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Israeli Prime Minister to Address Congress; White House Continues Negotiations with Iran over Nuclear Deal; Full DHS Funding Bill Continues to Stall in Congress; Excessive Force Or Justified Shooting?; Conservative U.S. Politicians Banned From Venezuela

Aired March 02, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tension may be at its worst right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's quite clear the president and the prime minister don't have a very good relationship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not just about Iran; it's about the authority of Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If anybody is there to blame for this, I would start with him, the Speaker.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: People are scared to death that the president is just running the country right off the cliff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are now failing at this most basic test.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John Boehner has turned this most prestigious venue into a political setting.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just came out with a gun, they shot him five times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They always shoot to kil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A young man's dead now!

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, March 2, just before 8:00 in the East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, getting ready to address Congress about the nuclear threat posed by Iran, and to rally against any deal with Iran as being pushed forward by President Obama. The stakes are high at home and abroad.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the tension could not be higher. The prime minister taking a big political risk by coming here. The White House, remember, did not invite him. And Israelis will decide in two weeks whether to reelect him.

CNN's in depth coverage of this developing story begins with CNN correspondent senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. What's the latest?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the White House is offering an icy welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister is in Washington to warn the world that the negotiations over Iran's nuclear program will backfire. Netanyahu speaks to the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC later today and will address Congress tomorrow. But the White House is not remaining silent this week. Top officials, national security advisor Susan Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power will also address AIPAC. President Obama will weigh in as well, sitting down for an interview with Reuters. You will recall that it was Rice last week who said that Netanyahu's speech, which was arranged by the House speaker John Boehner without the knowledge of the White House was, quote, destructive, but Boehner says it is the White House that is making matters worse.

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BOEHNER: They certainly made it worse over the last five or six weeks. The threat coming from Iran and the Iranians having a nuclear weapon is a threat to the region. It's a threat to the United States, and it's a threat to the rest of the world. This is a serious issue. And we're not going to resolve this issue by sticking our heads in the sand. The prime minister can talk about this threat, I believe, better than anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: White House officials insist they want to emphasize the strengths of the U.S.-Israeli relationship this week, but there are hard feelings, no question about it, about Netanyahu's visit. One senior administration official complained the prime minister is turning this week into something of a circus, putting himself at the center of attention. The president will not be sitting down with Netanyahu, the White House says, because Israeli elections are right around the corner and, but one official said don't even expect a phone call. Back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: Boy, you can cut the tension with a knife. Thanks so much, Jim.

So what will the Israeli prime minister say to Congress? Our coverage continues with CNN's global affairs correspondent Elise Labott. She has been traveling with Benjamin Netanyahu. Elise?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, tomorrow the prime minister is going to lay out the Iranian nuclear deal shaping up as he understands it. Officials tell us the Israelis have a lot of information about the deal on the table, enough to conclude it is a bad deal for Israel, and, they say to the U.S. and the world.

Now, Netanyahu doesn't believe Congress has been fully informed on these negotiations. He's hoping this speech will raise some questions. And he's going to urge Congress to pressure the White House to push back that March 24th deadline for a political framework. The prime minister's aides say Israel is not against any deal at all but there are too many compromises in this deal that will lead Iran able to move towards a nuclear weapon down the line.

He's going to use this speech today to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. They're having a conference to lower the temperature, saying how important it is, the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. It's always been bipartisan and it should remain so.

And you can see the Obama administration also toning it down. Secretary of State John Kerry saying yesterday the timing is bad but the prime minister is still welcome in D.C. I think the White House realizes this bickering places too much focus on the speech. They want to kind of take the winds out of the sails of the prime minister as these nuclear talks start in Geneva this week. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so, Elise, so we have the talks and then we have the politics surrounding them. Let's bring in Aaron David Miller. He served as a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican administrations. Literally six secretaries of state relied on his advice. He is currently vice president and the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Aaron, thank you for being here with us this morning. The big political question that's surrounding this event, the key word "event," is, how does this play with the American audience that this is going on? We have new polling. Let's put it up. Who disapproves of what's going on here? Do you disapprove? Yes, I disapprove, 48 percent. No I don't, 30 percent, 22, I don't know.

