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Rising Security Concerns for Obama's Kenya Trip; Bill Cosby Suffers Legal Setback; Russia Sends Message to U.S. Through Fighter Pilots; John Kerry Attempting to Sell Iran Nuclear Deal to Congress. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 23, 2015 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:33:20] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A terror group linked to al Qaeda is posing new worries for President Obama's trip to Kenya. The president leaves tonight on his first visit to his ancestral homeland since becoming president, but ahead of the trip, the United States has conducted nearly half a dozen secret airstrikes in neighboring Somalia against the group al Shabaab. U.S. officials aren't offering details, but some experts suspect the strikes send a very clear message: Stay away from the president.

Also, a Kenyan flight bulletin was leaked online outlining some details of the president's trip itinerary. This included when air space would be closed due to the president's arrival and departure.

With me is a former Secret Service agent assigned to President Obama, Jonathan Wackrow.

Jonathan, thank you so much.

JONATHAN WACKROW, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT ASSIGNED TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Glad to be back.

BOLDUAN: The White House when asked about the leaking of the flight bulletin, they say they're not concerned, but how big of a deal is this?

WACKROW: This is a very big deal. The White House is trying to minimize the threat and really lower the expectations of what that -- the implications are, but for the guys on the ground, this is a really big deal. Anytime that is security plan is divulged to the public, it exposes our playbook. So we need to modify that prior to the president's arrival.

BOLDUAN: As much as you can -- you can't very much -- take us though inside those conversations amongst the Secret Service who is in charge now of the plan. What needs to be adjusted?

WACKROW: The -- really a lot needs to be adjusted. It's not just the president's arrival. It's all of our contingency plans. There's a tremendous amount of planning that goes --

(CROSSTALK) [11:35:03]BOLDUAN: There's a domino effect I think --

(CROSSTALK)

WACKROW: Absolutely. I mean, so if they have to adjust the president's arrival time, that really will change what our emergency action plans potentially could be. What are we going to do in a crisis situation? What are we going to do if we ever have to relocate? What are we going to do in a medical situation?

BOLDUAN: Because you're not going to take him to a Kenyan hospital?

WACKROW: No, you're definitely not going to take him there. These are plans that have been being developed for weeks by the agents on the ground, the advance team in coordination with the White House staff, White House military office. Now all of a sudden 72 hours, 48 hours prior to the trip, this information is exposed. It really, you know, it's a scramble to readjust.

BOLDUAN: And you have said though this is one of the most dangerous trips the president is going to have taken, especially when you look -- that says something when you look at all the trips -- places he has gone. Why is this so dangerous?

WACKROW: Well, compare this to like some of the war zones that he's gone into.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

WACKROW: He's going to Afghanistan and into Iraq. Those were unannounced trips with full support of the military. I mean, he was surrounded by an entire contingency of U.S. personnel. He was extraordinarily safer in those environments. Here we're going to a place that people have really been preparing for seven years for him to come to. It's a -- the region is a hot bed for terrorism. Just by the airstrikes they're launching right now as an indicator of that. So people that want to do harm have been planning for a long time. This is a widely publicized trip for him. It's very personal to the president. It's his homecoming. So, you know, there's a drastic difference, and there's a great risk that is involved in this trip to Kenya.

BOLDUAN: There's a big difference when the people you're working with on the ground is the U.S. military versus the people you're working with on the ground are Kenyan -- the Kenyan military.

WACKROW: Absolutely. The Secret Service has to rely on our local counterparts all throughout the world to get our job done. And it's just what is that level of expectation from those counterparts that we can rely on.

BOLDUAN: Jonathan, thank you so much.

WACKROW: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, breaking news today. Bill Cosby may have to answer questions under oath about rape allegations against him involving the Playboy mansion. The new hurdle for Bill Cosby's lawyers. That's coming up.

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[11:40:32] BOLDUAN: Happening now, Bill Cosby and his legal team have lost their latest bid to see another woman's civil lawsuit thrown out. That means he may be giving a sworn deposition in the next few weeks. The woman involved claims Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy mansion when she was just 15 years old. She is now in her 50s. More than two dozen women have come forward in the last year really accusing him of drugging and sexual assaulting them. Most of those cases cannot be prosecuted though because of the statute of limitations.

Here is Cosby's attorneys speaking out this morning on "New Day."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST, "NEW DAY": Do you believe these women or do you think they're liars?

