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Putin Critic Boris Nemtsov Assassinated; The Woes of Boehner and His Caucus; Netanyahu to Address Congress Tomorrow

Aired March 02, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go with the five things you need to know for your new day.

At number one, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington to speak to a pro-Israeli lobby group before his controversial address to Congress tomorrow about Iran's nuclear threat.

Iran's foreign minister is insisting all sanctions must be lifted against Iran for there to eat -- for these to be a nuclear deal. The U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, will meet with him later today.

The LAPD says a homeless man was fatally shot by police during a struggle over an officer's weapon. That deadly confrontation, as you see, captured on video by a bystander in downtown L.A.

Tens of thousands gather for a rally that was supposed to be led by opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. The staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin was gunned down Friday. The Ukraine says Nemtsov was about to reveal information damaging to Russia's interests.

Iraqi troops launching a major offensive against ISIS to recapture the key city of Tikrit. According to state TV, tens of thousands of troops using fighter jets, helicopters and artillery are attacking ISIS strongholds.

We do update those five things to know, so be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the latest.

Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Mich, a key adversary of Vladimir Putin gunned down within walking distance of Putin's office. His name, Boris Nemtsov. What did he know and is that why he was killed?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Tens of thousands of people turning out to pay their respects to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's top critics. His name, Boris Nemtsov, and he was assassinated just two days before he was to publically criticize Russia's aggression in Ukraine. is that why he was killed? For the latest we get to CNN's Matthew Chance, live in Moscow.

Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris, astonishing scenes we're been witnessing here in Moscow in the course of the past couple of days after the assassination on Friday night of Boris Nemtsov here on this bridge just a short distance from the Kremlin. Look, that's Saint Basil's (ph) Cathedral and Red Square behind us. These are the walls of the Kremlin. Just a short distance beyond them, the office of President Vladimir Putin himself. And so it shows how close this killing was to the center of power literally in this country.

And look at this sea of flowers that's been laid in tribute by ordinary Russians paying their respects to Boris Nemtsov over the course of the past several days. And even now, a trickle of people continues hour by hour laying more flowers, more personal messages expressing their sympathy.

And, of course, they're shocked because even though Boris Nemtsov was a fringe figure in Russian politics, he was an opposition figure. You know, he wasn't at the center of politics. He wasn't in power. Even though he was a fringe figure, people are still astonished that someone like him could have been assassinated, again, within a stone's throw, in the shadow of the walls of the Kremlin. It sends a very potent message indeed, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Matthew, thank you very much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, to talk about the latest on Nemtsov and much more, let's bring in Fareed Zakaria. He's host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS".

Fareed, great to see you.

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN'S "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": It's a pleasure.

CAMEROTA: CNN has just gotten a fascinating interview. It is with Boris Nemtsov's girlfriend's mother. Now the girlfriend, remember, is the eyewitness. The girlfriend was holding his hand as they were crossing the bridge and he was gunned down. So let's listen to what she told her mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INNA DURITSKAYA, MOTHER OF ANNA DURITSKAYA, NEMTSOV'S GIRLFRIEND (through translator): Anna) suggested getting a taxi, but Boris didn't want to. He wanted to walk across the bridge. When they were walking, she was holding his hand and heard a clapping noise. Boris became soft and fell on the ground. When Anna understood what had happened, she was so much in shock that she didn't see how it happened and, moreover, they'd shot him in the back.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: She doesn't -- it's hard to tell if she'll be able to be a good witness to figure out what actually happened here. But if it's just a stranger or masked, hard to know how they will ever figure out who this gunman is.

ZAKARIA: Oh, I think we know, you know, who ultimately was responsible for doing this.

CAMEROTA: You do? I mean you feel strongly that it is Putin behind this?

ZAKARIA: I think it's -- you know, Putin tells us he is personally going to lead the investigation. This is like Al Capone volunteering to do a tax audit on his own accounts. The reason Boris Nemtsov is a marginal figure, is a fringe figure, is because unlike all the other people who with senior positions of government -- remember, he was deputy prime minister of Russia -- he stayed a critic. A lot of other people were bought off, cowed, you know, submitted. There were a whole bunch of democratic type political leaders in the Yeltsin era, who have been quietly bought off for or intimidated into silence. Nemtsov was unusual in that he was a very brave man who decided not to do that. I had him on my program and he was -- it was remarkable. And even then you could tell it took enormous courage to do what he was doing.

