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New Day

We Have A Deal (or Do We?); Harry Reid Hopes to Block "Crazy Stuff"; Athletes Join Protests Over Police Brutality; Dinosaur Hunter Wants T.Rex Back

Aired December 10, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": The question is: can Tea Party forces gum this up and will the government shut down? This morning, it looks like no. Maybe they'll gum it up for a day or two but the government will stay open.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, there were a lot of questions, the Tea Party; also questions about whether Nancy Pelosi would get behind this. She has said that she probably will be able to, she hops that she'll be able to. So it looks like all those fights that we were so used to on the eleventh hour and delaying our Christmas and holiday plans, it looks like, so far, they're able to avoid it. We'll have to see what happens over the next few days (ph).

KING: Remember -- hang on, just one second -- remember the Democrats still run the Senate. That will change in January, but for the next couple of weeks, the Democrats still run the Senate. So in these negotiations, the Republicans said they needed a couple of things to give their support.

There's no funding for the District of Columbia's new marijuana law. The Republican says, no, we're not going to give D.C. any money to implement that policy.

It loosens the school lunch requirements. This is a key Michelle Obama priority, to require more healthy school lunches. It does allows states and local school districts to opt out at some of those requirements more easily.

So Mrs. Obama won't like that one and it dramatically eases campaign finance rules that allow even more money. That's a Mitch McConnell priority and the Republican side allows big donors to give even more money.

So the question is, Peter, did Republicans get enough here to satisfy their base?

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: It seems like both parties got what they a -- both parties got a lot of what they wanted behind closed doors, pet projects, whatever, you know, small spending advocates are going through the bill right now, trying to pull out things.

Remember all this stuff happened behind closed doors. The issue here, I think is, immigration reform, we're just talking about will Tea Party forces get enough to shut down the government or not shut down the government.

What they decided on is to fund the Department of Homeland Security through February to avoid a government shutdown. They've realize the political cost to counteract the president's executive action on immigration.

That's not worth the fight. Now they have to find other things to do before then to try to derail the immigration plan and no one is sure what that's going to be. All of that said, other than that homeland security funding and the immigration spat, both parties here seem to agree that this cromnibus is agreeable.

KING: To keep the government funded for most of next year. The Republicans want to revisit the immigration debate early next year. We'll see how that one goes. They think there will be more Republicans. It will be good for them. The issue is quicksand.

A lot of civil war within the Republican Party and we'll see how it goes. One of the guys in the middle of all this is Harry Reid, as we speak this morning. He's still the majority leader of the United States Senate.

In just a few weeks he'll be the minority leader. An interesting interview with "Politico," where he talks about his new role, listen to this, he said, "It's much easier now to be in the minority. I've got a president who will back me up.

I'll be happier if we're unfortunate enough to pass crazy stuff and he vetoes it. That would make me feel good. It will be good for his presidency."

In other words, Harry Reid, saying he'll try to block the crazy stuff, but it gets to the president, he'll trust he'll veto it, by crazy stuff, he means the Republican agenda in his view.

But then he goes on to say this, they ask him so why, why, you had 54 seats, you have 55 seats today. Republicans will have 54 in January, why the big swing?

Harry Reid said we never recovered from the Obamacare rollout. I'm not going to beat up on Obama. This rollout didn't go well. We never recovered from that." Isn't he beating up on Obama when he says that?

HENDERSON: He is. And this is something we've heard. I mean, Chuck Schumer has talked about the damaging price that health care that Democrats paid because of health care. He's talking about the rollout here. I think we're going to see more of this mouthing off from Democrats in terms of this president.

And also Harry Reid is in this new place where he's got these two wings of the party. More moderates and more progressives, sort of the offended wing --

HAMBY: This is Reid doing it a round of media interviews to sort of lay down a marker, heading into a minority status, saying I'm still relevant. This is what I'm going to do, but you're exactly right. You've got Claire McCaskill and Heidi Heitkamp among others.

Six no votes for him to be leader of the Democrats and the Senate going to next section, they've lost of course. There was an alternative and Elizabeth Warren, Ron Widen, progressives feel emboldened in this moment.

And there are plenty of Democratic senators, they may not say on the record who don't like how Harry Reid handled legislation during 2014 that he didn't bring any bills to the floor to give them something to vote on and go back to their constituents and say, I passed this.

KING: After you lose the dissent comes much more to the surface. We saw it in the final couple years of the Bush presidency among Republicans and now we'll see it among Democrats.

The president was on the road yesterday defending and promoting his executive actions on immigrations. He sat down with Jorge Ramos who has been critical of this president for not acting sooner on immigration reform giving him the label deporter-in-chief. Listen here what Jorge brings up, the president gets prickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The question is, are we doing the right thing and have we consistently tried to move this country in a better direction. And those like you sometimes Jorge, who suggests that there are simple quick answers to these problems.

JORGE RAMOS, UNIVISION HOST: I didn't say that.

