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At This Hour

Eric Holder to Announce Resignation; U.S. Air Strikes Hit ISIS Oil Refinery; Obama Address U.N. About Ebola Crisis

Aired September 25, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello everyone. I'm John Berman. Michaela Pereira is off today.

And we are going to begin with breaking news: a major departure from President Obama's cabinet. Eric Holder, the attorney general of the United States, the 82nd attorney general of the United States, the first African-American attorney general of the United States and the closest friend in the cabinet to President Obama is going to announce today that he is leaving the post. He is going to step down pending his replacement which, of course, will have to be approved by the Senate once he's picked by the President.

But he is on his way out after nearly six years in the job. That's a long time for an attorney general to serve. He is the fourth longest serving attorney general, the third longest serving member currently in the Obama cabinet.

I'm joined now by Michelle Kosinski, who is with us now. And, Michelle, this has been a busy, nearly six years for the attorney general, sentencing guidelines, marijuana regulations, not necessarily enforcing federal laws on states that made their decisions, very consequential actions by this attorney general, equally consequential, a very, very close friend of President Obama.

MICHELLE KOSINKSI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Gay marriage, civil rights, the Fast and Furious campaign, remember that, and he's faced a lot of criticism from Republicans, especially in the House. He was once voted in contempt over not turning over certain documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal.

So he's absolutely had a tumultuous at times but busy, nearly six-year tenure, surprise announcement today, although from what we're hearing, those close to him would not see this as a surprise, that he has been wanting to leave for some time, worried he would need to stay longer when clearly he feels himself that it's his time to go.

BERMAN: There has been talk over the last few years that Eric Holder wanted to get out at some point, to go restart a career in the law, maybe make some money, which a lot of people in the cabinet at some point need to do. And, if you serve eight years, it makes it a little harder, as you say. The attorney general has been very much in the news, actually really for most of the six years, but very recently dealing with the events that went on in Ferguson, Missouri, with the shooting of Michael Brown. He was very involved in the federal response, ultimately, there.

KOSINSKI: Right.

BERMAN: Very involved in issues of race as well, Michelle, sometimes dealing with racial issues where the president has been reluctant to.

KOSINSKI: Right, and they just launched the investigation into the Michael Brown shooting, very, very much involved in that case. Remember, the federal government stepped in and said we're going to do an autopsy as well and an investigation.

Clearly he's wanted civil rights to be a part of his legacy, to really put focus on that. I know that during a speech he once said that America is a nation of cowards in facing and openly addressing issues of race.

Before this case there was the Trayvon Martin investigation, so those have really colored his tenure.

Before that, he was a deputy attorney general. He was a corruption prosecutor early in his career, so he has absolutely put in his time as a federal prosecutor working with the government.

If he decided now is his time to try other things, he certainly leaves at a busy time. But you might say that about the entirety of his tenure, John.

BERMAN: No doubt. It will no doubt also will set up an interesting confirmation battle in the Senate, ultimately could be a Republican Senate by the time that President Obama nominates the next person to be the attorney general.

Michelle Kosinski at the White House, thank you so much.

We do expect to hear from the president at some point today on the departure of his friend, the attorney general of the United State, Eric Holder.

On the phone with me now is our justice correspondent, Evan Perez. Evan, we've been talking to you about this. I spoke to you once when Eric Holder was rushed to the hospital because he felt light in the head at one point during a meeting. And we talked then about how this job has been hard on him. And a lot of people felt he might leave at some point.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Right, John. This is a little bit of a surprise because every year around this time we do a little "Holder Watch," and I've joked with him many times that perhaps what he likes is the private plane travel, and he just loves his job is what he's always said. And he wanted to leave on his own terms. And this is probably as good a time as he'll have for that. As Michelle mentioned, he just did this trip to Ferguson, Missouri, where frankly it's the peak of his tenure where he did -- everyone thinks he did a really good job of calming the tensions and bringing attention to civil-rights issues, police-conduct issues. And so this is his best way, the best time he's had, frankly, to go out on top.

BERMAN: In case you're wondering, only Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have been there the whole time from the beginning of President Obama's first administration along with Eric Holder. He's one of the last three, initial cabinet secretaries still in their original posts.

Evan, do you think -- what do you think -- when the attorney general looks back on his nearly six years in this office, what do you think he'll see as his major accomplishments?

PEREZ (via telephone): Civil rights is going to be the major -- the thing that he will most mention as his biggest accomplishment, that he has focused the last couple years on reducing the sentences for non- violent offenses.

