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New Day Sunday

Crushing Extremism Through Mideast Peace; Obama Hits Pause on Immigration Reform; Joan Rivers' Funeral Today in New York

Aired September 07, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: It could dramatically improve America's credibility in the region and could make it possible for Israel and the Sunni dominated monarchies to work together to combat their common foe and ours. The extremist forces are now menacing the entire region."

Why do you think this is the right path to take?

GEORGE MITCHELL, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: Well, first, I think the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is important in and of itself. I don't suggest it will solve all the problems in the region, if it is resolved. But it will be a central and major step forward.

And the fact is, of course, that most of the Sunni monarchies in the region are very much concerned about both Iran and the threat it poses to them as the Israelis are worried about Iran and the threat it poses to them and also to the extremists that are now rampaging through the region.

Now, it's very complicated because much of the support for these extremist groups comes from within some factions within those countries. But I do think that resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict while being good, first and foremost, for the people of Israel who would get reasonable and sustainable security, which they should have, and the Palestinians who would get a state which they should have, it will also help in a way contribute to the effort against the extremist forces in the region.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: You also pointed out continued fighting in that region it's going to breed more extremism.

Do you fear that that will snowball if it's not fought right now?

MITCHELL: Well, I think you have to put this in historical context as I did in my articles. The Sunni/Shia divide within Islam has been going on since the establishment of Islam 1,400 years ago. This didn't begin in the last decade or two, has been going on for a very long time, and with many of the same actors.

You know, it's an interesting thing. In 1920, a Sunni tribal chief in northern Iraq ignited a rebellion against the British by killing a high-ranking British military officer. That Sunni tribal leader's grandson is now one of the leaders in the effort along with ISIS in northern Iraq.

At the same time, a Shia rebellion began in the south of Iraq, and it was led by a Shia tribal chief, his grandson Muqtada al Sadr is the head of the larger Shia Muslim militias in Iraq. So, this is a very long-running story that's been going on for quite some time and we have to keep that in perspective.

And there are other conflicts in the region that are ancient and historical, particularly Persian against Arabs, which doesn't get much attention here in the United States. So, it makes the situation very complicated and it puts us in a situation where we often have very poor choices.

Look at Syria right now. We are against the Assad regime, as are all of our Western allies, and we're also against ISIS, which is a principal force fighting against the Assad regime. But we have to move forward with our allies and deal with ISIS, because it is the immediate threat at this time.

SAVIDGE: Well, and speaking of that, moving forward, and allies, we know that the secretary of state and secretary of defense are both due in the Middle East in the coming weeks, trying to rally support for the ISIS fight closer to the ground. So, what countries are most likely to get on board there and what kind of assistance does the international community need to provide them?

MITCHELL: Well, I think Britain and France clearly are and I think that some of our other allies in the region will as well provide intelligence, logistical assistance, many of them have forces capable, not troops on the ground, but other types of special forces and air power and other factors that can be used as occurred in Libya a couple of years ago there.

I don't think you'll likely see the introduction of ground troops from either of the countries that I mentioned or indeed from the United States, but while I think it will be very difficult without ground troops, we have to encourage as President Obama has done the formation of a broadly based national government in Iraq.

The central problem in the region is that there is no tradition of power sharing in government's unity. We tend to tell people that elections make you a democracy. Well, an election is an essential step in a democracy, but you have to have power sharing and give everybody a sense of power in the country.

SAVIDGE: Ambassador Mitchell thank you very much for joining us this morning. Great to see you.

MITCHELL: Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you, sir.

Well, President Obama meanwhile, this has a lot of people talking this morning, pushing the pause button so to speak on immigration reform. SAVIDGE: Many people there his supporters would say they feel

betrayed. Yesterday, the White House announced that the president will delay executive action at least until after the midterm elections.

PAUL: Now, that decision has critics on both sides of the aisle, including some pro-immigration groups accusing the president of playing politics.

SAVIDGE: So, let's talk politics and more with CNN's Candy Crowley. She's host of "STATE OF THE UNION" along with Erin McPike.

