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Officer Shot Three Times in Philadelphia; President Obama Holds Gun Control Town Hall; Interview with Andy Parker; Interview with Eric Pratt; Affluenza Teen's Mom Arraigned in Court; Two Refugees from Iraq Arrested. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:00:01] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And conspiracy theories.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away?

COSTELLO: Also, CNN goes inside North Korea.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We visited a science center here in Pyongyang.

COSTELLO: Planes, tanks, and nuclear technology. What the rogue nation wants the world to see on the heels of its h-bomb claims.

Plus, disagree with Donald Trump? Don't come to a stump speech.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Throw him out into the cold.

COSTELLO: Why people at the rally had to take a loyalty pledge before they were let inside.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Shocking violence directed at a police officer overnight in Philadelphia. The officer ambushed by a gunman and shot multiple times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired. I'm shot. I'm bleeding heavily.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All cars standby we have an officer shot 6-0 and Spruce. Repeating, in the 18th District, assisting officer 6-0 and Spruce. We have an officer down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm bleeding. Get us another unit out here. 6-0 and Spruce. Please send me some units to 6-0 and Irving. (INAUDIBLE) weapon out here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, we have officers in route to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Our affiliate KYW reporting the officer is now recovering this morning after surviving that ambush.

Miguel Marquez is with me to tell us more. Good morning.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. This is an unbelievable story. This is an officer, 33 years old, Jesse Hartnett, driving along West Baltimore, in west Philadelphia, sees an individual who flags him down at an intersection, stops for him, probably rolls down the window, asks him what's going on. The guy then begins to shoot with a 9-millimeter handgun into the officer's window. At some points his gun was all the way in the officer's window, says police officials.

Thirteen times he shot, he hit the officer three times. And this is where the story goes from shocking to unbelievable. The officer was able to get his seat belt off, get out of the car or halfway out of the car and actually hits -- shoot the gunman as well. Not killing him but shoot him as well. They recover the gun. The arrested the gunman. The officer got three shots to the arm, breaking a bone. Lots of nerve damage. But amazingly survived and was able to take out this gunman. Unbelievable job.

COSTELLO: So the suspect is now in the hospital, life-threatening wounds or --

MARQUEZ: It's not clear how badly he is wounded but amazingly enough, both of them are in the hospital. The officer going through surgery, it's not clear how extensive the damage is to his arm. But he will survive.

COSTELLO: I'm asking --

MARQUEZ: The gunman is in the hospital. I'm sure police agencies not only in Philadelphia but across the country will want to know what's in this guy's mind.

COSTELLO: That's just -- you're right. It's unbelievable that that police officer, he's shot, what, three times, he gets out of his car, he shoots the suspect. Did he hit the suspect at least three times?

MARQUEZ: It sounds like he hit the suspect at least three times, and in that audio that you played at the very beginning --

COSTELLO: And then he calls 911 --

MARQUEZ: That's the officer. That's the officer who is on his radio, probably being able to radio at the same time that all of this is happening. So you hear him describing his own condition in that audio report. It is unbelievable the -- what this officer did out there.

COSTELLO: I know you're shortly going to take off for Philadelphia to find out more.

MARQUEZ: We will.

COSTELLO: So I'll let you go.

MARQUEZ: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: Miguel Marquez, thanks so much.

Gun violence also at the center of CNN's town hall with President Obama lobbying for tighter gun measures. People on both sides of the issue took part in a cool-headed conversation. The one glaring absence, the NRA. The nation's largest gun rights group declined an invitation and dismissed the whole event as a publicity stunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Does it make sense to meet with him?

CHRIS COX, NRA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, and talk about, Megyn? This president can talk about background checks all day long but that's nothing more than a distraction away from the fact that he can't keep us safe. And he supported every gun control proposal that's ever been made. He doesn't support the individual right to own a firearm. That's been the position of his Supreme Court nominees. That's been the position of his administration.

So what are we going to talk about? Basketball? I'm not really interested in going over and talking to the president who doesn't have a basic level of respect or understanding of the Second Amendment and law-abiding gun owners in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But a new CNN/ORC poll shows most Americans do support the president's plans. Two out of three say they favor his executive orders tightening background checks and other existing laws. Here's a look at last night's give-and-take summed up in two minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our position is consistently mischaracterized. And by the way, there's a reason why the NRA is not here. You'd think that they'd be prepared to have a debate with the president.

[10:05:05] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: They haven't been to the White House for years.

OBAMA: No, no. We've invited them. We've invited them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I understand that background checks aren't necessarily going to stop me from getting a gun but I also know that they wouldn't have stopped any of the people in this room from killing. KIMBERLY CORBAN, COLLEGE RAPE SURVIVOR: Why can't your administration

see that these restrictions that you're putting to make it harder for me to own a gun or harder for me to take that where I need to be is actually just making my kids and I less safe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do we get those with mental illness and criminals -- that's the real problem here. How are we going to get them to follow the laws?

OBAMA: Crime is always going to be with us, so I think it's really important for us not to suggest that if we can't solve every crime, we shouldn't try to solve any crimes.

Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad.

COOPER: I think a lot of people were surprised by that moment.

OBAMA: I was, too, actually. It's the only time I've ever seen the Secret Service cry, on duty. This notion of a conspiracy out there --

COOPER: Let me just jump in. Is it fair to call it a conspiracy? I mean --

OBAMA: Well, yes.

COOPER: Because a lot of people really believe this deeply, that they just don't --

OBAMA: No, no.

COOPER: They just don't trust you.

OBAMA: I'm sorry, Cooper, yes, it is fair to call it a conspiracy. What are you saying? Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so that we can impose martial law --

COOPER: Not every -- but there's certainly a lot of people --

OBAMA: -- a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. And we can do better than we're doing right now if we come together. Thank you.

COOPER: Mr. President, thank you very much for your time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: My next guest was at the town hall meeting last night and is a leading voice for calling for tighter gun control. It's a job he never actually wanted. His daughter Alison, alongside her cameraman, Adam Ward, were killed on live television back in August and ever since Andy Parker has vowed to do whatever it takes to end gun violence. He joins us now from Washington.

Welcome back, Andy.

ANDY PARKER, ALISON PARKER'S FATHER: Good to see you, Carol, under I think better circumstances.

COSTELLO: Better circumstances, because I wanted to ask you, you were at the town hall, how did it feel to you?

PARKER: It was exciting. It was -- I tell you, the president knocked it out of the park last night. He was a champion. And, you know, when you have facts and reason on your side, you're going to prevail. So we were very excited and very energized.

COSTELLO: At the same time, you heard how the NRA responded. They blew this off as a publicity stunt. What would you say to them?

PARKER: You know, I think that -- well, you know, it shows their character that they didn't show up. You know, they're invited. They don't want to engage in the conversation. And we know what they do.

COSTELLO: Do you regret that the NRA wasn't there?

PARKER: Not really. Again, I think most Americans really know, you know, what they stand for and how they are obstructionists and, you know, in essence a terrorist organization. And I found it interesting last night. I talked to some gentleman that said he knew a gun shop owner that was thrilled with the president's proposals because he said, you know, I -- you know, I go to these gun shows and all these unlicensed dealers are around, and they -- it's -- they're not playing by the same rules.

And the man said, well, why don't you speak out against the NRA? And he said, the NRA would kill me if I did that. So this is -- you know, this is what they do. They intimidate and then they -- you know, they pay off politicians.

COSTELLO: Not kill them literally. Now that's --

PARKER: No, no.

COSTELLO: OK.

PARKER: But -- no.

COSTELLO: Have to clear that up. OK.

PARKER: Yes. Let me clear -- yes. They would destroy him, they wouldn't be able -- you know, he wouldn't be able to get his license. They would -- yes. That's -- exactly.

COSTELLO: I understand. There were other victims of crime there at that town hall last night. A rape victim stood and told the president she needed a gun for protection. Your daughter was killed by a man with a gun. How would you have answered her question last night?

PARKER: Well, just like the president did. She mentioned that any gun control or gun legislation, like a lot of people that are, I think, living in a different reality, they think that with these presidential -- the executive order, that it's going to prohibit them from buying firearms. And that's just not the case. If you're a law- abiding citizen, you can purchase a firearm. No one's going to take that right away from you, if you obey the law.

COSTELLO: I'm going to talk to a gun rights advocate right after this interview wraps up. What would you like me to ask him?

PARKER: Well, Carol, you hear the gun lobby say, oh, you know, if there was only a good guy with a gun at one of these mass shootings or something related to, you know, Alison's murder, you know, or if it hadn't been a gun-free zone, you know, this probably could have been prevented.

[10:10:19] Alison was holding a microphone in her hand. Her colleague, Adam Ward, was holding a camera in his hand. Were they supposed to, you know, have a gun in the other? I would ask that question. And the other question I would ask is, when have -- has anyone on that side heard me, the president, anyone involved in gun safety advocacy say, we're coming to take your guns away and we're not going to allow law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms if they can pass a background check?

And, you know, as a corollary, if you don't agree with background checks, are you OK with dangerous people being allowed easy access to firearms?

COSTELLO: All right. I will ask those questions. Andy Parker, thanks for being with me this morning.

PARKER: Thanks.

COSTELLO: The president -- you're welcome.

The president did not mince words last night. He said some of his critics have accused him of spouting, quote, "imaginary fiction," and he repeatedly said he is not trying to take people's guns away. You know, he echoed what Andy just said to all of you.

Well, I was just about to talk to Eric -- oh, Eric Pratt is back.

Eric, I thought I lost you. Eric Pratt is a gun rights activist. He's the executive director for Gun Owners of America. Welcome.

ERIC PRATT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being with me. I thought I lost you there for a second. But I'm sure glad that we got our technical issue back. We got you on the phone and I appreciate you being with me this morning.

PRATT: Yes.

COSTELLO: So you heard what Andy Parker wanted me to ask you. He said, you know, you always hear the argument that a good guy with a gun would prevent all of these -- all of these killings. But he said, you know, his daughter Alison was just doing a live television report. She was holding a microphone. Was she supposed to have a gun in her other hand? How do you respond to that? PRATT: Well, I would say cops get jumped as well. It's not always

going to be 100 percent effective. There was a deputy in Houston who was pumping gas and he got -- somebody came up from behind him and shot him. However, there are actually many, many cases where armed citizens do stop mass shootings.

And as much as I thought Anderson did a good job, he's very professional, one of the things that I thought was missing yesterday was not having somebody there, because there are several people who have stopped these mass shootings, like the doctor in Darby, Pennsylvania, or the worker in Youngstown, Ohio, bar or a concealed carry holder in a Philadelphia barber shop, or the pastor in the Orlando church about a year ago, or what about in the president's own hometown in Chicago, there was a Uber guy who saw a guy that was firing into a crowd, he jumped out of his car. He was a concealed carry permit holder, he shot the guy six times. That ended the attack. Nobody else was injured.

And it's these type of stories that really never get portrayed in the media. They're put on the local news but they don't get the national --

COSTELLO: Well, let me -- let me stop you there for just a second, Eric, because I hear where you're coming from. But, you know, Andy also said, nobody is trying to take law-abiding citizens' guns away. No one is trying do that. No one. And he wonders where that's coming from.

PRATT: Well, it kind of reminds me of what -- you know, it sounds a little bit like if you like your firearm, you can keep your firearm. You know, where have we heard that before? Actually that's the problem. The president, when he says things like lauding the Australia gun control. Well, what was Australia's gun control? They confiscated firearms.

In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, guns were confiscated. Hillary Clinton has also lauded Australia's confiscation, saying we should consider that here. The "New York Times" --

COSTELLO: But you can still -- but you can still own a gun in Australia. So I just want to get to the core issue. I hear you. I hear the argument. The president says that it's absolutely untrue. There's no way that he can, like, confiscate 300 million guns in this country, right? There's a lot --

PRATT: He has supported -- he has supported bans on semi-automatic firearms. He's doing what he thinks is politically feasible. Just like Senator Dianne Feinstein said years ago to "60 Minutes." If I could go door-to-door, Mr. And Mrs. America, hand over your firearms, I would have done it. But this is all that we could have gotten done, and that was passing a ban on semi-automatic firearms.

The president is doing what he thinks is politically feasible right now, which by the way is very radical. For 200 years private citizens have been able to sell firearms one to another. And 99.9 percent of them use those firearms in a very lawful manner and yet now we're being told that if you do that, even selling one or two firearms -- this is in his regulations -- that you can spend five years in jail and pay a fine of $250,000.

[10:15:10] Carol, imagine if they put that kind of restriction --

COSTELLO: I hear you. I hear you, but most Americans, according to our poll, support the president's executive orders. They support it.

PRATT: Carol --

COSTELLO: Because it's strengthening existing laws on the books.

PRATT: Carol --

COSTELLO: My final question to you. My final --

PRATT: Let me --

COSTELLO: My final question, Eric. Stop. My final question. My final question.

PRATT: Wait --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Was this a waste of time by the president? Would anything change your mind? Would you have wanted to go to that meeting and, like, sat down and talked to people who don't think like you?

PRATT: I would have answered your last point. The polls are conflicting. There are many polls which show Americans don't want --

COSTELLO: That's not my question.

PRATT: I'm answering what I would say. And quite frankly, it doesn't matter what the polls say because the beauty of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is that it trumps what people think. If a majority want slavery, if a majority want to limit your First Amendment rights or our Second Amendment rights, it doesn't matter. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights trumps that. But, you know, you guys keep on publishing that poll because this is very reminiscent of 1994 when your polls were saying the American people loved Clinton's gun control. And guess what happened when he lost control of Congress. He lamented, it was my gun control --

COSTELLO: OK. So --

PRATT: -- initiative that cost me --

COSTELLO: Eric -- Eric, you could have gone to that town hall meeting because you were invited. Why didn't you go to express these things you're telling me?

PRATT: Because there's no reasoning with the president. Despite what the facts are, he has an agenda. This -- Taya said it very well. Taya Kyle. We have more guns than ever in this country and yet our murder rates are at all-time lows, and yet the president proceeds going after the rights of law-abiding Americans. There's no common ground there.

COSTELLO: Why not face the president? This is your opportunity. Why not?

PRATT: We're also --

COSTELLO: Why not talk about it in a forum with people who think like you and not like you, because they were both present?

PRATT: We're going to face him through the Congress working to defund this legislation. Or these initiatives.

COSTELLO: OK. There's no middle ground then, huh?

PRATT: Well, there's not when it -- I mean, what middle ground is there for restricting your First Amendment rights? If it's a God- given constitutionally protected right --

COSTELLO: I can't yell fire in a crowded theater.

PRATT: But we don't gag people before they go into the theater. We don't run background checks to say, do you have this kind of history before? No, we punish the violator. The president is trying to gag the Second Amendment. He's put in prior restraint on the Second Amendment.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Are you saying criminals should own weapons? No matter what's in your background, you should be able to own a guns, is that what you're saying?

PRATT: Do you hear what you're saying? All the people that committed these mass shootings passed background checks. I mean, Einstein said the definition of his sanity is redoubling your efforts, expecting to get a different outcome. Hope is not a strategy.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Eric Pratt, thanks for joining me this morning.

PRATT: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: In case you missed CNN's town hall -- you're welcome.

In case you missed CNN's town hall with President Obama, you can catch it again tonight when it re-airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right. She's right back where she started. The mother of affluenza teenager, Ethan Couch, arraigned in a Texas courtroom moments ago. Tonya Couch is charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon. Her son was on probation for killing four people in a 2013 drunk driving accident when authorities finally caught up with the pair in Mexico. Now Ethan's case sparked outrage after lawyers suggested he was too rich to understand the consequences of his actions.

