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President Obama Discusses ISIS, Russia, Turkey and Planned Parenthood; Giuliani: We Had Some Celebrations on 9/11; Jury Selection About to Resume in Officer's Trial. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 01, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:26] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Rarely have so many world leaders been in one place in one time. And while they have come together to discuss global climate change, President Obama has spent much of this past hour addressing the other crises that demand the world's attention, the rise of ISIS, Russia's military buildup in the region, and its defiant support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Here's what Mr. Obama said minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's an indication that Mr. Putin recognizes there is not going to be a military resolution to the situation in Syria. The Russians now have been there for several weeks, over a month. And I think fair-minded reporters who have looked at the situation would say that the situation hasn't changed significantly.

In the interim, Russia's lost a commercial passenger jet. You've seen another jet shot down. There have been losses in terms of Russian personnel. And I think Mr. Putin understands that with Afghanistan fresh in the memory for him to simply get bogged down in an inconclusive and paralyzing civil conflict, is not the outcome that he's looking for.

Now where we continue to have an ongoing difference is not on the need for a political settlement. It's the issue of whether Mr. Assad can continue to serve this president while still bringing that civil war to an end.

It's been my estimation for five years now that that's not possible. Regardless of how you feel about Mr. Assad, and I consider somebody who kills hundreds of thousands of his own people illegitimate, but regardless of the moral equation, as a practical matter, it is impossible for Mr. Assad to bring that country together and to bring all the parties into an inclusive government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We're breaking it all down for you this morning. Our Chris Cuomo and Jim Acosta are in Paris. CNN's Jim Sciutto and Gloria Borger here in Washington and Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. But let's head out to Paris first and check in with you, Chris.

Will the president's words surrounding President Putin resonate with the president of France?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's a really good question. I mean, there's no -- there's doubt that President Hollande is asking for a very ambitious move of progress in terms of the coalition. And as President Obama laid out, the Russian president just isn't there. He said in no, you know, really vague way that he doesn't expect any quick change vis-a-vis Russian support of the Syrian regime. And if that is the case, then it will not be a possibility for Russia to join the coalition in a -- you know, a full way.

The question is, can you find strategic common points? And of course that's been complicated of what just happened with Turkey and now word that Russia has put those surface-to-air missiles in place. So there's a lot of political work to be done and obviously President Hollande is reflecting the domestic situation here.

This is very much a place on edge, a lot of work yet to be done in terms of understanding the attacks of a couple of weeks ago and how to make this a safer environment, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Jim, we know the president talked with Vladimir Putin. How might Vladimir Putin greet the president's remarks this morning?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think that President Obama was sounding very realistic about where things stand right now with respect to his relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia's involvement in Syria. President Obama has just not won the argument with Vladimir Putin yet. He believes that over time Putin will change his calculation. He'll shift his calculation as the president put it during that press conference.

But he cautioned that that will not happen in a matter of weeks. It may take months. And it's because of Putin's really sort of stubborn clinging to Bashar al-Assad. Putin is still making the bet that Assad will keep Syria sort of in Russia's corner and not let it drift over to the West which is sort of a part of Putin's, you know, calculus about the rest of the world, Ukraine, you name it.

[09:05:10] And so I think that's how the Russians will look at this. But, you know, President Obama has a very difficult task on his hands here when it comes to dealing with ISIS. We now have a situation over the next coming weeks and months because Putin is not coming around to President Obama's position where they're just going to be across purposes with one another. And it sounds like this dispute between Turkey and Russia has not been resolved.

And so the prospect is still going to be there, Carol, for these military confrontations and frankly some very deadly accidents in the sky and that's something the president is just going to have to watch over as the remaining months of his administration grind on.

COSTELLO: And Jim, it's interesting that the president brought up the idea of these moderate Syrian oppositions groups that might be able to come up with some sort of political resolution, you know, if Assad leaves office anytime soon.

What did he mean by that?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the same time he brought up the groups but as Gloria was mentioning, he also said that, you know, these are groups we may not have a lot in common with, which is stating the obvious, right? I mean, you have such a range of groups there that they're not -- you know, we're not looking at the French resistance here, right? And in terms of these groups, a lot of them with extremist tendencies, et cetera.

