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Netanyahu's Party Likely to Win Majority in Israeli Government; House Passes Defense Budget; Interview with David Simas; Illionis Rep. Aaron Schock Resigns; Air Force Veteran Allegedly Tries to Join ISIS. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 18, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We're hoping to hear that sometime soon from the State Department. You had to expect that they're taking security of U.S. officials in general there very seriously, especially since you mentioned the attack just this month on the South Korea -- the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Michaela.

[08:00:03] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, those are the pictures there of the first lady arriving there in Tokyo. We're going to keep watching that situation. Thanks so much, Michelle.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring victory in Tuesday's Israeli elections announcing that he's ready to begin forming a new coalition government despite the fact that the official election results won't be released until next week.

Let's get to CNN's Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem. Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Michaela, you're absolutely right, these are unofficial results, but they're as solid as they can get especially for Benjamin Netanyahu. He declared victory last night, and based on the numbers we're seeing it looks like he can celebrate the victory.

Up until we saw these numbers it was very close, exit polls, elections polls showing a very close race. And then we saw actual results, not surveys, not polls, but numbers in ballot boxes. And that's where it looks like Benjamin Netanyahu has opened up what looks to be an insurmountable lead, a resounding victory, five, perhaps even six seats ahead of his challenger Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union Party. Herzog even calling Netanyahu congratulate him on being the next prime minister. This would be a fourth term for Prime Minister Netanyahu. In his current stint he's held onto the premiership for six years. It looks like he'll have at least a few more years here.

This victory, very convincing, and it gives Netanyahu a lot of options in how he wants to create a coalition government. He had a very, very strong showing from some of the other right wing parties, so now it's up to him. He's been here before. He's a master politicians, a master deal maker, and he'll be able to use these skills, Alisyn, to create a coalition government pretty much however he wants to. It's all up to him at this point, the ball very much in Netanyahu's court after these election results. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Such an interesting turn of events.

Thanks so much, Oren.

We want to bring in now the White House director of political strategy David Simas. David, thanks so much for joining us on NEW DAY.

DAVID SIMAS, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF POLITICAL STRATEGY: Good morning. How are you?

CAMEROTA: I'm well. We have a lot of breaking news to talk about. Let's start with this developing story that we've just learned in the past hour about death threats against Caroline Kennedy. What can you tell us?

SIMAS: Alisyn, right now I don't have anything I can add to or really comment on. Obviously folks are looking into that and that's as much as I can say about that breaking news at this point.

CAMEROTA: I mean, we heard a little bit from our own Michelle Kosinski, but it just seems as though given that this falls on the heels of the knife attack against the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, how concerned is the White House about the safety of our ambassadors?

SIMAS: Well, again, we take -- we take any of these threats seriously. We look at them critically. Folks are taking a look at this. I don't have anything further that I can add besides what you have heard and what you know already, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, thanks for that.

SIMAS: Of course.

CAMEROTA: Let's switch gears in a huge way and talk about the interview that Dick Cheney, former vice president, has given to "Playboy" in which he has said some controversial things. I don't know if you've had a chance to read this article yet, but let me just read you one excerpt from what Dick Cheney said.

He says -- this was in response to James Rosen, the reporter asking whether or not he thinks, Dick Cheney thinks, it's fair that the president and Eric Holder believe that some of the criticism against them is race based. Here's what Dick Cheney said. "I think they're playing the race card. In my view to say that we criticize or I criticize Barack Obama or Eric Holder because of race, I just think it's obviously not true. My view of it is the criticism is merited because of performance or lack of performance. It hasn't got anything to do with race." What's the president's response or the White House's response to this?

SIMAS: Well, first of all, let me just disclose, because folks might be -- folks at home might be watching. I have not read this "Playboy" interview, I can assure you of that. But in terms of the substance -- in terms of the substance, look, here's the profound disagreement with Vice President Cheney. We're more than happy to compare the record of this administration over the past six years that inherited the worst economic crisis since the great depression and is in the fifth year of record job creation, which is the fastest pace in this country's history. We've taken historic deficits and reduced them by two-thirds and we're gradually bringing to an end two wars that the previous administration got into.

So here's where I will agree with vice president Cheney. If his critiques are on the merits, our critiques of what we walked into are on the merits, and let's have a debate on those grounds.

CAMEROTA: But do you take him at his word that none of the criticism that's been leveled at President Obama is race-based?

SIMAS: Look, I take vice president Cheney at his word in terms of his criticisms that he has leveled across the board. This is a great debate between two contrasting visions for this country, and frankly the House budget yesterday, which I assume Vice President Cheney supports whole-heartedly, reflects his vision.

[08:05:05] And so let's keep this debate in terms of our view of middle class economics and his view of trickle-down economics. That's where we'll have this debate.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's talk about the news out of Israel. It appears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pulled off a win in a surprisingly big win, much bigger than the polls there had been suggesting. Given all the tension between Prime Minister Netanyahu and president Obama in the recent weeks and months, is it fair to say that there is not a massive celebration happening at the White House this morning with this news?

SIMAS: Alisyn, we want to congratulate the Israeli people for the democratic process, for the election that they just engaged in with all the parties that engaged in that election. As you know now, the hard work of coalition building begins. Sometimes that takes a couple of weeks. And we're going to give space to the formation of that coalition government, and we're not going to weigh in one way or another except to say that the United States and Israel have a historic and close relationship and that will continue going forward.

CAMEROTA: But how do you think this complicates, say, the Iran negotiations that are underway right now as well as any sort of Mideast peace process since on the eve of his win Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he does not believe in any sort of statehood for Palestinians?

