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New Day

Who's A Lame Duck?; SOTU Address Sets Stage For 2016 Debate; Father Of Radicalized Man Speaks Out; New Migraine Treatment Recommendations

Aired January 21, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Almost half past the hour, let's give you a look at the headlines now.

In Yemen, rebels are on the verge of a coup, overtaking the presidential palace in this capital. Yemen is a key U.S. ally in the terror fight. There are concerns al Qaeda's affiliate, AQAP, could exploit the chaos. Two U.S. Navy warships have moved into position to evacuate Americans from the embassy if needed. A few moments ago, Maine Senator Angus King told us here on NEW DAY that he believes the U.S. embassy should be evacuated. We'll stay on that story.

France is ready to take, quote, "exceptional measures" in the wake of a recent uptick in terror. The French prime minister says 3,000 people in France with ties to jihad need to be under surveillance.

In the meantime, this brand-new video obtained by CNN appears to show slain terrorist Amedy Coulibaly and his wife walking by a Jewish institution last summer. Sources tell CNN the couple may have been casing possible targets for several months.

To a mystery unfolding in Argentina. Was a prosecutor's death a suicide? Alberto Nisman's supporters, including his ex-wife, are now stepping forward to say no. He was found shot in the head Sunday night just hours before he was set to testify about accusations that Argentina's president, Christina Fernandez, directed a cover-up in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. Eight-five people were killed in that still-unsolved attack.

Two former pro wrestlers are suing the WWE. They're claiming concussions suffered in the ring left them with severe brain injuries. In the lawsuit, 50-year-old Vito LoGrasso, who wrestled under the name Skull von Crush, and 22-year-old Evan Singleton accused the WWE of, quote, "selling violence" and ignoring their repeated head injuries. A lawyer for the CEO, Vince McMahon, says that suit simply has no merit.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So from one kind of wrestling to another. Let's get to "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with John King. The president said the State Of The Union is strong. I would use the same word to describe your coverage, John King, strong.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": I'm glad you stayed up late, Mr. Cuomo, Alisyn, Michaela, good to see you. It's the morning after the State Of The Union. That's the big question. It was a big speech last night. The president was assertive. He was optimistic. Democrats loved it.

With me this morning to share their reporting and their insights are Jonathan Martin of the "New York Times" and Nia-Malika Henderson of the "Washington Post."

Democrats loved it. Republicans thought the president was in denial. Never did he say I know there are more of you meaning Republicans. Never did he say the Senate changed hands. The Republicans are in charge.

So the commentary afterwards was can you get anything done in this town? The president laid out his agenda, a middle-class agenda including tax increases on the wealthy.

The Republicans don't like any of that. What struck Republicans is here's one moment here where the president, this is what I would call, the "I'm right, you're wrong" portion of the speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: At every step we were told our goals were misguided, too ambitious, we would crush jobs, and explode deficits. Instead, we've seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade. Our deficits cut by two-thirds.

A stock market that has doubled and health care inflation at its lowest rate in 50 years. This is good news, people. So the verdict is clear -- middle class economics works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: If you don't like him or you don't like his policies, you don't like that, but it was a strong performance by the president. A lot of people thought wow, how can he be so optimistic, how he be so upbeat after what just happened in the last election?

Let's talk about that from the tone standpoint. He could have come out, I guess, if he wanted to and have said, OK, you won, let's be conciliatory. Let's figure this out. He did a little bit of that at the end of the speech. But mostly this was a defiant, here's what I believe and I'm sticking to it.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST": That's right. It picks up on where he was right after the November election. He came out and he did the executive action on immigration reform. He made the moves on Cuba. Same thing in that press conference, this is something that the White House, this stands, full of swagger, drop the mic sort of approach, has been what this president has adopted.

If you looked on Twitter, progressives were going crazy about this. They were talking about this is the president that they person they fell in love with in 2004. He echoed some of what he was about in 2004. And this is the president that is, I mean it was almost like he was saying, I'm in charge here. Like sort of borrowing from Al Hague and almost as if he was looking out at all Democrats at a Democratic convention.

KING: And yet, he did was very assertive. But he can't get any of his plans passed. Issue is they can't get any of their plan passed either. They need his signature. They need 60 votes in the Senate.

Before you come in, Jonathan, Nia mentioned Twitter. The moment that most lit up social media was this one, late in the speech where the president actually had turned back to his old 2004, no red America, no blue America. He was closing the speech on a very conciliatory note. Then this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I have no more campaigns to run. My only agenda -- I know, because I won both of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He wants to remember 2008 and 2012, I guess forget 2014.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": President Obama has been great president politically for himself. He's been a terrible president for his party in two mid-term elections, that's why he's standing out there and talking to a crowd of overwhelmingly Republicans.