Erin, let me begin with you. Why did the president make this decision? And why now?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, frankly to help or at least not hurt Democrats in tough Senate race this is fall.

Now, the White House is saying as much, but not quite owning it.

And I want to play for you what the president said about that in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday. Now, pay particularly close attention to what he admits at the end of this clip. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm saying is that I'm going to act because it's the right thing for the country, but it's going to be more sustainable, and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we've done on unaccompanied children, and why it's necessary.

And, you know, the truth of the matter is that the politics did shift mid-summer because of that problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: Now, Republicans jumped all over this as you might imagine. House Speaker John Boehner said, quote, "There is never a right time for the president to declare amnesty by executive action but the decision to simply delay this deeply controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election instead of abandoning the idea all together smacks of raw politics" -- Christi and Martin.

PAUL: All righty.

So, Candy, let's talk about that. And the broader implications of this decision, too, because we know that we're less than three months and counting to November midterms.

So, what does this say for some of the tighter races for Democrats, do you think?

CANDY CROWLEY, STATE OF THE UNION: Well, certainly, in the South when you look at Arkansas or North Carolina, Kentucky even. This can seem to be helpful.

They are close races, anything can help or hurt. This might help.

If you look at the Udall race perhaps in California, not quite so helpful and it's interesting that Senate Udall was not very pleased about this decision and said so in a press release.

I think what the administration calculated was that they were a lot less worried about depressing the Latina vote. And make no mistake about it, Latino groups are furious about this. But the White House wasn't worried about depressing the Latino votes in the midterms as much as it was worried about activating the Tea Party vote and they felt it would do that because it's a midterm election, it's about who turns out. Lot of the Senate races are close.

And so, I think that's what they looked at and they didn't want to get blamed, come out and make this decision and let's say the Senate control does go other to the Republicans, the White House didn't want to get the blame for that.

SAVIDGE: And so, Candy, let's say once the election is passed, does it become full steam ahead on immigration reform?

CROWLEY: I think so. I think if you look -- I mean, the president says I'll act before the end of the year and what most of these groups expect him to do is to stop some of the deportations of some of otherwise law-abiding citizens. So, yes, I think it's full steam ahead.

How will these groups react? I think they'll be very happy, and if you look in the past, we saw this happen in the gay community when they felt the president was too slow to make change, too slow to step out. And when he finally did, for instance coming out for same-sex marriage, all was forgiven.

And I think again the political calculation is the Latino vote which largely votes Democratic, will come home when this is done after the election.

SAVIDGE: We will wait and see.

All right. Erin McPike and Candy Crowley, thank you very much.

CROWLEY: Thanks.

SAVIDGE: Candy, great to see you as always.

Be sure to watch Candy Crowley in just under an hour, "STATE OF THE UNION" coming up this morning. That will be 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Well, she was the first woman to host a late-night talk show and her comedy spanned five generations. Today, friends and family are gathering to remember Joan Rivers. PAUL: We have details on what could turn out to be really a

star-studded funeral for the 81-year-old icon. We're going to take you where it's happening, New York. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Twelve minutes past the hour right now for you.

Good morning to you. You know, Melissa Rivers says that her mother's greatest joy in life was to make people laugh.

SAVIDGE: Which she did.

PAUL: You know that's the truth.

SAVIDGE: Oh, yes, it is true and there will likely be tears and laughter at the day's funeral. We know that, given all those we have spoken to over the past few days. She was outspoken. She was irreverent. And most of all, she was beloved, we're talking about Joan Rivers and her memorial funeral is happening at the prestigious Temple Emanu-El in the heart of Manhattan.

PAUL: CNN's Alexandra Field is joining us now from New York, outside the temple.

There have been so many rumors out there about what this funeral is going to be like, such as, will there be a red carpet for people to walk on and for her casket to come down on.

I mean, what have you heard?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that Joan Rivers really wanted her funeral to be a show business affair and leave it to Joan Rivers to have an opening act at her memorial service, which is exactly what we've learned we now know the Gay Men's Chorus of New York City will be performing here at the funeral.

