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New Day

Obama To Lay Out ISIS Strategy; Obama Delays Immigration Action; Royal Baby #2 is on the Way; Hawks Owner Stepping Down

Aired September 08, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That is heavy duty politics going on as the president and his crew pitched their plan for how to deal with ISIS. Key meetings set with Congressional leaders leading up to Wednesday.

That's going to be the big speech to you to get your approval for this mission. The mission that's even more urgency that there are now new fears overseas ahead of the 9/11 anniversary this week.

A second major story as you start your NEW DAY. Furor at home after the administration admits they plan no action on immigration reform until after the midterms.

We begin with senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, and the new strategy to defeat ISIS -- Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. With a speech to the American people set for Wednesday, one day before the 9-11 anniversary, the president is looking show some strength in the fight against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After a few fumbles on ISIS, President Obama has a new game plan, he says to go on offense.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We will shrink the territory that they control and ultimately, we will defeat them.

ACOSTA: But in an interview on "Meet the Press," the president insisted once again U.S. combat troops won't return to Iraq.

OBAMA: This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.

ACOSTA: That tough new approach on ISIS came with an expansion of U.S. airstrikes over the weekend, targeting the terror group for the first time in Western Iraq around the Haditha Dam.

That air power the president hopes will tip the balance to Iraqi and Kurdish forces as well as potentially moderate Syrian rebels battling ISIS on the ground.

OBAMA: We are going to be helping to put together a plan for them so that they can start retaking territory that ISIL had taken over.

ACOSTA: The ISIS reset was welcomed by Democrats who worried the president was being too cautious.

SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I want to congratulate the president. He's now on the offense.

ACOSTA: GOP critics are far from convinced.

MITT ROMNEY: The Pentagon was going through what if scenarios, the president wasn't. I don't know if you can't see reality from a fairway.

ACOSTA: That golfing reference is not lost on to president who acknowledged he stumbled after the beheading of American journalist, James Foley. Mr. Obama admitted he sent the wrong message during his recent vacation when he recognized Foley's execution only to head to the golf course minutes later.

OBAMA: I should have anticipated the optics. You know, that's part of the job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now the president also said he did not refer to ISIS as JV team to the "New Yorker" earlier this year. That is a claim that fact checkers have deemed to be false.

In the meantime, the president is sitting down with congressional leaders here at the White House tomorrow to go over his ISIS strategy. He is indicating along with other White House officials that they won't be seeking congressional authorization to expand airstrikes into Syria -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Jim. Thank you very. We're going to be watching this. A big few days for the president and the country -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. And just on that exactly. As the September 11 anniversary has quickly approaches, there are some serious concerns right now about keeping U.S. embassies safe really around the world especially from attacks by ISIS.

Let's get over to global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, for much more on this. What are you learning about the security situation, Elise?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, officials tell me the State Department has ordered all embassies and consulates to review security, intelligence and meet with their host governments to address any security threats that maybe looming.

You know, since the attack on Benghazi security on that consulate on 9/11 a few years ago, many posts particularly in the Middle East have already been beefed up. As of now, everyone is still open for business on 9/11. That could change according to any threats that come up this week officials said.

Now the biggest fears are the unknown, unaffiliated extremists who aren't necessarily getting picked up by chatter right now and with the ISIS group making the headlines obviously, the U.S. is very cognizant of people what might want to impress ISIS and do something to attack U.S. interest.

There isn't a huge concern right now that ISIS could launch an attack on U.S. posts around the world just yet, still ISIS is viewed very much as a regional threat, preventing it from becoming a global one is high on Secretary Kerry's agenda this week when he travels to the Mideast to meet with leaders to shore up support for the international coalition to combat ISIS -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Elise, you're watching it all. She'll be watching from Washington for us. Elise Labott, thanks so much -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, let's discuss how they get it done, Kate. Let's bring in our political commentators, Kevin Madden, Republican strategist, executive vice president of JDA Frontline and Mr. Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, senior adviser for the super PAC, "Priorities USA Action."

Gentleman, thank you for joining us on this Monday. Kevin, I'll start with you. The question is this, everybody is Congress is saying need to hear what the president is going to say, have to know what the plan is. How much new information can there really be? Everybody knows what we're dealing with. What is Congress looking for on your side of the aisle?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think they are looking for new affection about how the president plans to go about this as far as a more comprehensive plan and strategy that will bring in some of the international partners and change conditions on the ground.

But I think the most important thing that Congress is looking for is a sense of clarity, a sense of urgency from the president. Because I think that is what many of their constituents want. You have to think about Congress the thing they care about most is their standing back home.

Right now there is a lot of anxiety amongst the American public and there are a lot of questions about exactly what this president's long- term strategy for dealing with the ISIS threat is. They want the sense that their commander in chief understands it is an urgent problem and he is moving to take action.

CUOMO: Do you think fair criticism of both sides of the aisle, but certainly yours is that they were doing what they criticize the president for, leading from behind, long-term engagement under the constitution certainly a declaration of war, certainly Congress's responsibility. Why don't they just meet and kind of take a hold of the reigns themselves? Why are they being so passive?

MADDEN: Well, you know, I have said this before that, we don't elect a Congress in chief. We elect a commander in chief. Congress I think has done as much as they can in their role here as part of the advice and consent. But they're looking for the president, presidential leadership to really step up. Make the case to the American people. Make the case to his political allies and make the case to our international allies around the country that he has an actual plan and that what he's going to do to take action.

CUOMO: Paul, how much of this is your fault? Because you specifically, which is why I wanted you here in person, how much of this is about the message that even though it does seem a little like semantics. And everybody should know what's going on. This is not new what's going on with ISIS. It's just a few name. How much of this is a hole you created?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I do think the president needed, past tense, to put this together in a coherent message. Wednesday night, he is going to speak to the country. He's got ten countries on board now. He didn't have that two weeks ago. He is already acting in Iraq. Right.

We were reporting now. He's our military, our bombing near the dam. The next part of this now, so he is doing his part. The next part of this does shift to Congress. There is one really important policy question. Do we bomb ISIS inside of Syria as well as Iraq?

Right now the president's plan is contain the military action. I love national security nerds call it, kinetic action. The kinetic action is in Iraq. Should we be bombing in Syria?

Many of his critics, Senator John McCain, some in my party are saying yes. You are right. They need the Congress and the country behind him if he expands this because mission creep I think is what the White House is worried about.

CUOMO: Mission creep on a military side. My confusion here is the military is the easing part, bombing, who's on the ground, that's the easy component. The reason that ISIS exists is because you didn't do the right thing in Iraq with Maliki.

When Bremer went in there, not to get into in the weeds. But the problem is this, the Sunnis were disenfranchised, Kevin Madden. That's the problem, right. Now their military commanders who are in that army are now leading ISIS.

So why aren't we talking about that? The military part is easy. Why aren't the people on your side of the aisle who want righteous criticism saying, this is a long term thing. We have to fix the political situation, the military is easy. Why aren't you saying that?

MADDER: Well, they are. There are a lot of folks who are coupling their criticism with the president's lack of action and a lack of plan militarily with a lack of progress on the political side.

The president has been very good about the rhetoric of saying we need to have -- we need to bring a government that's much more stable together in Iraq so that they can deal with this on their own and that they need to bring in other forces on the ground like the Kurds and to support them militarily that America can't do this alone.

But the big challenge that the president has had politically again and convincing a lot of his critics that he's on the right path is that this is not new. These have been emerging problems for over a year and the president only now --

CUOMO: Over a year? We have been doing the since the '90s in this part of the world.

MADDEN: Exactly. My main point is with this ISIS in the eyes of the American public. The president is talking about building an international coalition. This was a problem he had been dealing with an international coalition should have been built.

We should have these strategies being implemented. Not the president saying over a week ago that he doesn't have a strategy yet. Yesterday saying that he finally does. That's been the big problem.

CUOMO: Kevin says ISIS crisis. It rhymes, that's always a problem for the other side of the politics. How do you deal with that?

BEGALA: That's a good point. Well, this coalition is a tactic put together now in order to deal with the immediate military crisis. But you're right. This ISIS exists because Prime Minister Maliki who was put in place by us, in our Bush administration folks.

He turned Iraq into a Shiite militia. He made it a sectarian force. So the Sunnis were disenfranchised. We did deal with this a decade ago. General Petraeus help lead the Sunni awakening where Sunni Iraqis rejected ISIS a decade ago. The Obama administration believes they will do it again.

But what they have done, the president has weighed in, Maliki didn't want to leave office. They have a new Iraqi prime minister. He has I think to this week to try to put together a multi-sectarian government.

This is the answer that when I talked to my friends in the White House, they say we will use our kinetic power. We will bond and that is not to be taken lightly. But the solution has to come from the region, from the Iraqis, especially from the Sunnis, and that's what they're looking for the new Iraqi prime minister.

CUOMO: That's why everybody wants to find out about this coalition because if this is a perversion of Islam, not true Islam. Where all the other Islamists fighting them themselves? Why is it up to us?

Let me ask you something else, let's switch to another topic of the day. Very important as people start their new day, immigration. It's 3rd down, the president decides to punt. How is this not a gross failure of leadership, Paul Begala, that he says I'm not going to do anything for ten weeks until the election is over on immigration?

BEGALA: We haven't had fundamental immigration reform since 1986, I think we can wait 57 days. He was candid on "Meet the Press" yesterday saying, the politics has changed. I'm quite sure the White House wanted to act as soon as they got the legalities right.

Then we had this crisis on the border, where all these unaccompanied children came. It changed the politics. The immigration reformers, savvy ones are saying, it's OK to put it off. If the Democrats have a bad night on election night we don't want immigration reform blamed.

So why not take it away from the politics, right, deal with this after the election? Maybe in a lame duck session. This is me seeing a dreamer. Get some Republicans on board and pass a real law instead of having to deal with this by executive action.

CUOMO: Of course, you know, the only thing on the other side, Kevin, is that the Republicans are upset. He's putting it off ten weeks. Come on, let's be honest. There is no chance the Republicans will agree with the president about anything right now let alone immigration reform before these elections when the whole platform is, we tried to stop him, right?

MADDEN: No, look. I think everybody up on Capitol Hill wants immigration reform. They want the current system broken. Where we have big differences is on the details on how we do that.

Republicans, of course, believe that we should take a series of bills approach, a sequential approach to securing the border and then dealing with so many of those that are here illegally before having one big, one size fits all big comprehensive approach.

I think the biggest problem that we have now to really having comprehensive immigration reform, or dealing with this problem is the level of the lack of trust that now exists between this president and the Congress overall. The president is basically saying what he wants to do is take action after the voters have already made their voice heard on an issue like this.

That is something they have done before. It does feed the cynicism of so many folks up on Capitol Hill who have a hard time working with the president.

CUOMO: Right, but the cynicism could go to the fact that they do nothing but obstruct. They are two very different sides of that argument. But Kevin Madden, we have to leave it there for this morning. Thank you for the insight especially on a Monday. We appreciate it from you and from you, Mr. Begala.

A lot of headlines this morning, let's you right over the Mich -- Mich.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, everyone. Here are your headlines, the cease-fire in Ukraine, could be in trouble. Shelling and explosions breaking out Sunday. Less than two days after a cease-fire was declared between Kiev's government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

The heaviest fighting has been near the airport in Donetsk, but there are reports the rebel leaders will go ahead within all for all prisoners exchange with Ukraine on Wednesday. European security officials say the cease-fire has held for the most part.

President Obama says the U.S. military will help combat the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa with equipment and support for health workers. President Obama says if the international community doesn't step in to help the virus could mutate and spread to other countries.

Including the U.S. and pose a serious danger. So far Ebola has killed more than 2,000 people in five African nations in its most recent outbreak.

The latest for you in the Michael Brown shooting. The Prosecutors Office taking an unorthodox approach with the grand jury. Instead of telling grand jury members what charges they believe Officer Wilson should face, they are leaving it open ended and encouraging the grand jury to investigate.

As you recall Officer Wilson gunned down unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9th setting off weeks of protests in Ferguson.

How about that Serena Williams cementing her place in tennis history. She overwhelmed Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to win her sixth U.S. Open Women's singles title.

That win gives her a total of 18 career grand slam titles tying with her fellow tennis greats who happened to be on hand to present her the award, Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova. The men will duke it out for the big prize later today. Hard to beat that. That's quite moment.

BOLDUAN: She is really, really good. That's the understatement of the year, I think so.

CUOMO: Could argue, the most dominant figure in tennis.

PEREIRA: In tennis history.

BOLDUAN: The sixth U.S. Open. That's not even the grand slams.

CUOMO: A lot of personal adversities along the way. Injuries, she's older, she had a lot of other options. At one point, it seemed like there was no motivation to play, no one comes near her.

PEREIRA: And every win seems to be so, so, so significant.

CUOMO: She got hurt in the doubles.

PEREIRA: But wait, there is other news.

BOLDUAN: There is other really good news.

