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Walker Steals The Show At CPAC; Christie Not Afraid Of Jeb Bush; Is ISIS Committing Genocide Against Christians?; Llama Drama

Aired February 27, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: So the military war against ISIS goes back and forth. But this much is clear: the U.S. is losing the battle to stop the ISIS propaganda machine online. This comes from the FBI's top counterterror official, Michael Steinbach. He says the U.S. counter narrative is effective, but the volume of ISIS messaging too much to overcome.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the nation's busiest airport doing something many thought they should have been doing for years: Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport now screening the bags of workers before they're allowed into secure areas. And the airport reducing the number of employee access points from 70 to just 10. This comes after a gun-smuggling operation was uncovered there run by employees who were not screened.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Actress Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 Calvin Klein gown from Oscar night has been stolen. Police say the pearl-studded dress was taken from her West Hollywood hotel room this week. Nyong'o, who won an Oscar in 2014, remember, for her role in "12 Years a Slave," she was not in the room at the time of the theft. Detectives are investigating.

CAMEROTA: That could not have been easy to get out of that closet. That has to be heavy.

CUOMO: And it does look strangely similar to what...

* CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: -- theft detectives are investigating.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That could not have been easy to get out of that closet. That has to be heavy.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It looks strangely similar to what has you were talking about a couple of days ago -- the gift --

CAMEROTA: That I got of a white beaded pearl dress?

CUOMO: Luckily my eyes read it as green. So I wasn't suspicious.

ROMANS: Don't go there!

CAMEROTA: Let's get to "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY now with John King. Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": So the issue is not what color is the dress, is it purchase or is it borrowed, I got it. Happy Friday to you guys in New York.

Let's go inside politics, a very busy day, and with me this morning to share reporting and their insights are Margaret Talev of "Bloomberg" and Ed O'Keefe of the "Washington Post."

You're both covering CPAC. The parade of conservatives, the Republican presidential hopefuls coming into this meeting essentially trying to say I'm more conservative than the other guy. You can trust me.

The favorite at the moment has been Scott Walker. The Wisconsin governor is rising in the polls dramatically in Iowa and other places, packed room for him as he address CPAC.

Listen here what Scott Walker is saying, if I were your commander-in-chief, you can trust me to lead the war against ISIS and terrorists around the world because remember how I stood up to those labor unions back home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to insure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists do not wash up on American soil.

We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect American soil, but do not, do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world.

We need a leader with that kind of confidence, if I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now after the speech he told reporters he was not trying to draw a direct parallel from his confrontations with public employees' unions back home to fighting ISIS. But didn't teach us, Ed, right there to draw a direct parallel?

ED O'KEEFE, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes, he did. New rule in politics, you don't make Nazi jokes, you don't make ISIS jokes. I think that's what happened here and his spokeswoman came out again last night and clarified, you know, he wasn't equating labor unions with terrorists.

But look, this is yet another sort of misstep as the Scott Walker heads the primetime show continues. It demonstrates yet again that this is a guy who has not necessarily been under the national spotlight and has to probably be a little more careful about what he's saying.

KING: And yet, Margaret, we have sat here for a week or so saying, you know, punting on the evolution question, not willing to distance yourself from Rudy Giuliani when he says the president doesn't love America. We characterize that as missteps, and yet in this period, do conservatives, do the people whose votes he wants to win the Iowa caucuses and then to move on, do they view it as a misstep?

MARGARET TALEV, "BLOOMBERG POLITICS": Yes, this audience, is an audience that really wants to like Scott Walker and give him second chances and give him the breathing room to find his pace, I don't think he damaged himself at all at CPAC this week.

But it does highlights sort of the challenge for a lot of these governors, whether it's Scott Walker or Chris Christie, which is that, you really can't campaign in a general election for president of the United States unless you have national security credentials, some foreign policy experience.

It's really hard to get it as straight from the governorship. So this is an effort to try to tie his experience to something that's applicable on the world stage. And it's difficult to do as he's finding out.

O'KEEFE: You know, we're going to see Jeb Bush there later today. Probably his biggest test yet. He's been raising millions of dollars across the country behind closed doors. But to finally confront, you know, the foot soldiers in the Republican primaries and see how he's received is important.

Because remember he has said a few times, I'm more interested in running a general election campaign than a primary election campaign. These kinds of missteps will help Scott Walker in Iowa and other places.

Whether Jeb Bush is willing to go there and try to, you know, win over these folks for short-term gain remains to be seen. And you know, he very well may not and we'll have just have to see how people take it --

KING: But the question is can he get enough, can he get enough of the hard-core conservative base and build out other supporters as he goes on. But you're right, Jeb Bush will be there today, it will be fascinating to see, does he bring up directly his differences with the base on immigration?