It strikes me that the speech more about 2016 than it is about the next two years. He knows he's not going to be able to get most of this stuff done with the overwhelming GOP Congress. He's setting up the contours of the coming debate.

As he did so effectively in '08 and '12, he's pressing the opposition, putting them in a tough, uncomfortable spot and squeezing them politically. Working across party lines to get big stuff done? He hasn't proven quite as effective.

KING: The question, I guess, will be do the Republicans see it in their self-interest down the road to cut some deals on this stuff and can the president keep his poll numbers, which have been going up.

If the president can keep his poll numbers around 50 percent, it does change the dynamic. After the election, a lot of people said forget about him, he's a lame duck. If he can stay up 50 percent --

MARTIN: Sure free trade deals, certainly, but what beyond that? Is a GOP Congress with huge majorities going to give on? I'm uncertain.

HENDERSON: But it is true, I mean, if you talk about sort of the changing rhetoric of Republicans, if you look at what they were saying particularly Rand Paul and his rebuttal, he's talking about he didn't say middle class economics, the new phrase you hear at the White House, but he talks about income inequality. So in that way he is kind of setting the agenda, if not the policy. KING: In the Republican response, Joni Ernst, the freshman senator from Iowa, was the official responder. She doesn't have a live audience. It's tough when you're a Democrat or Republican to be in that position.

But what was interesting is they also had a Spanish language response. Joni Ernst delivered the main official response carried by most of the broadcast networks. But the Spanish language networks had freshman Congressman Carlos Corbello of Florida.

One thing different in his speech was he talked about immigration. Joni Ernst never mentioned the word. Now Carlos Corbello did not endorse the president's executive action. In fact, he said Congress should be doing things on its own.

But he did talk in more of a kinder, gentler tone that Congress should do some stuff on immigration.

MARTIN: He tells you everything you need to know about the Republicans' fundamental challenge. They can't sync their responses to the president's speech last night. It's a remarkable thing. It captures the fact that they're constantly trying to accommodate a very culturally conservative.

Frankly older white base and at the same time, try to move beyond that base to take back the White House. And there's tensions are on vivid display when you look at those two speeches.

KING: What do we think about when we look forward, you mentioned, it's all about 2016. Hillary Clinton tweeted she loved the speech. Good for the president for laying it out there. We watched Elizabeth Warren in case, and she said she loved the speech.

The 2016 Republican class whether you're Mike Huckabee on the right or Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush, who the Republicans would say a more to the middle of their field, all of them said pretty much the same thing.

They said the president was in denial. He is ignoring the results of the election. Ted Cruz said forget about him. Move on because he won't pay attention to what happened last November.

HENDERSON: But you know, and they're arguing for their own relevancy, right? I mean, they're the kind of ones that are left saying no, we're really in charge here. The president has been sidelined by the last election.

If you looked at what Rand Paul said, he also talked about America is still adrift. They have to figure out what is their upbeat message. It looks like Obama has recaptured this hope and change language from 2008, 2004. What is their message? Is it still American is adrift? I mean, that's the problem.

MARTIN: The big threat to the Republicans is not what Obama was talking about last night. It's going to be the threat, the gas prices are sinking, the economy is coming back and this president's numbers are slowly moving up. If this president leaves office, John, at a 51 percent approval rating, that's a heck of a lot different than 44 percent. And it makes it a lot tougher for the Republicans to run against him in 2016.

KING: They came out of 2014 thinking Hillary Clinton would be a third Obama term was a great line for them. That's when the president was at 44 percent. If the president keeps moving up, George H.W. Bush can tell you, if you have a strong president on the way out, sometimes you can keep the job.

MARTIN: They have a math problem. They have a demography problem. They assumed, though, that one thing working in their favor was going to be the political winds in 2016 that apparently might not be the case.

KING: Alisyn, as we get back to you guys in New York, everybody on late night before, they recorded these shows before the president spoke, including Jimmy Fallon, poking a little fun at the State Of The Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: The Obamas invited 22 guests to the speech, including a former Cuban prisoner, an astronaut, and a doctor. Either that or he was setting up the weirdest bar joke of all time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That's OK.

KING: A little bit of laughter is good.

CAMEROTA: I like that but I've heard him do better.

KING: Yes, he can do better, you're right.

CAMEROTA: But you do a great job, John King, thanks so much.

KING: We had a fun night. Our group had a good night.

CAMEROTA: It looked like it. Thanks so much.