His view is that for too long the U.S. has been spending a lot of money incarcerating people instead of spending more to rehabilitate people, being frankly more tough on things, that they don't need to be, breaking apart families, and a lot of the burden falls on disproportionately on minority communities, black and Hispanic families.

So that's been one of the big focuses of the last couple years. So that's where he would say he spent most of his time.

The symbolic thing about this week, also, he's planning to visit Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was -- got started as a corruption prosecutor, John.

BERMAN: Very interesting. A long, long career. Would not be surprising to see him take on some of these issues even after he leaves the Justice Department.

Evan Perez, thank you so much for being with us.

I want to bring in Jeffrey Toobin now. Our legal analyst joins us by phone right now.

Jeff, we've talked about a lot of the work that the attorney general has done over his last, almost six years in the Justice Department and even before that in various positions in the government.

These last six years, whatever he has accomplished, have been tumultuous, very, very tumultuous. This attorney general has been in the middle of a lot of debates, a lot of discussions, and also his share of controversy, Jeffrey.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: That's true. I interviewed Holder for "The New Yorker" in February, and he told me, in effect, that he was leaving by the end of the year.

His spokesman, his p.r. people denied it, denied effectively what Holder said. But it was really quite obvious that he was planning on leaving by the end of the year. And now that has come to pass.

I think it's really, in looking at Holder's tenure, there are really two different parts. The first part was indeed very controversial, and, frankly, not very effective. He got involved in a lot of controversies that were not of his own making.

But by the time he left he had decided to embrace fully the job of being a civil-rights attorney general. He was extremely proud of the fact that on his watch the Justice Department sued Texas and North Carolina for infringing on voting rights with their new changes. Those cases are now pending.

He is very involved in trying to reduce prison sentences for non- violent offenders. That too is unfinished.

But he really has -- it's almost a tale of two attorney generals. The first few years, which were not very successful, and the last few years where he decided to be -- sort of to be himself I think, and he was more effective, and I think he's leaving on more of a high than if he had left after the first few years.

BERMAN: All right, Jeffrey Toobin, thank you so much.

We are going to have much more on this. We expect to hear from the president sometime on the departure of Attorney General Eric Holder.

The president will also be speaking on the issue of Ebola, the global crisis facing so many nations right now. He's speaking at the United Nations any minute. We'll hear that.

Also a briefing from the Pentagon about the new round of air strikes in Syria. That just ahead.

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BERMAN: The United States conducting a new round of air strikes in Syria overnight, targeting mainly the oil production capabilities of this terrorist group.

Just moments ago, Pentagon spokesman, Admiral John Kirby, gave a little bit of briefing, explaining what targets were hit. Let's listen.

BERMAN: All right, obviously he talked a little bit more than we just showed right there. But at the Pentagon briefing he was speaking about the targeting of these modular oil refineries in the eastern part of Syria that ISIS has been using to produce estimates of $2 million worth of oil a day.

I'm joined now by our military analyst Rick Francona, retired lieutenant colonel. And, Colonel, ISIS makes a lot of money with oil. You bomb these modular refineries. What kind of a dented does that make in their financial capabilities?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This isn't -- the bulk of their finances come from the sale of crude oil on the black market. These refineries probably provide a lot of the local consumption that they need for their own forces, three-to-five-hundred barrels a day. But it will put a crimp in their operations.

We saw in the first round a couple nights ago that they went after the finance center in Raqqa. Now they're going after some of the production capabilities of that oil. So they're trying to hurt them economically.

And this is part of the systematic campaign to degrade, not only military capabilities, but their financing and how they make their money.

BERMAN: Let's listen quickly to what Admiral Kirby said about the targeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: ... located in remote areas of eastern Syria in the vicinity of (inaudible).

We also hit an ISIL vehicle in the same general area of the country.

They're still assessing the outcomes of these attacks, but initially we believe they were successful. I'm going to show you some imagery in just a minute to demonstrate where that confidence comes from.

These small-scale refineries provide fuel to run ISIL operations, money to finance their continued Iraqis throughout Iraq and Syria, and they are an economic asset to support future operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This is the financial lifeline of this group. The estimate that we keep hearing is $2 million a day they make off of oil. I was talking earlier. To me that sounds high, impossibly high, but you say no.

FRANCONA: Well, it's a big organization. Think eve got a lot of people, a lot of expenses. They're moving a huge military machine, so that takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of fuel. It takes a lot of material, ammunition, weapons, training. They have to pay everybody. All these people need to be clothed, housed, fed.

BERMAN: Who is buying $2 million worth of oil?

FRANCONA: I suspect many of it's -- well, it's all being sold on the black market, but if you go to southern Turkey you'll find a whole range of people willing to buy this stuff and those trucks move across that porous border.