We rarely give you breaking good news. So, let's just do it and enjoy, everyone.

The duke and duchess of Cambridge are expecting their second child.

Erin McLaughlin has the latest on the very happy announcement from London.

So, what do we know, Erin?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate.

Well, Buckingham Palace making a happy announcement just a short while ago. It's not clear how far along the duchess of Cambridge is. Normally, the palace announces these things at a three-month mark, but we understand she is suffering from acute morning sickness, something that she experienced during her first pregnancy and had to cancel an engagement in Oxford today. She's been treated by doctors at Kensington Palace.

But the congratulations are already rolling in. Prime minister Dave Cameron taking to twitter just a short while ago, tweeting, "Many congratulations for the duke and duchess of Cambridge. I'm delighted by the happy news that they're expecting another baby."

And it was just over a year ago that we were celebrating the birth of Prince George. This child will be fourth in line to the throne, pushing Prince Harry to fifth in line. But I'm sure Harry won't mind at all -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: I always sure to say not. All right. Erin, thank you so much.

Anyone, be it the woman or the husband or the man going through it, anyone who has had a up the of morning sickness can just imagine how horrible it is to have the condition she suffers. She suffered that with George early on. So, it's probably before --

PEREIRA: Another little one that needs your attention and wants mommy and you are feeling poorly.

BOLDUAN: I am feeling for you sister, is all I was going to say.

CUOMO: Boy or girl?

PEREIRA: I'm going to go with girl this time.

BOLDUAN: We're already playing this game?

CUOMO: Of course we are.

BOLDUAN: OK, let's play the game.

CUOMO: What do you go? Boy or girl?

PEREIRA: Girl.

BOLDUAN: I'm going with girl, too. But my spidey sense I thought this was a boy.

CUOMO: It's not? No. What am I going to all that blue stuff?

BOLDUAN: No, I'm not going to be able to name him Christopher anymore. It's so strange.

CUOMO: It's a great girl's name.

BOLDUAN: I know, they might.

CUOMO: I'm going boy, strong male genes on that Windsor son.

BOLDUAN: All righty.

CUOMO: Going with it.

BOLDUAN: All righty.

CUOMO: Another story for to you look at this morning. The owner of the Atlanta Hawks is stepping down. We have his explosive racially charged e-mail that cost him his team.

Plus, you're going to hear exclusively from the team's CEO.

BOLDUAN: And, parents, you want to listen up for this one. There is a mysterious respiratory illness that's hitting hundreds of kids across the country and experts say it's going to get a whole lot worse. Kids are ending up in the ER, even the ICU. We're going to tell you what you need to know, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back.

Now the story of rage costing another NBA owner his team. Bruce Levenson says he plans to sell his share of the Atlanta Hawks after revealing that he sent a racially charged e-mail about Atlanta fans to the team's general manager and others back in 2012.

In a CNN exclusive, our Martin Savidge talked about this whole situation with the Hawks' new CEO.

Martin is joining us live now from the CNN center in Atlanta with the very latest.

So, what more did you hear from the CEO, Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, there is a lot. They know they have a lot to do as a result of the digging out on this.

The CEO has been on the job for only months. So, imagine what he is up against. But this all goes back to the email the Bruce Levinson admits that he wrote in 2012. And he will tell you now that he used inappropriate and offensive language. And, in fact, yesterday when he wrote another letter, this one is the letter of apology and also announcing that he's going to be putting up his portion of the team for sale, he said this, he said, you know, "If you were angry at what I wrote, you should be angry. I'm angry at myself, too. It was inflammatory nonsense."

There are others who are saying. Wait a minute. It was a lot. More than that, it was racially insensitive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): It's the e-mail that cost the team. In 2012, Atlanta Hawks majority owner Bruce Levenson fired off these insights why the franchise wasn't attracting, affluent, white season ticketholders.

Looking around our arena during game, it's 70 percent black. Levenson wrote, "My theory is that the black crowds scared away the whites." He goes on, "I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar being the minority." He says it bothered him every fan picked out for a contest is black, and says, "I have even bitched the kiss cam is too black."

For the NBA, it's an embarrassment as the league is still struggling to overcome the racially laced diatribe of the former Clippers owner Donald Sterling earlier this year. In fact, Levenson was one of Sterling's strongest critics, speaking out to CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Sunday, Levenson issued an apology and announced he is selling the team, dumping the PR nightmare into the lap of the Hawks' brand few CEO Steve Koonin.

