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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Early Outbreak of Respiratory Illness; Donna Brazile and Newt Gingrich Discuss Obama's Decision to Delay Immigration Reform; More To Learn About 9/11; Royal Couple Expecting Baby Number Two

Aired September 08, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

The national lead now -- unprecedented, that's how one pediatrician is describing a wave of critically ill kids in hospitals across the Midwest. Hundreds of children in some ten states have been hospitalized. In Kansas City, they're admitting 30 children a day, many suffering from something called Enterovirus D68. It's like a deep cold with symptoms including coughing, difficulty, breathing and rashes, frequently landing its victims in intensive care. Children with asthma and other respiratory problems seem especially at risk.

Joining me now, Dr. Christine Nyquist, the pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Aurora, Colorado. One of the states battling the outbreak. She joins us via Skype from the hospital.

Joining me now, Dr. Christine Nyquist, the pediatric infectious disease specialist in Aurora, Colorado, one of the states battling this outbreak. She joins us via Skype from the hospital.

Dr. Nyquist, thanks for joining us.

The CDC said what we're seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg. How dangerous and how contagious is this virus?

DR. CHRISTINE NYQUIST, PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN: So, what we're seeing right now is a huge influx of children with respiratory illnesses presumed to be Enterovirus 68. We haven't finally the type of infection at our hospital yet.

But that's what the nation is seeing, and children are coming in with asthma exacerbations for those who previously had asthma. And brand- new kids are starting to wheeze. Those are the children that are getting admitted to our hospital.

When I think about contagiousness, I think about the similarity to the common cold with covering your mouth when you cough, washing your hands well, avoiding sick people. And then for those folks with asthma, really getting their asthma under control. This is the earliest we've seen, this huge influx of respiratory illness. And so that's the thing that's concerning us right now.

TAPPER: What besides wheezing and coughing should parents be looking for? NYQUIST: Well, many children will have a common cold. And that's

what they can treat symptomatically with. But what the real issue is, if you have any respiratory difficulty, that's when you are going to need to access care, that's why it's so important for children who have a history of asthma to get that under control and then really talking with your health care provider if you're worried about a child's breathing.

TAPPER: And in addition to obviously making sure kids and adults for that matter cough into their hands or into their elbow and wash their hands, constantly cleansing their hands, what else can parents do to protect their children?

NYQUIST: So, avoiding people who are sick is one important thing, as we think about things that you can't prevent with vaccine, think about influenza vaccination, always think about whooping cough vaccination. And really, it's the commonsense things you can do to prevent transmission of cold viruses.

TAPPER: Why do we think -- why does the medical community think that we're seeing these enterovirus cases in such big numbers this year?

NYQUIST: It's really unclear the CDC just has a report out describing their testing for the viruses. And it's unusual because it's very early in the season. We don't see this happening usually in September. And it seems to be a new strain that really has a (INAUDIBLE) for children and really causing wheezing, which is why they end up coming to the urgent care, emergency department or getting admitted to the hospital.

TAPPER: Doctor Christine Nyquist, thank you so much. And good luck on the front lines there.

NYQUIST: Thanks very much.

Coming up next in politics, President Obama now saying ISIS is no jayvee team. So, who exactly was he talking about when he first came up with that phrase back in January?

Plus, the buried lead. 13 years since that horrible day. There's still information the government has not released to the public about the 9/11 attacks. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to "THE LEAD." Politics lead now, it's the kind of bipartisan brewing out. You just don't see much of it in this town these days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH: Bill and I have become friends in the post- presidency. I admire my pal's ability to communicate and to lead.

CLINTON: Honestly, one thing nice about my friend here ...