Does he bring up directly with these folks in the room most of them disagree with him on common core education standards. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

I've been waiting to see will these Republicans take on each other. We'll get to Hillary Clinton in a minute, a lot of criticism of her, a lot of criticism of the president, a lot of criticism of Democrats.

But listen to Chris Christie here, who has been in a low number in the polls, who has watched Jeb Bush come into his state and take away some of his big financial backers in the past. Watch Jeb Bush outhustle him organizing around the country.

Chris Christie was asked, can he take on Jeb Bush or is Jeb Bush the frontrunner. Here's a little dig.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Listen, if what happens is if the elites in Washington, who make back-room deals decide who the president is going to be then he's definitely the frontrunner.

If the people of the United States decide to pick the next president of the United States and they want someone who looks at them in the eye, connects with them and is one of them -- I'll do OK if I run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The elites, Jeb Bush, is the candidate of the elites?

TALEV: I mean I didn't really expect Chris Christie to come out swinging that way yesterday. It was actually more direct than I think a lot of people in the room expected. He understood to that audience.

You know, if you're Chris Christie, you're not selling your ideology or your New Jersey experience. You're selling your willingness to fight and your willingness to beat up on someone who they already have questions about.

That's what he was doing, but I think it also reflects some of the hostility that Christie and some of the other candidates feel towards Jeb, in terms of was he going to get in, not get in? What was his timing? A lot of them feel sort of sandbagged by him or surprised by him and I think you see some of that coming out.

KING: Because he got in quickly and sort of hit the accelerator.

TALEV: And dominated the donor community really early on.

O'KEEFE: Absolutely. I think, you know, it's ironic for a guy who hangs out in NFL sky boxes to talk about the elites, but I think you're right.

TALEV: And he ran the RGA, right.

ED O'KEEFE: Exactly. But you know, obviously a lot of money is going Bush's way, they've got to try to put a damper on it and maybe this will help.

KING: One of the tests if you're a Republican who wants to be the presidential nominee and you're going into CPAC, a very conservative room, one of the tests is proof you're tough enough to take on Hillary Clinton. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON, PEDIATRIC NEUROSURGEON: I'm not ready for Hillary, but what I'm ready for -- I'm ready for a country that puts our constitution on the top shelf.

CARLY FIORINA, FORMER HP CEO: Hillary may like hash tags, but she does not know what leadership means.

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: We could have had Hillary here, but we couldn't find a foreign nation to foot the bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A little bit of humor, a little bit of digs. That's one of the tests, right, these people are looking not just who is their conservative favorite, but who can win, and they assume a race against Hillary Clinton.

TALEV: Which is exactly right, but for Carly Fiorina, she's in a position that none of the other candidates on that stage yesterday was none today will be, which is that she, of course, is a woman. The most high-profile woman right now in the Republican Party, you know, eyeing a run or some spot on the ticket.

And yesterday, it was a really good sort of test and unveiling for her to a lot of folks, who haven't seen her speak in a while and have been curious about her.

KING: Well, that quickly shows a moment from yesterday. We're waiting to see what happens. Today is deadline day to see if the Department of Homeland Security will get funding or whether they'll be a partial shutdown or whether they'll come up with a temporary Band- Aid solution or whether they'll solve the whole thing, will sort that out today.

But John Boehner, pressed yesterday asked will the House figure this out. What's your plan? Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to put it on the floor, you're going kill it? You'll let them vote on it, have you even had this discussion?

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: When we make decisions, I'll let you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That was not an affection -- he was not trying to convey affection with his kissing there. I'm not going to say on morning family television what he was trying to convey. There's tension there, he and the senator are not getting along. Are they going to figure this out today?

O'KEEFE: No. I don't think so. You've got House plan that would do that for three weeks, keep things going. The Senate plan would keep the department funded and drop this immigration fight.

It's a big mess. The White House is now successfully driven a wedge through Republicans. The honeymoon is definitely over and there's going to be some real bad feelings all the way around. KING: It's about DHS funding, Alisyn. It's also about the Republican internal debate about what to do about immigration, and as we end, a little funny from last night, Seth Myers taking a poke at the former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. He is now a colleague here. He is a CNN commentator. He has a new job in the private sector, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT": President Obama's former press secretary, Jay Carney, will reportedly become a senior vice president at Amazon, a senior vice president at Amazon. Carney says he's excited to work for someone, who doesn't take six years to deliver.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Got to have a laugh. No drones involved.