Now, let's break this down by party because it does feel like it's just a partisan ruse on some level. Let's put that number up. Do you disapprove of Netanyahu -- do you approve is actually what it should say. I will not give misinformation to the American people. And you see that the Republicans are much better with it than Democrats. Do you believe that the political trouble here is largely partisan and Bibi is just an extension of that now?

AARON DAVID MILLER, VICE PRESIDENT, WOODROW WILSON CENTER FOR SCHOLARS: I mean, I think that's certainly partly the case. One of the reasons, Chris, we're even having this discussion is for the first time in the Obama administration you have a Republican controlled Congress that has determined to put its mark, its imprimatur, its stamp on American foreign policy. And the one issue that they really do align themselves in a very congruous fashion is the fear, threat, and uncertainty surrounding any kind of deal with the mullahs in Tehran. So on that score I think there's no question.

But the other reality is Netanyahu's poll numbers here are one thing. His poll numbers back home on the issue of where the Israeli public stands on Iran and the threat of Iran are pretty much in his favor. And as you pointed out, we're two weeks plus away from an Israeli election.

The problem is presenting a case you have got a whole lot of broken crockery right now. You've got severe tensions with the administration. You've got partisanship injected into what has traditionally been a bipartisan relationship. And I think the prime minister has handed the Obama administration an effort to unmistakably send a signal to the people of Israel that they prefer someone else handling the Israeli peace of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

CUOMO: And that's an interesting point. Let me throw a bundle of hype/b.s. at you and you tell us what the truth is. This is the main spin out there. Netanyahu is only here to help himself in his race at home. And the White House not meeting with him is OK because White House never gets involved in Israel politics. And third, the idea that this, what we're seeing right now, this is as bad as it has ever been between the U.S. and Israel. That's the hype out there. Do you buy any of it?

MILLER: Well, let's start from number three. I think that from the modern period roughly from the '70s to present, 80s and 90s when under Republican and Democratic administrations, the quote-unquote "special relationship" really maturely and evolved, I think this is probably, with the exception of Bush-Baker and loan guarantees, this is probably the worst it's been at the top level. There is the institutional relationship and then there's this dysfunction between this odd couple in the White House and Jerusalem.

CUOMO: The White House doesn't get involved in politics?

MILLER: Well, look, I worked for half a dozen secretaries of state, R and D administrations. Let's be clear. The presidents and secretaries of state have their favorites. And if you ask President Obama or John Kerry right now, would they prefer Netanyahu's rival essentially become the prime minister, I think their answer would be yes. Sometimes they're able to demonstrate that as Bill Clinton was, and I might add hosting Shimon Peres on April 30, 1996, in the White House a month before his electoral runoff with Netanyahu. So no, we intercede in Israeli politics, and they most assuredly intercede in ours.

CUOMO: Bibi's here to help himself at home. It's not really about Iran.

MILLER: Right. And look, this is part conviction and part domestic politics. Netanyahu has been beating the Iran drum for a long time. And let's be clear, I don't want to trivialize Israeli security concerns. I've had both the late Yitzhak Rabin and Netanyahu tell me personally using almost the same language, the following -- "Don't try to lecture or micromanage our security needs and requirements. You live in Chevy Chase, Maryland. We live in a very dangerous neighborhood."

So I think there's a lot of conviction here. There are no good deals with Iran, Chris, only deals that provide varying risks and uncertainties. And Benjamin Netanyahu is against most of them.

CUOMO: At the end of the day, aren't there two propositions that will remain true despite the hype around the situation. One is Iran is going to do this anyway, so you're trying to cut a deal that kind of limits what is inevitable. And you can say whatever you want. Israel is the only ally in that region that arguably shares not just U.S. interests but also largely U.S. values.