SIMAS: Alisyn, I'm going to defer to my colleagues on some of the issues that were raised during the campaign and some of the comments that were levied during the campaign that can raise some controversy. What I do know is that those negotiations are ongoing. They're at a sensitive stage. We're serious about moving forward and fulfilling them, but I'm going to defer in terms of comments and issues that specifically came out of the Israeli election, I'll defer to my colleagues who followed it more closely than I did.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's talk about one of your strong suits, and that is the budget and all the budget talks that are underway. As you know, there is a bit of a battle going on within the Republican Party between defense hawks and budget hawks. These things seem to be mutually exclusive. Which one wins?

SIMAS: So, Alisyn, that's an open question about which one wins. Here's the state of affairs and the facts as we know them. Yesterday in the House Republican budget they basically punted on the entire debate because what they did was they used something that Senator John McCain referred to as a gimmick. They used the loophole that Congressman Paul Ryan said really took away from the entire integrity of the budget process by using the emergency slush fund to resolve the defense issue.

This is a missed opportunity because we have real needs both on the defense side as well as on the domestic side. So it's an open question how the gimmick and the assault on the budgetary integrity that Paul Ryan discussed is going to be worked out by House and Senate Republicans.

CAMEROTA: David, let me help illustrate what you're talking about. We do have a graphic that we can show of the House defense budget. Well, it's actually the next one that I wanted to show, because the one I want to show, I need your help with the math here. This -- let me show you something. The House GOP budget on defense is to the left side. The White House defense budget is to the right, and these things look strikingly similar to us. For defense, $523 billion the house wants. The White House wants a little more than that, $561 billion. The emergency fund that you're referring to is $90 billion, according to the House GOP, the White House wants $51 billion. But you end up at basically the same point, $613 billion versus $612 billion. Where's the nuance here? You're in agreement.

SIMAS: So here's the nuance. When you use gimmicks and loopholes and emergency funds to go into actually year-to-year spending it prevents adequate military planning in the capacity of our men and women in uniform and their leadership to plan for and sustain moving forward, which is why John McCain referred to what they did as a gimmick and why Paul Ryan referred to it as attacking the integrity of the budget.

Here's our approach. We need to get out of sequester and do it both on the defense side as well as on the domestic side. The president has made very, very clear as we've reduced deficits by two-thirds over the past five years that now is the time to make sure that we're making the investments in education, job training, and manufacturing as well as making sure that our men and women are adequately prepared for any contingency that arises. We can't resort to these gimmicks and loopholes, which, unfortunately, using Republicans' own words is what they did.

CAMEROTA: Look, here's one things the Republicans are clear about, they don't think this is a gimmick. They want to repeal Obamacare. Now, of course that's a nonstarter for the White House. You're the guy who is tasked with making it work and reaching out to Capitol Hill. What do you do about this?

SIMAS: So here's the reality first -- 16.4 million people now have coverage who didn't have it before.

[08:10:07] I think what you have begun to hear, and you heard towards the end of 2014, was even Republicans saying it's time to move away from this constant repeal discussion. We are more than willing to engage with Republicans on a debate about improving the Affordable Care Act.

But, Alisyn, here's what they did on health care yesterday. It's the triple play of an assault on health care. Not only do they say they're going to repeal ACA, but then they said they were going to privatize Medicare, turn it into a voucher program, and then block grant Medicaid.

And just to dig deeper into what that means. That means that there's a cut of billions of dollars for the Children's Health Insurance Program that's going to affect then above and beyond that 20 million people over the course of the next few years just on Medicaid. So if we were just isolating the debate to the Affordable Care Act, that would be one thing. But interestingly enough they expanded the debate in the name of fiscal solvency, while at the same time if you're a millionaire in the United States there's something great in the house Republican budget for you. You get a tax cut of $50,000 while 28 million working families get tax increases of between $1,100 and $900 per year. That's where this debate is going to be.

CAMEROTA: OK. David Simas, we threw the kitchen sink at you this morning. Thanks so much for giving us information on all of these topics. Thanks for being on NEW DAY.

SIMAS: Alisyn, I appreciate it. Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. You, too. Let's get over to John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Alisyn.

The meteoric rise and now dramatic fall for Republican Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois. He is stepping down as new questions arise about lavish spending. CNN's chief Congressional correspondent Dana Bash has more on this abrupt exit. Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. Schock faced six straight weeks of unrelenting stories about questionable spending, about taxpayer dollars and political donations. And finally yesterday morning he told those close to him he would end his once promising Congressional career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Sources close to Aaron Schock tell CNN it was a pair of new revelations that cemented his decision to resign, a report that Schock may have improperly benefitted from a political donor in a real estate deal, and another from "Politico" that he was reimbursed by taxpayers for tens of thousands of miles he never drove.

By resigning from Congress Schock is no longer going subjected to an ongoing House ethics investigation, but he could still face legal troubles. And even after announcing his resignation he's trying to clean up his financial mess. A source close to Schock telling CNN Congressman Schock has reimbursed all monies received for official mileage since election to Congress.

REP. AARON SCHOCK, (R) ILLINOIS: I stand here as a state representative and a nominee for Congress at the age of 27.

BASH: It has been a dramatic fall for the 33-year-old once rising star in the gop. Starting six weeks ago when the "Washington Post" reported he decorated his congressional office to look like the set of "Downton Abbey" to the tune of $40,000. And $15,000 was initially billed to taxpayers but then returned. He had hoped to shake some of it off.

SCHOCK: As Taylor Swift said, haters are going to hate.