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Obama Announces Executive Action on Immigration; Interview with Reps. Sean Duffy and Luis Gutierrez; Ferguson Police Officer May Step Down; Dramatic Hearing on Faulty Takata Airbags

Aired November 21, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: His plan allows the Department of Homeland Security to take certain groups off the priority list for deportation. While keeping others high up.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who is working hard to provide for her kids.

KOSINSKI: Putting more resources at the border, and focusing on deporting criminals and those entering the U.S. most recently.

The plan will allow immigrants who have been in America at least five years, with children who are legal residents the chance to apply to stay, for three years -- provided they pass a background check and start paying taxes.

It will also expand such relief granted by the president to people brought here illegally as kids, the so-called DREAMers. For example, eliminating the age limit. And promises to streamline the immigration system, helping high-skilled workers, graduates and entrepreneurs with a chance to stay.

OBAMA: What I'm describing is accountability. A common-sense middle- ground approach. If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you're a criminal, you'll be deported.

KOSINSKI: The speech was played just before the Latin Grammys. Cheers went up at watch parties around the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's emotional, so that maybe one day my mom will be able to -- my parents will be able to go to, you know, back to Ecuador, and that you know, families will be connected again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, this is a huge victory for our community. But obviously, this is not enough. We're going to still fight...

KOSINSKI: The plan, remember, is not a path to citizenship. The Republican response?

REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: I fear what he has done is torn Article I out of the Constitution, put it into his own pocket and said, "I'm now the legislative branch, too."

KOSINSKI: House Speaker John Boehner, in a statement, said the president "cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left."

To all of which President Obama responded with those three little political words.

OBAMA: Pass a bill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: That would be one way for Congress to react. In fact, if they took action on immigration, it could change what the president has just done. The Republican backlash, though, has started, and the forecast is that it will continue -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right and there's no "could" about it, Michelle: they pass a bill, it's going to supersede this law. The president would withdraw. We know that. But will it happen? Doesn't look too likely right now.

But let's get it from the horse's mouth. Democratic Congressman from Illinois, Luis Gutierrez. He's the chairman of the immigration task force of the Congressional Hispanic caucus. And Congressman Sean Duffy, Republican from Wisconsin.

Big day for you, Duffy, just appointed the new chairman of the House financial services subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Boy, you talk about a group that we need to see Congress get after more. The financial institutions fall squarely in that. That's a conversation for another day, but congratulations.

Financial institutions. Let's deal with why and how this was done. I know that you're upset about that. But let's start with what. What did the president say last night that you disagree with?

REP. SEAN DUFFY (R), WISCONSIN: Well, listen, the president is really good at giving speeches. And did he that well last night. And he touches a tone with a lot of people who care about our neighbors. And so I think the speech went really well.

But when we look beyond the speech and look at the policy that he's doing to this executive action, we talked about this before. That there's a number of people who get exposed to harm because of the fact that this -- this executive order could go away. It could be overturned by the courts. But also there's another seven million people -- five, seven million people who aren't being covered by the executive action.

What do I want do see happen? Luis has done a great job working with the Republicans. He's an advocate for the Hispanic community. He's built good relationships with the Republican Party, our leaders like Paul Ryan and others.

But politics is no different than families. It's no different than a business relationship. People have to work together. They have to trust each other. They have to get to know each other. And the president, he doesn't have any relationships with members of Congress. He might have a relationship with Luis, but he doesn't have good relationships with Democrat Congressmen and senators. One of the first times he had a conversation with Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader.

So if we're going to get stuff done on big issues, we might have some disagreement, we have to build relationships and trust with one another. And I think one of the key points for us is we want to get immigration reform done. But we have to secure our border.

And the key, the key to that is -- that when we deal with those who have come without documentation, this is the last time we're going to have to have a program where 10 or 15 million people who have come unlawfully without documentation, get legal status, because we now have a secure border and a work visa system that actually works.

CUOMO: But Congressman, you can't just look at that situation as what wasn't done. I asked you what did you hear that you disagree with. And you're saying, well, it leaves a lot of people uncovered. But it covers a lot of people that are exposed to harm right now this minute.