And we saw that as the U.S. tried to arm and train an opposition group. And, you know, $50 million later, you trained 50 and they all got captured by the other side. So it's -- you know, he's basically acknowledging that that was a failed effort as part of a very difficult conflict, which I think fits with the president's broader view of the situation there. It's so complicated. He'll repeat constantly there's no military solution. You can't bomb your way out of it but at the same time he will raise the prospect as he did again at that political solution.

But, listen, you know, political solution arguably is just as difficult. Right? Because you have 47 different sides fighting there. Who are the good guys? I mean, these are the difficult questions.

COSTELLO: Well, and the other thing is who is the leader? Because, you know, some here in this country want the United States to be the leader as in President Obama. But he didn't sound incredibly passionate during that press conference.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, look, I think that the president is trying to describe his own experience. And we know his narrative to Putin because he laid it out today. He said, I don't think Mr. Putin wants to get involved in a protracted civil war. This is what -- where Obama's head is. Right? This is where the president is coming from. Then he raises the spectrum of Afghanistan. Right? He said, you know, he understands that with Afghanistan, fresh in his memory.

COSTELLO: Back in the 1980s?

BORGER: Right. That's fresh.

(LAUGHTER)

SCIUTTO: Fresh in America's memory. Right?

BORGER: Fresher. Fresher. Right.

SCIUTTO: A long, protracted conflict.

BORGER: I don't think this is something that Putin wants to do. So you can imagine this conversation between Putin and the president of the United States saying, look, we've been there. We don't want to get involved in protracted civil wars. You've been there. You don't want to get involved in protracted civil wars. There have to be a way to do it, and by the way, the only way to do it from our point of view is to get Assad out.

SCIUTTO: They were pretty tough words, I think, from the president to Putin there because he said Russia has been in for a month. Here's what they got. They got a passenger shot -- got shot down, another jet shot down, and then he brings up Afghanistan, long protracted conflict. But of course that sounds a lot like America's experience in Afghanistan. That's a tough thing to say, you know, to someone that you're trying to negotiate with. In effect you're saying that you got -- not you deserved what you got but you should have expected what you got when you got in there.

BORGER: And by the way --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Let's head to Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

BORGER: OK.

COSTELLO: Because I want to get the Pentagon perspective in here, Barbara. Because, you know, tough words to President Putin -- President Putin, I mean, there are American troops over there. You know, they're not on the ground but they're certainly in the air fighting. And what does that mean for them, this war of words between Russia and the United States?

STARR: You know, Carol, I think that's exactly the difference here, there's a war of words at podiums across the world, in front of TV cameras in capitals. From the political side of the house, if you will. But the military reality on the ground is really something quite different. In just about 45 minutes we're going to hear from Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Joe Dunford. They're going to be testifying about the military reality on Capitol Hill when they appear before the House Armed Services Committee.

The military reality, as we stand here today, Russia has now put S-400 massive surface-to-air missile system in Syria. This is a system that can reach out, target and potentially shoot down aircraft all the way to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey where both Turkish and U.S. jets operate. Nobody thinks the Russians are about to shoot down a bunch of airplanes. Nobody thinks the Russians are about to shoot down U.S. airplanes.

But, again, the military reality, this is a capability that U.S. pilots in the air are going to have to deal with. They're going to have to be aware of it. They're going to have to decide how they fly around it. We're going to see in the coming days U.S. Special Operations Forces go into northern Syria as the White House has already announced.

[09:10:06] So the military stakes are ratcheting up still, if you will, because all sides are putting more firepower into the fight. How do you keep that -- you know, U.S. troops, Russian troops, Turkish troops, how do you keep them all safe with so many players in the mix in the military reality in the skies and the ground of Syria -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. I do want to touch on something else the president talked about in this press conference because reporters asked him a variety of questions on different topics, including the tragedy at Planned Parenthood. This is what the president had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I think it's fair to have a legitimate, honest debate about abortion. I don't think that's something that is beyond the pale of our political discussion. That's a serious, legitimate issue. How we talk about it, making sure that we're talking about it factually, accurately, and not demonizing, organizations like Planned Parenthood, I think is important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Jim Acosta, was the president intimating that fiery rhetoric had something to do with inspiring this suspect to open fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic?