MILLER: Number two, Chris, there's no question about it. And that's why despite I think the delight and glee among Israel's adversaries who I think would like to see this crisis get a lot worse, the fact is the U.S.-Israeli relationship, I've made this comment before, not to trivialize it. Unlike Lehman brothers, it really is too big to fail. You have too many factors, including the one you just alluded to, that we are watching the Middle East melt down, and we need stability. And the fact that the Israelis share our values too and they do look at all the Gallup polls suggest it, will create a lot of resilience and durability for this relationship despite the dysfunction at the top.

CUOMO: Right. And obviously, not to say there aren't issues with the settlements in the West Bank, but across the board they wind up sizing up as the best ally. It's been that way for a long time, probably remains that way. Aaron David Miller, thank you so much as always for helping us understand the situation a little better.

MILLER: Always a pleasure, Chris, thanks.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, while Netanyahu is in Washington trying to stop that deal with Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Switzerland pushing for a deal. CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto joins us live from Switzerland with more. What's the latest, Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: For all that drama, all the acrimony back in Washington, here in Switzerland where the talks are actually taking place, they're in fact accelerating. This is meant to be a meeting at a much lower level, the political director level. Now you have Secretary of State John Kerry here, his Iranian counterpart in Switzerland as well. They're not just going to meet once. They're going to meet multiple times beginning tonight through Wednesday. They wouldn't be doing that if they didn't have something to talk about.

Now, as those talks go on you are also hearing from senior state department officials and other State Department officials and other administration officials what is in effect a prebuttal to Netanyahu's speeches in Washington. They're saying he doesn't know what the deal is on the table, that many of his facts are wrong. And they're saying that he has been wrong before, that the interim agreement put in place since November of 2013 has held back Iran's nuclear program in a way that had not been done for 10 years before that.

Now, all that said, there's still a long way to go here. You got a deadline the end of this month for a general political framework agreement, another deadline in June. While the gaps are narrowing, both sides telling me that, Iranians and U.S. officials, there is still a long way to go. But I will tell you this. As those speeches take place today and tomorrow in Washington, the negotiators here say, Alisyn, they won't be listening.

CAMEROTA: All right, Jim, thank you for that.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Now, to the political upheaval over funding Homeland Security. Five more days until the money runs dry for DHS. The Senate already passing a clean funding deal, but if Speaker Boehner allows the same thing to happen in the House, many believe his days as speaker are numbered. Chief Congressional correspondent Dana Bash live from Washington. "Politico's" headlines this morning, "John Boehner's big week." I think they put it well.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They did. We were reporting Friday night as the chaos was erupting about whether or not the department was going to shut down at that moment. The big question among Boehner allies, they were telling me, the reason why he took to it the wire was because they were concerned that his conservative opponents, those who were very much for sticking to their principles and not giving in on not allowing the department to be funded without also stopping the president's immigration plan, that they would make a move on him.

Well, I talked to one of the leading conservative House members, Jim Jordan, on "State of the Union" yesterday and asked him that question. He said we're not going to go there. Watch this.

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REP. JIM JORDAN, (R) OHO: We're just going to follow the process.

BASH: Have you been in any conversations about trying to get rid of speaker John Boehner?

JORDAN: That's not the point.

BASH: But have you, yes or no?

JORDAN: No. That's not the point. The point is to do what we told the voters we are going to do and to do it in a way that's consistent with the United States constitution, consistent with fundamental fairness, and consistent with the only court to rule on this, do it in a way that's consistent with the federal judge's decision.

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BASH: So he pretty much laid it out in a couple other questions, saying no, it's pretty obvious he didn't want to go there on the issue of John Boehner and his leadership. But as we go forward this week, the big question is going to be how quickly is John Boehner going to allow that clean bill to fully fund the department of security to pass the House, and what machinations is he going to have to go through because clearly his conservative right flank are still very upset they can't get through this issue, which is using the power of the purse to stop the president, which they feel very strongly about.

