becky Anderson live in Ankara, Turkey with more on her exclusive interview. Tell us more, Becky.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And he was very mindful about saying that Turkey is very eager to de-escalate the situation. And he said he was saddened by what had happened. And I'm reading some verbatim here.

"We are disturbed by what happened because we have a strategic partnership with the Russian federation, a partnership of great importance." And do remember, 60 percent of the gas that Turkey uses comes from Russia, for example. Tourism is massively important. And there is a very important strategic relationship here that risks being derailed. But clearly, some very fiery rhetoric from the Russians that I asked the president to respond to.

But I did start by asking him whether he thought that the shooting down of his plane was a mistake and whether he thought that the Turkish authorities had to apologize. And he said, no, he didn't, and he said, in fact, he felt that it was the parties who had incurred into Turkish airspace that should apologize. And was quite defiant about that. He reminded me once again, as Turkish authorities have been doing over the past 36 hours or so, of the circumstances of what happened with the Russian fighter jet.

And reminded me and our viewers that there were some 10 instances of warning given by Turkish military, authorities, for two planes, one of which had incurred into Turkish airspace for some 17 seconds. And it was only after those warnings that the Turkish authorities shot the plane down, according to the military rules of engagement.

But -- so I think the message from this interview was that echoing the words of the U.S. president, of NATO and other Western leaders who are really concerned this risks ratcheting up what is already a very complicated, messy situation in Syria, that the Turkish president really is eager to mend fences, as it were, but defiance in the face of some pretty fiery rhetoric. This was planned provocation, say the Russians. Putin says they are accomplices to terror here in Turkey.

So a defiant president, I have to say. Clearly not prepared to apologize. But one who clearly does want to see this ratcheted down, I have to say.

COSTELLO: Becky Anderson reporting live from Turkey this morning.

Now to Brussels where a chaotic scene is unfolding right now. Police now say 10 suspicious envelopes found at a mosque did not contain chemical or nuclear substances. These are new images from the scene there at that Grand Mosque in Brussels. All of this happening as the city's terror alert remains at the highest level following those brutal terror attacks in Paris.

CNN's Alexandra Field has done some fine reporting out of Brussels this morning. She's here to tell us more. Good morning.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. You can probably see behind me that the picture has changed quite a bit since the last time we talked just a short while ago. Emergency vehicles, emergency responders, now clearing out of here as they've determined this is really nothing more than a false alarm at the Grand Mosque here in Brussels.

What we now know from emergency responders is that a package was discovered here at the mosque. It was thought to be suspicious by somebody who called police. What they found inside that package, 10 envelopes with a white powdery substance. But officials are now saying that that white powder was just flour. Nothing dangerous. Nothing that would pose a threat.

But, Carol, when you take all of this sort of the totality of all of this, it really just speaks to the level of anxiety that people are living with in this city. They have been for days now under the highest terror threat level. They were living in a partial lockdown for four days with the metros closed, with schools closed, with offices closed.

[10:05:08] So people have been getting back to their normal lives in just the last days or so, returning to school and returning work, but it is incredibly clear especially when you look at what's been unfolding behind me here today, that the anxiety has not given way yet. That people are very much aware of the threats in this city, the ongoing situations to root out anyone who could be connected to that terror cell that perpetrated those attacks in Paris. So anything that seems suspicious at this point is getting a swift and a strong reaction, as we saw this morning. But again, we should underscore the point that this appears to have been a false alarm. They found nothing more inside that mosque but some envelopes full of flour -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And that is a good thing. And sadly, I think Americans can relate to what's happening in Brussels right now.

Alexandra Field, thanks so much.

So in light of all that, in just a couple of hours France's president will sit down with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Francois Hollande will call on the Russian president to join a united front against ISIS rather than go it alone. It's a mission made all the tougher given Russia's rising tensions with Turkey and NATO allies.

Jill Dougherty live in Moscow where she served many years as CNN's bureau chief.

We just heard from Becky Anderson, Jill. The Turkish president talking tough against Russia. How will Vladimir Putin take his words?