Let's bring in CNN's Ed Lavandera, he's covering this case. Good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, Tonya Couch just left the courtroom here in downtown Ft. Worth. It was a short hearing where the judge basically had given her the details of her arrest and the charges that she faced. Obviously you might remember that it's a felony criminal charge here in the state of Texas for hindering the apprehension of a juvenile fugitive. She faces anywhere between two to 10 years in prison.

Tonya Couch appeared by herself. She told the judge that she had hired a lawyer but that lawyer wasn't in the courtroom with her today. She is facing $1 million bond. And it is not clear whether or not she'll be able to post that bond now that she's back here in Texas, however paperwork has been filed. The Couches are trying to get that bond reduced.

There won't be a bond hearing until next Monday where that judge will consider reducing her bond of $1 million. But he did tell her just a short while ago that if he does decide to reduce the bond or if she can post that bond in any way, that there would be a series of restrictions imposed against her, including an ankle monitor, that she would have to turn over her passport as well and to have a -- turn over her cell phone information as well. So a list of restrictions.

[10:20:03] The judge did say that she -- that she had left the country with Ethan Couch, her son, who, as you mentioned, is accused of that -- was convicted and given that 10-year probation for drunk driving accident that killed four people back in 2013. Did say she left the country on around December 11th. So this court hearing coming nearly a month later.

In the meantime, Ethan Couch is still in Mexico and it's not clear when he will be brought back to Texas to face the hearing in the juvenile system here in Texas -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Ed Lavandera reporting live from Ft. Worth, Texas, this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, two Iraqi refugees arrested right here in the United States, accused of having links to ISIS. So what was their plan?

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COSTELLO: New information on those two Iraqi refugees arrested on terror charges in California and Texas. They were both accused of having links to ISIS and are scheduled to appear in court later this morning.

We're now learning the arrests are connected. The two suspects were apparently in contact with one another.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is here. He has more for us. Good morning. JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Both of these

men were refugees. They entered in the U.S. a number of years ago, in fact. Hardan in 2009, Jayab in 2011. Both from Iraq, as you mentioned. One of them -- Hardan, rather, he's accused of offering material support to terrorism, specifically ISIS, offering them training, assistance.

[10:25:06] The complaint does not specify exactly what that training, assistance and support is. We know a bit more about Jayab because he's accused of having traveled after his immigration to the U.S. to Syria to fight jihad there. Not specifically for ISIS but terror groups including Ansar al-Islam, and then lying about it when he was asked about it when he came back.

So two cases. They are refugees. But they came here a number of years ago. And it gets at this issue, Carol, which is one that we've seen, you know, virtually every month now, and you hear this frequently from the FBI, that they have active investigations under way in all 50 U.S. states and that list of indictments for Americans, or people living in the U.S. who have either gone to fight in Syria, tried to go fight in Syria or have offered other support to terrorist groups, including ISIS, it's growing.

And it's really a constant flow. Not on the numbers that you see in Europe, but it's a real threat that law enforcement here is very aware of.

COSTELLO: So were these men on the FBI's radar? Did they have a specific plan? Do you know anything more about these things?

SCIUTTO: We don't know about the specific plan, for instance, with Hardan. We know that he offered, based on the complaint, material support to terrorism, specifically offering training assistance to ISIS, but they don't specify what that material support was, what that training assistance was.

Jayab more information is that he went to fight in Syria. Fight for terror -- terror groups in Syria in the war going on there and then returned to the U.S. And that's, of course, a particular concern because the folks who managed to do that, and a number of Americans have tried, have not managed, a number of Americans have successfully done so, the danger is, Carol, they come back to the U.S. and they come back with skills, with ability, with ability to operate weapons. You know, that combat experience, if they choose to use it back here on American soil is of great concern.

COSTELLO: Jim Sciutto reporting live for us from Washington. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come, a pledge of allegiance to Donald Trump? Why Vermont voters had to take a loyalty oath before they could get into the GOP frontrunner's rally.

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