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: I'll say more than one thing, but this particular one thing I'll say, he used to call me twice a year in his second term just to talk. We'd talk, depending on how much time he had because he was busier than me, somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes for several years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That was former President Bush and his pal, former President Clinton coming together today here in the nation's capital to hold hands, trade glowing, cross - compliments, and announce a new leadership program through their respective foundations. It's all a long, long way from the heavy political fire the current president is facing on everything from delays on immigration reform to the looming threat of ISIS. All of this is brand-new CNN polling release this hour shows that 57 percent of the country disapprove of the way President Obama is handling foreign affairs, a tie for his all-time low in this category in CNN polling. Let's bring in our panel to talk about it. CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" Newt Gingrich.

I want to start with ISIS. Obviously, something that Americans are very concerned about and they want to make sure President Obama takes the threat as seriously as they take it. Here's what President Obama told "Meet the Press" with our friend, Chuck Todd, about calling ISIS a jayvee Team in an interview with "The New Yorker" back in January.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: But ultimately we're going to defeat them.

CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST: Long way from when you described them as a jayvee team. Buzz that bad intelligence or your misjudgment?

OBAMA: Keep in mind, I wasn't specifically referring to ISIL. I've said that regionally, there were a whole series of organizations that were focused primarily locally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Donna, President Obama -- that's not the first time the White House has denied he was talking about ISIS or ISIL. And when you look at the transcript of his conversation with David Remnick, it's very clear that David Remnick was talking about ISIS, he was talking about what was going on in Iraq and ISIS taking over different cities there. "The Washington Post" gave the White House four Pinocchios on this. The PolitiFact called this fault. Why not they just admit, we didn't realize how bad the threat was back then?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because Jake, so many of us in the media spend so much of our time criticizing the gaffe or criticizing the out-of-context statement when we should be focused, I believe, on what is the threat, what is the nature of threat and how do we defeat this threat? Rather than figure out if it's, do we handle it or we disparage of it. This is a very serious group of people who are not only threatening

the region, but they're threatening everybody because they don't care. They want to fight. They want to defeat us. So, I think the president has a very important task on Wednesday night. This is the eve of 9/11. He has to lay out the complete strategy. He has to tell us what the mission, the objective and basically if we're going to use troops to fight this threat, he's going to have to explain why and how. He has a big job.

TAPPER: Mr. Speaker, does Donna have a point here, we shouldn't be focused in the media and also Republicans shouldn't be focused on his misstatements or his missteps? This is the time for the country to be united against this threat?

NEWT GINGRICH, CNN CROSSFIRE HOST: Wednesday night is going to be decisive. This is 13 years after 9/11. I think it's the most important foreign policy speech since Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress right after 9/11 because what we now know is you have an organization, the Islamic State, which has recruited over 10,000 potential terrorists from over 50 countries, including over 100 from the U.S. And remember, one of the two Minnesotans who were killed recently had ten years of clearance to be on the runway at the Minneapolis airport. We're just lucky he decided to be a terrorist in Syria, not a terrorist in Minneapolis.

So, the president has a chance this Wednesday night to erase all of this bickering if he can give us a serious, coherent speech that helps us understand the scale of the threat and if he has a strategy that makes sense. But I think this is way too important as Americans to just degenerate into sort of four Pinocchios and two Pinocchios. This is about the test of the president trying to lead the country in what I think is a very mortal threat.

TAPPER: Other news over the weekend, President Obama and the White House letting it be known that he was not going to - he's not going to issue any of these executive actions on immigration reform until after the November elections. Obviously he was getting some pushback from Democrats running for office in red states mainly who are worried about what would happen. Now, Speaker Gingrich, you called that cowardly. But you also are an opponent of him using the executive actions in that way?

GINGRICH: There's no contradiction. I believe it was wrong to do it. I believe it's unconstitutional to do it. But he'd run right up to the edge. He'd trumpeted over and over for four months he was going to do it. And once again, as he did with Syria on red lines, and Ukraine on red lines, once again - red line he flinched. Now, if you flinch often enough, you have to assume that there's something wrong there. I'm glad he didn't do it. I think it is unconstitutional. I think that he ought to put the burden on the Congress and he ought to really -- I'm perfectly comfortable with him challenging the new Congress in January and saying, you have got to do something. I think it would be terrible for the country for the president to unilaterally make a decision that big and really would stretch the Constitution.