CUOMO: On the other side, he did exist for a long time. If Putin had wanted to take him out, he could have, whenever he wanted. He could have arrested him, like he did with that other opposition leader who's there right now. He didn't. This happened right in the Red Square, which is very embarrassing for Putin. And the optics that, well, he needed to get rid of this guy because he was going to hurt Putin. Putin is wildly popular at home, even though people have to know that Russia is involved with what's going on in Ukraine. So why would he have done this?

ZAKARIA: It's a good question. What I would point out is that Putin is wildly popular at home because he systematically gets rid of any opposition figure, shuts down any media organization that criticizes him, has taken over control -- remember, Russia once had a free television media which it no longer has. And Nemtsov was criticizing the one issue that Putin cares deeply about right now, which is Ukraine. He was the only major political figure criticizing Putin on Ukraine.

I think it's more likely that what this represents is that Putin has created a gang of vigilantes and outlaws, you know, in the system where somebody decided it would -- it would serve the master well or it would serve the powers that be well to do it. You remember that great line in English history when Henry II says, will somebody rid me of this meddlesome priest.

CUOMO: Meddlesome priest, yes.

ZAKARIA: And people go out and murder the archbishop of Canterbury.

PEREIRA: But, quickly, before we get to the other topic we know we want to ask you about, what do you make of the tens of thousands taking to the street. Is the tide beginning to change a little bit? It's not hundreds of people, it's tens of thousands of people marching in protest, in silence, solemn, you know, frustration and anxiety.

ZAKARIA: You know, I would like to believe that. And certainly its shows that there is a great deal of angst. There's a great deal of despair over where Russia is heading. But this is in the big cities. It's not clear that it's representive (ph) of the country.

CUOMO: Not the first time.

ZAKARIA: Remember, Putin's whole strategy has always been, yes, there are bunch of people in Moscow, in St. Petersburg who don't like me. He even allows the magazines and newspapers to run. State owned media, which is television, blankets the entire country. And what that is, is a running documentary on the virtues of Putin and to the point, you know, Chris was making, he's been pretty good on economics until recently and he's very good on nationalism. He knows how to press those buttons.

CAMEROTA: And, Fareed, we also want to ask you, you just returned from Jordan. You sat down with King Abdullah and you talked about radical Islam. So let's play a portion of your new interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING ABDULLAH II, KING OF JORDAN: Sunni Islam -- Sunni Islam is 1.5 billion Muslims. They represent only 1 percent. Out of that, maybe 200,000 to 500,000 of these people are actually techfidi (ph) jihadists. These are the crazies of this element. So to label Islam under the term of extremists and moderates is actually completely wrong. So I think by making this comparison that they're extremist Muslims actually is working exactly what these people want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What does he suggest calling it?

ZAKARIA: He has (INAUDIBLE) quarich (ph), which means outlaws or really renegades of Islam. And wants he wants to do is convey the idea that these are people who are operating in a kind of fringe area where they are using some interpretations and they are using some text, but that it's really marginal. And he really wants to kind of flip the way people think of it and say, we are mainstream, the people who are law abiding, go about their business. We're the majority. And there's this crazy sect out there that's doing this stuff.

CUOMO: Is that tactic or truth?

ZAKARIA: Well, it's clearly truth in the sense that if you think of the vast majority of people in a country like Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, 300 million Muslims, you know, the -- most people are just ordinary people going about their business. What I think is a tactic is, look, there is this problem and there are not enough people who are willing to condemn it. It's gotten much better in the last year or two, but I think that -- the real sin, if you will, of the world of Islam is not, I think, a sin of commission as much, which is of omission. There needs to be much more continuous condemnation.

You need a lot more people like the king of Jordan. Why haven't we seen the king of Saudi Arabia, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, make the -- you know, do the same kind of interview? Every time one of these things happens, some of these guys issue press statements. Why not come out frontally and say, this is not Islam? Do what the king of Jordan did.

CAMEROTA: You can hear much more always on "Fareed Zakaria GPS." Fareed, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming in.

ZAKARIA: A pleasure.