BERMAN: Colonel, thanks so much.

It's a big news day, President Obama speaking out on Ebola at the United Nations right now. Let's listen.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Secretary General, thank you for bringing us together today to address an urgent threat to the people of West Africa, but also a potential threat to the world.

Dr. Chan, heads of state, of government, especially our African partners, ladies and gentlemen, as we gather here today, the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone and Guinea are in crisis. As Secretary General Ban and Dr. Chan have already indicated, the Ebola virus is spreading at alarming speed. Thousands of men, women and children have died. Thousands more are infected. If unchecked, this epidemic could kill hundreds of thousands of people in the coming months -- hundreds of thousands.

Ebola is a horrific disease. It's wiping out entire families. And it's turned simple acts of love and comfort and kindness, like holding a sick friend's hand, or embracing a dying child, into potentially fatal acts. If ever there were a public health emergency deserving of an urgent, strong, and coordinated international response, this is it.

But this is also more than a health crisis. This is a growing threat to regional and global security. In Liberia, Guinea, in Sierra Leone, public health systems have collapsed. Economic growth is slowing dramatically. If this epidemic is not stopped, this disease could cause a humanitarian catastrophe across the region. And in an era when regional crises can quickly become global threats, stopping Ebola is in the interests of all us.

The courageous men and women fighting on the front lines of this disease have told us what they need. They need more beds. They need more supplies. They need more health workers, and they need all of this as fast as possible.

Right now, patients are being left to die in the streets because there's nowhere to put them, and there's nobody to help them. One health worker in Sierra Leone compared fighting this outbreak to "fighting a forest fire with spray bottles." But with our help, they can put out the blaze.

Last week, I visited the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, which is mounting the largest international response in its history. I said that the world could count on America to lead and that we will provide the capabilities that only we have, and mobilize the world the way we have done in the past in crises of similar magnitude. And I announced that, in addition to the civilian response, the United States would establish a military command in Liberia to support civilian efforts across the region.

Today, that command is up and it is running. Our commander is on the ground in Monrovia, and our teams are working as fast as they can to move in personnel, equipment and supplies.

We're working with Senegal to stand up an air bridge to get health workers and medical supplies into West Africa faster. We're setting up a field hospital, which will be staffed by personnel from the U.S. Public Health Service, and a training facility, where we're getting ready to train thousands of health workers from around the world.

We're distributing supplies and information kits to hundreds of thousands of families, so they can better protect themselves. And together with our partners, we'll quickly build new treatment units across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where thousands will be able to receive care.

Meanwhile, in just the past week, more countries and organizations have stepped up their efforts. And so has the United Nations.

Mr. Secretary General, the new U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response that you announced last week will bring all of the U.N.'s resources to bear in fighting the epidemic. We thank you for your leadership.

So, this is progress, and it is encouraging. But I want us to be clear: We are not moving fast enough. We are not doing enough.

Right now, everybody has the best of intentions, but people are not putting in the kinds of resources that are necessary to put a stop to this epidemic. There's still a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be.

We know from experience that the response to an outbreak of this magnitude has to be fast, and it has to be sustained. It's a marathon, but you have to run it like a sprint, and that's only possible if everybody chips in, if every nation and every organization takes this seriously. Everyone here has to do more.

International organizations have to move faster and cut through red tape and mobilize partners on the ground as only they can.

More nations need to contribute critical assets and capabilities, whether it is air transport or medical evacuation or health care workers or equipment or treatment.

More foundations can tap into the networks of support that they have to raise funds and awareness, more businesses, especially those who already have a presence in the region, can quickly provide their own expertise and resources, from access to critical supply chains to telecommunications, and more citizens of all nations can educate themselves on this crisis, contribute to relief efforts and call on their leaders to act.

So everybody can do something. That's why we're here today.

And even as we meet the urgent threat of Ebola, it's clear that our nations have to do more to prevent, detect and respond to future biological threats before they erupt into full-blown crises.

Tomorrow in Washington, I'll host 44 nations to advance our global health security agenda, and we are interested in working with any country that shares this commitment.

Just to emphasize this issue of speed again. When I was down at the CDC, and perhaps this has already been discussed, but I want to emphasize this. Bow-break (ph) is such where at this point more people will die. But the slope of the curve, how fast we can arrest the spread of this disease, how quickly we can contain it, is within our control. And if we move fast, even if imperfectly, then that could mean the difference between 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 deaths, versus hundreds of thousands or even a million deaths.

