Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Scotland Rejects Independence; Senate Approves Arming Syrian Rebels; Interview with Congressman Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; Interview with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest

Aired September 19, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, what does this now all mean?

Let's get to senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. He has all the very latest from Glasgow, Scotland, now.

So, what does this mean going forward, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It means David Cameron is a lot happier. He's really relieved. Look, this was a 10 percent vote in favor of staying part of England, 55 percent, no rejecting independence to 45 percent yes, and 85 percent turnout -- a record turnout for Scotland. And David Cameron said this is a clear indication the people of Scotland have voted, they voted clearly. This is the last time they need to have a referendum on this independent issue for a generation, even a lifetime he said.

But what he said he's going to do now is keep good on his commitments to transfer more powers to control taxes, more powers to control welfare issues inside Scotland. But he adds to that as well, if the Scots can have this, the English can, too, the Welsh can, the people of Northern Ireland can as well. So, he's looking at really a big change in the way that Britain is run constitutionally.

So, all of that is supposed to happen over the coming months. We've heard as well from the man who led the independence campaign saying that he will hold David Cameron to his promises of delivering those additional powers to the people of Scotland, 3.7 million people voted, Kate.

BOLDUAN: What time do they give him to make those changes and follow through on the promises.

Nic Robertson, thanks, Nic. It's great to see you.

Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And many keep saying what does that mean in the U.S.? You know what it means if nothing else, the power of the people, the power of referendum. Look at the change that's going to come because they went out and voted in huge numbers. Message for you. All right. Also breaking this morning, France joining the fight

against ISIS with airstrikes in Iraq, this comes after Congress delivered a shaky endorsement somewhat of the president's plans, detractors on both sides of the aisle. The Senate did however pass the bill to train and arm Syrian rebels, the first step in this war plan. The House approved the measure earlier in the week, you remember.

So, with France in the mix, President Obama now getting the green light from Congress, what comes next?

Let's bring in senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

I guess he has "mandate", in quotes. So, now what?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At least for now he does, Chris. That's right. President Obama's plan to defeat ISIS has cleared a major hurdle. Congress has now bought into the president's strategy -- at least the part they could vote on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The joint resolution is passed.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Just before speeding out of Washington for the mid-term elections, Congress gave President Obama the green light to arm and train Syrian rebels in the war on ISIS.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The strong bipartisan support in Congress for this new training effort shows the world that Americans are united in confronting the threat from ISIL.

ACOSTA: The Senate approved the measure attached to a must-pass spending bill by an overwhelming margin. But potential GOP presidential contenders were divided, with Senator Marco Rubio voting yes and Ted Cruz and Rand Paul saying no. Noting that Congress declined to authorize the president's overall strategy, Paul dubbed Mr. Obama's battle plan "one man's war".

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: He was running against the wars of the previous administration. And people voted for him for that very reason and he became part of the problem.

ACOSTA: Despite the endorsement from Congress for at least part of the president's strategy, lawmakers were voicing doubts to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If this plan doesn't work, what is the alternative? What does it look like in the Middle East then?

CHUCK HAGEL, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well we always have plan Bs and Cs; that's what the military does as well as anybody in the world. But we believe this plan will work.

ACOSTA: The Obama administration is pointing to the stepped-up air campaign against ISIS that U.S. military officials say took out a terrorist training camp in some of the latest strikes.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I can tell you that I don't think these guys are ten feet tall, and the intelligence tells us as we've begun to hit them, we've been able to prove that to some degree.

ACOSTA: President Obama welcomed France's decision to join the coalition in conducting air strikes on ISIS, a sign that battle against the terrorist group is just heating up.

OBAMA: As Americans, we do not give in to fear. And when you harm our citizens, when you threaten the United States, when you threaten our allies, it doesn't divide us, it unites us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And the president will be pushing to expand his coalition when he makes the rounds at the United Nations next week in New York City. This weekend, he heads to Camp David where he's likely to receive more updates from his national security team on the fight against ISIS -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Important information to see how it starts the change on the ground because that will obviously change the strategy.

Jim, appreciate the reporting. Have a good weekend.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: And an important vote they took and let's continue the discussion about that Syrian measure.

Let's bring in the Democratic congresswoman, Tammy Duckworth. She's an Iraq war veteran and sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

Congresswoman, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming in.

REP. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D), ILLINOIS: It's good to be here this morning.

BOLDUAN: Thanks very much.

So, you voted against to arm and train Syrian rebels but also come at this, to this from a unique perspective. You're a veteran. You have seen combat. Why then could you not support the president on this measure?

DUCKWORTH: I can't trust the Syrian rebels, Kate. We don't know who they are. I'm not comfortable with the vetting process and I don't know how long this commitment is. The vote on Wednesday was really just for a 12-week bill that would allow us to fund them $500 million for 12 weeks. And I just feel like this commitment is far longer term than that, and deserved more of a debate than this short term debate that we had.