And let me take that to you, Representative Gutierrez. And I know everybody calls you Louie, but out of respect, I'm going with Luis when I started. But you've been a big proponent for change, you've pushed the president to take action. Do you think this is a step in the right direction, and it should be seen that way, as opposed to what it is not?

REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ (D), ILLINOIS: You know, I had a hard time really getting to sleep last night, because I thought about all the children clinging to their parents' legs, the families that have been fractured and divided. The destructiveness and the corrosiveness of our broken immigration system and what that has on American families, on American citizen children, on American husbands and wives.

And I thought about now there is an alternative.

To my Republican friends and colleagues, I say I am ready to work with you once again. But what the president has done, is allowing people to come out of the shadows, but more importantly, he's allowing them to register with the government.

You know, he says, "Come and provide us with your fingerprints, and if you go through a background check and you got a clean bill of health, I'm going to let you pay taxes, I'm going to let you work, I'm going to let you get right with the law, I'm going to let you raise your family."

So I'm ready to work with my Republican friends and colleagues, as Sean so adequately described, I did stand up in Chicago, with Paul Ryan and with Congressman Carter in Texas. And I went out to Bakersfield, with Congressman Valodal. I know they are sufficient. But you know what? They never gave as you vote. And when Speaker Boehner last June called the president and said, "In

spite of all my efforts, Mr. President, in spite of your efforts, we're not going to have a vote on immigration," the president said he would take action to protect those families, and that's what he did.

CUOMO: And there's a lot of speculation -- and there's a lot of speculation that if there were a vote, it would have passed, and that played into the politics of the situation also.

But Chairman Duffy, let me come back to you with this. This hits home to all of us; let's be honest. Duffy...

DUFFY: Chris, that sounds really good, by the way.

CUOMO: I know. It should. It should. You know, look, you should be proud of it. We need -- we need new leadership. The question is what you do with it.

But you know, your name, Duffy, Irish. You know, a few generations, many people in the country. Gutierrez, that's obvious, the newest wave of immigrants. Cuomo, I'm second generation in this country. You know, the politics is escaping the human reality of what's going on here.

If you're worried about people who are exposed -- you said there are going to be a lot of people exposed -- why isn't the response to get your brothers and sisters to put their behinds in the seats and pass a bill?

DUFFY: Good point. But when you work through differences, Representative Gutierrez is a big part of the solution. But Barack Obama has to be part of the solution. You can't just give speeches and play politics and then use your pen when you don't build relationships with the other side.

CUOMO: Pass a bill and see if he vetoes it. Pass a bill. Put the pressure on him.

Go ahead, Louie. You respond, not me.

DUFFY: We believe -- we believe in the rule of law in America and people come here because...

CUOMO: Then pass a law. Then pass a law. Then pass a law.

DUFFY: Listen, Chris, that's our prerogative. If we don't pass a law, that's a prerogative of the Congress.

CUOMO: Then don't say it's a problem. Don't say it's a problem and then not pass a law.

DUFFY: If we don't pass a law the president wants us to pass, that doesn't mean he has the opportunity just to do it through executive order, that's not how the government works.

CUOMO: All right. Louie, you get in to respond to the chairman. DUFFY: To find himself...

GUTIERREZ: If I could...

DUFFY: ... in two years and say we're going to have a green water act?

CUOMO: Go ahead, sir. Let him get in there.

Duffy is mad at me, not you, Louie.

GUTIERREZ: I'm sorry. If I could just -- look, the executive order comes into effect on January 1. My friend, Mr. Duffy, will have a majority, a larger majority in the House. They control the Senate. They have 180 days, Chris, before anybody can apply for any work visa. Hundred and eighty days. During those 180 days, they can draft a bill.

But I want to say something. President Barack Obama worked to shepherd a bill through the Senate, 68-32. When they said we couldn't include gay people, we didn't like it, but we found compromise. When they said, oh you know, everybody can't become a citizen. We didn't walk away from the table. Remember when they said they had to do it in parts and pieces? We said let's figure out what those parts and pieces are so we can get to a whole. We never walked away from the table.