OBAMA: Yes, you do, because that's how you present it. I think when you present it in that way, it does a disservice, because it makes the assumption that the political process is one that can easily be moved around depending on the will of one person. And that's not how things work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A tad defensive there.

HENDERSON: A tad defensive. And you know, this is very much like all of the fights that Obama was having with immigration activists up until this time. And there was bad blood between those folks and this president, and I think what we see there is just indicative of some of that whether or not it's lingering, whether or not this executive order and possible immigration reform will wash all that away is unclear.

HAMBY: It was interesting because a lot of those activists have since got on board with the president, some of them travelled to Nashville with him yesterday as he made the case for executive action. But Ramos --

KING: There's still a lingering tension between -- so let's close with this. Rick Santorum in an interview with the "Washington Post" makes clear he's running for the Republican presidential nomination, a former Pennsylvania senator.

This time, Nia-Malika Henderson, he says it will be different. He was the social conservative candidate largely last time. He said he's going to focus more on how he got his start in politics.

I remember when Rick Santorum won a Democratic district to come to the House of Representatives, campaign on lunch bucket blue collar economic issues in Western Pennsylvania. He said he'll have a mix of both this time.

HENDERSON: e would talk about his -- I guess it was his father who was you know, worked in the coal mine and you know, his forbearer who is were blue collar workers, he's always been the blue collar moralist sort of combining that working-class ethics with religion. And he was a favorite among that he's going to have a crowded field.

HAMBY: During the dark days of Romney's primary campaign against Santorum. The one thing that scared Romney people the most was that Santorum could connect with blue collar working class voters the way that Romney could not.

However, Santorum could not resist overstepping on the social issues, had he kept it in check, he could have won Ohio. He could have won Michigan, the Romney campaign would have collapsed. If he can keep those things in check, maybe he could be a contender, but he's still definitely an underdog.

KING: Nia-Malika Henderson, Peter Hamby, thank you. As we get back to New York, Alisyn, as we get to New York, he's an asterisk in the polls right now, but don't discount him, Rick Santorum. He worked so hard last night.

He went from 1 percent to winning Iowa, as Peter noted, he could have been more of a presence, but his early signals that he's definitely running this time, that's our early impact of seeing Dr. Ben Carson.

The former Fox News contributor, the noted pediatric neurosurgeon saying he's exploring. That's the social conservative space. Rick Santorum saying I'm here, too, don't forget me.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: John, is there any bigger indicator than the sweater vest is back? The sweater vest is back, that means he's running.

KING: It will probably come up in holiday sales.

CAMEROTA: As you know, sleeves slow him down.

KING: I have one somewhere.

CAMEROTA: Underneath your suit, I bet. John, thanks so much. Great to see you.

Well, the outrage over the killing of Eric Garner and Michael Brown hitting the hardcourt. NBA superstars taking up the cause, will they go beyond t-shirts and slogans? Former NBA pro, Greg Anthony weighs in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Outrage over grand jury decisions in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, have found a new arena. Literal arena, in Los Angeles, the Lakers Kobe Bryant was donning an "I Can't Breathe" t-shirt in solidarity with protesters.

He joins LeBron James, Derek Rose, and several other professional athletes in the NBA and in the NFL, who have shown their support for the cause while on the job.

Joining us now to weigh in is our political commentator and Turner Sports analyst, Greg Anthony. You're the man to talk to about all this. Your long storied career in the NBA, I'm curious, you see "The Hands up t-shirts, you see the jerseys, and the warm-up shirts, you see it all.

The hands up don't shoot, do you think, what do you think this means to the movement to have professional athletes throwing their support and their passion behind the cause?

GREG ANTHONY, CBS SPORTS AND YAHOO SPORTS: Well, I think first and foremost. It keeps the process alive. I think it keeps it in the conversation, which is very important at this time. Regardless or irrespective of where you fall in terms of your opinion on those cases, the fact that the dialogue will continue, think is very important.

And athletes in general have typically been at the forefront of these kinds of movements, it's not uncommon. But I like the fact that LeBron did what he did. That Kobe and the Lakers have done what they've done.

That stuff is important. But what's also important is that our league, you know, the commissioners also come out and support. That's not always the case when you think about social movements, so I think it's critical.

And I think that society as a whole is really focusing in. You're seeing protests all around the country in support and people in essence being fed up with what they perceive to be a miscarriage of justice.

PEREIRA: We want to play the sound from Commissioner Adam Silver. He did show support. I also think he said let's stay focused on the game. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: I have a tremendous respect for our players and the fact that they want to speak out on an issue and I always support them doing that. My sense is that to respect it. I think at some point we got to move on. I mean, there's so many important issues, that ultimately, I think the playing court itself has to be a place that where it's only about the competition, and not a political forum.

PEREIRA: So what about that? What about the notion there will be people that say, I just want to see these play, I don't want to hear all the political statements. What is your response?

ANTHONY: I think they saw them play, the Lakers won a game, that's a big deal, right? Listen I think you will, you didn't hear a lot of comments prior to from the Lakers when they went out there were going to be some comments after.