ACOSTA: Well, I think the president was trying to say there that perhaps all of this scrutiny on Planned Parenthood over the last several months, and keep in mind it's become a very hot button political issue up on Capitol Hill, Republicans in Congress have tried to inject Planned Parenthood language into budget legislation and so forth.

I think the president, what he's trying to say here is that we need to lower the temperature when it come to this debate. And I think yes, he is trying to say, that, you know, perhaps some of that heated rhetoric might have had something to do with that tragedy there. He didn't come out and say that. But he certainly hinted at it. And you heard the president say at one point that, you know, Planned Parenthood deserves credit for providing low-cost health services to poor women all over the United States.

And so, you know, that is something that the Democratic Party has been talking about a great deal. You'll hear Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders all say this out on the campaign trail. So to some extent the president was trying to, you know, talk in that direction. But at the same time, he also went back to that message that he's repeated time and again after all of these mass shootings, Carol, and that is in defense of new gun control laws in the United States, saying that shootings like this just don't happen in other countries.

COSTELLO: All right, Jim Acosta, Chris Cuomo, Gloria Borger, Jim Sciutto, Barbara Starr, thanks to all of you.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, Trump not backing off his claims New Jersey Muslims celebrated after 9/11. But what does America's mayor has to say about it? What Rudy Giuliani remembers about that time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:17:01] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): I've had hundreds of people call in and tweet in on Twitter, saying that they saw it and I was 100 percent right. Now, "The Washington Post" also wrote about tail gate parties. We're looking for other articles and we're looking for other clips. And I wouldn't be surprised if we found them, Chuck. But for some reason, they're not that easy to come by.

I saw it. So many people saw it, Chuck. So, why would I take it back? I'm not going to take it back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Donald Trump continues to double down on his claims of seeing thousands of Muslims celebrating after the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey. Now, the man who was mayor of New York City on that day, Rudy Giuliani, is now addressing those charges. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We had some attacks and we did have some celebrating. That is true. We had pockets of celebration, some in Queens, some in Brooklyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: How many people?

GIULIANI: Ten, 12, 30, 40.

CAMEROTA: And those weren't just rumors. Those weren't reports. You went and checked them out.

GIULIANI: No, no, we had one situation in which a candy store owned by a Muslim family was celebrating that day, right near a housing development. The kids in the housing development came in and beat them up. And I think both facts were corroborated to be true. They were celebrating that the towers had come down. And some of the kids in the housing development got really upset about it and came in and did a pretty good job of beating them up.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, a handful of isolated incidents you're saying --

GIULIANI: I was very proud of that. We expected a lot of it. Bernie Kerik was the police commissioner at the time, because the angle was so great, we expected a lot of irrational acts of violence against people who appeared to be Islamic or Muslim.

CAMEROTA: Right. You expected violence against Muslims, you weren't expecting celebrations.

GIULIANI: We had very, very little. We had some language. We had some yelling and screaming. I can't give you a count of the number of acts of violence.

CAMEROTA: OK, but you're -- GIULIANI: Nothing really serious. We did have some and we did have

some reports --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GIULIANI: -- of people celebrating that day while the towers were coming down.

CAMEROTA: If there had been thousands of people --

GIULIANI: That I think I would have known -- I would have -- I would have known that for sure.

CAMEROTA: You would have known that. Yes.

So, Donald Trump is, therefore, not telling the truth.

GIULIANI: Well, I think what he's doing is exaggerating, right? People were celebrating. He's right about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining me now, CNN politics senior reporter Chris Moody.

So, Chris, it goes on.

CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: It does go on. This will give a life raft to Donald Trump. You had better believe at a rally maybe sometime later today or later this week, Donald Trump is going to mention the comments from Rudy Giuliani and say he was right. However --

COSTELLO: But Rudy Giuliani didn't vindicate him.

MOODY: However, he said that Donald Trump was exaggerating and pointed to mere pockets, small instances, isolated instances of this.

[09:20:05] But that's not going to matter for Donald Trump. He's going to say he's right in his own Donald Trump fashion.

Now, we saw a very different reaction from Governor Chris Christie. Let's take a look at that.

COSTELLO: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Did it happen?

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No.

GANGEL: Absolutely not?

CHRISTIE: No.

GANGEL: So, why don't you call Donald Trump out on this? He's doubled down, he's tripled down.