CAMEROTA: Dana, thanks so much for sharing that interview with us.

We do have some breaking news to tell you about now that's out of Egypt. Reuters reporting that an explosion has injured at least five police officers near Cairo's top courthouse. The blast reportedly going off near the building's main gate. It's unclear if anyone was killed. We'll more details as they become available.

CUOMO: North Korea firing two short range missiles into the Sea of Japan. The act and the timing worth noting. The launch coinciding with the U.S. South Korea beginning their annual joint military exercises. Pyongyang warns that this year's drills would bring the divided peninsula, quote, "toward the brink of war."

PEREIRA: You'll recall Nina Pham, the Texas nurse who survived Ebola? She is suing the owner of the hospital where she contracted the virus. The 26-year-old Pham claims that she still suffers body aches and insomnia and is suing for negligence and invasion of privacy. Her lawyers insist officials at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas failed to train and protect her and then revealed personal information about her recovery in order to rebuild its image.

CAMEROTA: Interesting. You remember all of those nurses, there was a group that said they hadn't been trained properly during that time.

CUOMO: Sometimes a lawsuit brings light --

PEREIRA: And change.

CUOMO: So let's see what happens.

CAMEROTA: We will. Meanwhile a disturbing police shooting caught on video. A robbery suspect gets into a confrontation with the LAPD, moment later shots fired. Is this a case of excessive force?

CUOMO: And major U.S. political names including the man on your screen, former president George W. Bush, no longer welcome in Venezuela.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: -- why is Venezuela's president banning top U.S. conservatives? The answer ahead.

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MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good to have you back here on NEW DAY. A fatal police shooting caught on video in Los Angeles. Authorities say a homeless man suspected of robbery resisted arrest and then tried to reach for an officer's gun. They say that's when the fatal shots were fired. So was the use of force appropriate or was it excessive? Let's bring

senior CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Mr. Jeffrey Toobin and on his left, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Danny Cevalos. Good to have you both here.

I hope you're caffeinated and ready to go because this is a conversation that deserves our attention. At first blush, there will be people, Jeffrey, that say was this excessive or appropriate? What's your first take?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's disturbing obviously and it's something merits further investigation. It's also not entirely clear what happened here. It's not clear who shot, how many shots were fired.

What the victim did to provoke if anything this shooting, but it's another unarmed African-American killed by the police on video like Eric Garner in Staten Island. So it's going to call for a lot of disturbing associations but people need to reserve judgment.

PEREIRA: Reserve judgment and Jeff brings up a great point. There's a lot we don't know leading up to the moments. We see this video gone viral on Facebook, but we don't know what precipitated the argument, the confrontation, et cetera.

By the way, we're obscuring the faces because there were several officers involved and only three of them used their weapons so we're obscuring all the officers' faces.

So this is what they come through additionally they've got surveillance video and one of the officers reportedly wearing a body camera, Danny.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, the critical issue here is going to be gun grabs and weapon retention. Here's why, typically officers are trained in the use of force continuum. You meet force with the appropriate force. Gun grabs are an interesting thing because --

PEREIRA: Changes the scenario.

CEVALLOS: In an instant a non-lethal situation can be escalated in just a second in a situation of a gun grab. Why? Because when you reach for a firearm, an officer's firearm, if he can get it out of his retention holster, then the situation is now from a non-deadly situation to now an armed suspect.

But the problem is the officer hasn't had an opportunity to keep his distance. You've already closed distance and now a lethal force situation. So the issue of gun grabs and weapon retention training will be critical here -- all true if there was a gun grab.

PEREIRA: OK, that's going to be key, correct?

TOOBIN: Well, if you can see it. I have certainly now watched this several times.