But the fact is the House of Representatives has never presented a bill. All they had to do was present their version. I told my Republican colleagues, forget about the Senate. You don't like the Senate bill? Let's craft an even better bill in the House. It never happened. There was never a vote. So we never went to Congress, and we never used regular order.

CUOMO: Congressman Duffy, give us the final word on this.

DUFFY: The American people don't support executive action. The Hispanic community doesn't support executive action. The president is at historic lows. We have the biggest majority we've had in 80 years.

We do want to get this done. We do want to work together. But this is the wrong approach, and the American people aren't staying with the president going this course. They want the Congress to work. And as we just had these new historic elections, they want bipartisanship. They want people to work together. We're starting this off on the wrong foot with the president who's going it alone, poking the eye in the -- in the -- poking his finger in the eye of the Republican Party. And I think that is a bad tone and tenor to get things done over the next two years.

CUOMO: And to just...

GUTIERREZ: We'll start signing people up tomorrow in Chicago. We'll have hundreds of volunteers getting ready, and the sign-up starts tomorrow in the city of Chicago and across this nation. Our community thanks the president for this act of -- for this

courageous act. And this act, you know what he did last night, Chris? He humanized us; he told our story. He didn't give the facts of what he was doing; he told our story. And for that I'm always going to be thankful.

CUOMO: Well, look, it is good to keep the focus on people. Both parties, I'm sure, agree on that. We're looking for compromise. What I'm pushing for is congressional action. For me it's not about what's in the bill. It's that you guys do something. It's not partisan one way or the other. It's just to see it get done.

GUTIERREZ: We'll be back with a bill.

CUOMO: All right.

Congratulations to you, Chairman Duffy.

DUFFY: What happens when the next president undermines the EPA and the Clean Water Act? Setting bad precedent.

CUOMO: It's a conversation for another day. I understand what you're saying about executive orders. That will play out, as well. Gentlemen, thank you to both of you and please get to work for the rest of us.

Now later this hour we're going to test the president's plan directly with the White House. Because you heard Congressman Duffy laying out what his problems are. We're going to have the man on your screen. Press secretary Josh Earnest is going to us on NEW DAY. We'll test the president's intentions -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris. The officer who fatally shot Michael Brown could be stepping down from the Ferguson Police Department. Darren Wilson is reportedly in talks to resign to ease pressure on his fellow officers, but only if the grand jury clears him in the Michael Brown shooting. A decision could be imminent, and Michael Brown's father is pleading for calm.

CNN's Evan Perez is in Clayton, Missouri, where the grand jury has been meeting. What's the latest?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

That's right. The -- Officer Darren Wilson is in the final stages of negotiations to resign. Now all of that is happening as the grand jury returns here to St. Louis County Justice Center to begin deliberations. They'll hear some evidence first, begin deliberations. And they could make a decision as soon as later today.

Now, Darren Wilson has been in these negotiations for some time. He has told associates that one reason he wants to do this is to ease some of the pressure on some of his fellow -- his fellow officers. But you know, his concern has been that, while the grand jury was still hearing evidence, he didn't want to resign and make it look like he was admitting any fault. He says he has done nothing wrong in the shooting of Michael Brown.

Now we'll wait to see what happens with the grand jury and how the streets react when that decision comes down, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. We are waiting along with you. Evan Perez, thanks so much.

All right. Let's get over to Michaela for a look at some more of your headlines.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a busy day. We've got some great stuff coming up. But let's give you the headlines right now.

One person is dead, three others are injured following a deadly blast at an offshore oil platform near Louisiana. Investigators right now are trying to figure out what exactly sparked this explosion. It happened about 12 miles off the coast of New Orleans. Official say the rig was not in production at the time and that the damage was limited to the explosion area. So far, no pollution has been reported.