In an exclusive interview, Koonin told me he was dumbfounded when he read the 2012 e-mail.

(on camera): He describes the email as being racially insensitive. But the email is far more than that. I mean, it's a racist e-mail. It's a business bigoted e-mail. And it is breathtakingly stupid as far as a business communication. What were your thoughts when you read it?

STEE KOONIN, CEO, ATLANTA HAWKS: I couldn't believe it. I think you said breathtakingly stupid. I think I had an audible gasp. And there are no words to describe. There is nothing but mortified and angry.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Koonin told me the outrage came to light after Hawks general manager Daniel Ferry made what was considered by some front managers as a racially insensitive remark. An internal investigation was launched and Levenson's bomb shell e-mail was found.

KOONIN: Zero tolerance I think has become a bit of a buzz word. We actually wanted to live by that. Bruce was confronted from this e- mail from 2012 and he decided that instead of fighting it or doing some of the things have you seen in the past he thought it was best to, for the city, for the team, for his family to walk away.

SAVIDGE: Koonin realized first he had to apologize to the fans and second, face the team.

(on camera): Have you spoken to any of the team?

KOONIN: I spoke to the players tonight. There was a meeting. I addressed them.

SAVIDGE: What was that like?

KOONIN: It was like walking into a funeral. These are our young men who wear our city's fame and our logo on their chest. They played for a team and they are supposed to be supported by their ownership and ownership failed in supporting them.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): CNN tried to speak to Levenson, that he has yet to be seen publicly since the sale announcement.

(on camera): When was the last time you talk to Bruce Levenson?

KOONIN: Yesterday.

SAVIDGE: What did you say?

KOONIN: I think it's best few walk away.

SAVIDGE: What did he say?

KOONIN: You're right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: And that is essentially how it call came together. Steve Koonin has a tremendous job now of trying to pick up the pieces and take not only a team but a fan base forward after all of this. It's going to be an incredible challenge for a man who just started his job -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Two months into the job, Martin. My goodness. All right. Thanks so much for that.

We want to bring in our Andy Scholes, CNN sports correspondent with more in our "Bleacher Report" this morning. And that's a really important thing to talk about.

The distinction between some media outlets are saying that he self- reported. Not so much. He admitted to what he did.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that was an immediate red flag. Who would self report that they are, in fact, a racist? It didn't make any sense. It turns out as Martin said in that piece right there that it was an internal investigation because of something general manager Danny Ferry had said and the players report that alarmed one of the owners. They had an internal investigation that led to an NBA investigation.

And Levinson ended up deciding this is eventually going to come out. But instead of going to Donald Sterling around fighting it, I'm going to get in front of it. Apologize and sell the team.

PEREIRA: Especially when he had been so vocal about Donald Sterling.

But back up a step or two. Give us an idea what's going on within the Hawks' organization. What was he trying to accomplish with this e- mail to begin with? SCHOLES: Obviously, he wants more fans to come to the game. But, you

know --

PEREIRA: That's not a way to do it.

SCHOLES: As (INAUDIBLE) says, if you build it, they will come. If you build a winner, the fans will come.

PEREIRA: Oh, that.

SCHOLES: Yes, the Hawks haven't been good in decades. So, I've gone to Hawks games. You know, people don't know, filtering it. It's right next to CNN center in the heart of Atlanta. There aren't people at the games because the Hawks haven't been good since they had Mookie Blaylock and Dikembe Mutumbo in '90s.

So, you know, there is really no, if you don't have a winner in the NBA, the fans won't come. It had nothing to do with race. I go to games, to the Hawks games, and I will say that all of the arenas and all the games I go to, it is probably the worst atmosphere. But I think it has to do with there is not a lot of fans there and they don't have a product on the court to cheer about. It had nothing to do with race and Levinson is way off base when he made those comments.

PEREIRA: I'll say it again, the new CEO, two months into the job, certainly has his work cut out for him going forward.

Andy Scholes, good to see you. That little boy of yours, so cutie, you showed me pictures today. Good to see you, Andy.

SCHOLES: Thanks.

PEREIRA: All right. Crushing ISIS. The president ready to map out a plan to defeat the militants. One of his main allies-turned-critic joins us live. What does she want to hear from the president.

Plus, quite a medical mystery that has doctors and the CDC very worried. Hundreds of children are sick with this respiratory infection. We're going to tell you what you need to know next.

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