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New Day Sunday

Two White House Security Lapses in 2 Days; Hostage's Wife Begs ISIS to Free Him; NFL Commissioner on Abuse Scandal: "I Got It Wrong"

Aired September 21, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So grateful for your company on this Sunday. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 8:00 on the East Coast.

This morning, increased security at the White House. Secret Service making changes after two security incidents in two days. The Secret Service says a teenager, Kevin Carr, tried to enter barricaded entrance to the White House yesterday using his car. He's been arrested and charged with unlawful entry

PAUL: And we're learning that the person who jumped the White House fence as you're seeing here, this was on Friday, had indeed been carrying a folding knife in his pocket.

CNN's Erin McPike has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody out, right now, go back, everybody into the park. Right now, into the park.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two incidents at the White House within 24 hours, raising serious questions about security.

Friday night, the man captured on this cell phone video not only scaled the fence in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he ran up to the building and barged through the front door. He's been identified as 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez.

DANIEL BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: They're going to have to do something with the fence, even if it's something as simple as curving the bars over towards the street side of the Pennsylvania Avenue side, which would make it harder to scale. Remember, time buys you options, and right now, they don't have time. You scale the fence. You're almost right at the door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back! Everybody, get back! Everybody, get back!

MCPIKE: Secret Service officers yelled at Gonzalez to stop, but they didn't shoot. According to a law enforcement official at the time, he didn't appear to be carrying anything and may have been mentally disturbed.

But now, according to a Secret Service affidavit, Gonzalez was carrying a deadly or dangerous we possible, a folding knife like this one in his pants pocket. Also, according to the affidavit, Gonzalez told a Secret Service agent that, quote, "he was concerned the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the president."

The incident happened just four minutes after the first family had left the White House grounds for the weekend. Once he got inside, officers apprehended Gonzalez. An ambulance took him to George Washington University Medical Center for evaluation.

"The Washington Post" is reporting that Gonzalez's attorney said in court he had served 18 years in the military, including three tours in Iraq.

"The Washington Post" is also reporting that no canine teams were released to chase down the intruder, as would-be standard procedure.

BONGINO: I've been there for hundreds of fence jumpers, and they never make it even close. You know, we have dogs. There's just multiple layers of security. There was a failure here.

MCPIKE: And on Saturday, a second security incident at the White House. The Secret Service says a New Jersey man failed to stop at an entrance to the White House complex while driving his car. The man identified as Kevin Carr was arrested and charged with unlawful entry. That incident happened at the entrance at 15th and E Streets. The Secret Service says Carr did not stop when he was ordered to do, so then got out of his vehicle and refused to leave.

"The New York Times" quotes Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan as saying that car tried to gain access to a separate White House location on foot a short time earlier.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE: Now, in the immediate aftermath of the breach on Friday night, the Secret Service stepped up its patrols and surveillance in front of the White House. They have also ordered a review of that incident and are reviewing all of their protocols to make sure they work, Christi and Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Erin McPike for us there at the White House -- Erin, thank you so much.

Ronald Kessler joins us now from Washington. He is the author of "In The President's Secret Service."

Sir, it's good to have you with us.

RONALD KESSLER, AUTHOR, "THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE": Great to be with you. And my latest book is "The First Family Detail", which goes into

many more examples of corner cutting and laxes by the Secret Service. This is really just part of a pattern of laxness. You saw it when the Secret Service let the Salahis into the state dinner, as well as a third intruder, which a story which I broke and you had the agents hiring prostitutes in Colombia, again a story that I broke.

The FBI is horrified at this situation and is laughing at the cover-up the Secret Service is putting out as well as former agents who go on TV saying nothing could be done, he didn't seem to have a knife. So, there was no reason to shoot him.

The agents and the uniformed guards are under orders to shoot anybody who threatens the president. In this situation, you don't wait to see if once he gets in the White House, he has WMD to release or bomb to release. You take him out, if you don't get him with a dog, then you shoot him.

BLACKWELL: So, here's the question: why is this happening? You believe these aren't just two mistakes. You call them dangerously lax.

What has changed with the Secret Service n your opinion?

KESSLER: Well, this corner-cutting begun in 2003 when the Department of Homeland Security took over and in my book "The First Family Detail", I reveal dozens of other examples ranging from letting people into events without magnetometer or metal detection screening, it's just like letting people into an airplane without metal detection screening, not keeping up to date with the latest firearms, not insisting on physical fitness and firearms re-qualification standards.

In this latest book, I reveal that Secret Service let Bradley Cooper and his SUV into the secure area in front of the Washington Hilton when Obama spoke at the White House Correspondents Dinner, even though only Secret Service vehicles are allowed in and have to be screened, because explosives could be attached underneath.

BLACKWELL: So, what's the fix? Should there be an overhaul or are there individuals who should be picked out and changed?