MONIQUE PRESSLEY, ATTORNEY FOR BILL COSBY: I'm here as counsel for Mr. Cosby. I'm not here to assert a personal belief nor am I here to call them names. What I'm here to say is in this country Mr. Cosby is, one, innocent until proven guilty, and, two, because of no fault of his own these women did not come forward, there will not be an opportunity for him to disprove claims that are four decades old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's bring in Judge Glenda Hatchett joining me now.

Judge, thank you so much for joining me.

JUDGE GLENDA HATCHETT, ATTORNEY, HATCHETT LAW FIRM & FORMER TV JUDGE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: I want to first talk about that, the fact that Cosby's attorneys are now finally making a public push to get his side out there, if you will, and they sure seem to be going on the offensive. You can see it right there in that interview. In your view is that the beginning of a new strategy in this very troubling saga or is it just boiled over to the point where they must speak out?

HATCHETT: I think it's really boiled over to a point where they can no longer be silent. This ruling in California was a tremendous blow to Cosby's legal team because the California court has said that this civil case can now proceed, and, of course, that begs the question how can you do that when this happened allegedly when this person was 15 years old and she's now in her 50s. So we're talking about decades later. But very interestingly, California's law says that you have three years after you suffer some emotional trauma as a result of this alleged incident. So they're really going to be up against a hard place in this case because Gloria Allred, we know by reputation, is going to be very tenacious in this case. BOLDUAN: Absolutely. I mean, and Cosby, he could soon have to face

questioning under oath because of this.

HATCHETT: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Can he -- how could this play out do you think in this deposition? Could he plead the fifth, if you will, to try to avoid incriminating himself?

HATCHETT: Well, very interesting, that's a great question. Interestingly enough, I want to make sure we all understand that this is not a criminal proceeding.

BOLDUAN: Right.

HATCHETT: That the prosecutors are not bringing a case against him, but that this is a civil action. What will happen is that he will refuse to answer certain questions I'm assuming based on the advice of his counsel. Then Gloria will go into court and ask the court to order him to answer, so there's going to be a lot of volleying back and forth. This will not be a simple deposition that will be open and shut and this is a case I think we will see a lot of going on. Now, what will happen is that the defense team, Cosby's defense team, will quickly -- I think they will quickly go in and ask for a gag order and ask that everything not be shared publicly. So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens with this.

BOLDUAN: That's what happened in a past case but that is the deposition that really brought a lot of these allegations to light is when another judge years later unsealed that deposition. We'll have to see what happens in this situation. Of course, Bill Cosby continues to deny any wrongdoing.

HATCHETT: He does. But this is going to be a long haul for him. It is.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

HATCHETT: My pleasure. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, it could be the GOP's big nightmare. Donald Trump now threatening to run as a third-party candidate if the Republican National Committee doesn't support him, doesn't treat him fairly, as he puts it. Well, I'm about to speak with a former chief of staff at the RNC to get his take.

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[11:48:24] BOLDUAN: New details on a provocative message from two Russian bombers earlier this month. "Good morning, American pilots. We are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day." That is what they told U.S. fighter jets that intercepted them as they flew just 40 miles off of California's coast.

Let's bring in CNN's Brian Todd who is taking a closer look at this scary encounter. Brian, what is the administration saying about it?

BRIAN TODD, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, they're giving very few details about it. The details we're getting this morning are from the U.S. Military, and we are getting new information about this frightening incident on the Fourth of July, a confrontation in the skies between U.S. Fighter jets and nuclear-capable Russian bombers. This was not far from American shores. Now, we had reported that on that day two Russian TU-95 Bear bombers, this is a picture of one, they flew not far from the California coast.

Now, we now know that it was roughly 40 miles from the coast of central California right about there. Now, on the same day, July 4th, two other Russian bears flew close to the southern tip of Alaska near the Aleutian Islands. In both instances, American fighter jets, F-15s shown here, they were off the coast of California, and F-22s off the coast of Alaska flew up to intercept the Russian bombers and the Russian planes turned away.

We're also learning this morning of a communication from the Russian bomber pilots toward their American counterparts you just mentioned, Kate. They said over a communication, like a special emergency communication, according to NORAD, one of the Russian pilots said over that communication, quote, "Good morning, American pilots. We are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day." Was that a threat? The NORAD official would not go that far, but he did say this incident was potentially destabilizing because this was an unannounced approach and because those Russian bombers have missiles and bombs capable of striking the U.S.

Now, Kate, all of this happened on the same day Vladimir Putin personally called President Obama and congratulated him on the Fourth of July holiday. This isn't seen as too much of a coincident that the day he calls President Obama his fighters are toying with the Americans off the West coast.