Got to tell you about a recall. Five million strollers have been recalled following a dozen reports -- imagine this -- of fingertip amputations. Graco and Century branded strollers are part of this recall, according to federal officials. Eleven models of strollers have a folding hinge on the side that can pinch a child's finger. The models were manufactured from August of 2000 to this past September. They were sold at stores nationwide. Please make sure you look at your stroller and find out if this is one of ones you have.

Breaking overnight: the head of the NSA claims China has the ability to launch a catastrophic hack attack that could take down the U.S. power grid and other critical systems. We are told malware from China and other nations have been detected on key U.S. computer systems. Admiral Michael Rogers said it's only a matter of when, not if, we're going to see something this traumatic.

Thanksgiving day travel is expected to hit a seven-year best. In fact the highest level since the recession. AAA is projecting the number of us taking trips 50 miles or longer will total 46.3 million. That is a 4.2 percent increase from a year ago. About 90 percent of travelers are expected to drive, taking advantage of the season's cheapest gas prices in five years. Christine Romans has been telling us all about it. In fact I think I might drive on Thanksgiving.

CAMEROTA: Just for fun.

PEREIRA: Just because I can.

CAMEROTA: Just because you can. Why not?

PEREIRA: I know.

CAMEROTA: Low gas prices, go for it.

PEREIRA: I know, sure. CUOMO: I'll be a driving fool.

CAMEROTA: Where you going?

CUOMO: I've got to go see my family and then I've got to go see my in-laws. We call them the outlaws.

PEREIRA: The outlaws. They're good outlaws. I've met them.

CUOMO: That's when you fake a little food poisoning. You go in there, so you don't stay that long. No, I'm just kidding. I can do that, because no one's awake at my house.

CAMEROTA: I can tell. I can tell nobody's watching.

PEREIRA: You just told your story to America. We all know now.

CUOMO: And that's why they should watch.

CAMEROTA: That's great. Looking forward to the holiday.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on a Japanese airbag manufacturer at the center of an escalating recall crisis. We'll have the latest on the dramatic testimony on Capitol Hill, and we'll talk to a woman who says her sister was killed by a faulty airbag.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. We have testimony you have to hear from Capitol Hill over those faulty airbags, now linked to at least five deaths.

It's from one woman who survived, but barely. And she told lawmakers about the moment shrapnel from her Takata airbag shot into her right eye. The image of what it did to her is so gruesome I'm not even going to show it to you. Her amazing recovery that you're seeing there is a blessing, but not a given. We're going to speak with one woman who believes her sister was killed by a faulty airbag more than a decade ago.

But first, let's go to CNN's Rene Marsh live in Washington for the reporting on this -- Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, the victim, Lieutenant Stephanie Erdman, she received the recall notice three days after her crash. And despite several visits to the dealership to get her car serviced, no one alerted her that her car had been recalled. Take a listen to her testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE ERDMAN, CAR CRASH VICTIM: When the impact occurred, shrapnel from my car's airbag shot through the airbag cloth and embedded into my right eye and cheek. I was instantly blinded on my right side. Since that day I've endured multiple surgeries and therapies. I have more to go, still. My vision will never be the same. I will never be the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: Yes, she says she'll never be the same, and Honda in its own words saying it failed her. The automaker apologized to her yesterday.

For nearly three hours, senators grilled an executive from the airbag manufacturer, Takata, auto execs as well as safety regulators about these defective airbags linked to five deaths and multiple injuries. Just this week federal regulators demanded a recall of affected cars, a move that Takata is still resisting.

Back to you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Rene, thanks so much for that background.

Kim Kopf believes her sister, Charlene Weaver, was killed by these faulty airbags in a car accident in 2003, and Kim joins us live now. Good morning, Kim.

KIM KOPF, SISTER KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: OK. Can you tell us about your sister's accident and why you have long believed that it was the faulty airbags to blame?

KOPF: She was a passenger in an '04 Subaru Impreza that is on one of the recall lists. When the accident happened, it was a multi-vehicle accident. The airbags deployed in Phoenix. That night when the neurosurgeons came out and they were talking to us, they kept asking us, you know, what has hit her in the head? Something has hit her with such significant force to cause this much damage so what, what has hit her? And all along, my mom and I felt that it was the airbag. But we, you know, never knew for sure.