JILL DOUGHERTY, INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR DEFENSE AND SECURITY: Well, Vladimir Putin is basically saying the very same thing back to him. I mean, this relationship is deteriorating very rapidly. It's quite emotional. And neither side is backing down. The Russians believe that their pilots were shot down needlessly, illegally, et cetera, by the Turks and the Turks are saying they were simply defending their territorial integrity, and the Russians should be apologizing.

In fact that is what the level that we are right now, Carol, is both sides are demanding an apology from the other and maybe even compensation. But I can tell you, I was just at the Russian Foreign Ministry and the spokesperson there, Maria Zakharova, was very emotional, saying that even on a human basis Turkey should be apologizing.

And then also Russia today taking steps economically, cutting down on the imports of food from Turkey. It's a very big deal. $1.7 billion worth of food coming in from Turkey to Russia. And they are really cutting back on that. So it's a true economic battle. They say it won't be military from now on, but it's certainly economic and diplomatic battle.

COSTELLO: So Francois Hollande, he's walking into the hornet's nest, so to speak. So what might he say to Vladimir Putin?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I mean, basically he wants Putin to concentrate any type of military action, these air attacks that they have on ISIS, only ISIS and not opposing forces. Let's say the opposition in Syria. That's difficult because, you know, Russia is saying we believe a lot of these groups really are terrorists or aligned with terrorism and we're going to hit them. And that's another thing the Foreign Ministry said today.

We are continuing our operation and several times, they've said, if we have to go it alone, we'll go it alone. So I think it will be a difficult thing for President Hollande to get some type of organized cooperative military action. It seems very dubious at this point, especially with that quarrelling between Russia and Turkey.

COSTELLO: All right. Jill Dougherty reporting live from Moscow, thanks.

In the meantime, in London, the war on ISIS is undergoing a dramatic shift in strategy. The prime minister there, David Cameron, now asking his country to conduct air strikes directly against ISIS targets in Syria. He went before his parliament today to argue that Britain's security depends on taking the fight to Syria.

CNN international correspondent Phil Black is covering that side of the story for us. Hi, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. The British Air Force is already involved in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq. It helps out with the logistics and reconnaissance over Syria, but the idea of British aircraft striking ISIS in Syria itself has always been a complex, controversial one here in the United Kingdom.

Today David Cameron argued that that has to change. Then he talked about a moral responsibility. That it was wrong, he said, for Britain to shirk its burden in terms of dealing with its own responsibility, its own security, and leaving it up to its allies to handle all of this.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We shouldn't be content with outsourcing our security to our allies. If we believe that action can help protect us, then with our allies, we should be part of that action, not standing aside from it.

[10:15:03] And from this moral point, comes a fundamental question. If we won't act now, when our friend and ally, France, has been struck in this way, then our allies in the world can be forgiven for asking, if not now, when?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: So David Cameron argued that ISIS is not a mere threat to Britain's allies but a threat to Britain itself. He talked about an assessment by UK intelligence and said that Britain was already in the very top tier of aspirational terror targets that ISIS has. And indeed, he said that security forces here, their intelligence services, had disrupted seven recent terror plots organized by people either controlled by ISIS or inspired by them -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Black reporting live from London this morning.

Joining me now to discuss all of this, CNN counterterrorism analyst, Philip Mudd. He's also a former CIA counterterrorism official. Welcome.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving.

COSTELLO: Happy Thanksgiving to you. And we must remember it is Thanksgiving, although we do have to talk about some serious stuff. So a lot of stuff going on this morning. You have the Turkish president talking tough against Russia. You have Hollande meeting with Vladimir Putin. You have David Cameron trying to urge his own parliament to allow air strikes over Syria. What should we make of all this, Phil?

MUDD: Let's step back for a moment because, Carol, we're missing at least half of this conversation. The first half is what we've been talking about especially since the Paris attacks, and that is the escalation of military operations by the French and potentially British, after Cameron -- and I assume he'll get parliamentary support for air strikes. I assume Hollande is going to talk to Vladimir Putin about de-conflicting the air operations in Syria, and as you were rightly talking about a moment or two ago about asking Putin to focus more on ISIS and less on the moderate opposition.