I think it's important that you continue to push for whatever cause or passion you have. And I mean, listen, athletes have an opportunity, because of the platform that they've been fortunate enough to be given to express those.

And I don't think we ever want to lose sight of that. And regardless of what that message is, right now, this obviously is a hot-button topic. I'm really proud of my brethren. They continue to push forward with that message.

PEREIRA: Is there a chance there could be repercussions, we know LeBron has all of those endorsement deals is there a chance there could be a slippery slope for the sponsors? Who may say we're not going to endorse them anymore?

ANTHONY: There's a bit of calculation here. Think this in a lot of ways, when you look at the Eric Garner case, I think that has gotten support from whites and blacks. That was not necessarily just a racial issue. So I don't think so.

Quite frankly, you didn't see the same type of reaction from the Michael Brown case in terms of a lot of the athletes. So I do think from that standpoint, it was smart to go this route. Because you even saw the commissioner.

There hasn't been a lot of backlash, nor will there be because of the video and how graphic that case was for Eric Garner and his family.

PEREIRA: There is momentum. There is energy. How do we move on past that? The protests, the t-shirts, the slogans, how do we move this forward is the question because dialogue only goes so far. How do we make substantive change, Greg, in your opinion?

ANTHONY: I think the same reason that we have a black president, is one reason why this message is starting to resonate. It's because more and more white people have started to be able to not only empathize, but feel some compassion for what has been the black experience in America.

And I think that is why you're starting to see this have far more momentum than we've seen on issues of race and inequality in our society in the past. And I think that's what in essence brought about the civil rights movement. I think that's why you're starting to see this resonate in our society. And I really applaud America for taking a stand in this case. Because that's truly how we bring about change in America.

PEREIRA: And Greg Anthony, we remember growth is often painful, it doesn't always come smoothly. We appreciate your voice on our show, good to talk to you, Greg.

ANTHONY: Thank you, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Let us know what you think, go to our Facebook page, facebook.com/newdaysoundoff -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, thank you very much, Mich. I don't know if you heard about this one, but now we all will. Discovering the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever, it wasn't even the most amazing part of our next story. We'll give you a behind-the-scenes look at tonight's CNN film -- "DINOSAUR 13" that's when NEW DAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: They're opening the vault for that. It is a custody battle like none other, one of the top dinosaur hunters is trying to reunite with his pre-historic baby, a T-Rex named Sue. Tomorrow night, an all-new CNN film, "DINOSAUR 13" takes a look at this battle, 67 million years in the making. CNN's Kyung Lah has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Follow Peter Larson, you step back in time.

PETER LARSON, PALEONTOLOGIST: So this is one of the very coolest things. This is the skull of this T-Rex, the Murray-rex.

LAH: As in Tyrannosaurus Rex, an 8-ton, more than of 66 million-year- old fossil he has collected. When you find a skull what is that?

LARSON: It's like ecstasy. It's pure joy.

LAH: He can't contain it.

LARSON: Back here we have more interesting things to look at, the outside of a vertebrae. This is all filled with pieces of skin. Before we go, this is really cool. This is a big dinosaur. This is one of the biggest.

LAH: But as we talk about Murray, it's another name that he keeps mentioning.

LARSON: This is pretty much Sue's size and Sue's age, very, very old individual.

LAH: Does everything come down to Sue in your life?

LARSON: I think so. There's sort of a before Sue and after sue sort of thing, so I guess you might say that.

LAH: Sue, the single largest and most complete T-Rex fossil ever found. Larson and his team at South Dakota's Black Hills Institute excavated her in 1990.

She was found on private property and as word spread about the historic fossil find a dispute with the landowner, a Native American tribe and the federal government led to Sue being sold on the open market. The field museum in Chicago purchased her for an astounding $8 million.

Peter Larson never saw a cent and the government's investigation Larson was sent to federal prison on customs violations unrelated to the T-Rex dinosaur. For two years, supporters around the world wrote him in prison.

LARSON: It was pretty awesome. She colored a dinosaur picture for me.

CAMEROTA: Calling his conviction a politically motivated witch hunt the paleontology, fossils are not always scientific, they're for- profit.

LARSON: Where the string comes is where you have a few unscrupulous individuals breaking laws. It's really about finding ways to work together across that scientific research/commercial divide that benefits everyone.

LAH: Larson is back hunting fossils, but carries one regret.

LARSON: It's one of that dreams that I have -- my life would be complete it we could get Sue back in form to our city. Isn't that awesome?

LAH: After 22 years this replica cast of Sue's skull is back with Larson, given to him by a donor. It is by no means the full research cast he is asking from the field museum, a small measure of a long lost love coming home.

LARSON: Good night.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Hills City, South Dakota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Quite an attachment that man has to his work.

CAMEROTA: It's so cool.

CUOMO: Premiere, when you can see it "DINOSAUR 13" tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN, also known as Sue.

CAMEROTA: All right, well, in the wake of the release of the Senate's CIA torture report. We are taking a closer look at the possibility of new threats. Should the report have been released and could it trigger attacks against Americans? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)