They say that Joan Rivers has been a great supporter of theirs, that they're honored to perform here this morning, and that they worked really closely with the rivers family to pick out some of the pieces they'd be performing. They wanted pieces that will reflect Joan Rivers, some of their choices, "What A Wonderful World", "Hey, Big Spender", "There's Nothing Like a Dame." So, really going to kick off this service in style for all the people who are going to be coming here to remember Joan Rivers, this is an event for family and friends only.

But we know that Joan Rivers has some very famous celebrity friends, Donald Trump tweeting this morning that he'll be in attendance here at Temple Emanu-El. Also, Joan Rivers long time friend, columnist Cindy Adams wrote in "The Post", this morning, sharing some more of the details of what we can expect to see here. Adams says that she'll be speaking, along with Melissa Rivers, Joan Rivers' daughter. She says Deborah Norville will be one of the speakers and Cindy Adams report that Hugh Jackman will also be speaking. Adams continues to say that there are some other celebrity guests invited, saying that Judge Judy, and Barbara Walters are both expected to be in attendance.

So, this is a very large sanctuary, Temple Emanuel. It can hold probably a couple of thousand people and they think we can safely say that we'll probably recognize a lot of the faces filing in to remember a true comedy legend -- Christi, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yes, I know it's private but, gosh, I would just love to see it. But, I, you know, of course that's what the family wants.

Let me ask you this -- there have been so many tributes laid out both in New York and on the Walk of Fame for Joan Rivers, that has to impact the family. What's their reaction to all of this outpouring?

FIELD: Yes, absolutely. And from the beginning, you know, there was a week there where Joan requires was in the hospital in critical condition before she died. We heard all throughout the week from Melissa Rivers, she kept releasing these statements almost from the first day thanking fans around the world for the outpouring of love and support for Joan.

I've been over Joan Rivers' apartment in New York City standing outside, watching people come by over the past couple of days. They're leaving flowers. They're leaving cards.

We saw Melissa Rivers come out of the apartment yesterday and stopped for a moment to say that it was amazing to see some of these tributes and we know that this is an incredibly difficult time for the Rivers family but it must help a tiny bit to see how many people who never knew Joan were touched by her and want to leave some sort of token or tribute in her honor.

PAUL: That's got to give them some comfort. Alexandra Field, thank you so much again, Alexandra, in front of where that funeral for Joan Rivers will take place today at 11:00 a.m. Eastern at the Temple Emanu-El on New York City's Upper East Side.

And as she mentioned, the funeral is private, again, not open to the public for the media but I have to think that at some point, we're going to hear of some sort of public memorial or some way to honor her is going to be formed.

SAVIDGE: Certainly. I'd love to be a part. Many people would love to watch and see. Really would.

PAUL: Yes.

SAVIDGE: All right. Let's show something else. Take a look at this video. It is a curtain of dust hanging over Phoenix. We'll tell you why it is happening and what the weather will be like there this week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Norbert is losing steam this morning and I am talking about a hurricane.

(LAUGHTER)

SAVIDGE: No wonder.

PAUL: Where are you going with that one?

SAVIDGE: Right off the coast of Mexico, strong winds and drenching rain triggered mudslides. So, there is some very serious concerns.

Damaging homes and cutting off some communities and forcing hundreds to flee to higher ground. But not as bad as it could have been.

PAUL: Absolutely. The hurricane expected to bring high surf and showers to southern California. It will gradually weaken as it moves over colder waters over the next few days.

But take a look at what is happening in Phoenix and listen, I don't know about you folks but I lived there for five years and it is frightening to see one of these coming at you, this wall of dust swirling through Phoenix. It's called a haboob. It reduces visibility to almost zero and there's more bad weather in store for Arizona, too, as we understand.

The cold wave of moisture from hurricane Norbert will move into the valley there possibly bringing a ton of rain. And you know that it really has nowhere to go in the deserts. There could be some flooding problems.

SAVIDGE: Very apocalyptic.

PAUL: Very good. That's true.

SAVIDGE: Yes, thank you.

Well, the Southeast is also bracing, as you said, for the torrential rain and people in that area are very concerned about the prospect of that flooding.

PAUL: The flooding, yes.