But there is a bigger question here. The White House and President Obama have isolated themselves from Putin by taking a very hard line on Assad. Putin, meanwhile, has laid out a diplomatic track that might eventually lead to a solution, a political solution, in Syria. I think the interesting conversation Hollande will have is not just on the military side, it's whether he can serve as a bridge between Obama and Putin on what the political future is for Syria. After all, if the NATO coalition is successful against ISIS, what happens after? We have no game plan for that, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. Because even if Assad goes away, you're right, who's going to replace Assad and what will the government look like?

MUDD: That's right. I think the difficult question here is the White House has very firmly said Assad must go now. Putin and the Iranians, Putin was just in Iran. Those are the two countries that have the most leverage on Assad, have said that's not going to happen. So whether we in this country like it or not, there's an avenue to a political solution, and that avenue has to go through Vladimir Putin.

Right now the White House has said no. So again, I think Hollande got to have a conversation that says, is there some way that not only we can come up with a political solution but also, remember, Carol, we're dealing with the instability of these refugee flows from Syria to Europe. Can we come up with a solution that limits these massive refugee flows that are eventually going to lead to a lot of political problems in Europe when right-wing groups start to react.

And we saw that today with this envelope at the mosque in Belgium. That's, I guarantee you, an anti-immigrant right-wing group that's trying to protest.

COSTELLO: I found it interesting, and it turned out to be flour so no harm to anyone.

MUDD: Yes.

COSTELLO: Except a lot of anxiety and fear, right?

MUDD: Yes.

COSTELLO: Because somebody delivered those 10 envelopes filled with white substance that turned out to be flour to this grand mosque. I found it interesting, though, it mimics what happened in the United States after 9/11.

MUDD: It's interesting you say that. I was at the White House in the fall of 2001 when we were evacuated. We initially thought that that was a follow-on to the 9/11 attacks. It was a stunning event. But I moved over five years later, Carol. I moved over to the FBI from the CIA. We had morning threat briefings with the FBI director at 7:15. We were still getting copycat attacks. People realized that you could put flour in an envelope and the federal officials had to respond.

We were still getting regular reports of people sending in fake anthrax letters so people who want to threaten a mosque, for example, have an easy way to galvanize the attention of a security service in a government, put flour in an envelope and send it in. And the problem with this attack today is not that it turned out to be such a problem for an hour or two, is it's somebody else is going to go watch on TV and say, hey, why don't I try that? It's free.

COSTELLO: It's just sad.

MUDD: It is.

COSTELLO: Philip Mudd, thanks so much. And again, happy Thanksgiving.

MUDD: Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, more protests in Chicago as newly released video of the killing of that black teenager sparking even more outrage.

[10:14:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: All right. I want to take you outside now. This is a live look along the Thanksgiving Day Parade route in New York City where security is quite tight. This as threats by ISIS raise concerns prompting a much larger police presence this year.

Parade officials say there are sharp shooters on the roofs, radiation detectors checking for dirty bombs and backpacks and plain clothes officers walking among the crowd, along with about 200 officers from the department's new counterterrorism unit.

In the meantime, record crowds also part of the parade with as many as three million spectators in attendance.

Looking at that large yellow banana type -- oh, it's a peanut. It's not a banana? It's a peanut.

(LAUGHTER)

It's a Mr. Peanut van. Sorry. All right. I have to get serious again. Come on out to me. OK. I'm going to get serious.

A second night of protests on the streets of Chicago and New York after police release new video of an African-American teenager being gunned down by a white police officer. Anger ramping up over the 2014 death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Officials say Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times in 15 seconds.

[10:20:04] And let's talk about that new video obtained from "The Chicago Tribune." It shows a different angle from that night. It appears to be the view from Van Dyke's police car. And you saw McDonald being chased down moments before his death.

Let's bring in CNN national correspondent Ryan Young. He's live in Chicago with more.

Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Look, for the most part, this has been going pretty well. Everyone here in Chicago knew this video was coming out. There was a lot of preparation. People talked to civil rights leaders in the community to make sure that the community was prepared for this. But we did see overnight some things kind of change with this protest.