CUOMO: Another issue in the region, U.S.-Israel relations, not going well right now. And this was before the Israel prime minister came here to bash the administration policy on Iran. Is this just about the relationship at the top between the prime minister and the president, or is there a real division between the two countries, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: So, tomorrow, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will get his big chance. He's going to address Congress and warn against any deal with Iran. This has widened a rift with the White House and it started with this rouge invitation by Republicans.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's bring in Karen Finney. She's a former director of communications for the DNC and senior fellow at Media Matters, and Ana Navarro, she's our CNN political commentator and Republican strategies.

Ladies, great to have you here.

Ana, let me start with you. Why is Speaker Boehner having such a hard -- before -- instead of getting to Netanyahu, let's talk about what's going on here at our Congress first, because they all sort of connect somehow. Why is Speaker Boehner having such a hard time controlling his conservative caucus and getting things done?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Frankly, Alisyn, because he's got as little leverage as a speaker has had in my recent memory. Let's remember that before this there were earmark, there were ways for a speaker to reward and punish those who didn't vote for him and didn't align. This time, John Boehner is going blind. We have no earmarks anymore. And I think he also has an entire new class of folks that have come in that may not come from the legislative body in their state, that they -- that don't have the legislative history and experience. And it's a very hard thing for him. I think he's got the most thankless and hardest job in Washington right now.

CUOMO: Ms. Finney, you smile wide at what's going on with Boehner right now, but are the Democrats missing an opportunity? Are you just gloating at, see, they're not getting it done, instead of finding a way to work with them? Harry Reid has been no friend to this process, true?

KAREN FINNEY, SENIOR FELLOW, MEDIA MATTERS: You know, I disagree with that premise, Chris, for the following reasons. Remember that the reason we are at this place is because it was the Republicans who decided last fall to tie the executive order to the funding of the Department of Homeland Security in order to get elect --

CUOMO: Where else would it go, though? That's -- that's the part that executes what the president puts into place.

FINNEY: Well, but I think -- but I -- they could have pursued a -- but I think they could have pursued actually a legal strategy, which actually gave them an out last week. I mean the judge's ruling in Texas gave this caucus an out to say, we're going to pursue this legal procedure, but we're not going to endanger the safety and security of the United States of America. And I -- I agree with Ana that, you know, Speaker Boehner has the toughest job in Washington. But I think what we're seeing is, you know, the Republicans told the American people, give us control of both chambers of Congress and we will get things done, we will, you know, get to jobs and the economy. And, instead, what I think it's laid bare is the fractures within the Republican Party. I mean I think the Democrats are not the problem here. The problem is that they can't get an agreement among Republicans.

CAMEROTA: Ana, does Speaker Boehner survive this?

NAVARRO: Oh, gosh, Alisyn, if -- you know something, if we had a dollar for every time there's been a threat against Boehner's authority and Boehner's speakership, we'd all could, you know, go out and have a really nice round of drinks tonight. You know, this is what happens. Every so -- every few months we get the same rumor that Boehner's about to be ousted, that Boehner's not going to get elected speaker, that this is going to happen, that that's going to happen and he survives. At the end of the day, he's a very savvy operator. He's got a, you know, a critical mass of people that support him. And the conservative caucus that is against him is very divided and there's a lot of fractions. So they can't get their act together and Boehner ends up surviving. So, you know, it's just -- put it on as another chapter in the Boehner ousting book.

CUOMO: Ana, let me ask you a quick question here. In January it was too soon. In Feb it was too soon. Now we're in March. Is it an appropriate time to look at what the Republicans have been able to do and say, they have not been able to deliver on what they promised in the last election?

NAVARRO: They've actually been able to deliver on a lot. This DHS thing, I think, is a distraction and has been ridiculous and unseemly.

CUOMO: What have they delivered on?

NAVARRO: So they've been able to pass the Keystone Act. Keystone, ABLE (ph). I mean there, you know, there's a lot of things -- there's actually bills that have made it through Congress, amazingly, that have even gotten -- when it comes to the ABLE Act, which passed a couple of weeks ago, have even been signed by the president. So there have been things. It's just that we don't pay attention to the things that pass.

We, you know, we talk about this melodrama, which I tell you I think is ridiculous the way the that Republicans have, you know, brought it on. It's unseemly. And it's just -- we -- the American public is tired of this weekly Telenovella (ph) and shutdown showdown every other week. It's just not the way to conduct themselves and they've got to get their act together.

CAMEROTA: We love the --

NAVARRO: They can't bring something on the floor and not have the votes.