BOLDUAN: When is that debate going to happen? I've heard many other members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, saying the same thing, that they are not necessarily comfortable with what they know about the process of vetting the rebels, that they can trust, that they are moderate opposition.

I even heard Congressman Mike Rogers say we shouldn't call them moderate opposition anymore because they really are not so moderate. They're just less anti-West, if you will.

Do you think the debate's actually going to occur?

DUCKWORTH: Well, I hope they do. I think we need to do our job here in Congress and have a debate over a new use of military force, an Authorization for Use of Military Force.

The president is operating under the one passed in 2001, that's a long time ago and we need to set up the real parameters. You know, in some of the briefings we've gotten from military leaders, they came right out and said this is -- once we do this with the rebels, this is not a 12-week commitment. This is a multiyear commitment, going into the two and three-year range and we can't go into something like that in this nation without Congress doing its job and setting up parameters.

So, I hope we come back from the break and have that conversation here.

BOLDUAN: And as I said, a lot of members of Congress, they do share in your concerns but you also have folks like Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, he a Democrat from Maryland. He's the ranking Democrat, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and he comes at this from the perspective of, President Obama is the commander-in-chief and in a time of serious crisis you don't weaken the commander-in-chief is what Dutch had said.

When you hear that, is there anything that you could hear from the president, hear from the White House that could set aside your concerns to change your position to get your support?

DUCKWORTH: Well, I asked a lot of questions in all the briefings that we've had so far, Kate, and some of the questions that I want to know is what happens after the initial 12 weeks of this commitment? So what happens if these rebels are actually wildly successful and able to defeat ISIS in Syria? What next? Are they going to take that American training and those American made weapons and turn them on each other, are they going to turn them on Assad?

We need to get rid of Assad. If they turn them on Assad, then does that commit the United States into a ground war in Syria? Where are our allies on this? There are so many unanswered questions.

BOLDUAN: Well, those seem like not just unanswered questions but very valid questions, what are the answers you're getting?

DUCKWORTH: Well, we're just getting the answer that I got, which is why I voted no was, vote for this, give us the $500 million initially and we need to start training because we need to go after ISIS now, so that they don't continue to grow, and my response is, if we're going to go after ISIS now, why would we not start with the $500 million commitment to an ally effective like the Kurdish Peshmerga.

You know, these are strong, fierce fighters fighting alongside Americans for a long time, and we're going to make this investment and really attack ISIS, why are we not helping the Kurds out first and then we'll talk about the Syrian rebels, and folks who we need to do a little bit more vetting but the Kurds are right there, we should be working with them.

BOLDUAN: Wait. So, Congresswoman, in these briefings that you've received and we're talking it's not like you're coming at this from a conservative Republican perspective, you are a Democrat who has seen combat, you are a veteran.

When you're asking these questions, you're essentially getting the answer of give us the money and ask questions later and we'll give you the answers later?

DUCKWORTH: Well, the answer I'm getting is we need to do this now, we need to do something immediately, they're continuing to grow in strength. I agree with that. We do need to act. We need to destroy them. We need to contain them. But my question is, great, what is the plan beyond 12 weeks.

And if we train these folks four weeks in Saudi Arabia, we send them back to Syria, they don't have logistics capability.

Coming from a military perspective, who is going to get them the bullets that are American caliber to fire out of those American made weapons that we're going to give them? Is it going to be us, is it going to be contractors? Is it going to be Blackwater? How are we going to help them logistically? Who is going to provide oversight as to how they act?

And those answers coming from a military perspective just have not been answered for me in a way that is satisfactory that gotten the yes vote from me.

BOLDUAN: Clearly not satisfactory to you, not satisfactory to many members of Congress, and probably many members of the American public, who want to know the very same thing. At the very same time as you said, you're up against a very serious threat, this is a complex issue.

But I appreciate you coming on and hopefully the debate in the lame duck will happen.

DUCKWORTH: I hope so, too.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, thank you so much.

All right. A lot of news we are following, a lot of serious news we're following this morning.

Let's get straight over to Michaela for those -- MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I want to bring you up to date on

the manhunt in Pennsylvania. Suspected cop killer Eric Matthew Frein has been placed on the FBI's ten most wanted list. Massive manhunt is under way Pennsylvania for Frein who police believe ambushed police a week ago killing one. Police around the nation attended the funeral for Corporal Bryon Dickson in Scranton yesterday.

Well, the numbers are in. Not good. The Home Depot credit card breach compromised a stunning 56 million credit cards in a five-month- long security breach. Home Depot's CEO issued an apology to customers for all of the, quote, "inconvenience and anxiety." The company says the malware has been eliminated from its payment system that makes that breach bigger than target's last year.