PEREIRA: But we know there was surveillance video. We know there's the body cam on the officers.

TOOBIN: Other video, yes.

PEREIRA: Or at least investigators, other points of view.

TOOBIN: Correct. If it all came out, if it's successfully reported, but the video we have all seen now at least as far as I'm concerned, appears pretty ambiguous about what started the confrontation. We have heard about a supposed gun grab, but based on what you see there, you cannot tell if there is or was not a gun grab.

PEREIRA: Another thing that highlights to me is you look at the specific location of where this altercation took place, it's L.A. Skid Row. This is a specific population that deals with mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse.

But we also know -- I know for a fact, LAPD has done a lot, have made efforts to work on their community policing in those specific areas. Will mental health come into this, do you think?

TOOBIN: It will to the extent the officers knew the suspect they were dealing with, they understood that this is somebody who may have had mental health issues. If they had any knowledge about that beforehand, that will come into play.

As I've said before, when it comes to the situation of a gun grab, if there was a gun grab, officers are thinking more about he's going for my firearm and less about what mental health issues this suspect may have. It will come down to whether or not this was in fact a gun grab.

PEREIRA: Is there a specific protocol that we know of for a gun grab or is it just react and protect and --

TOOBIN: Officers are trained in that specific -- you know, to deal with gun grabs themselves. One of the goals -- always the goals for police officer is try to de-escalate situations so you are not wrestling with someone on the ground and don't have the possibility of a gun grab.

There's a lot we don't know about this confrontation except this man is dead. You lived and reported in L.A. You know that Skid Row is a very identifiable place where police have long experience. It certainly seems perhaps de-escalation would have been a better scenario than what happened.

PEREIRA: Again, it is early on in this. It happened yesterday. The investigation is not even at full steam at this point. They're collecting evidence. There's a lot to look rat. What is your biggest concern?

CEVALLOS: It's going to be what does the video show and whether or not, not only the video, what do his brother officers say about what happened? They will all be giving statements. To the point there are inconsistencies that can be problematic.

If they're inconsistent and all said they saw it even if the video doesn't show it, that might go a long way, but again, at this point, too early to tell.

TOOBIN: And what does it mean for the community. This is the Rodney King Police Department. There is history here, the O.J. Simpson Police Department. So everybody is going to need to --

PEREIRA: We'll be having that kind of conversation going forward too about what this kind of situation means for the community. Jeffrey Toobin, Danny Cevallos, good to have you with us this morning -- Chris.

CUOMO: Mich, so former President George W. Bush a terrorist? You have to consider the source. That's what Venezuela's president is calling President Bush and a slew of other conservative politicians as well. He's banning them from the country. What else is he trying to do to the U.S.? We'll tell you.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Why would a world leader call former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney terrorists? That's what the Venezuela's president is calling them and he has barred the duo and several conservative congressmen from traveling to that country.

CNN's Shasta Darlington is live in Miami breaking it all down for us. What do we know, Shasta?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A number of bizarre announcements over the weekend where President Nicolas Maduro not only banned these alleged terrorists from entering Venezuela, but also said an unspecified number of Americans had been arrested for espionage and recruitment, including a pilot of Latin-American origin.

We still don't know their names or how many they were. He also said all Americans will now require visas to get into Venezuela and the U.S. Consulate in Caracas is going to have to scale back.

This in some ways as a retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Washington on Venezuela, but it also appears really to be a tactic to divert attention from the very real problems in Venezuela.

We are talking about Maduro's own approval rating, which has plummeted to below 25 percent, a massive economic crisis where there are shortages of food, of medicine, soaring inflation, and people are taking to the streets.

And we've heard Maduro repeatedly over the last few weeks, blame the United States for some kind of a conspiracy to overthrow his government. He's even arrested opposition leaders, accusing them of conspiring with the United States. The question is whether or not this will work and really help him galvanize any support, if you can imagine. Back to you.