TAPPER: Donna, a lot of disappointed advocates for immigration reform, especially on the left about this.

BRAZILE: Right. Look, I'm an advocate for immigration reform. I'm frustrated. I'm disappointed. But I'm not only disappointed that the delay of the president's decision on what he can do within the law -- because he said what he can do within the law, that's what he said he would do with his executive pen. But I'm also disappointed that Congress and the House Republicans -- we had a bipartisan bill, 68 to 32, the Republicans and the Democrats came together in the United States Senate back in June of 2013. Where are we today? You have a Republican who backed immigration reform in 2013, Senator Marco Rubio, who threatened like many other Republicans to shut down the government.

So, what the president I think is doing is showing leadership. He still wants to get at this problem, he still wants to tackle this problem but he's going to wait until maybe the political fires are just a little bit warmer. I don't think when it comes to immigration the fires will ever be warm. It's a hot topic.

TAPPER: Speaking of weekend document dumps, on Friday, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it's missing emails from five more employees due to what they call crashes before the investigation started. At what point, Donna, do you even as a loyal Democrat, a loyal Obama administration supporter say, this just looks awful and this is not helping us? Please just come forward and just admit ...

BRAZILE: You know, the one thing you didn't -- I'm a loyal Saints fan. They lost yesterday.

(LAUGHTER)

BRAZILE: I had to get that one in. But, yeah, as a former public servant and this man knows me well, I'm disappointed that, you know, these government employees paid by the American people can't come up with these documents. They cannot restore the files, although I don't know how the Internet works when you get into that cloud stuff. But the truth is, is that we need to get this resolved so we can put it behind us and we can go forward.

TAPPER: All right. Donna Brazile, former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

Coming up next, frustrated families of victims from the 9/11 terrorist attacks say President Obama broke a promise to them. Why won't he declassify dozens of pages from a congressional report detailing the role of foreign government involvement in the attacks?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In our Buried Lead today, the stories we think should get more attention that are not. A grim milestone this week as the nation commemorates 13 years since the 9/11 attacks.

Some of those still grieving the losses of family members from that horrific day are also on a mission that you may not have heard about to declassify 28 pages from the congressional investigation into the attacks, pages specifically focused on the role of foreign governments in the al Qaeda plot.

These 9/11 family members say President Obama personally promised he would declassify those 28 pages, but now they say the White House does not even acknowledge them or their requests.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): In the months after 9/11, the House and Senate convened joint hearings to produce this massive report titled "The Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11th, 2001."

Facing stonewalling from the Bush administration and other issues, the joint inquiry was not exactly considered a rousing success.

THOMAS H. KEAN, CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: I think the failure of that committee to be able to do a thorough investigation made the families and the country call for the creation of the 9/11 Commission.

TAPPER: One of those failures in the 2002 Joint Inquiry Report of 900 pages, 28 redacted pages, which stick out like a sore thumb. Potential sources of foreign support for the September 11th hijackers, classified by the Bush administration. The 9/11 family members still want to see those pages.

BILL DOYLE, SON KILLED ON 9/11: If these pages were to be released, we could hold them accountable, the people that financed 9/11.

TAPPER: Bill Doyle's son, Joey, was working in the World Trade Center that day and was among the nearly 3,000 killed. After years of frustration, Doyle and other 9/11 families had reason to hope after U.S. Special Forces killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011, President Obama came to ground zero and met with 9/11 families, including Doyle.

DOYLE: He said, Bill, I promise you I'm going to release those 28 pages. And I said, you know something? I'm going to hold you to your word. And I said, I'm not going away.

TAPPER: Both the Obama White House and President George W. Bush declined to comment for this story. What could be in those 28 pages? Former Senator Bob Graham was one of the co-chairs of the Joint Inquiry Report. He was upset when the Bush administration classified those 28 pages and when Congress went along with it.

Because, according to this letter from the chairs of the Senate Intelligence Committee, they feared releasing the information, quote, "could adversely affect ongoing counterterrorism efforts."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the ways you fight terrorism is by shining sunshine on it and letting the people know who was involved in the terrorist activities. This has been just the opposite.

TAPPER: The report from the 9/11 Commission, published two years later in 2004, mentions this Saudi man, Omar Albauni, living in California and provided financial assistance to two of the hijackers. FBI counterterrorism documents obtained this year by Judicial Watch show that in October of 2001, the FBI believed he was reportedly a Saudi intelligence agent.

But he denied any terror connections in an interview in 2003. The 9/11 families have many allies pushing for the release of the 28 pages, including former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, a co-chair of the 9/11 Commission.

KEAN: There's no excuse why the American people can't see it. There's no excuse where a number of parts of our work and 9/11 Commission is still highly classified. There is no reason they should be classified.

TAPPER: They also have the support of North Carolina Republican Congressman Walter Jones.

REP. WALTER JONES (R), NORTH CAROLINA: After reading the report, there's nothing about national security. It's about relationships. It's about agencies within our own government and also relationships with foreign governments.

TAPPER: The Obama White House not only refused to comment for this story. This group of 9/11 families says the White House has ignored the last three letters they've written the president on this subject.

DOYLE: He broke his promise. That's probably the best way to say it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Today, the Saudi government gave CNN a statement in which the Saudi foreign minister said in response to the story, quote, "We have nothing to hide and we do not seek nor do we need to be shielded. We believe releasing the missing 28 pages will allow us to respond to any allegations in a clear and credible manner and remove any doubts about the kingdom's true role in the war against terrorism and its commitment to fight it."

That letter was originally released 11 years ago. Why the 28 pages remain hidden from the public remains a mystery.

When we come back, at one point he was third in line to the throne. Soon he'll be fifth. So what is Prince Harry saying about the new royal baby on the way?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. We'll call this one the Pop Culture Lead. If you liked royal baby mania the first time around, you're going to love the sequel. Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge made it official today. Another bundle of joy is on the way.

While George still gets first dibs on the throne, baby number two could actually determine the fate of a country before being born. CNN's Max Foster joins us live outside Buckingham Palace. Max, you're telling me it's possible that this baby bump could actually affect politics there in the U.K.?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: There's an extraordinary poll that came out over the weekend that showed that the yes to independence in Scotland campaign had overtaken the no to independence, a real sense of panic, I have to say, in London, that there is a possibility that the U.K. could break up.

So speculation as to why the palace decided to announce news of a new royal baby this time certainly does increase the sense of Britishness, which would help the no to independence campaign. But the palace insisted to me that this is purely an announcement made early because the duchess is unwell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER (voice-over): There were no signs of a bump but Kate's most recent appearances, but I'm told that she only found out about the pregnancy herself very recently.

PRINCE WILLIAM: She's feeling OK. It's been a shaky few days, week or so. But we're mostly thrilled. It's great news. Early days. But I'm hoping things settle down and she feels better.

FOSTER: The duchess suffered acute morning sickness with Prince George. And it's struck again with baby number two. She's canceled her engagements and doctors are by her side at Kensington Palace. She wanted to be open about what was happening, which is why they made the announcement early. She's not yet 12 weeks pregnant.

PRINCE HARRY: My family continues to grow.

FOSTER (on camera): Of course, with that growing family, your prospects of becoming king reduce, don't they?

PRINCE HARRY: Great.

FOSTER: The queen is said to be delighted with the news. My best guess is the baby is due in April, only then will we find out if Prince George is going to have a little brother or little sister.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: It is Kate and William's duty, Jake, to secure the line of succession. They've done that by producing George and a spare, the next baby. The brutal reality of being a royal.

TAPPER: Max Foster, thank you so much. Make sure to follow me on Twitter @jaketapper. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Brianna Keilar who's filling in for Wolf Blitzer next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Brianna.