The King fire, we just give an update of that, burning east of Sacramento, California, gone from big to bigger. Despite the best efforts of fire crews, it is burning out of control, more than 71,000 acres are burned. Some 12,000 homes are threatened. That fire has forced 3,000 people to evacuate.

Now the man accused of purposely starting the King fire, 37-year-old Wayne Allen Huntsman is due in court today. We should point out that at one point firefighters had to deploy the fire shelters to escape flames and were later evacuated by helicopter.

Terrifying moments, can you manage this happening on a plane? This was aboard a JetBlue flight in California after their flight from long beach blew one of its engines shortly after takeoff. The cabin is filling with smoke. Passengers say the plane began to shake. The pilot was able to turn back around and land safely. The 147 passengers aboard however had to use emergency slides to deplane. Four people suffered minor injuries. They won't soon forget that.

BOLDUAN: I would say so. My goodness.

PEREIRA: Terrifying.

CUOMO: Yes, getting those numbers for six people. But all of them affected in a way that will -- this is the kind of thing -- it just radiates to the rest of us, so much fear. But thank God they got on the ground. That's the end of that story as long as they figure out what went wrong, right?

So, speaking of what's going wrong -- Congress, they OK the White House plan to arm and train Syrian rebels, just the first step. The president says however, "We are united going forward." There's even talk of a mandate.

Is that really true? We're going to ask the president's spokesman the questions and you will judge the answers.

BOLDUAN: And new details emerging about the domestic violence allegations against Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer. The NFL obviously dealing with a major problem here, what can the league do better? We're going to speak with -- we're going to get pretty unique

perspective on this. Leigh Anne Tuohy whose story inspired the film "The Blind Side". We'll get her take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

President Obama has been given the green light by Congress to take down ISIS. The key to the plan: arming and training Syrian rebels.

France now in the mix, airstrikes of their own. So, what comes next?

Here to answer all that and more is White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

Josh, thank you for joining us this morning.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good morning, Chris. Good morning.

CUOMO: So, you got the votes. However, Congress very careful to a person to say well it's just a limited thing, it's just to give them money just for these rebels. We really don't know about this, don't know what happens next. We need more debate.

Would you call that a mandate for war?

EARNEST: Well, Chris, let me start by saying that we certainly welcome the bipartisan show of support from Congress, that is a phenomenon too rare these days. In this situation, we saw Democrats and Republicans put aside their partisan labels and consider their request to give the administration greater authority to ramp up the training and assistance and equipment of the Syrian opposition fighters.

And we certainly are pleased that a majority of Republicans in the House, majority of Democrats in the House, and a majority of Republicans in the Senate, and a majority of Democrats in the Senate voted to give the president the authority.

If there is an additional that Congress determines is necessary on this policy, we certainly would welcome that debate. And we would welcome additional action from Congress to demonstrate their support for the strategy that the president's pursuing to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.

CUOMO: Well, I would echo the argument it is Congress's responsibility. They should be voting themselves, they shouldn't have to be prodded. I think the Constitution says it. I think common sense says it. But they're not.

So, should the president therefore be pushing them and say don't make what Rand Paul says, a "one man's war." Get in with me, debate it, vote it, all across the board and move forward.

EARNEST: Well, Chris, I guess -- we would welcome Congress doing that.

CUOMO: Tell them to.

EARNEST: They did take an important step -- they did take an important step over the course of this week, putting aside partisan labels voting their conscience, focusing on the president's strategy and voting their conscience, in a way that did result in majorities of Democrats and Republicans in both houses supporting the president's strategy. And we certainly welcome that.

The president does believe that it is important for us to present a united front, united between Democrats and Republicans and united between Capitol Hill and the White House. That presents a strong message to the country, to our allies and even to our enemies, that the United States is united in fact and determined to accomplish this goal that the president laid out to deny ISIL a safe haven in Syria and ensure that we can succeed in our campaign with the international community to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.

CUOMO: I want to talk to you about the community. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat, Illinois, veteran, is with the president, says, I am not convinced from what I'm hearing from the White House and the military that they know who they're dealing with, with these Syrian rebels. I don't think they're really an army. I don't know who the moderates are, I don't get it.

Those are real questions coming from someone who knows what they're talking about.

EARNEST: They are.

CUOMO: How confident are you that you know who you're giving weapons to there?

EARNEST: Well, Chris, you're right. Congresswoman Duckworth sacrificed tremendously for this country and I admire and respect her bravery and courage and her dedication to our nation and to our national security.

She is raising legitimate questions. This is very difficult business. This is serious business.

The president has been criticized a number of times over the last couple of years for not more forcefully weighing in to provide weapons and training earlier to Syrian opposition fighters. What the president said we need to be engaged in an effort to vet these individuals. Let's research their background, figure out who they are, figure out what they're fighting for, figure out what motivates them and over the course of the last three years we established stronger ties and have a better sense of who we're fighting.