All right, meanwhile, coming up, a father whose son became radicalized, trained in Yemen, then came back to carry out deadly violence in the U.S. is now speaking out. His thoughts, when we come back.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My son tried to, you're hearing about today. But tomorrow, it could be your son. Your daughter, it might be an American, African-American child that they went after in Nashville. Tomorrow, the victim might have blonde hair, blue eyes. One thing for sure, it would happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Chilling words from a father testifying before Congress four years ago. Melvin Bledsoe's son, Carlos is now called Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammed. He converted to Islam in college and became radicalized. He travelled to Yemen.

Claimed he was trained by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Just like the terrorists in the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks in Paris. Now after returning home, he opened fire at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2009 killing a soldier and wounding another.

That young man is now serving a life sentence in prison. His father joins me now. Dad, you're living a horrible nightmare. How are you doing?

MELVIN BLEDSOE, FATHER OF RADICALIZED LITTLE ROCK SHOOTER: I'm holding on pretty strong.

PEREIRA: I can imagine that the Paris attacks unfortunately reminded you all too much of your own personal nightmare.

BLEDSOE: It certainly did open up a new wound. All over again, I'm seeing that it's Yemen's, it's like all over.

PEREIRA: You talk about your son as being a happy go lucky regular teenager, well-liked, social, raised Baptist. He went to college and that's where you believe the radicalization happened. When did you notice the change?

BLEDSOE: I noticed the change when he started giving away all his possessions. Everything that he owned, his Nike tennis shoes, his baseball cap, his car, his furniture. Those are the signs that people should look for.

PEREIRA: Did you have a conversation with him when that happened?

BLEDSOE: Sure, I had a conversation with him. But it was more like -- this is what I want to do. I want to become a Muslim. I want to convert to Islam. Of course, we talked to him about that and we couldn't really reach out to him.

PEREIRA: And of course, when somebody converts, that may be a shock to the family. But that's not, people convert a lot, but it's when it gets into extremism that is concerning. So he's in college. He finishes college. He travels to Yemen. That must have raised a red flag to you.

BLEDSOE: That was certainly a red flag. We were very concerned about that. We tried to convince him not to go. He promised us he was just going to school to teach English, but that turned out to be not true. He was misled and misguided by the people in Nashville, Tennessee, who programmed him. They did this bit by bit.

PEREIRA: You believe he was targeted. You believe that he was intentionally and professionally sort of sought out.

BLEDSOE: Yes. These people were sophisticated. These people were the kind of people you would say you would like to have them as your neighbor next door. But it turned out to be they had political agenda for him.

He was vulnerable at that time. He was just 19, 20 years old. And we sent him to school to get a higher education and that dream we had for him turned into a nightmare.

PEREIRA: But he had strong beliefs growing up in your family. He was involved in sports. He grew up with the church. He had strong beliefs. What do you think it was that allowed him to change from those strong beliefs and the structure he had at home into something that was so foreign and unknown to you?

BLEDSOE: Well, again, these people are very sophisticated. They're professional, they target him. I've considered them as hunters and he was captured by these hunters. He's evil-doers. These people are professional.

They knew that he was vulnerable because of he had made some mistakes in his life and he kind of shared that with them. And at that time, they knew they could take advantage of him.

PEREIRA: Did you reach out to authorities to any help here in the United States, sort of saying we're concerned, we're his family who know him and have seen a change.

BLEDSOE: No, we didn't. Because it was so new to us, I think 75 percent of American people probably today still don't know about how radicalization takes place. It was very new to us. If I knew what I know now, I would do everything I could to stop it --

PEREIRA: Which is what? You feel that the universities are a real concern or can be?

BLEDSOE: Sure. I mean, if you have a professor on campus that's passing out leaflets that gets knew the mosque and surely, they're trying to intentionally recruit you. And this is something that's going on in America.

And I think that America needs to in my opinion, stop looking for the blatant terrorists and trying more keeping their eyes open for the people who are out there, speaking to our young folks and our young men especially in the community.

And telling them all the wonderful things that who they are, but they have a totally different intention.

CAMEROTA: Even when he got back, you say that's when the extremist views returned with him. You say that there wasn't as much surveillance. Even though the FBI had been aware of him and his movings overseas, you feel that they dropped the ball a certain amount? BLEDSOE: I feel definitely they dropped the ball. Here is the FBI, who interviewed my son in Yemen after he was arrested there, for overstaying his visa and having a false passport. He stayed in a political prison in Yemen for four months before he was coming back to America.

The same FBI agent that interviewed him in Yemen, has nterviewed him in Nashville, the same city that he was from. How can you know who he were, what he was basically being involved? So definitely, I think they dropped the ball. This is something that didn't have to happen.