KESSLER: Sure. You know, over and over again, whenever these scandals erupt, President Obama says I have confidence in the Secret Service. You know, that really calls into question his judgment as commander in chief because it's his life that's at stake and the life of his own family and it's obvious to any of us who have any common sense that there's something wrong here.

And what needs to be done is Obama needs to replace the current director who is a clone of the previous director, Mark Sullivan, who actually ordered agents at the White House protecting the president to protect his own assistant in Southern Maryland.

Obama needs to replace this current director with someone from the outside, such as Bob Mueller was when he took over the FBI, to change this culture of cover-up and laxness, which you know, just is endemic.

BLACKWELL: Well, there are a lot of people who are definitely calling for changes and the Secret Service says there will be some there at the White House.

Ronald Kessler, it's good to have you with us this morning.

KESSLER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right.

The wife of a British aide worker is pleading now with ISIS to spare her husband's life.

PAUL: The trips terrorists are threatening to kill hostage Alan Henning. Now, some of Britain's top imams are urging ISIS, let him go. The big question is, will ISIS listen?

And hundreds of law enforcement officers hunting for an abused cop killer. The latest on the search for the man described as a self- taught survivalist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So good to have you here on NEW DAY.

We want to get you caught up on the news with the morning read.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely. Let's get to it. Police say they've now identified the man seen on two surveillance tapes with missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham. They say Jesse Matthew was at the apartment they searched on Friday.

PAUL: Investigators believe Matthew was possibly the last person to see Graham before she vanished last weekend. He has not been named a suspect.

BLACKWELL: A shelter in place order has been lifted in two Pennsylvania neighborhoods is up to 400 officers are searching for an accused cop killer. Police appear to be closing in on self-taught survivalist Eric Frein in the Pocono Mountains, but there's been no credible sighting of him since Friday night. And they're urging people there to just be cautious.

PAUL: In business, General Motors is recalling more than 200,000 cars this morning. The problem has to do with an electric parking break arm in the Cadillac XTS and Chevrolet Impala. Now, the automaker says the glitch could cause excessive heat and spark a fire. Remember, GM's already recalled nearly 30 million vehicles this year.

BLACKWELL: Sports now and it's game day football fans. Today, the Minnesota Vikings travel to New Orleans to battle out with the Saints, but they're going to have to do it without star running back Adrian Peterson. He's been banned from it all team activities after being indicted on a felony child abuse charge. PAUL: And we're thinking of all of you in hard-hit Texas, where

you're bracing, I know, for more heavy rain as if you could take anymore. Officials have already issued a number of flood warnings in the state. But recent rain left cities like Houston and parts of West Texas just drenched. Look at this mail truck left stranded, half submerged underwater.

Well, peaceful, selfless, a father of two who left his home in Northern England to go to Syria, and this was on a Mission of Mercy.

BLACKWELL: And now, he's in the hands of ISIS and they're threatening to kill him. This morning the wife of Alan Henning is begging ISIS to spare her husband's life. Barbara Henning sent the terrorists a message asking ISIS to contact her before it's too late, leading British imams and close friends of Henning -- they are also asking ISIS to free him.

PAUL: CNN's Karl Penhaul joins from us London.

And, Karl, you know, the thing here is, we know the U.K. foreign office released Barbara Henning's statement. So, is there a significance in that?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there certainly is if you look at the wording of that statement, Christi. It's a very carefully worded statement, designed not to offend ISIS, not to condemn them in any way but to appeal to their humanity.

We saw the same kind of tactic tried by Steven Sotloff's mother, Shirley, and that, of course, unfortunately did no good but I think what is significant here is not just this statement released by Alan Henning's wife, but really the galvanizing of public opinion here in Britain right now, both among British Muslim groups and also among non-Muslim groups coming together and calling for Henning's release, very different from the other hostages, there seems to be a sense here that Henning went in on a Muslim aide convoy. He was the only non- Muslim in that convoy, and so those who went with him on that convoy feel that they have the bond of trust, which is part of Islam, one of its fundamental tenets, that they feel they have a bond of trust since they took him in, to get him back alive.

And they also say he was doing a lot of good for Syria. He was going into the combat zone where many organized charities would not do that.

I think added to that is a sense of outrage that Alan Henning is a working class man. We spent many hours yesterday, in fact, in his hometown of Echols, up in Northern England, just a regular guy, you know, the kind of guy you would like to have as a neighbor, who really did like helping out others around him, and that is what led him to Syria.

No political viewpoint on that, no religious viewpoint but simply an aim to do good. That is why people are coming together right now saying he must come back. BLACKWELL: We'll see what the impact of this message from

Barbara Henning, also some of the leading imams there in Great Britain, we'll see if that has some impact.

Karl Penhaul -- thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Karl.

Meanwhile, you know, Sierra Leone is on the final day of a three- day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Ebola.

BLACKWELL: The government has ordered people to stay inside their homes while 30,000 volunteers are now going door to door to educate people on the virus. Aide agency Doctors Without Borders criticized the move saying the lockdown is unlikely to stop the spread of the disease.