CAMEROTA: Everybody loves a good melodrama or a telenovella.

Karen, let's switch to what's going on, on Capitol Hill in terms of Benjamin Netanyahu's visit tomorrow. How should the White House be handling this?

FINNEY: Well, I think they're handling it the way that they need to. And that is, I mean let's be clear, I think there's two points about how we go to this place as well. I think this is another sign of the weakness of John Boehner as speaker of the House. He decided to extend this invitation in part to apiece that very right wing base of his party, to show that he would stand up to President Obama. And I think, instead, it's playing politics with one of our most important relationships and with the safety and the security again of this process. And so I think the White House has tried to tread very carefully. What's interesting to note, and I -- it was last night actually right here on CNN Elise Labott reported that the prime minister, Netanyahu, has actually started to soften his rhetoric a little bit. So it will be interesting to see what he actually says in his speech tomorrow and I think you'll see a reaction that is appropriate accordingly from the White House.

CUOMO: Why didn't the White House throw their arms around Benjamin Netanyahu when they knew he was coming instead of seeming slighted? Why not take the high road?

NAVARRO: Well, because --

FINNEY: Well --

NAVARRO: Listen, let me tell you something, if the Republicans -- if I said the Republicans look ridiculous with this DHS funding, the White House has looked ridiculous with this Netanyahu thing. They have been throwing a tantrum. It's been going on now for six or seven weeks. I don't know why they didn't -- they didn't just ignore it and say, OK, so the president's not going to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and let's move on.

FINNEY: Because -- hold on, Ana, because --

NAVARRO: No, no, no, Karen, you hold on because you talked about it often.

FINNEY: But there are -- hold on, there are legitimate concerns early --

NAVARRO: You know, you just said that the White House -- you said the White House has treaded carefully. If this is what you call treading carefully, I will tell you it's been a bull in a china shop. You have had Susan Rice, who we all know misspeaks at times, and goes out and regurgitates any talking point put in front of her, say that Netanyahu is being destructive to the relations --

FINNEY: Ana, because it is being destructive to the relationship because you've got a president that has increased funding over every single year of his presidency. You have --

NAVARRO: You have had pressure put on Democrats in Congress. You know what, ignore it.

CAMEROTA: OK, Karen, go ahead.

CUOMO: Hold on, Ana.

CAMEROTA: Quickly, Karen, you respond.

NAVARRO: Ignore it.

CAMEROTA: Karen, go ahead, respond.

FINNEY: No, I would just say, the -- in terms of Netanyahu's speech, I don't think -- the White House -- there are legitimate concerns. I mean you have Secretary Kerry today, as we are sitting here talking, trying to negotiate this deal. The Republicans essentially are undercutting his leverage by showing, you know, sort of this fraction here in the United States. If they were legitimately concerned about what the prime minister had to say, they could have had a private discussion with him instead of publicly bringing out into the open a disagreement, which is really all about undermining the legitimacy of President Obama.

CAMEROTA: OK. OK.

FINNEY: This has nothing to do with the real facts.

CAMEROTA: Karen, Ana, thanks so much for the debate. It will be an interesting 24 hours on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much, ladies.

CUOMO: So, did you know that sometimes good deeds do go noticed. We're going to tell you about the deed and what was done for the guy who did it, coming up on "The Good Stuff."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Yes, it's a good one. It's time for "The Good Stuff." Today's edition, Shelby Hudgens (ph) from Colorado Springs. He's homeless. He has his dogs and whatever can fit in his car and that's it. but it didn't stop him from spending hours saving cars from a particularly nasty stretch of road just because.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHELBY HUDGENS (ph): I've been out here pushing cars for about the last three hours. They've been stuck going up this hill. Right down at the very bottom they get stuck. It makes me feel really good just to be able to help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: He's hard on his luck, but he wasn't hard hearted. A local station captured it. Guess what? The response has been amazing. Viewers set up Go Fund pages. Now, $20,000 for him.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

CUOMO: And, best of all, Shelby's getting job offers.

CAMEROTA: Oh, that's great.

CUOMO: And that's what he needs, a hand, not a hand out.

PEREIRA: Not afraid of hard work. Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: That's so great.

CUOMO: A lot of news. Time for that in the "NEWSROOM" with Ms. Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEWSROOM": A lot of news. Have a great day. Thanks so much.

"NEWSROOM" starts now.