You see this video from Millennium Park where several protesters went to the Christmas tree and tried to start ripping down lights off that Christmas tree. We're also told four arrests were made as things got a little rowdy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (voice-over): A second night of unrest in two major cities as hundreds of protesters returned to the streets.

From Chicago to New York, demonstrators marching in frustration over the shocking death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Police arresting several protesters in New York City, their passion spilling into the Macy's flagship department store in the heart of Manhattan, their voices raging.

In Chicago, demonstrators stage a sit-in, blocking a major intersection, some trying to take police officers' bikes.

This as newly released dash cam videos obtained by "The Chicago Tribune" capture the moment before and after 37-year-old Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times last October. This is Officer Van Dyke's own vehicle dash cam. While out of focus, you can see McDonald cutting across the front of his police car and passing a nearby Burger King.

Moments later, about six seconds after getting out of his vehicle, Officer Van Dyke begins to shoot the teen as he walked down the street, wielding a knife, continuing to fire even after McDonald fell to the ground. Just minutes later this dash cam from another police car shows McDonald lying on the street, the other officers at the scene never opening fire.

Van Dyke's attorney says, the officer was in fear for his life, and says the videos don't show a complete picture, saying McDonald was --

DAN HERBERT, JASON VAN DYKE'S ATTORNEY: Harassing business owners, waving a knife for about 18 minutes on a busy street, him stabbing a squad car windshield that was manned with two police officers inside there.

YOUNG: Late Wednesday, President Obama reacting to the deadly shooting, saying he was, quote, "deeply disturbed by the footage, and is grateful to his hometown for keeping protests peaceful."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Of course we know Black Friday is tomorrow. We've been told by several protesters they do plan to come up Michigan Avenue. Look, we're right here on Michigan Avenue. Magnificent Mile is behind me. They said they will have protests here as well.

But, Carol, there's something else we should point out here. You know, we often talk about how police respond to protesters and how protesters respond to police. One of the things that we've seen here is we've actually seen some coordination in terms of some protesters having some nice conversation with police officers and vice versa, where police officers are remaining calm despite everything that's going on.

You don't see the riot gear. You see them standing right there, even with protesters right in their face, not reacting, not taking the bait -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Ryan Young reporting live from Chicago this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it's pretty shocking. Now who's Donald Trump mocking? We've got the video next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:28:04] COSTELLO: The "New York Times" is calling on Donald Trump for mocking a reporter's physical disability, calling it outrageous. The GOP frontrunner was campaigning in South Carolina when he took aim at journalist Serge Kovaleski. The journalist had written an article after 9/11 about Muslims questioned in Jersey City for allegedly celebrating the attacks. Later Kovaleski said he could not recall talking to any witnesses who saw large celebrations.

Here's Donald Trump, though, said imitating Kovaleski's disability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy, you've got to see this guy. Oh, I don't know what I said. I don't remember. He's going like, I don't remember. Oh, maybe that's what I said. This is 14 years ago, he's still -- they didn't do a retraction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The "New York Times" was flabbergasted, a spokesman telling CNN, quote, "We find it outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters. Not known for backing down, Trump has been firing back through his Twitter account.

For more on this, let's head to Washington and Athena Jones. Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And happy Thanksgiving. It seems like almost every speech that Trump gives he does or says something that raises people's eyebrows but this seems to be entering a whole new realm here in mocking someone's disability. I certainly have never seen it. I don't think most of us have ever seen a politician take to the stage and mock someone's disability.

Now it's likely that the crowd there in South Carolina that night didn't realize that Trump was mocking this reporter. But the fact is, Trump knows this reporter. He's had dealings with him over the years when he's worked at several different publications. And as you mentioned, Trump is not backing down, not apologizing. We haven't known him to do that.

He's instead taken to Twitter to the blast "The New York Times" in a series of tweets. I'll read just two of them. In one he says, "The numbers at the 'New York Times' are so dismal, especially advertising revenue, that big help will be needed fast. A once great institution. Sad."