Jennifer Gray, meteorologist, how bad does it look to be?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, as you know, you lived there, only takes about an inch or two to create a lot of flooding in this part of the country, where other places may think an inch of rain no big deal.

Yes, in Phoenix, it is a huge deal. When you just see a couple of inches of rain, and that where we're going to see. Here's Norbert, 75-mile-per-hour winds, still barely holding on as a hurricane. Will be weakening into a tropical storm in no time, but it is expected to make a bend back to the East, and it is going to purpose in a lot of moisture across the Southwest, and that's what's going to bring all of this rainfall. We could see anywhere from two to four inches of rain around

Flagstaff and around three to five inches around San Diego or just to the West. This is through Monday, but I want to show you something else, because we have a great picture out of New York City this morning, we have a lot of showers and storms roll through the Midwest and the Northeast, the last couple of days and now we're waking up in New York City looking very, very nice.

Temperatures are cooler, they're crisp out there and temperatures are going to continue to fall as we go through the next couple of days. Midwest is going to be well below normal as we get into midweek, just take a look at these temperatures. We're going to be in the 40s and 50s by Wednesday and Thursday in Marquette. Chicago's high temperature on Thursday 66 degrees and we'll even see a high temperature of 70 in Detroit, even the northeast will feel the nice changes, high temperatures in Boston 69 degrees on Tuesday, we'll be down to 72 the high temperature on Tuesday in New York City, 75 in D.C., guys.

So, finally starting to get I guess a little hint of fall maybe, some people ready for it, others not.

PAUL: Completely.

SAVIDGE: Absolutely ready for it.

PAUL: And ready to run again. I feel like I haven't been able to do it.

GRAY: True. Yes, it's been hot. We'll feel it in the Southeast as well, not quite as much, but a little bit.

PAUL: We'll take it. Jennifer Gray, thank you so much.

GRAY: All right.

PAUL: Hey, listen, you know, we've learned that search teams other Caribbean waters have spotted debris that could, could belong to that plane that disappeared on Friday. We'll have details for you in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, a Jamaican military search team have spotted what could be debris from a single engine plane, the one that crashed on Friday.

SAVIDGE: Yes, the aircraft plunged into the Caribbean several hours after air traffic control has lost contact with its pilot, as it headed from New York to Florida.

PAUL: Now, the U.S. Coast Guard confirms what a Jamaican military spokesman calls a "high impact debris field." We'll, of course, keep you updated on that.

SAVIDGE: New shelling and explosions are threatening a cease- fire in Eastern Ukraine. Artillery and gunfire rang out near a strategic port city. A number of civilians have been wounded. Gas station was also set on fire since April.

Pro-Russian rebels have been battling the Ukrainian government forces. Both sides violating a cease-fire truce on Friday.

PAUL: And two of the biggest upsets in tennis history. Yesterday at the U.S. Open, first, Kei Nishikori shocked the world, outlasting the top seeded Djokovic in four sets. With this win, Nishikori became the first Asian-born player to reach a majors championship match.

And then just about everybody thought he'd end up playing Roger Federer, right? Uh-uh. Marin Cilic pulled off another huge upset, taken down Federer in straight sets. So, now, two players who never played a major final will square off in the U.S. Open Championship. It's Monday night. It's going to be the tenth seeded Nishikori versus 14th seeded Cilic.

I know you're going to be Monday. Monday night football, men's, what do I do here? What do I do?

We did want to leave with you good video, right?

SAVIDGE: We do. We want to give you this. This antsy lion which is in Botswana and he wants to be out of his cage but only for, well this. Take a look.

PAUL: Oh, my goodness!

SAVIDGE: That is wonderful.

PAUL: Do not try this at the zoo or at home, folks.

SAVIDGE: Don't always expect lions to do this to you. Let's hope for all of today it is just like this for you.

PAUL: I know t is so sweet.

Thank you for being here this weekend. It's an early wake-up call. But we just love having you here.

SAVIDGE: Not a problem. I enjoyed every moment.

PAUL: All righty. And you all go make some great memories today.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH JOHN KING" starts now.