CAMEROTA: So it's safe. That's good. All right, thanks so much for sending us into the weekend with a little funny. Have a good weekend, John. All right, be sure to watch John King and his "INSIDE POLITICS" panel break down the best political news of the week, Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Meanwhile, ISIS holding hundreds of Syrian Christians captive. Is this just more of the same barbarism or is this a war on Christianity? We'll discuss all that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: There's no question that ISIS is targeting Christians, nearly 300 Syrian-Christians were abducted, the faith unknown, 21 Egyptian Christians beheaded in Libya earlier, we all saw that.

The pope is saying that the blood of Christians everywhere is crying out to be heard and the evidence is real. About a decade ago, there were a million and a half Christians living in Iraq now under 400,000 and they're very different situations that are going on in the entire region.

So let's talk about whether or not it's a holy war because that idea gets a lot of pushback. We have Auday Arabo, he is the spokesperson for the St. Thomas Chaldian Catholic Diocese out there in Southfield, Michigan.

So it's very good to have you with us, Mr. Arabo. Do you believe this is a holy war?

AUDAY ARABO, SPOKESPERSON, ST. THOMAS CHALDIAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE: Thanks for having me, Chris. Without a doubt, there should be no doubt in people's mind that this is a full-blown genocide. We actually met with the White House, members of the administration, Ben Rhodes as early as September.

One week before President Obama came out and talked about the Yazidis on Zinjar Mountain. They used the word genocide in the room and the president has used that word as well. But like you just said, a holy war? This is a religious cleansing, both externally an internally.

Externally with Christians and the Yazidis, and anybody who doesn't believe in this version of Islam as well as internally within the Muslim community because this sect or fundamentalist Islamist, whatever you want to call them is trying to kill other Muslims as well, who don't believe in their version of Islam.

You know, a number of Sunnis have been killed and others that have been trying to protect some of these Christians that have been affected.

CUOMO: Now you're in touch with people on the ground in Syria, what are they telling you?

ARABO: Well, mostly on the ground in Northern Iraq, the border of Syria. It's a very, very dire situation. It's been a dire situation for a long time. The intentions of these animals, I don't have any other words for them, is just to world domination for their version of Islam.

They're making their intentions known and like you said earlier, the pope has been clear on what's been going on. The only reason the Coptics were killed, the only reason the groups have been taken out is because they're Christians.

CUOMO: Now, look, you've heard this before, you know that Christians have been under fire in different parts of the world. There is a lot of speculation about why we don't hear more about it. But you know, even here, you're right, President Obama has referred to this situation as a religious minority being targeted with genocide, OK.

But there's this other perspective that people don't want ISIS to be perceived as being religious or Islamic, right? That's the problem that we have with the White House is what they call these people. So holy war gets push-back.

It's not a holy war because they're holy people this isn't a religious war, Christians are only being targeted because everyone who is not ISIS is being targeted. Do you accept that as a fair appraisal?

ARABO: Absolutely not. The reason I say that is that every time ISIS has said they are going to do something, it's very clear what they do. They said they're going to take these people out, they do, they're going to kill these hostages, they do.

Their intentions are clear, to go after the pope, go after the president and the White House. The FBI has been talking about how many cases they're looking at here in the U.S. and if they call themselves Muslim, my biggest problem is we'll take them as Muslim.

They are hijacking the religion of Islam. There are a number of Muslims, who have also been killed by ISIS for not believing in the same version of Islam, but from a holy war standpoint, they are killing people, who don't believe in their version of Islam.

Whether you're Muslim and don't believe, or whether you're Christians and Yazidi. The difference, though, is the Christians and the Yazidis are very peaceful people. The Christians have lived there since St. Thomas, the Apostle converted us.

And so you're talking about cultural genocide. You're talking about religious genocide. Just yesterday, I read a report about all the artifacts that continue to be destroyed by ISIS. They bombed the tomb of Jonah. I mean, the atrocities that continue going on day after day after day is really heart-wrenching.

CUOMO: Auday, why do you think that the religious aspect of this, from the name of what you refer to as ISIS, to what's being done to Christians, really more than any other religion, I guess, you could say no Muslims. They're going after more Muslims, but this seems to be a specific targeting of them as Christians. Why do you think that's being ignored or avoided?

ARABO: I don't know why. You know, maybe people want to be politically correct. I don't know if they want to look themselves in the mirror. But we have a genocide occurring in front of our eyes and once again we're late. We're late to the call. We've been late to the call in Rwanda and other genocides in the last century.

The only difference, though, I got to say, Chris, is our administration's policies here under both President Bush and President Obama, should be held responsible morally for this happening to the Christians.

You know, we created a power vacuum there that made the Christians the easiest targets. People don't understand in that region of the world, Iraq and even Syria, they're very, very secular people.

I mean, we had the largest population of the Jewish community inside Iraq before 1948. Now they're gone, now the Christians are next, the number speaks for themselves and they're all crying and they want the world to react and nobody is reacting.

CUOMO: Right.

ARABO: I mean, you have people who call us all the time with families being separated, women sold into slavery, kids being raped, people being beheaded. I mean, what's been going on --

CUOMO: Terrible things.

ARABO: -- we see on social media.

CUOMO: Horrible.

ARABO: That we're seeing in this day and age. I mean, things that we read about, you know, 1400 years ago and this really is -- horrific.

CUOMO: I know that this is very close to you and you know your ethnic background as well as your religious background. We're covering it because it does seem to be a disturbing part of the trend. We'll have you back again about it as we get more developments.

Auday Arabo, thank you very much, St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Diocese, the Chaldeans in significant numbers in and around Mosul. That's why as the advance on Mosul happens, even more of a concern. We'll check back with you about that as well. Thanks for being on NEW DAY.

ARABO: Thanks for having me, Chris. People want to check us out, it's www.helpiraq.org.

CUOMO: All right, thank you, sir -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Chris, we're going to switch tracks here. We'll get back to those top stories in a moment, but here's another story that has gripped viewers. We're changing tunes to show you an incredible pursuit. It's a pair of llamas on the lam. I said it. We'll explain how they got loose and how they got recaptured involving a lasso.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The epic llama drama gluing people to their TVs and social media, a three-hour odyssey of two llamas evading capture time and time again. You've got to watch. Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were like the Bonnie and Clyde of llamas. When the law closed in, there was no shootout, just some fancy footwork. For a couple of hours, the llamas led authorities on a wild llama chase.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Llama-palooza 2015 continues.

MOOS: Televised live. MSNBC switched from coverage of the strategy of terror to llamas on the run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not kidding, this is a pair of llamas that are on the loose.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not sure what the strategy is here in trying to get these two llamas.

MOOS: Just talking about it induced anchor giggles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll check in on black llama and update the status of this white llama.

MOOS: The two llamas, reportedly mother and child, were doing therapy work at an assisted-living facility in Sun City, Arizona when something spooked them and they took off.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: They have gotten loose and we've been out here for an hour trying to capture them. We were wondering if we could get some help. MOOS: Over and over authorities tried to cut them off, but it's not easy to cut off a llama. Even a golf cart was deployed. One news banner echoed the double llama calling it a low speed chase. Sometimes they ran against traffic. Another time they changed into the proper lane to go straight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll get to the news. We have 24 hours a day to get to the news. Enjoy with us the llamas.

MOOS: At one point they were surrounded and separated. The younger black one barely escaped being grabbed and lassoed, managing to rejoin the white one. Together the two gave the slip to an ever growing number of pursuers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel kind of silly talking about this because it's not something CNN typically covers. It's sort of hard to take your eyes off the screen here.

MOOS: Llamas are twice as big as alpacas, but didn't stop the alpaca jokes. Tweeted Jake Tapper, "Watch out, that one on the left might be Alpacan heat." Finally the black llama was lassoed and a few minutes later, it was mama's turn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The llamas have been captured. Let's move on to an important story right now for our country.

MOOS: What could be more important for our country than this? The sheriff's department said the llamas were taken back to the ranch. There was no therapy. No therapy? This was therapy for the llamas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There he goes. It wants to be free.

MOOS: And maybe for the newscasters. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: A little guilty pleasure. A break from ISIS and all --

CAMEROTA: They're loose in Manhattan.

ROMANS: Special guest.

CUOMO: The one guy has a lead on them, the white llama. I could have gotten those llamas much more easily.

CAMEROTA: Really?

CUOMO: Here's why.

CAMEROTA: How could you have done that?

CUOMO: Here was the mistake. They were going for the head fake. He's giving you the head this way, right? His feet are over here. So you're trying to grab him by the head. I'm just going to come back. I'm (inaudible) you this way. The feet were over here. That was a cat scratch. That was not a tackle. CAMEROTA: You've given me a whole fresh perspective.

CUOMO: You fight dirty in New Jersey.

CAMEROTA: Llama invasion.

ROMANS: Emmy Award winning performance, Chris.

CUOMO: I've won for less.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Chris.

While the countdown to partial should down is happening, why is Congress playing politics with Homeland Security this week with so many terrorist threats out there? Senator Jeanne Shaheen is here with her take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)