We have a better sense of what they're fighting for. And that will be an important part of our efforts as we continue to vet these individuals and make decisions about who we should equip and train but ultimately, Chris, this is the question that it comes down to. We need boots on the ground in Syria to deny ISIL a safe haven in Syria. And the question is, are they going to be American combat boots on the

ground in Syria? The president's determined that will not be the case, it will not be American boots on the ground in a combat role in Syria. We're going to support the Syrian opposition fighters. They should be fighting to are their own country. They need to take the fight on the ground to ISIL.

We're going to make sure they have the training and equipment they need to do that and we're going to back them up with American and allied air power to carry out airstrikes in support of their ground operations, both of those things, ramping up our assistance and backing them with airpower will enhance their performance on the battlefield and that's what will be necessary to take the fight to ISIL and deny them the safe haven they could use to plot against the United States of America.

CUOMO: Look at the optics, Josh. You have the U.S. saying this is not our fight, we're helping out the region. ISIS wants to own Islam. ISIS wants to take over all these different countries.

This is a crisis for the Middle East, we're going to help them and have this coalition of all these Arab states and the Turks. None of them will put boots on the ground, Josh. It sends a very confusing message. They're not fighting their own fight.

So, why rush in with military force, when they won't?

EARNEST: Well, the first is, the reason that the president decided to engage robustly, he established it as a core principle of his presidency, that he will deny safe haven to those individuals and organizations that seek to do harm to the United States and our homeland.

ISIL is seeking to occupy a virtual safe haven in Syria and the president believes that robust action is necessary to deny them that safe haven.

And I do think, Chris, that we have seen constructive engagement from Muslim majority countries in the region in this effort. The president a couple weeks ago said these Sunni-led countries face a significant threat in the region. They've previously believed that the greatest threat were the Shia-led countries in the region.

It's the president's view and this is backed up by some of the statements we've seen from public officials in these Sunni-led countries that the greater threat they face is actually from these extremists who are fomenting instability and carrying out terrible acts of violence all in the same of Sunni Islam.

What we're seeing are moderate voices step up and indicate that does not reflect the true tenets of their religion. And it is important for those countries to understand they don't just have a moral difference with the extremists in ISIL, they actually have a reason to mobilize their country to counter that threat, and they can do so with the support of the international community and that's why, Chris, I've been asked this question a couple of times, is the United States at war with ISIL?

The fact of the matter is, the international community, including the Muslim world, is at war with ISIL, and the United States is committed, the president is committed to building and leading and international coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL for precisely this reason

CUOMO: At least we're calling it what it is now, Josh, at least we're calling it a war -- because that's what it is, and that's one layer of confusion that's gone.

Now, in terms of battles that the U.S. should be fighting starting with the White House, while I have you, let me turn your attention back home. Domestic violence, we're seeing it play out in the NFL as if that were the focus and the root of the problem. We both know it isn't.

Is the White House going to step up and really advance this discussion about this domestic violence, about sexual assault that's going on in society?

EARNEST: Well, Chris, today the president and vice president will be convening an event here at the White House to launch the "It's On Us" campaign and that is an effort to mobilize public opinion and to send a clear message to everybody we all need to take responsibility for combating sexual violence in our communities.

The focal point of today's announcement will actually be about college campuses. We're working with more than 200 colleges and universities across the country, some of the more prominent sports conferences, the A10, the PAC12, the Big 10, the Big 12, are all involved in this effort to send a clear message to teachers and professors and coaches, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters that we all have a responsibility to make sure that we're sending a signal to everybody -- we're not going to tolerate sexual assault, we're not going to tolerate sexual violence. We're not going to operate in a permissive environment where some bad perpetrators may get left with the impression we're not going to step up and oppose this and make sure it doesn't happen.

So, we all have a responsibility to intervene and to make clear that it's on us to prevent sexual violence and sexual assault. I think this will send a powerful message and to have the president and the vice president speaking so publicly about this. This is a priority of the administration and an event we're looking forward to today.

CUOMO: It's a strong move, much needed, and when we talk about how we get the rest of the world to understand U.S. influence, showing that you believe in justice at home is a fundamental way to do that.

Josh Earnest, thank you very much for being with us today. Appreciate the opportunity.

EARNEST: Thank you very much, Chris. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Have a good one. CUOMO: All right. Now, a lot of this debate though about domestic

violence, sexual assault, what's going on, has come because of what's going on in the NFL. Coming up, we have who may be most female fan of the NFL, Leigh Anne Tuohy, the inspiration for the Oscar-winning movie "The Blind Side".

What does she think about the domestic violence problems and what should its response be? There she is. We're going to ask her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)