BLEDSOE: Mr. Bledsoe, you and the father of the man your son killed made a documentary called "Losing Our Sons." I think it's important to note that, it shows there's healing and forgiveness in the light of such an atrocity.

Our thoughts are with you because we can imagine the struggle of the parents of a young person who has been radicalized, is a very painful reality for you. Thank you for joining us today and we hope your message gets out.

BLEDSOE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So valuable for him to be speaking out, Michaela, thank you.

Now listen up, if you suffer from migraines, stick around because Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to share a new treatment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: We all get headaches from time to time, Alisyn and Michaela say I'm often the cause of theirs. There is a serious problem as well. Thirty six million Americans suffer from debilitating migraine headaches.

Researchers at the American Migraine Foundation have studied migraine medications and have now adjusted their recommendations for treatments.

So who better than chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joining us for today's NEW DAY new you report. Sanjay, what did they find? What do we know now that we didn't know before?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it was interesting. First of all, 36 million people having migraines that's an extraordinary number to think about but 10 percent so this is a very big problem.

And there's been all these different classes of medications out there that have come out for some time and they just provide different options, but this is sort of the first time they went back and really said what works, what really works, both in terms of treating migraines and also preventing them.

There's a list they put together to basically show what to basically do in these sorts of situations. Some of the medications may surprise you when you read the lists there.

We don't have the list right now but Triptans is a type of medication that often times can help not only treat a headache, but prevent it and medications known as dihydro or gotomines --

CUOMO: What do these words mean, Sanjay?

GUPTA: We don't know why we get migraines. You give anti- inflammatories, you give pain medications. What they've found is that narcotics, which are often given to people who have migraines, because they're such bad headaches, don't work, not long term. One time but if you keep taking it, it can, in fact, keep make the headache even worse.

PEREIRA: One of the challenges is not all migraines are created equally. I have them once every five, ten years. I know people have them as regular as rain.

CUOMO: Cluster headaches sometimes they call them --

PEREIRA: So if you don't know the patterns how can you treat that?

GUPTA: These are very important terms. Cluster headaches is a little bit different because they literally cluster. You get several headaches in a row. Something like that can be treated with oxygen, actually just giving pure oxygen.

PEREIRA: Easy.

GUPTA: Migraines are a challenging headache. I get them from time to time as well. Once every couple of months, probably and they are debilitating. I've got to go to a darkroom. You can't accomplish much if you have one of these headaches, but some of the simple medications can work.

You don't want to be taking them constantly because you can develop what are known as rebound headaches as a result of that. I thought the list was interesting. Even things like Naprosyn, a medication you can buy over the counter can have a significant impact.

CAMEROTA: So these are all medications have already been prescribed. They're out there. They've figured out which ones are the best?

GUPTA: Yes. Basically it's an amazing sort of back story. Drug developers develop lots of different drugs because something as common as this as hard to treat as this, you throw a lot of different types of drugs at the problem and now we go back and say, you know what, that's great that there are all of these options. Take these off the list.

PEREIRA: Is it key when you get them, if you get the aura that I do, you have to act on it like Naprosyn?

GUPTA: Absolutely. That's one of the keys. Staying hydrated, getting to a dark area and taking medication as quickly as possible. It starts to develop the cycle. There are some medications that are preventive.

CUOMO: Sanjay, I appreciate the information you've given us this morning. However, I would be remiss, we would be remiss if we did not point out your excellence on display once again.

Sanjay Gupta, winner of the DuPont award, DuPont Columbia award, the university coming together with the company to do this, the much beloved baton. I hear that you're carrying it around with you.

GUPTA: Yes, I do.

CUOMO: Do you have the baton?

GUPTA: I have it right here.

CUOMO: You won of course for your very ambitious work on weed. Now where do you pack this thing? That's not what it is, I understand. What it says, CNN weed. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

GUPTA: This is like fun for you. This is fun for you. I brought this actually, Alisyn and Michaela, for you guys, I'm going to once and for all get rid of your headache.

PEREIRA: Now we know.

CAMEROTA: Congratulations. What a great accolade.

CUOMO: Hurts even more when it comes from a DuPont winner.

GUPTA: It was an honor. Thank you very much.

PEREIRA: Short break here, ahead, chaos in Yemen, an important U.S. ally facing a coup. Is it time to evacuate the U.S. embassy? We'll explore that question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning Yemen under siege.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe the most volatile situation on the face of the planet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some U.S. officials say get out now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The shadow of Benghazi is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a shadow of Benghazi. There's no question about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The shadow of crisis has passed and the state of the union is strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is time to move on beyond President Barack Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish I had better news for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All is not well in America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Americans have been hurting.

OBAMA: I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira