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New Day

Obama's Handling of Economy: 54 Percent Disapprove; Defense Makes Case in "American Sniper" Trial; Obama: "We Are Not at War With Islam"

Aired February 19, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

So, ceasefire in Ukraine? Not so much. Leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany agreeing to go back to the drawing board, trying to find a way to get all sides to abide by the terms of that agreement reached just last week. Ukraine is calling for U.N. peace-keepers, they say they need monitoring of the crumbling cease-fire. Ukraine just pulled most troops out of a key battleground city because of days of violence.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You can rest in peace knowing you changed the world. Those heart-felt words from Kayla Mueller's brother during a memorial in Arizona last night. This was the first time that Kayla's family publicly addressed her death in ISIS captivity. The 26-year-old aid worker was killed this month. ISIS claims it was by a Jordanian air strike.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A big blow for about 800 applicants to Carnegie Mellon. They were sent emails saying they had been accepted to the university's prestigious computer science graduate program, only to find out hours later that the emails were sent by mistake. The school apologized, blaming the issue on a computer error from, that from the prestigious computer science program there. The computer science program ranked number one in the country by "U.S. News & World Report."

CUOMO: Does Berman sue if he's in that position?

BERMAN: I just cry. Once I'm done crying, maybe.

CUOMO: Then you sue?

BERMAN: Yes, just sad.

KEILAR: That is so sad.

BERMAN: All right. Some kind of good history. Another chapter written in one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports -- Duke/NC. The Duke Blue Devils beat North Carolina, but in overtime, and it was 92-90. Literally last-second shot really amazing. After the game the so-called Cameron crazies, the Dukies, kept the

celebration going, lighting a huge bonfire on the duke campus, no reports of any of the horrible things we see. And a very nice kumbaya moment before the game. They celebrated Dean Smith. So, that was nice.

So, the economy, improving, that should be boosting the president's approval ratings, right? We like it when we have money in our pocket? Do we? So, we don't?

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans here with the numbers and implications.

What do you see, my friend?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: He doesn't get any love for the improving economy. The economy has been improving.

When you look at most recent CNN/ORC polls, you can see 47 percent of the public approves of the president's handling of the job. And 51 percent disapprove. That's been pretty stagnant. It hasn't moved.

How is he handling the economy? A 45 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove.

Why is this so interesting or troubling if you're the White House? Because the jobless rate has been below 6 percent since September. Last year was the best year for job creation since 1999. You've got more people with health care coverage. You've got a stock market that has more than tripled since the president has been in office.

You've got all the signs pointing to an economic recovery. Yet the president doesn't get the love for it.

Now, one of the reasons might be, we have come from such a horrible chasm that we've had to fill, that people are still looking over their shoulder, waiting for something bad to happen. But anecdotally and these numbers, you can see, and the economic numbers -- you can see the economy is getting better. But the president is not getting a lift in his approval rating for it.

CUOMO: You think it could be a messaging thing, Brianna? You're close to the situation.

KEILAR: I don't know if it's that. I think -- my theory, it's the psychological hangover that so many people who went through the financial crisis are still freaked out, really.

ROMANS: I think you're right and I think the messaging is also part of it the president couldn't go out there and be a cheerleader for the economy when there were still so many people who were long-term unemployed. So, in the way, the White House has to be careful saying the Obama economy is not actually the Obama economy.

BERMAN: If he wants to feel good about himself, all he has to do is look back at eight years ago to see how another president was doing at this stage to this term.

ROMANS: It also might be that Americans just don't love their second half of second-term presidents that much. George Bush had 43 percent approval rating at this point in his president. So, when you compare the two, President Obama 47 percent, Bush, 34 percent.

CUOMO: Where was the economy then for Bush?

ROMANS: The economy for Bush was a slow recovery. It was a slow recovery but --

CUOMO: So it's better now?

ROMANS: Absolutely.

CUOMO: For all people, not just the highly trained like Brianna --

ROMANS: The unemployment rate would have been lower under the second half of the second term of Bush, too. But the trajectory, the rate of increase, the rate of change, much greater under Obama.

CUOMO: Thank you, Christine.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

All right. Well, a lot of criticism for St. Louis police after the camera on a police cruiser was shut off while a suspect claims he was beaten. Why was the camera shut off? We'll have a look at the case, reigniting complaints about excessive force.

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KEILAR: A Missouri man kicked and tased during a traffic stop. Only some of it caught on dash cam video, because one officer decided midway through the arrest to turnpike the camera off.

Will Ripley spoke with the victim's attorney.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dash cam video shows police in Missouri kicking and tasing a man during this traffic stop, until one of the cops decides it's time to stop recording.

POLICE OFFICER: Hold up. Everybody hold up. We red right now. So, if you guys are worried about cameras, just wait.

RIPLEY: The video ends, drug and weapons charges against the suspect later dropped. The decorated St. Louis metropolitan police officer who stopped the video violated department policy, but is still on the force.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to be subject to scrutiny. That's part of the job. RIPLEY (on camera): These days, anyone with a smartphone can take video and even stream it online. A growing number of people are turning their phones on police when things get ugly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get your phone out.

RIPLEY (voice-over): This video taken by a 14-year-old in the back seat is evidence that an Indiana family's excessive force lawsuit. A seat belt violation last fall led to this.

All of it unfolded with children in the back seat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My gosh, why?

RIPLEY: This cell phone video led to a $1 million settlement for Marlene Pinnock beaten by the side of a highway last summer by a California highway patrol officer. He resigned.

MARLENE PINNOCK, WON LAWSUIT AGAINST CA HIGHWAY PATROL: Thank you for the footage, for the video.

RIPLEY: Pinnock survived. Eric Garner did not.

Video shows the unarmed being placed in a chokehold by a New York City police officer. A grand jury decided not to indict the officer for Garner's death. But video like this are proving to be powerful tools for citizens capturing alleged bad behavior by police.

Will Ripley. CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Well, look when you watch the footage. I think the mistake, when a mistake is made in these situations, it's that the action by authorities isn't as swift as what the video seems to demand. Like that guy who was beating that woman on the ground, he resigns, where's the arrest, where's the removal?

The dash cam story, if it holds true, which seems obvious, where's the arrest. Why isn't that a crime, what they did?

KEILAR: Are there other cases like that? It makes you wonder. You know, sometimes you have people like that person who was beaten and they're pursuing the case. Some people don't.

BERMAN: You know, it is interesting. I talked to the police, they're trained knowing how to behave if cameras are rolling. They have to say things like do not resist arrest. You are resisting arrest. So, there's a video record of saying the right things.

CUOMO: They should want it. They should want the video on at all times so there's clarity of what happens.

And when you hear them say, if you're worried about being on red, which means obviously recording, we all know that from cameras, that's a huge problem. We're going to have a lawyer on, because there's more. There's details about how this happened and why and what their theory of the case is as he is now defending the man who was the victim here. So, listen in for that coming up.

All right. We're going to be covering another very big legal matter, the "American Sniper" trial.

This was the day for the defense. Blockbuster witnesses, that's what people who watched the trial are calling Eddie Ray Routh's ex- girlfriend and his family. What did they say about this man? How he was before, what they thought was going on? They're trying to get help for him. And his use of a samurai sword, all ahead.

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CUOMO: Big day, pivotal day, any way you want to say it, you can't diminish the importance to the defense of what happened yesterday in the "American Sniper" trial. So, we're going to tell you, take you through it.

This is their big push to say by any definition, the man was not sane at the time. They called the ex-girlfriend, family members to the stand -- lots different descriptions of actual episodes.

So what did it actually mean legally? Even if it was so compelling emotionally.

Joe Jackson, a HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney.

Such a bad day for the prosecution, Paul Callan did not show.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Amazing.

CUOMO: So I will be the prosecutor this morning.

All right. So, they bring up people who knew the man, intimately. You know, over time, knew him. This is the ex-girlfriend, Ms. Wood. They also bring on her sister and her brother-in-law.

And what was the general theme that seemed to come through, as evidence?

JACKSON: That he was insane.

Listen, Chris, this is very significant and why is it significant? Who knows Routh better than family members, than his girlfriend, than the people around him all the time? What's the recurring theme?

We had a person who was happy go lucky, who went to Iraq, who went to a humanitarian mission in Haiti and came back a changed man. So when you look at the girlfriend and you see in graphic detail, the relationship that she described, the incident with his family. When he threatened to kill his family members and threatened to kill himself, moving on from that, when he held her captive in her own apartment in addition to her roommate with a sword at the door saying, no one can go anywhere.

CUOMO: These are the words of testimony, Routh insisted people were out to get us and we needed to stay in the apartment because the apartment was safe. I mean, that is like textbook paranoia, which feeds the idea of a delusion.

Smart for the defense also backing off PTS a little bit. And that's important because I'm sure those lawyers know in talking to clinicians, PTS not making you violent it makes you withdrawn.

JACKSON: Oh, sure.

CUOMO: So, they're saying there was severe mental illness, and it speaks to the fact of the difficulty of people who love someone who is mentally ill, and getting them help. Not just the V.A., but just help at all.

All right. Go ahead.

JACKSON: And remember, Chris, we're going to hear from those experts, too.

CUOMO: They're going to be there. You're going to hear them.

This is just the emotional part of the actual facts and circumstances they can put before they say what they mean with the clinician. So, after the killings, all right, because they want to continuum of being mentally ill, what do they say here using family?

JACKSON: Well, listen, this is significant, because remember right after the killings, he goes to his sister's home, and she's there with, of course, her husband, and what does the sister say that's significant? She calls 911, she's describing how he's crazy and she's asked a significant question. Is he on drugs? And she says, you know what? He was on drugs before.

And what does that indicate to me? That she's not describing someone who was under a high or perhaps drunk. She's describing someone who was not of their right mind.

What else did she say, Chris? She says that the person I know as my brother was not the person who showed up at my home. That's significant.

CUOMO: All right now, if the prosecution was going to push back, here's where it would come in. He said he traded his soul for a pickup. Put that back up for second so people can see it. The person who came to my house is not who I know as my brother. That's Joey's point.

The prosecution says, but he came to her and said, I took souls today. It shows recognition that what he did was wrong.

And another thing they say, is that the drugs and alcohol again. Remember, the prosecution, this has been a little bit of a problem, because they put these vials in as evidence of meth and they couldn't establish that they were Routh's. The judge said not enough for a mistrial. So, they came back at this again today. Routh said, I'm struggling to get clean.

But here's the thing, Joey. To a jury clean from what, booze? OK, marijuana, no real evidence on that. How much that does play for prosecution?

JACKSON: You know, it's big, but here's why. When you look at the issue of drug use, you can establish he's a drug user and that motivated his conduct. Guess what, now you don't have insanity.

CUOMO: That's what the prosecution wants.

JACKSON: That's what they want, because any voluntary intoxication or voluntary drug use, that doesn't excuse murder. But at the same time, now you twist it for the defense. What do you say -- he needed to use that because he was self-medicating, because he was delusional, because he wasn't a grip of psychosis and as a result of that. It wasn't the drugs that made him engage in his action, it was his psychology that made him do it and he used drugs to lean on them, to make him feel better, to make him feel whole. My client is insane, so says the defense.

CUOMO: And what else is working in here? The Chris Kyle factor. Chad Littlefield, you don't want to disrespect the loss to that family of that man as well. However, one of the things that comes up yesterday in testimony is that a family members says they were trying to find Routh when they thought he was having a real episode of his delusional trouble. And they found him with Chris Kyle.

Remember, this jury is also being made very aware, Chris Kyle knew this man needed help, wanted to help him, said he wasn't getting enough help. So that's going to play in for the jury as well. What the right thing is to do here.

JACKSON: And, Chris, remember also what the mom said. And his mom, that is Routh's mom, tried to get him help. When she tried to get him help, she went, of course, to Kyle and said look, help my son, left out a very important detail. And that was, that he threatened, Routh did, his family, with death and himself and had perhaps Kyle known that other precautions could have been taken.

CUOMO: Often trials are metaphors or examples for things that are going on in society at large. Sometimes they're not. They're just specific to what happened there.

Here the inability of a family to get help for someone who is clearly mentally ill. The inability of a system, the V.A. in this case to adequately treat those people.

So, you have someone that everybody knew was a time bomb essentially, that's what came out in evidence yesterday and then we have this event.

JACKSON: And we do, Chris. And one other very significant point, he was at the V.A., Routh was, getting medical treatment. Family begging, don't let him out. Eight days prior, they let him out. He's on nine different medications for psychosis and this occurs, places into the defense's role. He didn't know right from wrong.

CUOMO: Yesterday certainly goes to the defense this is the meat of their case, the best they can do the next step to bring in experts to say how everything you just heard from people who really know him, translates into insanity. But remember, for the prosecutors, all they have to show is yeah, I get it, I get what was fueling him. I get it all this goes into his motive.

But his intent at the time was to kill and he knew that he was killing. And that fits our definition of sane. Is that fair? It doesn't matter, you only know what you show at trial, and that's going to be the bar.

Joey Jackson, excellently argued.

JACKSON: My pleasure. Callan could have tipped those scales the other way. He's not here to defend himself.

CUOMO: I don't know. If you don't show, we don't know.

We're following a lot of news this morning, we're going do get to it for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need Muslim Americans and other Muslims to partner with us, I've never heard the president get as close as he did today.

OBAMA: It's not a revolution or jihad, it's a slaughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The growing threat of ISIS, the Italian government deploying counterterrorism police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jihadist groups said they would hang their black flag over St. Peter's Square.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It needs to be more than just Italy. It's got to be the coalition against the Islamic state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's doing what every mother would do, is protect her baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They now find themselves defending Meyers' role in possibly escalating the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This can go from rage to outlandish behavior.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Alisyn and Michaela are off. I'm Chris Cuomo, joined by Brianna Keilar and John Berman.

We have a lot of news for you this morning.

The president with his strongest call yet to fight Islamic terror without using the word "Islamic." The president says he rejects that term because it gives terrorist groups legitimacy and they don't deserve it.

KEILAR: Today, he'll be focusing on strengthening an international alliance against extremism as the three-day summit wraps.

We have team coverage and we begin with CNN's Michelle Kosinski live for us at the White House -- Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna.

We heard President Obama say during his speech yesterday that you have to confront twisted ideology squarely and honestly. Head on. You can't shy away from the discussion.

But you know for the last couple of weeks, this White House has come under fire for never wanting to use the words "Islamic extremism", and seeming to shy away from using that as part of the discussion.

I mean, we had a few people demonstrating outside the White House and one of them had a big sign that said "just say it." Especially when you are seeing the programs being highlighted during this summit, they're all geared toward the Muslim communities in America. So, now, the president has addressed the criticism head-on, explaining the administration's thinking on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam. We must never accept the premise that they put forward because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders. They're terrorists.

(APPLAUSE)

And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)