So, this is not one where there should be a lot of wrangling and people waiting to see who else is doing what. Everybody's got to move fast in order for us to make a difference. And if we do, we'll save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Stopping Ebola is a priority for the United States. I've said that this is as important a national security priority for my team as anything else that's out there. We'll do our part. We will continue to lead, but this has to be a priority for everybody else. We cannot do this alone. We don't have the capacity to do all of this by ourselves. We don't have enough health workers by ourselves. We can build the infrastructure and the architecture to get help in, but we're going to need others to contribute.

OBAMA: To my fellow leaders from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, to the people of West Africa, to the heroic health workers who are on the ground as we speak, in some cases putting themselves at risk, I want you to know that you are not alone. We're working urgently to get you the help you need. And we will not stop. We will not relent until we halt this epidemic, once and for all.

So I want to thank all of you for the efforts that are made, but I hope that I am properly communicating a sense of urgency here. Do not stand by thinking that somehow because of what we've done that it's taken care of. It's not. And if we don't take care of this now, we are going to see a fall-out effects and secondary effects from this that will have ramifications for a long time, above and beyond the lives that will have been lost.

I urge all of you, particularly those who have direct access to your heads of state, to make sure that they are making this a top priority in the next several weeks and months.

Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

BERMAN: President Obama at the United Nations discussing the Ebola epidemic right now striking West Africa. The president said this is more than a health crisis, and he called on governments around the world to do more. He called on private citizens to do more. He said do not think this is being taken care of adequately right now because it is not. Why is he speaking in such stark terms? Well the CDS's worst case

scenario is frankly shocking. It says without interventions and changes in behavior, as many as 1.4 million people could be infected with Ebola by January. That's just a few months. That's just in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

I'm joined now by our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen who is in Liberia, in the capital Monrovia. Dr. Daniel Lucey is just back from Sierra Leone; he is an expert on viral outbreaks and an adjunct professor of micro biology and immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Elizabeth, first to you, you're in Liberia, you are in Monrovia where efforts have been made very recently over the last few days from the United States to try to fight Ebola. What are you seeing on the ground in this battle?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDIACAL CORRESPONDENT: John, what I'm seeing on the ground is not much has changed in the past week since the President said he would be sending these troops and sending this money.

But there's a lot of hope that things will change soon. The Liberians I've talked to are so excited, are so grateful for what the Americans are doing, but they want to see results. Mostly what they want to see, more beds. This -- Liberia alone needs 1,500 more beds. That is a difficult thing to do. These Ebola treatment units should have been built a long time ago. Should have been built months ago. They're saying all right, if the Americans are coming let's build the isolation centers so we can get people with Ebola off the commune streets out of the communities and get them to stop infecting people they love.

BERMAN: Dr. Lucey, there are U.S. troops on the way, 3,000, there are more beds on the way from the United States and other countries, some arriving there, as Elizabeth said, already. Is this enough to slow Ebola down?

DR. DANIEL LUCEY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Certainly we'll find out very soon. I'm not confident it is enough. I am confident that President Obama will do what is necessary to augment the response until it is enough. To slow down the rise of new patients with Ebola and accelerate the drop, the decline in new cases which is imperative so we don't reach this staggering scenario which would be a reality of more than -- one million people infected in Sierra Leone and Liberia alone, not including New Guinea, by January.

BERMAN: Let's put this in perspective again to understand why this is so alarming to so many people. Let's listen again to what President Obama said before the United Nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The outbreak is such where at this point more people will die. But the slope of the curve, how fast we can arrest the spread of this disease, how quickly we can contain it is within our control. If we move fast, even if imperfectly, then that could mean the difference between 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 deaths versus hundreds of thousands or even a million deaths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Even a million deaths by January, Dr. Lucey, that just sounds extraordinary. What is the biggest single risk right now that you see? Are people getting the message, right now, in these West African nations that the precautions need to be taken and that things need to be done?

LUCEY: My experience is limited to three weeks in Sierra Leone and this Sunday I will be going to Monrovia, Liberia for six weeks to work in an Ebola treatment center with Doctors Without Borders, MSF. But my impression from being in Sierra Leone and talking with colleagues in Liberia that, yes, the message is clear.

I think Elizabeth Cohen would agree that what needs to be done is known in the three countries now in West Africa. It's a matter of implementation, a failure of implementation. We are not able to do what needs to be done to slow the epidemic and then to hopefully to stop it which will take more than one year, maybe more than two years.

As the President said in his speech, just now this morning, if we do not act quickly and act sufficiently, run a marathon like a sprint to paraphrase him, then in my opinion not only will this be a public health disaster, but it will be a significant damage to the economic and educational system such that people who are living and dying, surviving and being cured of Ebola now in these