[11:50:47] BOLDUAN: Toying and being nuclear capable are not two things that should go together in the same sentence, Brian. I think everyone can agree, confirmed threat or not. Absolutely scary.

Brian, thanks for laying it out.

TODD: Sure.

BOLDUAN: Coming up, under way right now, Secretary of State John Kerry defending America's nuclear deal with Iran before skeptical lawmakers on Capitol Hill. How is he making the case? That's ahead.

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BOLDUAN: Now this just in. On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State John Kerry facing a grilling before skeptical lawmakers as he and the energy secretary are there to defend the administration as well as other world powers nuclear deal with Iran.

Secretary Kerry speaking before the committee, facing tough questions from the Republican presidential candidate, Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. You'll see Secretary Kerry and you'll hear from Senator Marco Rubio off camera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CROSSTALK)

[11:55:25] SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are we obligated to help them defend themselves against the Israelis --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: No, I assure you we will be coordinating as we do with every aspect of Israel's security. And --

RUBIO: That's not how I read this.

(CROSSTALK)

KERRY: I don't see any way possible that we would be in conflict with Israel with respect to what we might want to do there, and I think we have to wait until we get to that point. I do think, Senator -- you know, I listened to a long list of your objections here about it, but there was no alternative you or anyone else has proposed --

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: I sure have, Secretary Kerry.

KERRY: And I am confident that the next president of the United States will have enough common sense if this is being applied properly, if it's being implemented fully, they're not just going to arbitrarily end it. They might want to engage and find a way if they think there's some way to strengthen something. I cannot see someone arbitrarily deciding let's go back to where we were where they're completely free to do whatever they want without any inspections, without any input, without any restraints, without any insight. I don't think any president would do that.

RUBIO: Well, and the status quo is they're already in violation. Before you signed this deal Iran was already in violation of existing mandates and restrictions including things they had signed on to in the past.

KERRY: And this deal brings them back into compliance, Senator. That is exactly the purpose of this deal.

RUBIO: This deal brings them back into compliance --

(CROSSTALK)

KERRY: If they don't live up to it, every option we have today is on the table. So we don't lose anything here. The way we lose is by rejecting the deal because then you have no restraints. You have no sanctions. You have no insight. You have no inspectors. You have no reduction of their stockpile. And if you want to just conveniently forget the fact they can build 10 to 12 bombs, that's the threat to Israel. I mean, if you go back to that without any alternative other than what most people think is going to be the alternative, which is confrontation. Nobody has a plan that has articulated that is reasonable as to how you are going to strengthen this --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: That is just some of the back and forth between Secretary of State John Kerry and Marco Rubio.

Let's bring in CNN's global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, who has been following this hearing and following the months and months of negotiations on how this deal was negotiated.

Elise, I'm looking at more of what Secretary Kerry said in this hearing. He's talking about what the alternative would be to this deal. He called it a fantasy, some sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran's complete capitulation. He's really making a hard sell.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate. And, I mean, aides told me when he was going in, Secretary Kerry, who really was the one negotiating this deal. And so along with the energy secretary, he knows the science of this deal very well and his aides said he's ready to come in, ready for a fight to defend this deal because he's saying, listen, Iran has already developed all of this nuclear expertise, all of this knowledge, mastered the fuel cycle and that technology. You can't sanction that away and you can't bomb it away. The idea that a lot of Republicans have said that they wanted a total dismantling of Iran's nuclear program, you know, you could do that. The Iranians weren't agreeing to it. Even if you did that, Iran would have the knowledge to rebuild. Basically Secretary Kerry is saying the choice is you can worry about Iran having a nuclear weapon in perhaps 10 to 15 or 20 years or deal with it in two months. And so the administration is, I think, the administration is talking about this being a great deal. When you speak to nuclear experts a lot of them say, look, this is the best deal they could get -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's so interesting. And important to note this comes at a critical time as Congress is beginning its 60-day review of the deal and then ultimately will vote on whether or not to support it.

LABOTT: Well, and a lot of Congressmen are very angry that the united nations Security Council took up this deal a few days ago and already endorsed it. So the deal is really already international law. It isn't implemented until 60 days. But Congress will review the deal. They will vote whether to accept it or reject it. Secretary Kerry is saying, listen, if the United States rejects this deal, the rest of the international community will go along with this deal and the U.S. will be isolated. It'll be Iran and the world on one side and the United States on the second side.