CAMEROTA: And you've spent many years now since the accident, trying to put this together. Have you hit road blocks in terms of your investigation?

KOPF: Yes and no. We just started to recently with all the other reports that have come out, starting to put two and two together. And we heard the first one. We wondered if Tigger wasn't involved in that. If the airbag -- that was one of the airbags. And so we're just now starting to kind of put pieces together. But if she was the first one at the time, it would have been -- you know, we didn't have much information to go on to put things together.

CAMEROTA: Well, that's a great point. Because if your sister was, in fact, killed by a faulty airbag, it resets the clock to about ten years earlier, 2004, than we are now discussing it. So if her death was connected to a faulty airbag and you had been able to get people's attention, what do you think would have happened in these ten years?

KOPF: A lot of things could have happened. You know, I think about the great things she'd done in seven years, what she could have done in the past 11 years. All of the other people that have suffered losses and injuries, those could have been avoided. And they were unnecessary.

CAMEROTA: You were at the Senate hearing yesterday where the Takata executives were grilled. So let me play a portion of it for you and our viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, it's hard for me to answer yes or no. So if you allow me...

SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It is not hard for to you answer yes or no. Do you support the nationwide recall of airbags that the Department of Transportation has issued? Yes or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, Senator, if we -- I did fight, the Takata data to -- from any incident to support the NHTSA new directions and then we walked together with NHTSA and automakers to take care of the issues.

MARKEY: I'm going to take that as a no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Basically the senior vice president there was unable to say whether or not he supported the nationwide recall. Do you feel that you were getting answers to the questions you had at this Senate hearing?

KOPF: No. It was very frustrating when they were asked very pointed, very direct yes-or-no questions, how they took a long time to answer, danced around the questions; and so that was -- that was very frustrating.

CAMEROTA: What is your next step, Kim? How will you get attention to this issue that you've been struggling with for all these years?

KOPF: Right now it's doing what I'm doing: talking to people. Senator Marquez's (ph) office and Senator Blumenthal's office have been great to help get some information out. And if we can get nationwide recalls, that would be a good step. Being in Arizona and Phoenix, that's not a humid climate, and so we don't think humidity has anything to do with it.

CAMEROTA: And the reason you're saying humidity is because there has been research that the component inside the faulty airbags, the ammonium nitrate is -- doesn't work well with moist or humid climates and, in fact, triggers a combustion that people have described as violent.

KOPF: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: And that's what you believe happened, rather than your sister just being killed in the accident.

KOPF: Correct, correct.

CAMEROTA: Can you tell us a little bit about Charlene?

KOPF: She was the baby sister I always wanted. Every chance I had for making a wish, whether it was a birthday, a turkey leg, the turkey wishbone, I always wished for a baby sister. Didn't want a brother; it had to be a baby sister. And when I finally got that and so there was -- there's ten years difference between the two of us. So of course, I tried to protect my baby sister. And it was hard to be in her room, not being able to talk to her; we couldn't touch her.

Before I knew that, I did walk into her room, and I said "Tigger," and as soon as I said that, her arm immediately reacted, and it wasn't just a little muscle twitch. It was a very deliberate arm movement. So I knew she was -- she knew I was there.

So after everything happened, that we lost her, I was glad that I had done that. Even though the nurses got upset with me, I was glad I did that. She knew I was there, and I was going to look out for my baby sister.

CAMEROTA: And you're still looking out for her in this battle that you are trying to save other people. Kim Kopf, thanks so much for sharing your personal story and best of luck with trying to get the attention of the automakers and the rest of us.

KOPF: Thank you. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Nice to see you this morning. Let's go back to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Another situation we're covering for you. We have big problems with who comes to America and how. We all know this. So how do we fix it? Congress has had years and done little. The president just laid out his plan to go it alone, despite threats from Republicans. So, will his plan work and will the way he did it erase any chance for real change? We're going to put White House press secretary Josh Earnest to the test for you.

And another day, another Cosby accuser. We will dive into the latest accusations. Judge for yourself.

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