CHRISTIE: What's the use? Everybody knows it didn't happen. Everybody knows it didn't happen. What's the use? Join the cacophony?

I'm about distinguishing myself, making myself different from everybody else in the in a 14-person field, not the same. So, you know, to just pile on? I don't -- I don't -- don't see that as being useful. Listen, Jamie, I'm trying to win this race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOODY: So Chris Christie is also right because Donald Trump, if you look at the facts of the case, said that thousands of people were celebrating, as Rudy Giuliani said, that is not true. That's what Chris Christie is referring to there. That is not true.

As Giuliani said it's mere pockets of people. But as mentioned earlier, that's not going to matter for Donald Trump or his fans. He is going to tell everyone that he is now vindicated.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So, we're going to interview Bernie Kerik who was the police commissioner at the time in the next hour of NEWSROOM. So, well see what he has to say.

And you're right, though. Who knows? Who knows how -- what direction the spin will take.

Chris Moody, thanks so much.

MOODY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Checking some of the top stories for you at about 21 minutes past.

We know what caused an Air Asia crash in Indonesia almost a year ago. All 162 people on board were killed. It started with a malfunction in the Airbus jet's computer, then when the plane with went into a stall, the pilots could not recover. The report said better training for the pilots could have helped avoid the crash.

Lawyers for the Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are back in court today. They want a new trial. They say there's no way a Boston jury could deliver an unbiased verdict. Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death back in May of this year for his role at the Boston marathon bombing in 2013.

COSTELLO: Yes, that's Atlanta. Three police officers are on paid leave after a shootout in downtown Atlanta. They were trying to stop a car that sped off and then crashed. The passenger in the car jumped out and simply started shooting at police. Police returned fire. The passenger was later found dead. The driver now in jail. Guns and marijuana were found in the car. An investigation is under way.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: tensions running high in Baltimore. Jury selection under way for the first police officer in the death of Freddie Gray.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:58] COSTELLO: All right. I want too take you to Paris. You see President Obama getting on board a plain, his own plane, I might add, the presidential plane. He's set to fly back home after a press conference that he gave just about an hour ago, talking to reporters about climate change, terrorism, Russia and more. The president will be back home in the United States later this afternoon.

In other news this morning, the second day of jury selection about to get under way for Officer William Porter. Porter is the first of six officers on trial for Freddie Gray's death. Courtroom sketches show Porter appearing for the first time yesterday. Protesters could be heard chanting outside the courthouse. Those chants continuing into the evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS: Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Jean Casarez is in Baltimore to tell us what will happen later this morning.

Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

You know, the thing is with the protesters, the fourth floor room they're selecting the jury in has windows. And you could hear the protesting inside the jury room.

Well, today, Carol, they're going to bring in another very large panel like yesterday, which was 75 people. And they're going to really start the process over again. Some of the jurors from yesterday will come back tomorrow. Some are going to be told that they are excused.

But I was in the courtroom all afternoon. I want to just tell you what I saw. First of all, I really feel that it was a cross-section of Baltimore City as a looked at all of the perspective jurors. Hour after hour they sat in that courtroom and then one by one their numbers would be called and they would go into a conference room for individual questioning.

As I saw them sit there, they were restless, they would sleep at points. There was knitting. As at the time went on they started to talk to each ear more. The reaction as they would come out of their individual questioning, they seemed to be relieved in one aspect. They also seem to be a little disappointed because they didn't walk out the door and leave. They actually had to sit down and talk to their neighbor.

Now, when everything was over last night, the judge and the attorneys came out and the judge appeared to be really tired. I saw him put his hand on his face and just like that. I think it was very wearing. He had a sidebar. He seemed to go over numbers and court was finished and it was announced another panel would come in today.

But some will come back tomorrow. They are determined to get that jury but they will not until the very least tomorrow have that jury since they are having others come back -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jean Casarez reporting live from Baltimore -- thank you.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

President Obama discussing climate change in the latest western city rocked by terror. It may seem like an odd juxtaposition in Paris but President Obama says not so. While at the summit, President Obama worked on the sidelines, talking to Russia and allies about the need to unite against ISIS. And he says the catastrophic predictions of global warming are urgent enough that they could ultimately affect the global war on terror.