PAUL: At least 2,600 people have died since March in the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. Lot of people asked how they can help. Full list of the organizations that are on the ground and for ways to get involved, we thank you and we give you our website, CNN.com/impact. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right, let's take a political gut check with Candy Crowley.

PAUL: Yes, she, of course, hosts "STATE OF THE UNION" here on CNN at 9:00 Eastern, ISIS and the NFL dominated the week's news, of course.

Candy, good morning to you. Who are you talking to today?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN HOST, STATE OF THE UNION: They'll dominate our show as well.

I'm going to talk to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Obviously, he has been at the side of the U.S. sometimes to the detriment of Britain. We are seeing both British and U.S. citizens being beheaded now. Going to bring us some perspective on ISIL, what he thinks ought to happen, the next steps and what he thinks the world should do in fighting this crisis.

But we're also going to talk to a couple of retired NFL players, Shannon Sharpe and Izell Reese, along with my friend and colleague Chris Brennan who's going to talk about what the next steps is for the NFL or whether this time next year it will have blown over. So, we want to see where that goes.

We have a political panel, too, because the hot political story this week, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic Party and boy, were the knives out for her this week. So, it was interesting.

BLACKWELL: Yes, some fiery criticism. Candy, we're looking forward to it. PAUL: Yes, as always, thank you, Candy.

CROWLEY: Thanks, guys.

BLACKWELL: Of course, we're going to have a conversation a little later in the show talking about the NFL. We're going to have a conversation about Commissioner Goodell, but, of course, keep it here for "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley. It starts at the top of the hour, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

A quick break. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: I know you've all been watching embattled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He spent his Friday apologizing for his mishandling of the league abuse scandal. But it didn't do a whole lot to quiet critics who still want him to step back.

In fact, in part it inspired a scathing article in "The Washington Post" by my next guest, sports columnist Mike Wise, who compares Goodell to a money-obsessed character from the 2013 Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street." He writes, quote, "At every turn, he has prioritized money over safety, growth over common good and that's exactly what 31 owners pay him to do."

Mike Wise joining us now from Washington.

Mike, so good to have you with us.

MIKE WISE, THE WASHINGTON POST: Thank you.

PAUL: The title is even one that you can't turn away from, "Prince of Park Avenue: Roger Goodell is just a spokesman for NFL billionaires."

Do you think that is his main job?

WISE: I think it's not stated in the job description, Christi, but I think this is what he's come to be. Unfortunately, a lot of people have compared him to Richard Nixon, because of the cover-up with the domestic violence case involving Ray Rice in Baltimore, and how that might be a more apt description, the cover-up may, in fact, be worse than the crime.

One, I don't believe that. I think domestic violence is too heinous a crime to even worry about a cover-up being as dangerous. And two, this is a guy who essentially is making $40 million plus a year himself. He's overseeing a $10 billion colossus and it just doesn't seem there's a double bottom line here for this corporation, for -- one which gets untold billions in tax subsidies from the American people. I don't understand why there is not more good that comes out of the NFL than merely a great and entertaining product on Sundays.

PAUL: I think a lot of people are with you on that. Look, Goodell owned it. He said, quote, "I got it wrong. I'm

sorry."

First of all, do you believe him? And do you think it will change anything?

WISE: Well, I'm one of these people, I see redeemable qualities in usually everyone. What bothers me so much about this case is there were six months now have gone by since the original arrest on domestic violence charges for Ray Rice. Since then, there's been a torrent of other stories including Adrian Peterson's child abuse felony case and Roger Goodell has had six months to show now that he really cares and this league really cares about a societal epidemic, not just in the NFL, societal epidemic.

And really what Roger Goodell has shown us is he now realizes you know what he knew and he needs to put on a good face. And that worries me more than actually good that comes from it. I think there will be good that comes from this eventually.

PAUL: Sure. But what about the ravens, too? As we just got this news this week, that they saw the video within hours.

WISE: Oh, no. It's -- the troubling report by ESPN over the weekend involving especially the owner Steve Bisciotti, that you could actually, for instance, text a member of your staff that you are fired because you allegedly saw a video of him knocking his wife out in an elevator or his future wife and you could text him and say we love you, Ray, we'd like to you come back and mentor our youngsters after your career's over -- there's a disconnect. There's a real disconnect there.

PAUL: Well, Mike Weiss, we so appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today and to let everybody know his article is in "the Washington Post," go ahead and read it in full, really interesting.

Mike, thank you so much for being with us.

WISE: Christi, you and Victor have a great morning.

PAUL: Thank you, you too.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

PAUL: We appreciate your time.

Now, you go out and make great memories today.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Be sure to keep it right here on CNN.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH JOHN KING" starts next. Right after that, "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley at the top of the hour.

(MUSIC)

JOHN KING, INSIDE POLITICS: America's top general discusses plan B, if the initial coalition to defeat ISIS fails.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We'd go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of U.S. military ground forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)